November 1st,

We had a great meeting this week and welcomed a first-time attendee. Ed Feldmann joined us for his first meeting. Welcome!

Ed Ellis shared his experience of giving a presentation at the Women's Resource Center in Sarasota. He says he's looking forward to a second class and was impressed by his students.

I heard from Ken Boring, the author who spoke with us a couple of months ago about his book Remembering What I Forgot, a story of Alzheimer Patients and their caregivers. He also gave a presentation at the Women's Resource Center. It feels good giving back to the community.

On Wednesday November 15th, Tim Jacobs and Kathleen Kilpatrick will present a program at the Selby Library where a writer's group meets on the second floor. Their presentation is slated to begin at 1:00 PM and last about an hour.

During our discussion we touched on how to instill emotion in our writing. Choosing the proper words makes or breaks how the piece comes across. Darianne suggests a resource she found online, The Emotional Thesaurus. 

While on the subject of emotion, Doug shared a story about wine which sparked a stray brain cell in this writer. I issued a challenge for the group, write a short story of 500 words of less with the main topic being wine, the drinking of, results of, or making of. Have fun with it.

We moved on to the reading portion of our evening and Darienne was first up as she gave up her turn last meeting for this writer. She brought a piece read previously entintled, Blue Max. The story follows a Grandmother, Granddaughter, and Blue Max, their dog, as a storm approaches. Her changes were appropriate and made the story better but she received additional feedback aimed at making the story more fluid and understandable.

Bruce writes mysteries and, for each, he looks for and chooses a quote appropriate to the subject. With the quote in place, he finds a way to reference, or paraphrase, the quote within the story; a clever and interesting ploy. He shared three instances from his works, Finding Chloe, Metropolis, and Vendetta. 

Don shared an excerpt from his memoir of a career in the military. With morale low and the squadron in poor readiness, our fearless hero points out to the Colonel how the entire mess is the Colonel's fault. That might not have been a great idea. As it turns out, nearly 18 years pass before Don's next promotion. But don't dismay, the promotion made him the highest ranking Non-Com in the Indiana Air National Guard.

Resurrecting a poem entitled A Beacon of Reality, as requested by Barbara, Ed gave the group chills with poignant verse. It made us feel our mortality.

Tim shared a piece he calls, A Failed Clown. Finishing a gig at a youth's birthday party, a man returns home and finds a letter in his mailbox informing him he's failed Clown School. He turns to alcohol and... you need to read this story.

Kathleen brought us a children's book, Mr. Silhouette, or Mr. Sign Guy, (title soon to be chosen.) The hero lives in Sign Town where he must confront a Sign Lion as it terrorizes the residents.

Debbie's first chapter of The Manipulator takes place in 1948 Staten Island. A trio of young lads, good friends for as long as they can remember, have a conversation about one of their number having to leave Staten Island and move to a farm. Their thoughts make the reader want to continue. Will he go or will he stay, wait until it's published and read it for yourself.

UR Ryde, by Doug, plays off the rise of ride-sharing companies. The driver thinks, "Who is my passenger?" But, maybe the passenger should think, "Who is my driver?" Doug's imagination was unfettered in this twisting plot. 

Our next meeting is November 15 and we welcome all interested in writing. We want to help others improve their skills. 

Until then, keep on writing.