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ABOUT DOREEN

Doreen Porter had a career in journalism in both the private and public sectors.  She edited magazines for the Police, Customs Officers, the Armed Forces and lawyers.  And no, she didn’t have a thing about men in uniform - she married an accountant.  During her career, she was lucky enough to drive tanks, fly in helicopters, travel in warships and visit countries as diverse as Burma (Myanmar), the USA and the Cayman Islands.  She moved to France five years before her the publication of her first book An A to Z of Life in France (available as an ebook on Amazon).  She was in the midst of working on a project looking at the different hobbies we can take up in retirement and, to that end, joined The Society for the Appreciation of the Apostrophe and bought a YoYo.

 

Doreen was a founder member of the women's group Friends in France International for whom she was Secretary.  As well as producing their monthly newsletter, she ran her Creative Writing group.  The production of an anthology was an idea that was in its very early stages and she would have been very proud to read Life in Words.

ABOUT THE GROUP

Each month the group would meet and be given a new creative writing task that Doreen had prepared.  We would read out anything that we had been able to write from the last month's meeting and each of us would smile in appreciation or grimace with suppressed tolerance. 

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But why did we join the group?  Here are some some the reasons -

 

"I always wanted to write a novel.  I still haven't got past Chapter One and  probably never will but joining Doreen's Creative Writing Group has been a lot of fun but at the same time I have learned a lot   through her 
quick-thinking challenges of  having to write short pieces of prose or poetry on the spot and from the discipline of writing longer pieces on a given subject and number of words.  It was then always interesting to listen 
to other members' work including her own."

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"I have always enjoyed writing, although I have never written much it wasn't until I joined the creative Writing group that I realised how much I enjoyed the process.  Of all the groups I attend here in France, Doreen's group was the one I most looked forward to and I rose to the challenge every month."

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"Shy as a child I was frustrated at my inability to get my feeling known.  A chance meeting with Doreen showed me that there was more than one way to be heard.  I will always be grateful to her."

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"I didn't really want to join the creative writing group at all, but Doreen was very persuasive. I was not a very good student forgetting homework and always writing pieces at the very last minute but I did enjoy the experience and with Doreen's encouragement I managed to produce some pieces of which I am rather  proud."

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"Apart from letters and a couple of articles in the School Magazine, being an engineer, I'd never considered myself writing anything of interest until I met  Doreen!    Initially I resisted joining her Creative Writing group,  but after some serious arm twisting,  found myself joining  and that I enjoyed myself greatly.    Doreen was  a great leader giving  us interesting ideas,  topics and tips so that we could improve  our initial amateurish efforts.

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Some  even had the thrill of being published following her prodding and pushing us to submit our  masterpieces to publishers! 

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I know I  haven't got a novel in me but, due to the group, I  now enjoy writing  articles - even (heaven help me) poetry.   I intend to keep scribbling, even though I will greatly miss her enthusiasm and help.   

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Hopefully,  readers will enjoy this anthology as much as the group did in creating it."

I joined the Creative Writing group because like most people I thought I had a book in me, I needed someone like Doreen to give me feedback and constructive criticism.

This Anthology which we have put together in Doreen's memory may not win a Nobel Prize for Literature but although it was a challenge, we are so pleased to have been able to carry out her wishes.  We hope you will find much to enjoy, whilst helping her charity too.

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