...Mel!What is so particularly wonderful about this win is that Mel wrote her story about two hours before the deadline of our most recent short story competition. Of course Mel now has absolutely no excuses for not writing as she can clearly knock out 2000 words of brilliant prose in less time than it takes to watch a film.The January meeting was possibly one of our longest ever, but we did manage to cram in a meal (Multiple "Feasts" from the Jade Cottage in Thatcham), the announcement of the winners of the aforementioned short story competition, followed by the critiques and then all the normal stuff - confessions and promises.There was also a lengthy discussion about Wordwatchers itself and what to do with our sudden and unusual position of being inundated by membership requests - we have a plan - of sorts - I think! (Stay tuned all will be revealed once I've got it straight in my head)So once again, congratulations to the now excuse free Mel for winning as well as a big thank-you for hosting the evening. Well done to Julian for once again taking up his bridesmaid position and to Pam for coming third (jointly, as it turns out, with me!)Also, well done to Debbie, our newest member who battled through after a 14 hour day to make it back from Windsor in time for food and the important bits of the meeting. Also, to keep us on our toes, Debbie has also started re-writing her children's book, as per her promise, giving the rest of us the kick up the backside we sometimes need when it comes to actually fulfilling our monthly promises.Finally, with the help of the critiques I've already rewritten my short story in the hope of putting on a good show here: http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/stage2/competitions - it will be submitted once any additional feedback comes through from my fellow Wordwatchers.I foresee that 2012 is going to be a very exciting time for Wordwatchers. I can't wait.