I received this email last week.
Hello,
I have an acquaintance who has a very interesting life story.
He is 105 years old, and in amazingly good health.
This still drives - bright red BMW.
He came to this country as a small boy from Russia.
You may know of him his name is Joe Newman.
I am interested in having "someone" write a biography of his life story.
Perhaps as part of a masters thesis, or whatever.
Someone would need to interview him over some period of time.
Some young person who is interested in political science might be a good fit.
I realize that may not be of interest to you, but if could suggest a resource this would help.
This sounds like a wonderful opportunity for someone. The time spent in interviewing a person with so much life experience promises to be an educational chance few get in a lifetime. Please contact me, Rod DiGruttolo rodshs62@hotmail.com, and I will pass your information along to the writer of the email. I am unaware as to Mr. Newman’s thoughts on this and make no assurances as to his availability.
Our meeting this week was well attended, and we had a great discussion as well as some quality readings. We welcomed three new attendees, all of whom participated in the discussion, but none brought material to read; most don’t at their first meeting.
Bruce Haedrich, the author of the Dan Marin mystery series, introduced his new book covers. Previously, each of the Dan Marin series books had a cover with the same base design, only the title changed. Feedback from his readers and customers at book signings prompted him to change the format. Now, each book has a similar format but with different colors and illustrations directly related to the content of the story; impressive change.
Peter Frickel, author of My Frog Sings, The River, Lothar and the Three Crosses as well as many others, displayed his cover art as well. The images range from hand-drawn illustrations to magnificent photographs by professional photographers and each relates to the subject matter with unerring significance.
Rod DiGruttolo, author of Snakes, Spiders, and Palmetto Bugs and Need to Know put his covers on display as well. A photo, taken locally, and a stock photo from CreateSpace make up the cover art for his books. The photos relate to the subject matter as well.
After the art show, the discussion returned to the issues encountered by many of us when writing. Problems with getting the message across when our audience is bilingual arose. Dannis, one of our new attendees, wants to write her story in two languages at once. The discussion on how to accomplish this was interesting and many ideas flowed. It’s going to be fun to see how this plays out.
The talk about how to express ideas in a clear and succinct manner dominated nearly a half hour of discussion time. Ideas abound, and each author expressed ways of accomplishing the task. The group agrees, there are many methods available to meet a goal. and we tend to eschew set rules when it comes to expressing ideas.
The discussions are fun, informative, and thought-provoking, join us at a future meeting and see for yourself.
Moving into the readings we had a diverse selection to listen to. Kicking things off, Ernie departed from his work on Emperor Constantine and brought us a story inspired by his life in the Colorado Rockies entitled The Rainbow Trail. With descriptions of clear streams, cool mountain air, and enthusiastic fishermen, you found yourself transported to the edge of a trout stream in western mountains. A nice respite from the humid heat of Gulf Coast Florida.
Peter took us into his book The River. From humble beginnings, born of spring and rain, his story takes us through life as it parallels the movements of a river. Meeting of friends, lovers, death, and new life fill the pages until it concludes at the ocean, or does it? Maybe we are incarnated as the water is taken back into the sky and released over the mountains to experience the journey once again.
Taking a break from the Dan Marin series Bruce is producing a trilogy called The Outlands. He read us a revised chapter from the third book entitled, Crusade. In the vein of Ayn Rand’s work of the past century, he chronicles a future history of city-states living off the hard work of Outlanders, those who live in the undefined boundaries of those densely populated corridors ruled by progressive thinkers with socialist ideals.
The Manipulator came back from the last meeting with a rewrite inspired by the suggestions offered at her last reading. Debbie did a great job of changing the perception of her character while maintaining her foibles and endearing qualities.
Short stories are always fun in a group like this and few do them better than Doug. His, Murder by Rejection, once again has Yale Larson solving a murder in the local writer’s scene. Critics, Agents, and Publisher that pan a writer’s work are often met with some disdain, but murder is another thing altogether.
Well, another month is coming to a close. June 6th is our next meeting followed by another on the 20th. We hope you can join us for a meeting soon. It’s not a boring as you may think, we haven’t had fisticuffs, yet, nor do we even have shouting matches, this isn’t Congress.
We have fun and if you want to find out how writers think and act, you’re welcome to join us any time.
Until then; Keep On Writing
Rod
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