Saturday 15th - 22nd September 2007
Here are the Milford participants.

Left to Right: Liz Williams, Heather Lindsley (back), Alys Sterling, Tina Anghelatos (very back), Jacey Bedford (front), Jim Anderson, Jaine Fenn (front) Dave Clements, Dave Gullen (back), Sandra Unerman (front), Vaughan Stanger (back), Terry Edge (front), Karen Williams and Kari Sperring.

This year only Liz, Jacey, Sandra and Jaine were old hands. It was Kari's second Milfrd and all the others were new which made for a good mix... especially as four of the newcomers were American - though three of them live in the UK. With 14 participants there was an enormous amount of reading to do and 25 pieces were submitted varying from less than 2k words to 14k words in length

Here are the Milford participants 2006

Back left: Chris Butler. In front of Chris is Jacey Bedford, then back row left to right: Cherith Baldry, Alistair Rennie, Liz Williams, Kari Sperring. Standing in front of Kari is Stuart Falconer. Kneeling at the front are (left) Sue Thomason and (right) Ruth Nestvold.

We arrived at Trigonos on the afternoon of Saturday 9th September, got to know each other - though I'd actually been at previous Milfords with all but three of the 2006 attendees before. Then on the Sunday work started in earnest with four pieces of writing to crit each day. Luckily we'd had a bit of a head start since all the pieces had been distributed by e-mail in advance. I'd hoped to be able to read them all, but I only managed to get a short head start by reading a couple of day's submissions.

Submissions were all of a very high standard and varied from flash fiction of only 500 words in length to short stories from 2,000 to 7,000 words and novel extracts of 14,000 words.

Milford Rules

It's all very civilised. First of all, to be accepted as a Milford participant you must have had at least one SF publication, which need only be one short story. (Though some attendees have multiple novel publication credits.)

Writers can submit up to 15,000 words in a maximum of two pieces. The secretary sorts the submissions and distibutes a critting schedule - hopefully spreading the workload evenly. In 2006 we had four pieces a day, in 2007 it ran to five pieces a day, but we still had Friday in reserve for a day out.

Mornings are allocated as personal reading (or working) time and crit sessions start after lunch at two p.m.

The crit sessions arerun as follows: Everyone sits in a circle and whoever's piece is being critted has to sit in silence while all the others have their say. Each critter gets four minutes (timed) to say their piece uninterrupted and when everyone has had their say, the person whose work is being critted has the right of uninterrupted reply. Once the reply has been given a general (and usually constructive) conversation ensues. It's highly unlikely that anyone's work will be trashed mercilessly - after all there are ways and ways of saying 'this is not for me' - but crits are extremely thorough.

All this happens in the lovely meeting room that looks out on to Mount Snowdon. That's Snowdon in the middle background, peeping up between the hills. Sometimes, when the cloud comes down, Snowdon takes the opportunity to go walkabout and it just disappears for hours on end.

Either that or... ohmygod... someone has stolen the bloody mountain!

Trigonos

The venue is delightful. It's a residential centre in the Snowdonia National Park with magnificent views of Snowdon, the surrounding mountains and Nantlle Lake right on the doorstep. This is the back of the house from the lawn, taken in the half-light. In 2007 my bedroom window was the bay on the top left of the picture.

My view first thing in the morning when the mist was just beginning to burn off the lake. Very atmospheric!

They've got accommodation in the main house and also in a series of outbuildings which have been converted into meeting rooms, art and craft studios and guest rooms. Most of the rooms are ensuite. (In 2006 I was in one of the ourside rooms which was warm, comfortable and workmanlike, but not as pretty)

The food at Trigonos is generally excellent - mostly grown on their own farm or locally sourced and all prepared freshly. Breakfasts are continental style with cereals, juices, home made bread, toast, cheeses, preserves etc. Lunches are usually a home made soup with ham or quiche (there's always a veggie option) and maybe salad and/or new potatoes. Dinner is also a help yourself affair with a decent choice and a nice dessert. In 06 we had a meat or veggie choice most days, but in 07 I think they'd changed their chef and we were given mostly vegetarian fare. By Tuesday many of us were muttering about meat as meals were a bit lentil, bean and chick-pea-heavy for those not used to that kind of diet. The lentil lasagne was actually very nice, but the butterbean stew was the one that did it for most of us. (Butterbeans al-dente in pepper-flavoured water just doesn't work for me, I'm afraid.) It was pretty obvious from the chicken legs that were served up the following day after we'd cried out for meat that this year's cook was vegetarian himself and didn't appreciate that meat needs a bit more than just applying heat until it's cooked enough to be safe. (Hey I'm going to cook meat because you've asked for it but don't expect me to make it enjoyable! - No he didn't say that, he was very obliging, but that was the net effect of his meat cookery. ) I didn't crack until the parsnip curry, when I actually took it back and asked for some of the leftover lunchtime soup instead. Believe it or not even beetroot soup won hands-down over parsnip curry. But I guess if you're a veggie, you're reading this and thinking I'm a nutter. I don't actually have much to complain about because - as I say - even if it wasn't to my taste it was all freshly prepared, freshly sourced fare and there was plenty of it. The other nice thing is that hot drinks are on tap 24/7. Teas (a huge variety) and coffee (fresh at breaks instant if you want it between times) are always avaolable in a corner of the dining room, just help yourself. And there's a guest fridge if you want to bring anything of your own.

There's time during the day to go walkabout down to the lake, or even to take a car into Caernarvon for supplies of alcohol and unhealthy food. In the evenings everyone congregates in the library after dinner. Topics of conversation tend to be writerly though not always serious and copious beverages of choice are consumed. (Trigonos has no bar but we bring in drinks.) Good friendships are formed and talk goes on well into the night. One evening is reserved for the annual Milford AGM (a legal requirement) when officers are elected - or re-elected in our case as all officers were returned unopposed and unanimously supported in both 2006 and 2007. Sue Thomason is Chair (or Emperor of the Known Universe), Liz Williams is secretary, Steve Kilbane (not attending) is treasurer. In 2007 I was added as committee member without portfolio. Another evening is reserved for discussing markets - usually with specific reference to this year's stories, but also markets in general.

-o0o-

Days Out

We always try to get our critting finished by the end of Thursday so that the Friday of the Milford week can be a social day when we can kick back and be tourists for a while. Of course the SF-ness lingers and we tend to see everything as having relevance to stories, past or future.

2007

In 2007 it rained and it rained and then it rained some more. Our whole group trip was scuppered somewhat by Liz's car getting an attack of the wet-distributor-cap, so instead of one big group we ended up in two. I was with Jaine, Dave, Vaughan and Tina. We tried to find things to do in Wales under cover and found there weren't many. We took a steam train ride round a lake that was so wet we couldn't really see where the rain stopped and the lake started. Then we did the fascinating underground trip to the hydro at Llanberis (Electric Mountain) emerging clear in the knowledge that we know what it feels like to live inside a hollowed-out asteroid.

After that we went to Beddgelert, gutted to discover the ice cream shop was not doing chocolate pizza due to a lack of the right kind of melting chocolate. Dave almost contemplated throwing himself in the river after a week of enforced veggie eating. Instead - after a week of body-shockingly healthy diets we ordered wonderfully greasy bacon butties, all except Jaine, a veggie who had probably revelled in butterbeans al dente. She almost single handedly destroyed a huge, non-sentient ice-cream sundae while the four meat-eaters tucked into the best bacon butties this side of the moon. A true pork-gasm! Wonderful!

Then we went for a walk by the river - which was immensely high and fast after the torrential rain of the previous night and morning. Losing Tina's car keys was only a minor blip - and after a bit of running around and the help of a pair of very nice walkers the keys were recovered we returned to Trigonos soggy but fulfilled. We'd missed the others in Beddgelert. They'd managed to get to Beddgelert but by the time we got there they'd been and gone.

Our 2006 trip was to Conwy. The weather was fine and sunny all day. Whoo-hoo!. We all piled into three cars and set off in convoy, managing to find a restaurant that spotted the opportunity for nine lunches and opened up its top floor for us.

The highlight of the trip was Conwy Castle. It's not huge in terms of ground covered, but it's hugely impressive, built on a rocky outcrop as a defensive measure. Here are Liz and Sue being impressed.