Throwing Caution to the Wind

The Whittlesea University of the Third Age (WU3A) is exactly what it says. A place for learning for those who are about to enter that exciting third age. When you reach the third age, age has no boundaries. We don't stop learning just because we have left work, or our circumstances change in other ways as we grow older (and wiser).Learning can be - new skills, hobbies that you wanted to try all your life but didn't get the time to, or just learning to make new friends with like interests and share new activities and hobbies with old friendsWhen I retired from work I had no idea what I was going to do. The result, a potential void, that needs to be plugged pretty quickly.So, after a bit of post-retirement research and clues from already retired friends I checked out the WU3A and what activities were on offer. I have always wanted to write and publish my own novel and felt this would be a creative change.In late 2016 I joined the e-Publishing class offered by the WU3A. We all thought, great, a publishing class, but what we really need is to have something to publish.So, I decided to start a Creative Writers Group, et voila.But enough about me, our boutique little group started with four participants and has grown over the past eighteen months to twelve in the class, all with different writing styles and writing objectives.We have those who love writing fiction from historical fiction, literary fiction, science fiction and fantasy; to those who love writing memoirs, poetry and plays; to those who love writing about our beloved country and region.We all hope you enjoy this eclectic anthology of short stories, memoirs, poems and examples of writing exercises we all performed in class.Yours in ReadingBryan (J.B.E.) McNally