Here it is, February already. Another month of Covid has passed. Let's hope it will soon be a thing of the past. We received news our friend Bill Elam will be unable to attend tonight's meeting due to a possible positive test for this darn disease. Be careful to take precautions. We never know when it will strike.
Ernie
prepared something for us to think about. (Yeah, I know, it's a preposition at
the end of a sentence, but it works.) We all write for different reasons. Most
of us write because we enjoy writing. A few might expect to make a few dollars.
Only a few, actually only one I can remember, expect to get rich. Ernie says
his bookshelf contains a wide range of genres. Some are from the writers in our
group; some are classics; some are simply writings passed down by generations
of readers. He brought two of those books passed on to him by his father and
grandfather. On the fly-page, a friend of his grandfather, Lew Sarett, a poet
and author of Lake Superior Country, wrote a dedication to Ernie's
grandfather, also named Ernie. A pioneer aviator in a Piper Cub, Duane Cole, was a friend of Ernie's father. His book, Vagabond
Cub, was given to Ernie's dad with a nice note on the first page. No matter the
reason you write, be prepared to share your work with the world. If you get
lucky or work hard enough through advertising, maybe you will get rich. WHO
KNOWS?
Ernie
Ovitz led off the
reading portion of the meeting by sharing a poem written by Lew Sarett. Chippewa
Flute Song is one Ernie said he could not do justice to the poem, reading
it as a Native American chant with specific voice tone changes was beyond his
range. He read it as Ernie and the work came across as a melancholy song.
When Peter
Frickel took the floor, we knew we would hear something special, we always
do. Reading of a Country Cottage in England, Peter's words became
images in our minds. We see the trees, stark and reaching out to hold the
branches of others. We smell the disrepair of the grounds, visit the sagging
fence, observe the tangle of Mulberry Bushes pressing in on the walls. But
above all, it calls to us to inhabit this lonely little cottage. A second reading,
A Dead Lady in the Street, carries us to another dimension. After
finding an older woman lying in the streets of Paris, the writer realizes she had
a letter. He retrieves the letter to post in her stead. He stops at a Café after
leaving the woman in the care of authorities. He experiences a desire to read
the letter and carefully opens it. Before he can read, a woman interrupts him
and asks if she could sit at his table, as there are no other spaces available. Acquiescing,
he returns the letter to his pocket and orders a drink, a mixture of Absinthe, sugar,
and ice. The woman asks, "why are you troubled?" He looks into her
eyes and sees them as the dead woman's eyes. The Garcon grasps his
shoulder and shouts, "Awaken! You have a bad dream."
As John Hearon approached the
front of the room, he said, "I don't think I can follow Peter." Well,
he could, and he did. Writing a Fantasy, John sets the story in South Boston. McNeal "Mick" Brevy is conducting Business as Usual,
the opening chapter of I Wasn't Always a Hero. While
collecting a loan from a shady character in an alley behind the local tavern
with two brothers, his muscle, stands ready to take action should it be
needed, even Mick is unaware of what will happen. Will the Galic Spirits that
live inside his second soul take over?
SyFy is a wide-open field for an imaginative
mind. Ian Schagen has the kind of mind to envision an other-worldly existence
while still embracing the quirks of our imperfect world. Andromeda,
Chapter 6, tells us of a young woman assaulted by a group of men running from
the law as she discovers an internal power of which she's unaware. The story
unfolds on a distant planet in a distant galaxy with action aplenty.
As a poet, Don
Westerfield shows us insight into life. As a storyteller, his sense of humor
comes to the fore. In tonight's reading, The Chamber, we see as
Don said, "I don't think it's too hard to write a spy story." Our
hero jumps from one adventure to another with barely a breath between them. Skiing
in snow-covered mountains, a paid assassin is foiled eliminated while in a love
nest with our hero. Moments later, he leaves the mountain retreat and is
kidnapped by enemy agents and flown over the ocean. The pilot bails out,
leaving him handcuffed in a plane without fuel. He picks the lock on the handcuffs
and lands the plane in the water next to a yacht crewed by an all-female crew
of beautiful models led by a gorgeous woman assassin known as the Black Widow. After
spending a week aboard the boat, he is reluctantly set ashore in Miami. Oh my gosh,
he escapes again just as he's about to die an…! Well, you'll have to read this
for yourself. Don's tongue-in-cheek humor keeps you grinning. More Don!
You've heard of Toby,
the fabulous hound from Bean County, Tennessee. Well, Richard Cope tells
us he's at it again, this time at the Bollweevel Ball and Cotillion.
It seems a notorious old razorback come down out of the hills to root around in
the trash. Toby got left in the truck and ordered to be good. When one of them
female cooks started hollerin about that there hog in the trash, Toby come out
that truck and run him off good. Unfortunately the sheriff and some others, see
Toby out by the trash but don't see no hog. Toby gets the blame. But we all
know the real story. Don't we?
It's
been a while, but Peter McNally is still writing his story, Rewired.
Having suffered multiple strokes, Grand Mal Seizures, and a plethora of debilitating
setbacks, including losing the ability to read, write, or even eat. He has
recovered most of his intelligence, but not all of his memory. What he does remember
is powerful and frightening. Go for it, Peter!
How
many of you include quotes in the stories or books you write? Several in our group
do. Bruce Haedrich picks selections that further his story; some are
historical; some are thought-provoking, and others fit in with the genre of the
story. What do you do?
When
a memoir is so intense, it can make a good novel. That is what Tish McAuley found
out about her life. She is converting her story into a novel format. It is a
fascinating story. I can't wait to read more as I have the privilege of doing
some editing for her.
Well,
I guess that's about all for this evening. We heard some powerful stories and
experienced great fellowship with like-minded writers. Until we meet again,
please, KEEP ON WRITING.
