We opened the meeting on time and Lois Stern announced the new 2018 Tales2Inspire subject line. It will be High Impact Kids. True stories of kids working to improve the world and way of life for those around them. A great storyline.
Bruce reminds us, the Venice Book Fair is March 23 – 24th, the 24th being the sale day and he has a table. If you wish to share it contact him or see him at the next meeting. It will cost you $75 for half the table. Visit the website, venicebookfair.com
Ed pointed out the Fort Myers Book Fair is coming March 3rd. He says it’s worth going to see what’s happening even if you don’t buy a table.
Darrian announced her story, Two Violins, has been purchased by Cricket Magazine and will be in an upcoming issue.
And finally, Ian’s new book, A Wartime Journey Revisited, is proofed and ready for print. Hopefully, he will have copies before his departure this spring.
We embarked on Stage 2 of our writing exercise. At our last meeting, we wrote a short piece in fifteen minutes including the words, screwdriver, forty-two, and purple. We had quite a wide spectrum of genres and approaches. This meeting we were asked to take those stories and pass them to the person on our left; each story was to be written again with changes designed to make it different, comedy becomes tragedy; bizarre becomes plausible; etc. Again, it was interesting to see what happened.
We had murder becoming a fashion show, si-fi becoming comedy, mundane becoming mystery, and ridiculous become even more ridiculous as a deceased woman is buried in a pilfered cemetery plot.
It’s remarkable when writers have but a few short minutes to come up with a story plot. Some stumble, some soar but, all respond.
As we moved on to the reading/critique portion of the meeting we were running a little short of time and only about half our readers could present. Next meeting, we have a guest speaker, Elizabeth Sims, noted author and friend of our group. Don’t miss her.
Doug opened the reading with a rewrite of the second chapter of his latest Yale Larson mystery. In the first chapter Yale was called upon to identify the remains of his father, a man whom he’d not seen in many years. Chapter two introduces Yale’s half-brother and leaves us wondering why he’s in the picture after not being around for years.
A Galactic traveler, along with an army of helpers bring life to suffering worlds in Ian’s latest work. However, when the traveler feels his life ending he instructs his helpers to deposit his body on a nearby small, but welcoming, planet. They bury him in a beautiful area surrounded by towering red rocks as they excavate the area and put him to rest. The local inhabitants are moved from the are lest they recall the interment. This is the “true” story of how Bryce Canyon came to be. Well, according to Ian, anyway.
With his usual aplomb, Ed brought us a poem entitled Dynamic Existence. It’s deep meaning and unusual premise makes the reader think.
While in the poetry vein, Peter shared a group of short works, each a gem. Slow to Go, compares life with a flickering candle; Silent Like a Soldier, a requiem for small plants unable to mature; Life Widens, who I might be. In all ten poems were shared, though it took only ten minutes a lifetime passed through our minds.
Darienne debuted her new work Pleasant, about a young slave boy in 1841. A difficult subject but she does it justice. In this story, the boy must choose between friendship and freedom. A tough choice and she handles it well.
We ran out of time, so, Bill, Don, Debbie, Bruce, Linda, and Rene will have to wait until the next reading session to share their work, we know it'll be worth the wait.
Until next time, Keep on Writing,
Rod
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