Imagining better worlds
Chicken Coop tickets now available, what else is on in June & demystifying the Good Egg membership
Hi! Welcome back! Nice to see you.
It’s been a big month in the writing world, and summer is only just beginning! But that means there are lots of exciting events happening across June and into July.
Whether you’re celebrating Pride (in Edinburgh, Portobello, or further afield) or you’re gearing up for the UK General Election on July 4, there’s loads going on for writers.
From writing groups and creative workshops, to open mics and curated shows, there’s something for everyone this month.
On that note, I’m happy to say that pay-what-you-can tickets are now available for the next Chicken Coop Writing Group on Tuesday, June 25 from 6-8 pm.
I’ve already spoken a little bit about our June session having a slight political edge (and we’ll definitely cover that). I’m working on some exciting but gentle stuff to hold us through the turbulence on this little island while we’re in the run-up to the General Election and you might be struggling to get your creativity flowing.
Join us on Tuesday, June 25 for some collaborative writing and communal imagining as we look at various ways to build safer, happier, and empowered communities.
I can’t wait to welcome you back to Lost in Leith from 6-8 pm on June 25! You can grab your pay-what-you-can tickets on Eventbrite or drop in on the day.
Recommended minimum donations are £3, but if you can’t pay please let me know and I’ll save you a free space, no questions asked.
Community events notices
Tonight at The Athletic Arms is The Graveyard Shift, a writing group and open mic run by local writers David Bleiman and Jay Whittaker. Tonight’s open mic features are poet Jean Taylor and Hame-ish’s Ed Ritchie aka Dog on a Swing. Get there quickly as they have limited seats available.
This weekend, Lighthouse Books is hosting its romance fiction festival, First Date, featuring panels on the potential for liberation, desire, pleasure, and joy in the romance genre. There are plenty of workshops (like Dedication & Love with Jj Fadaka) and panels to attend across June 14 & 15. Find the full programme here.
On Sunday, Jun 16, Anita Govan returns to our home Lost in Leith with Spoken Word & Music, featuring our community members Florrie Evans and Georgia Bartlett-McNeil. Get your tickets here.
Easy Art Club is back at Lost in Leith on Monday, June 17. The events are for artists of all levels and are also suitable for beginners. Find out more and book your tickets here.
The Experimental Writing Group is on Wednesday, June 19 at Embassy Gallery. The group is for poets, critics, bloggers, and blaggers, writers with a visual arts practice, visual artists who want to write, and anyone else who wants to work with words. You can reach out to Iris on Instagram.
The Chicken Coop Writing Group is back on Tuesday, June 25 from 6-8 pm at Lost in Leith. Grab your pay-what-you-can tickets on Eventbrite.
The Girlhood Guild is back on Saturday, June 29 with their Fantasy Map Building Workshop at Slow Progress Records. This one sounds great for anyone interested in world-building or writing fantasy, I’m gutted I can’t make it but you can get your free tickets on Eventbrite.
Porty Pride has some great workshops, panels and storytelling in its programme including Exploring Queer Space, Make Good Trouble, Queer and the Cost of Living Crisis and The Story Sessions. Check out the full programme and get more information here.
And last but by no means least, Loud Poets is hosting their Writing Club on Wednesday, June 19 (for Patreon members only), before they return with their June showcase at the Scottish Storytelling Centre next Friday, June 21 and they’ll be finishing up Pride Month at Porty Pride with Speak Up! on Sunday, June 30. Get all the information you need from their Linktree.
The Good Egg Project membership
Last week, I went to the Scottish Beacon’s No News is Bad News as part of Indie News Week.
There I got to meet Michael (the mind behind the incredible Edinburgh Minute - subscribe if you don’t already) and listen to some great speakers from Women in Journalism Scotland, Pass the Mic, and Migrant Women Press, as well as a list of other excellent individuals and organisations.
I was also able to speak to people from across local news, charities and the freelance community. We spoke about the importance of local news and leaning into our niches to connect with people and build strong, informed communities across Scotland, the UK, and the world.
With this in mind and my desire to start providing more insight into so many parts of our creative world, I wanted to talk to you about memberships. More specifically what is included in The Good Egg Community membership when you become a paid subscriber to the newsletter and how this supports my work on The Good Egg Project including hosting and running the Coop, The Good Egg Discord server, and creating future more tailored and focused writing events.
My aim with this newsletter and community (as always) is to demystify the writing world, turn down the volume of your inner (or outer) critics, and help you to pursue your interests whether they’re creative, professional, somewhere in between, or you’re just getting started with words!
Subscriptions start at £5 per month or you can subscribe annually for £50 per year (which works out at less than the monthly memberships and essentially grants you like 2 months of Good Egg-y fun for free every year)!
Without further to do, here’s what becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter includes:
Access all free and paid newsletters from The Good Egg Project back catalogue. This includes summaries of our events and workshops, community event notices, and soon open calls for submissions from publications.
Get news and updates about the writing industry, plus our future series answering community-submitted questions about writing creatively and professionally.
Join our Discord server, where you can connect with other community members online, ask questions, find open calls and events, and learn about skills or professional development opportunities.
Access two additional free writing groups per month, and join other members of The Good Egg community for some protected writing time.
Early-bird access to Chicken Coop and Inkubator tickets, open calls for publication, and open calls for Good Egg events, including scratch nights, open mics, and showcases.
Currently, our free membership includes access to all of our free newsletters which contain prompts and a round-up from the Coop, plus community event updates and guides to events in Edinburgh (events in Glasgow and across Scotland coming soon).
If you can’t afford to become a paying subscriber, I totally understand and there’s no pressure to become one. You’ll still be able to access community events notices and get some news or updates through our free newsletter.
You can also support the Good Egg community by taking a moment to recommend our newsletter, community, or events to someone else who is or wants to be writing!
Thank you for reading!
It’s been a crazy couple of weeks between the Edinburgh International Book Festival news, more excellent work from Fossil Free Books, and Bi erasure at Pride (not linking because it may be triggering for some people. If you’re Bi (like me), I see you, I feel it too, and (like everyone else) we’re so much more than who’s in our beds or our heads).
But, to stay positive, I’m grateful for this project, our writing groups, the new friends I’ve made along the way, and the friends I haven’t met yet. This is what is keeping me sane, so thank you! I appreciate you.
The Good Egg Project is fulfilling and challenging me in ways I didn’t expect, but it’s so much fun to be sharing with you and offering the help and support that I knew I wanted when I first started writing again in 2019.
I love this space and can’t wait to watch our community grow! Thank you for coming on this journey with me.
See you all for the Coop on June 25!
Sending you all love and solidarity,
Naomi
P.s. Don’t forget to make sure you’re registered to vote in the UK General Election! The deadline to register is next week on Tuesday, June 18. Check out this post from Not A Phase for more information.
P.p.s. Here’s some Taco to make you smile. She’s a pest but I love her too.