February 19th, 2020

This week’s meeting gave us an opportunity to learn about Marketable Writing as presented by Ed Ellis. With questions and comments from the listeners, Ed took us on a journey through his Writing for Marketable Writers. From explaining the difference between a model and a plan to reaching our desired outcome. Although not all listeners agreed on all points, they did see options presented they’ve not always considered. Informative and thought-provoking, the presentation opened avenues for thought and options unfamiliar to all of us. Ed has put his presentation in pdf format and offers it to anyone who would like a copy. Email Ed or Rod, emails are listed to the right side of this post, with a subject line of Marketable Writing and we will send you a copy.

Thank you, Ed.

With time remaining in the evening, we opened the floor for reading. First up was Don Westerfield. Usually, Don brings us poetry, but occasionally he comes up with an entertaining piece of prose in his unique style. Always welcomed by the listeners, we look forward to Don’s work and settle in knowing we will enjoy what’s about to come; he didn’t disappoint us this week. Entitled, The Alien, Don entered the realm of humor and science-fiction in one fell swoop. Somewhere in a jungle of undisclosed location, a young woman suffers the loss of her husband to be. His untimely death leaves her distressed and sure she will never become a lover or mother; she will never know the joys of womanhood. Her fears are accentuated by the crashing arrival of a spherical object crashing through the canopy of the jungle and coming to rest a short distance from her mourning hut. The interaction of the young woman with an alien being is remarkable as she has little or no fear of the unknown due to her circumstances. The ending comes in an unexpected and awakening conclusion. Don’s next book may well contain this story and is worth waiting for.

Another sci-fi writer took the stage as Ian Schagen read a continuation of his tale of a starship’s journey across the galaxy. After being hijacked by a violent splinter group of colonists who’d signed on to establish colonies on previously uninhabited planets, the starship captain is awakened from wrongly enforced hyper-sleep by a minor malfunction alarm. Discovering he’d been forced into hibernation only a few light-weeks earlier, he turns the behemoth starship around and returns to the planet whereupon the rebels have established a fortified colony. Accomplishing the impossible, he guides the monstrous ship through the atmosphere and uses the atomic hyper-drive engines to attack the rebel outposts. Are his efforts successful? I guess you’ll have to wait until this tome is complete and published. Look for it in the future.

We returned to Castro’s Cuba with Jeff Kutcher as he read more about his friend, Amauri. Baseball is popular in Cuba, and games are commonplace. Amauri and his brother compete in one such game but must cut their time short as they must meet with their father. As they walk to the meeting, Amauri’s brother confides as to how he would someday like to live in the United States. The revelation is shared by the brothers but would not be popular with their father, a General in Castro’s army. Cuba has always been a tourist destination for Europeans especially those from Spain. In this episode, a pair of Spanish tourists are duped and robbed by an acquaintance of Amauri and his brother.  How does that sit with the brothers? We wait for the next installment.

We meet again on March 4th and look forward to seeing you once again for discussion and reading your work for critique or help. The readers for this meeting will be led off by Bruce Haedrich and Sue Haley, both choose to defer their turn this week so others would be able to read. Until the 4th, KEEP ON WRITING, and we hope to see you at the Firehouse.