It’s hot and raining, but seven intrepid writers showed up for our meeting tonight. The pre-meeting conversation allowed us to catch up on our latest projects outside of writing. We are a busy lot. Our co-host, Ernie Ovitz, could not attend tonight, and we missed him.
Leading off the reading portion of the meeting was Don Westerfield. He read two poems. His style and use of words have always amazed me, and tonight was no exception. Don’s first offering was Dementia, a “poem that hits close to home;
“I thought I saw her again today,
her face admidst the crowd,
a young girl from my yesterday.
She looks as if she’s proud,”
are the opening lines of a poem that grab your heart. Before reading the second poem, Night Walker, Don explained, “My poems are not from personal experience. They are fiction.” A man wanders at the edge of the deep bay and contemplates his demise. Does he or doesn’t he?
Aquatania – The Silent Planet is a new work by Bruce Haedrich. After reading the first portion of the story, Bruce received several suggestions on how to draw in his readers on the first page. Two threads are immediately noted: an aerospace company is embarking on a massive project, and a romance is blooming. I wonder what can go wrong with these situations.
As Richard Cope took the floor, we waited to hear his work. What would it be? Prose? Poetry? Or maybe something else, a Screen Play? Three poems, The Eve of 69, let us feel the movement of time as years slipped by in his reading. Then we traveled to Venice, Italy, as he read The Bridge of Sighs. But the magic turned dark as the Devil whispered in the beguiling, Feed My Sheep.
It’s always interesting when you find your work in print, especially some older pieces you’d almost forgotten. Dennis Cathcart was given a pair of books, bound editions of the magazine House Plant. In the books, Dennis found work he’d written years earlier. “Sage Advice, Always Tell The Truth” tells of a time when a slight variation in a story caused a considerable misunderstanding. With a new book on the market, that advice is bearing fruit. His detailed stories leave no doubt as to how it happened.
Gary Conkol brings us a new story of a person named Ken who is invited to an unknown destination by someone named Al, not Alfred or Alyouish, just Al. Al was a man he’d only met once at a technical conference. Ken couldn’t know details except for a list of items to be packed into a single bag and when he must be ready to go. That information was posted on a website. Would you go? Will Ken go?
We have a lot to look forward to at the next meeting. Will we hear some more of these stories? Or will the authors read the same piece with a rewrite in place? It doesn’t matter; we’re here to help each other and always love to hear good writing. So, until next time, KEEP ON READING AND KEEP ON WRITING.
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