Nov. 1st, 2023

 

First things first, for my friends in the writer’s community. My email was hacked and eliminated. I’ve posted my new email address here on the right side of the screen. Please update your contacts list and send me a short note so I may retrieve your addresses. I am currently struggling to recover my data from my backup files. Thank you, Rod.

 

Ten of us gathered at the firehouse this evening to discuss our work and other issues we face as writers. Ernie shared some information from an article about AI. What’s happening in the world of technology is mind-boggling, as usual. Investigate carefully and protect your selves and your work with multiple backup systems. Rod read a list of 10 Rules for Writing from Elmore Leonard. After a short discussion, we moved on to the reading portion of the meeting.

 

First up tonight was Ernie Ovitz, with a reading from Imperiam, entitled A House Divided. As members of the Emperor’s family travel through Gaul, a raiding party of Frank warriors is reported pillaging the area. Even though guarded by a troop of Roman soldiers, Constantine dispatches additional units to hunt down the raiders.

 

Dennis Cathcart wrote a remarkable two-part memoir of his adventures while hunting serpents and reptiles across the globe. Tonight, he read his first attempt at fiction writing, The House in the Woods. A young boy tests his courage by visiting an abandoned house in a dense forest outside of town. His friends tease him but lack the fortitude to accompany him. The boy ventures into the woods and approaches the house but cannot summon the courage to enter it. He tells his best friend, and the word spreads that he has been to the house. At a Halloween program at the school, his favorite teacher dresses as a witch. The boy summons the courage to revisit the place on Halloween night. His friends all decline, most using made-up excuses to accompany him. Bolstered by a conversation with his Dad, the boy sets out through the dark night toward the house. Is he lost in the darkness? Continuing upon what he thinks is the proper path, he sees a light ahead. The porch light is lit. Using all of his willpower, he knocks on the door. A woman in a black witch’s costume answers the door. Is she his teacher? He can’t be sure. We’ll have to wait on publication to see what happens next.

 

Continuing with his sci-fi tale, Aquatania, Bruce Haedrich tells of a fleet of six spaceships nearing completion in space. Their top-secret mission is to take a select group of people off Earth before the remnants of a renegade moon from the planet Janus crash into Earth, destroying all life. People are chosen who are free of disease and unpolluted by drugs or outside physical dependencies. Each ship will carry 2,000 people to new planets ripe for colonization. Will humanity survive? Stay tuned.

 

With the roots of his family tree anchored in Kentucky, Don Westerfield brings us a fictional story of The Trial of Hubby Moore as related by the Editor in Chief of the Bulswit County Weekly. It seems the Bulswit County local judge is competing with Hubby Moore as they ply their trade as Moonshiners. With a complicated string of events unfolding, Hubby is arrested for killing an old friend of his that took advantage of Hubby not being around for a few days to sleep with Hubby’s wife. Hubby is scheduled to appear before this judge. Quite a coincidence, don’t you think? Well, one thing leads to another, and the trial commences. Hubby may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve. Even revenuers have been unable to find ole’ Hubby’s still. The judge dispatches his faithful bailiff to trick Hubby into revealing the still’s location. As the trial winds its way through the week, a still is discovered, a wife is unfaithful, and… well, why don’t you just read this here dern story for yourself in Don’s book Grandpa’s Book of Poetry, Prose, and Ponderings, The Musings of an Old Mind.

 

James Kelly brought another chapter of Tremain for us. It’s 1895 in Jefferson Barracks, MO, and young Tremain is about to propose to a young lady with whom he has fallen in love. He is a Lakota Sioux man raised by the MacKinsie family, and she is the daughter of a white trader and his Sioux wife. Tremain struggles to muster the courage to ask for her hand in the tradition of his people. In the meantime, he considers taking a job as a lawman in the Wild West.

 

It’s looking more like Fall around here; the temperatures are falling into the 70s and 80s, and there’s more traffic on the roads. We look forward to seeing some of our northern writers coming back soon. In the meantime, we’ll KEEP ON WRITING and reading.