APRIL 16th, 2025

We were joined by a first-time attendee, Jayne Ryan, this week. Welcome, Jayne, we hope you enjoyed the meeting and would like to see you a lot in the future

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I’m a fiction writer, and I sometimes write in the mystery genre. I am writing a story about a fifty-year-old series of murders and wish to include police reports written in the time frame of the murders. This includes interviews and reports written by sheriff department employees and deputies. Some were written by hand, typed, and recorded. The recorded interviews were transcribed to paper and included in the case files.

I put them in the story as I saw them. The handwritten reports are inserted using the “Comic Sans” font to closely mimic the style of printing used by the writer. Reports typed in the time frame of the crime are shown using the  “Courier New” font, which is common to typewriters used in the 1970s.

Also, my story takes place in Northwestern Georgia, adjacent to the Tennessee/Georgia border. Much of the dialogue mimics the vernacular accents and language use common to the area. For instance, “them” is often shown as “em,” “and” may be a single “n,” while pronouns and adjectives are frequently shortened or misused, “Sam and I” may be said as “Me n Sam.” I do this to give the story a realistic feeling while trying to not confuse the reader with too many incorrect spellings or lapses in grammar.

Those of us present during the discussion explored several ways to accomplish this task. Think about how you would do this and share it with us at the next meeting. Or, if you can’t make it on May 7^th, reply to this blog in the comments section at the end, or send an email to rdigrutt@outlook.com.     

After the discussion, we moved on to the reading portion of the meeting.

Ernie Ovitz led it off by reading the latest chapter of his mystery story, which has a working title, The Penitent Man. “Follow the Money is the theme of this portion of the story, which has murder, international intrigue, and organized crime captured in a twisted series of plots involving an aging Mafia Don and his nephew who heads up DMS Capitol, a Hedge Fund in Colorado and Singapore. Taiwan is very interested in the actions of this company and the company’s officers. Federal agencies in the United States are watching them closely as well.

 

Continuing a look into the lives of Nadia Costea and the people around her, we find another cookout planned by Dolan, Nadia’s boyfriend. Oh, did I forget to tell you Nadia is not human? She is a humanoid robot. Anyway, another couple, Johnathan and Zeena Boyce, join them at Dolan’s apartment. Written in the first-person, the narrator is asked by his girlfriend, Nancy, to take special note of people’s actions at the party. He observes them but doesn’t see anything strange. Once they were at home, Nancy asked, “Did you notice anything odd about the guests?" As our narrator says, "No." She tells him "Jonathan and Zeena are robots too.” Where is this story going? It started as a short story; we are now in chapter seven. How many more robots exist and what do they do? Could this story turn out to be a novel?

 

Do You Believe in Miracles? That’s the question asked by Dennis Cathcart as he tells the true story of Maggie and Bucky. Maggie, a Boston Bull Terrier, became the official greeter at the plant nursery Dennis and Linda owned in Bradenton, Florida. A family pet, she doubled as the greeter when not engaged at home. Customers and coworkers relied on Maggie’s presence every day for fourteen years. A few days before Christmas in 1998, Maggie passed from this world, leaving behind a family, customers, and coworkers mourning her passing. It was a blue Christmas, but life must go on. The Saturday after Christmas, it was a rainy day when a customer came in and insisted on picking out a collection of plants. After three hours of ducking in and out of greenhouses, she was ready to settle her bill. She asked about Maggie. When told of her passing, she said, “We are coming from Miami on our way back to Ocala with a brood of puppies, Boston Bull Terriers. They are in the car with my husband. Would you like to see them?” that is when Bucky joined the Cathcart family. Bucky took over Maggie’s duties at home and the Nursery for the next fifteen years.

 

Gary Conkol placed his tongue firmly in his cheek and penned a story about Dysfunctia, an outer planet inhabited by questionably intelligent life (formally known as Earth.)  Eight countries came into being, each with an unbending philosophy, which made them totally dependent on all the other countries. Gary says this began in 2020 as a piece about Utopia, but as he had become somewhat cynical during the presidential election, thoughts about Dysfunctia came into being.

 

 

Well, (not a shallow subject) we’ve come to the end of the meeting. If you can, join our next meeting on May 7^th, 2025, at the Nokomis Firehouse. We’ll discuss something we face in our writing, and you’ll hear some interesting viewpoints and work from talented writers. We open the meeting at 6:30 PM and adjourn somewhere around 9:00 PM.

Until then, READ, Read, Read some more, and KEEP ON WRITING.

April 2nd, 2025

 

Welcome to the Sarasota Writer’s Group Blog.

A discussion about Cover Design and its impact on published work opened the meeting. More than half of the members in attendance have published their work. We all agreed that an attractive cover design draws readers to the book and increases sales. Two of our group hired or purchased work from artists for their covers. Several used stock photos and designs purchased from the internet. Others used covers furnished by the publisher or created their covers with software. One used a picture they took themselves. Only one member delved into creating a cover using AI. Although they looked nice, the author chose not to use it.

We enjoyed the company of a first-time attendee tonight, Robert Miller, who joined us as a guest of Dennis Cathcart

Bruce Haedrich led off the reading portion of the meeting with a second chapter of his newest work, Nadia Costea. As it turned out, Nadia, a strikingly beautiful young woman with exceptional talents in almost every field, was not human. She was an android. It seems Dolan, Nadia’s owner/boyfriend, purchased an upgrade to Nadia’s programming, and she was learning more skills daily. She could now do almost anything a human woman could. She was connected to the cloud and knew nearly everything. What Bruce started as a short story is growing. I suspect we are watching the birth of a novel.

Danny Spurlock brought us a short story, Parking, where a biker in California decides to find his birth father. Climbing aboard his Harley, he set out on a journey across the desert toward New Mexico. Enjoying the ride and adventures along the way. He finally reaches his destination, Albuquerque. There, he begins the search for his father.

James Kelly read from chapter 9 of his fifth book in a series entitled I Am a Solider, First and Always. This book has a working title, Advance the Line. A fourth-generation soldier of the Mackensie family prepares to go off to war in WWI. He has joined a new regiment, preparing for a new type of war. George Patton is in command of a division of tanks, and young Johnathan Mackensie has joined the division.

Traveling the world in search of exotic plants gave Dennis Cathcart opportunities most of us will never know. The sights of dense tropical forests, barren salty islands, lush mountain landscapes, and many places where plants grow are remarkable. But, to come face to face with four Indigenous Amazonians in the jungle… WOW, how much more exciting can it get? Dennis’s piece entitled Savages and Cannibals took us there. The Amazonian was thoroughly confused as it was entirely possible they’d never encountered a white man before, so they simply walked away. Reporting the incident to his guide, Dennis learned the tribe had a reputation for being warlike and was quite nervous. But to Dennis, it was a ‘splendid adventure.’

Reading a short story was a change for Don Westerfield. He is a wonderful poet and a great storyteller. His story, What Are Friends For, has a message and humor in the tale. Two boys, Billy and Joel, were good friends from childhood. Though Billy often blamed Joel for things he’d done, they remained friends. They went to college, and Joel was called to the Dean’s office after a year or so. A girl, the daughter of the biggest donor to the college, reported Joel as having made her pregnant. As she entered the Dean’s office, she saw Joel and asked, “Who’s that?” Billy had stuck again. But Joel was a good friend and didn’t say a word. Billy transferred to a different school a week later, confirming Joel’s suspicions.

Some years later, both Joel and Billy were adults. Billy was doing quite well with a beautiful wife and a good business, while Joel was divorced and struggling financially. But Billy talked him into taking a fishing trip. On the way, a storm left them stranded without a cell phone or a vehicle. A lone farmhouse far from any town or village was their only chance at finding shelter. Oh yes, there was an occupant, a beautiful woman alone. But the power was out, and her phone didn’t work. She allowed them to sleep in the barn alongside an expensive red sports car. It was warm and dry, and she brought them some dry blankets to sleep on so they could dry their wet clothing. Tired from the long trek in the driving rain, Joel fell into a deep sleep, awakening the following day to a beautiful sunrise. About nine months later, Joel received a summons to a lawyer’s office. Had Billy struck again?

Robert Miller is working on a memoir he calls The Chronicles of Bob Miller. Bob is from Michigan. His reading tonight told of an experience when his uncle visited. The visit was short, and the uncle left to join his unit and go overseas to fight in WW2. He died in the invasion of Sicily shortly afterward. Bob entered kindergarten in 1946. We look forward to hearing more about Bob.

A story with no title about people with no names is what Bill Elam brought us tonight. Bill has been working on this story for a long time. Tonight’s reading is a chapter from early on in the book entitled The Listener. The narrator of the story is known only as The Whisperer.

Well, that does it for this meeting. The readings were great, and the discussion was enlightening. Our next meeting will be on April 16^th at the Nokomis Firehouse at 6:30 PM. Attend if you can. In the meantime, READ, Read, read, and KEEP ON WRITING.