Entitled Earth Tremors, the book aims to “celebrate the natural ecology of the landscapes around us and explore our sometimes fractious relationship with our fragile planet”.
Otley Writers has been meeting for seven years in the Robing Room of the Otley Courthouse, initially coming together as members of a workshop run by the WEA (formerly the Workers’ Educational Association).
Judith Tomlinson, a member of the group, said the new volume showcasing the writing of the group was “a compendium of the group’s inspired feelings in these uncertain troubled times is filled with reflections and unique opinions but thankfully sparks of humour can still be found amongst the more serious items.”
The group consists of a wide range of writers, who have published many individual works as well as contributing to the anthologies.
Among them is John Ellis, whose Yorkshire Murder Mystery series has been translated in Czech.
The Earth Tremors blurb adds: “As a group of diverse authors our stories and poetry span all genres: from beautiful observations of nature and the spiritual world to horror, crime and warfare, and despite the challenging times we are living through, find comedy.
“As writers we hope Earth Tremors leaves the reader, not only entertained but shaken and stirred.”
The first Otley Writers compilations were born from the WEA workshops, initially led by poet James Nash, who encouraged them to stop out of their comfort zones and write in genres not familiar to them.
Their first anthologies which resulted from the workshops were titled The Pulse of Everything, The Darkening Season, and Street Lives.
Judith added: “During the pandemic when everyone was imprisoned in their homes and the lonely work of the writer became even lonelier the miracle of Zoom meetings was engaged.
“Members of the group continued to share their efforts on screen, each reading their work aloud and sharing their reactions and emotions about individual pieces with one another. These zoom meetings resulted in the publication of the award-winning anthology, Writing During the Pandemic. A much thicker volume suggesting that home confinement was a ‘good thing’.”
The group later released another volume, Making Waves, which contained many emotive works, correctly claiming that sometimes it is the duty of the writer to ‘make waves’.
Earth Tremors can be bought from Amazon at: https://amzn.to/3QWBjEZ
