DECEMBER 4TH, 2024

 

Welcome back writers. Due to Thanksgiving mayhem at our house, I was unable to complete my posting for the November 24^th meeting on time. For that I apologize. 

I will catch up with you now and continue through our December 4^th meeting. A note for our Dec 18^th. It will be our annual Holiday meeting. If you wish, bring a dish or goodies to share. All leftovers will be donated to the firemen that evening. Also, we will make a semiannual donation to the firehouse as they allow us to use the facilities, bring an appropriate cash amount for your donation; $5-$10-$20, whatever you feel necessary.

 

Eight writers attended the pre-Thanksgiving meeting on November 24^th, and we enjoyed each other’s company with a light discussion about writing issues and how AI might affect our work. AI is sneaky, worming its way into our everyday lives without us even suspecting its presence. Be careful.

 

Of the eight writers in attendance, seven were stalwarts, our regular contributors. One new face, Mike Sedlak, joined us this evening. We hope he enjoys his time with us and returns.

Bruce Haedrich led off the reading with a proposal for his new essay/book Further Conversations With Gaia. Our mother earth, called Gaia by the ancients, has regular conversations with Bruce and he records her thoughts and wisdom for us to learn and possibly change our ways towards how we treat our planet. Gaia tells us she has survived for eons living in sync with the residents on and beneath her surface. However, she has never seen a being so destructive as us humans. But never fear, she will adapt, limit, and survive our onslaught.

 

Gary Conkol is a technical writer by trade, but he is venturing into the field of sci-fi in his latest endeavor. Following the discovery of a previous civilization on Mars who shared some common traits with earthlings, the team of Martian explorers returns to spend a final week on Earth before returning to populate the new colony on Mars.

 

With her story in a final draft, Ursula Wong is ready for beta readers and edits on her latest draft of Strategic Deception. Physical and electronic copies are in the hands of readers and editors currently. Look for it on Amazon soon.

 

December 4^th, 2024

 

Tonight, seven members, all our stalwart regulars, were in the house, four of them came prepared to share their work for questions, suggestions, and comments. Gary Conkel brought up an interesting point about Microsoft changing the privacy policy. A liberal reading of the updated policy might be an issue for some of us. Check the privacy policy and make changes to protect your work. Our meetings in January will be on the 2^nd and 4^th Wednesday the 8^th and 22^nd due to New Year’s day falling on the first Wednesday. We will return to our regular schedule for February.

 

Four of our attendees wished to share their work with us this evening. First up was Bruce Haedrich. An introduction and opening chapters set the tone for alternating chapters. Gaia speaks in chapter one and the author speaks in chapter two. The trend should hold throughout the text. Bruce is a unique writer and although his style changes for this book, we always look forward to hearing what he has to say, no matter whose voice he uses.

 

Dennis Cathcart led us to a lesson we all must learn. His soliloquy on Mistakes reminds us to learn from our mistakes and not rue them for the rest of our lives. Sometimes, most likely, more times than we’d like to admit, the mistake was better for us than our original thought. Think about it. Dennis usually gives us something to think about.

 

Epistemology allows us to tell the difference between reality and fiction. Gary Conkel is using epistemology to study AI. As AI grows it learns from what is on the internet, news, books, etc. Is it taking things from the world of fiction, science, language, etc. and making them real. Do you trust the answers you get from news sources who may use AI to generate text or pictures? Do you use sources in your research which may glean information from sites using AI? Does AI possess the ability to reason? Can it tell the truth from untruth?

 

James H Kelly is a career soldier and his books about the Mackenzie family from the battle of Gettysburg through the Indian wars on the Great Plains and Black Hills provided a setting for the blood letting in Mexico and the Southwest against Pancho Villa and Mexican troops. Then we rode with Teddy Roosevelt up San Juan Hill. Now, young men graduating from Military schools are preparing for war in Europe. A different kind of war. No longer do the brave men charge forward on horseback. Now, they ride in monster machines of steel armed with cannons and machine guns. Tanks are the new Calvary, and the War is the War To End All Wars.

 

If you can’t join us on December 18^th, we wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, and A SAFE AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR. Above all remember to KEEP ON WRITING!

November 6th, 2024

 

Welcome Back! Ten die-hard writers showed up this week to discuss their issues and share new and old work with us, including a first-time attendee, Lilly Martin. We hope she enjoyed her evening and will join us for more meetings in the future. We spent a few minutes before the meeting discussing minor issues and called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM.

Ernie introduced and passed out a list of vocabulary words with a phrase or two from the British Spy Novel Slow Horses by Mick Herron, which he found interesting. Often, using a lexicon of the physical area in which your story takes place makes it more attractive to the reader.

Half the attendees had work they wished to share. Ernie Ovtiz started off the reading session. Having received proof copies of all three of his books of the IMPERIUM trilogy, he shared the cover art and layout with us. He also shared his updated back cover blurb for each of the books. Good work, Ernie. He will also create three brief ads, one for each book.

 

Don Westerfield shared two poems with us. A Gathering Storm allowed us to see into a mind during the anticipation of a coming crisis. From the opening line until the closing phrase, swirling clouds, flashing lightning, and crashing thunder create the confusion we’ve all experienced. The assault dwindles and finally subsides with the final words, “And so I shall go… dancing in the rain.” In the verse In These Woods, Don tells the tale of life we can see as we look back over times long past. Knowing we cannot change what has been, we look forward to recalling what once was and imagining what could have been. But teaches us a lesson, “waste no time wandering woods of youth.”

 

Delving deep into the societal history of the world, Bruce Haedrich seeks to discover if the collapse of a society, nation, or empire can be predicted. Events and movements from the past are oft repeated. Are the events of the past now evident in our present world? Are actions of past failures coming to the fore in the present? If so, does it foretell the fall of today’s nations?

 

What happens during the ‘Graveyard Shift’ of an employee working at a busy Blood Bank in Miami? Danny Spurlock might be able to tell you in his new story. Danny read the first chapter for us tonight, and it is good. He heard a few minor suggestions, and we look forward to the next chapter.

 

James Kelly brought us another chapter in his latest tale in the saga of the Mackenzie family. The US has just declared war on Germany after attacks on US ships bearing supplies to the allied forces fighting in France. Now WWI has another participant, and the MacKenzie family has another young man ready to fight for his country.

 

We adjourned a few minutes early after a lively discussion with questions and suggestions for our readers. We look forward to our next meeting on Nov 20^th at the Nokomis Fire Station. In the meantime, READ, Read, read, and KEEP ON WRITING!

October 16th, 2024

What a month! How many of you have been through a hurricane? You have now if you were in Sarasota, Manatee, or Charlotte counties this month. In fact, you’ve been through two major hurricanes. Our hearts go out to those who were adversely affected by the storms. One of our own, Dennis Cathcart, suffered severe damage to his business. Most of the structures at the nursery were ruined and unusable. We send our best wishes and prayers to the Cathcart family and all who have sustained damages. Dennis is a real trooper and did attend this meeting.

With the storm bearing down on us, we faced the dilemma of whether to ride out the storm in our homes, evacuate to a shelter, or evacuate the area altogether. For those who chose to leave the area, most reported positive results as they took up temporary residence in different areas of the state. Local shelters opened early and provided semi-comfortable lodging. Amid the terrors of riding out the storm, the sounds were reported to be terrifying. Wind howling around our homes, bumps and thumps from unknown objects crashing against the roof or walls, sometimes even windows. The wind-driven rain raked the shuttered windows, and the wail of wind screeching around the corners elicited thoughts of Hollywood-created storms with always disastrous climaxes. Then came the eerie part.

The wind and rain stopped suddenly. It was calm and quiet; darkness hid the chaos around us, and we dared to peek outside. Leaves, twigs, branches, and substantial limbs ripped from trunks of mighty trees littered the landscape. But it was still, oh so still, not even a breeze drifted across the debris. How long would it last? The eye of the storm was upon us. What we had endured before still awaited us, with the back half of the screaming monster still to come. Listen, a low roar, a rumble of its approach began to build. We were about to face part two of Milton. We looked back to the previous week when a storm named Helene tried to drown us in waves of rain and a surge of salt water rushing across our shores. In ancient times, people would take these storms as omens, as attempts by the Gods to punish or warn us of things to come. Hummm…

 

Not only was Dennis Cathcart present at the meeting, but he also brought an essay entitled Life’s Lottery to read. The piece’s theme can be summed up in an excerpt from the essay. “We dream of riches we could have. Meanwhile, most of us overlook the riches we already possess. We ponder what we could do with the mass of dollars the Lottery could provide if we were that one in a hundred million lucky enough to win but fail to see the beauty of what we have in the love of our families, a safe and sound place to live, even the simplest of things we take for granted every day. As an old TV personality used to say, “WAKE UP, AMERICA!”

 

As Don Westerfield took the floor, handing out sheets of paper inscribed with typewritten words in stanzas, I knew we were about to hear some poignant poetry. As our senior statesman, Don’s work has inspired us many times. Having retired from the US Air Force, his service extended from the days of gasoline and propeller-driven aircraft to supersonic jet planes flown by dare-devil pilots. Don enjoys airplanes, which is shown in his work, Up There. Looking upward today, I see contrails of mighty aircraft etched upon the bluest skies. Indeed, these are the speeding arrows of the poem. The second offering, entitled The Runner, takes on an eerie meeting with a runner on a lonely road late on October eve. The runner tells of a time long past or yet to come when payback for all in life is due.

 

Continuing the saga of I Am a Soldier First and Always, our own James H. Kelly tells of the younger sons of Tremain MacKenzie as they watch the actions of the German military in the year before 1918. Jim’s story, Advance the Line, tells of the German Navy’s attack on Atlantic shipping and putting German soldiers in Mexico to advise and train the Mexican military. However, the American army began to train a modern tank corps under the command of General ‘Black Jack’ Pershing and his subordinate, Major George Patton. The MacKenzie boys watch and wait as they attend their Military academy in New England.

 

Research is paramount to writing essays. Bruce Haedrich sets an example by delving into the past to find data linked to his theory. Is it possible that eighth-grade graduates of 1889 were better educated than today’s high school graduates? With today’s technology, we would think not. Does knowing how to operate a computer make an individual smarter? Maybe it allows today’s students to get the correct answer quicker even though they possess less knowledge.

 

Writers sometimes take an alternate course when it comes to telling a story. The same thing happens when we listen to a reading. Our brains can play tricks on us, as it did with me as I listened to Anne Moore read tonight. I caught a phone call from my Granddaughter and missed the readings except for these phrases. 1. “The Cows are alright”; and 2. “How did you stay so Calm?”  Both are enticing me to learn more, but that’s just another reminder to Turn Off That Damned Phone during the meeting. Anne, I’M SORRY, please give me a copy of these pieces at the next meeting.

 

Ernie Ovitz is writing the Blurbs for his Trilogy, Imperium. He read each blurb and asked for input on how he might change them to be more appealing. He received numerous suggestions. After all, this is a group designed to help.

 

A memoir is a personal story, and Nancy Old tells a tale of interesting characters and family, each of whom has had some influence on her life or outlook. Take, for instance, Buster Brown. Always in some sort of trouble, he blamed his woes on demons. His demons lived, for the most part, in bottles and came out once the seal was broken and the liquid demon inside was swallowed by Buster himself. Mr. McLary also visited those demons. Mike Fix hailed from West Virginia. Mike was a worker. He raised Black Angus Cows and built a bridge across the stream nearby. But hard times drove Mike away. It was of little matter, as their problems already taught Nancy a lesson, even though it was at some expense.

 

If you write and want to be among fellow writers, you can join us at the Nokomis Fire House at our next meeting on Nov. 6th, 2024. We call to order at 6:30 PM. The holidays loom on the horizon, and as usual, we wish to donate to the Nokomis Fire Department. It is a volunteer department, and can use our help year-round. Our group does not charge a fee to attend, but during the holidays, and on the 4th of July, we take up a collection to give to the firehouse. Please plan to provide generous donations as they allow us to use the meeting hall free of charge. Thanks in advance. 

 

Until then, please READ, READ, and READ SOME MORE, then Write and KEEP ON WRITING.