I'm so proud to belong to the Coventry Writers' Group

They're a wonderful bunch of people - that's the first reason. Inspiring, quirky, independent-minded, crazy (well, some of them), creative, funny and very talented folk. All ages, nationalities, occupations, life-experiences. Well, not quite all, but you know what I mean. That's reason one...

Reason two is that they - we - have just produced our very own anthology - called Coventry Tales. I saw the review copies for the first time last night and they look absolutely wonderful. Many, many thanks to Mike Boxwell, who has been the driving force behind all this. And to all the group members who contributed competition entries back in June this year, those who read them aloud and those who did the 'judging'. Some big surprises there, when we discovered later who had written what.

Anyway, our book is now almost ready to go. It's already available for pre-order on Amazon, and it'll be stocked in a range of bookshops, supermarkets and other retail outlests in and around Coventry, and more widely across the West Midlands. Publication date is Nov 7th and launch events have been arranged in Waterstones and Coventry Central Library soon after that (further details soon).

We have a Facebook page, which it would be great if you could visit, please, and 'like'. Some of us will be on the radio in the weeks to come, and there'll be a video on youTube soon. TV and newspapers, we hope, will take us up. It's all great fun and very exciting, especially for those of our group who have never been published before.

Coventry Tales contains short stories, poems, memories, historical tales, and even instructions (of a kind) for navigating our notorious ringroad system, using the principles of quantum physics, sort of. Its strapline is 'Inspired by You' - the 'you' being our beloved city - and we hope to have done justice, in our efforts, to the fascinating place where we live.

PS As a writing group we are open to all who love writing of all kinds - fiction, journalism, poetry, etc - and whether you're a beginner, an experienced writer, or somewhere in between. Contact me below if you are interested in joining us and I'll give you details of when and where we meet.