March 3rd, 2022

Okay, I’m back. I’ve been away for a couple of meetings. My wife and I have been moving and are still unpacking. I didn’t know we’d accumulated so much “stuff.” Thank you all for indulging in my absence.

Our meeting started with a discussion. I asked the attendees (there were ten of us) did we include some of our aspects, quirks, traits, or whatever in our characters? Do we write to please others or ourselves?

The half-hour-long discussion was lively and informative. The first question was answered with a resounding “yes,” even though sometimes we give our characters the right to do things we would never do but think about with nefarious delight. One of the great things about writing is that we can be as good or evil as our minds can envisage, sometimes even more than imagined. The devil and angel on our shoulder often guide us to ultra dark or enlightened places only our minds can conceive.

We all want to please ourselves with our writing unless it is a contracted piece. If a writer takes on a job for a client, you need to satisfy your client. After all, they’re paying for the privilege. 

 

We tabled our discussion as we had a lot of writers wanting to share their stuff. Ernie Ovitz led off, reading a selection from Chapter 15 of The Thirteenth Apostle, in which Constantia, Constantine’s wife, seeks the counsel of a Christian Bishop. Her brothers have attempted to usurp the emperor’s crown but have failed. After their defeat, she wishes to plead for their lives to her husband. Will mercy abound? A riveting story pulled from the pages of history. Good job, Ernie.

South Boston is the setting for John Hearon’s I Wasn’t Always A Hero. Mick, an enforcer for loan sharks in the city, meets a stranger wearing a suit and tie in a “Southie” hangout bar. The wine-drinking stranger is as out of place as a screen door on a submarine. Will he survive the night?

Poetry from the mind of Don Westerfield is a beautiful thing to behold. Tonight Don graced us with three short but meaningful works. Echos, To Race the Wind, and Memento Mori. Echos explored the memories of a mature and wiser person thinking back over the rights and wrongs they’ve committed. To Race the Wind can be physical or metaphysical in its interpretation. The thrill of soaring above the world as a pilot or a spirit; each brings forth a wondrous joy. We’ve all lost someone, but Don’s time in the military meant he lost more than a few close friends. In Memento Mori, Don mourns the loss as he relives the moments of an Honor Guard’s reflection over a flag-draped coffin.

Seeking something missing from the opening chapter of his new work, Rod DiGruttolo read his draft, hoping for help finding that little missing piece. Under attack by ruthless pursuers, Leah has to fight back with skill and courage. Set in the outskirts of Tehran overlooking the city, Leah neutralizes three attackers and escapes. But to what does she escape.

Have you ever read something and felt as if it was written in black and white like the old Noir movies? Bruce Haedrich has done it in The Girl in the Red Shirt. The opening paragraph shocks with, “I was looking at the man I came to kill.” After that, it does something impossible; it gets even more exciting.

When Peter McNally first came to us, he was recovering from a devastating illness. He still is, but his writing skills have blossomed, and his story, Rewired, is unfolding with clarity drawing us in deeper with each reading. How can a person recover all the facilities taken away by massive strokes? How can one find those memories wiped from their brain by a calamity? Go for it, Peter!

James Kelly takes us back to 1875 in the Dakota territories. In These Sacred Lands, he unfolds a tale of the unlikely relationship between a Lakota Brave and a U.S. Calveryman. In the chapter entitled Woman Walks Alone, James tells us of one of the many hardships of Native Americans as the brave’s wife prepares to have her first child. It’s a haunting story of devotion and personal pain.

Have you contemplated how we would know when “time” was coming to an end? Rick Bailey has, and he wrote about in A Bird hit the Windshield. When a bird strikes the windshield of a car driven by a young woman, she panics. For a few moments, she cannot move as the shock causes her to lift her hands from the steering wheel. Her passengers bring her back to reality, but the author wonders did the bird fly into the window glass by mistake or on purpose? Do animals know when their time is coming to an end? DO WE? I want to hear more of Rick’s work, don’t you?

 Well, that concludes all I can remember, even with the notes I take, of what happened. If you need to know more, join us. We have a lot of fun and help each other with writing issues. We ain't perfect, but we're sincere in our advice. So, until next time; KEEP ON WRITING!