April 15, 2026

 Welcome back, readers and writers. The year is rushing past like a mountain stream. There are rough spots and smooth stretches where everything changes. Sometimes our efforts crash upon the rocks of life, and we get very little done, no matter how hard we try, while in the smooth stretches, our first thoughts fit perfectly and require little or no editing. Sometimes I think the rough times are the most productive because we have time to rethink and revise what we’ve written. Those smooth moments can lull us into false thinking. Are we really that good? Do words really come that easily? That’s why we attend writers’ groups. If you want an honest critique designed to make you a better writer, trust your friends in the group. These writers are not your competition; they have their own issues and rely on you to help them as much as you need help. Listen and learn. Sure, some of the advice is off target, but most of it is truly meant to guide you on a path toward better writing. You are the author, you must decide what changes to make and what to leave alone. The same goes with editors. Editors are here to point out errors, not rewrite your work. That misplaced or overlooked comma, the dangling participle, a forgotten word, or the too often repeated word, can change the quality of your work. We all have our individual style, and that is where we can shine, or go down in flames. Don’t fall in love with your words; be open to change. Listen to what readers have to say about what you’ve written. Beta readers, those who read what you’ve written and give you honest feedback, no matter how brutal, can help you more than the “good job” advice you get from family and close friends who don’t want to insult you. When an editor, or another writer, says, “That doesn’t look right,” maybe there is a problem. Check it out!

 Again, I’ve gone on too long, but that’s what you get when you have a writer and a computer in the same room. We had a smaller group this time. We wish Dennis a speedy recovery from the ailment that struck him and his lovely wife, Linda. Get Well Soon! Ursula, you and yours enjoy your trip.

We look forward to seeing y’all back soon.

We only had six people at the meeting, but it was a success. Four of us read our work and listened to feedback. 

Starting off with Ernie Ovitz. Ernie brought us the continuation of his newest story. El Patrono’s funeral was attended by the leadership of Chicago’s Mob and their wives. Lee Santino, El Patrono’s nephew, who was more like a son than a nephew, revealed a plan to allow the organization's made men to retire with a clean-money pension. While Lee dealt with the mobsters, including the new boss, Tony C. -- Maryam Santino, Lee’s wife, observed the actions and foibles of their wives. The underlying tension, too much booze and rich food of the final dinner, weighed on everyone. Too much for Maryam, who was newly pregnant.

 

Scott Anderson is a poet studying the art of Haiku. Tonight, he shared with us five new verses submitted to a prestigious publication of the genre. Each poem has meaning to the reader. Different readers may have different meanings. To me, the meanings represent:

Shadow Existence, that part of us and others unseen, the shadow self beneath the living us: 

Broken Eggs, those things we’ve done that cannot be undone: 

Ship in Fog, the difficulty in finding one’s way in the confusion of life: 

Large Hail, the big thing that cause change in life: 

Space Inside, what happens to the space inside a box if the box in destroyed? Does it still exist? Does it simply join the space outside the box?

Fun, isn’t it?

 

The inquisitive mind of Bruce Haedrich is hard at work creating a dilemma for readers to ponder. His latest work, Nadia, is such a piece. Originally a robot, a humanoid, Nadia is a beautiful human replica. Recalled by the factory to repair flawed hardware and software issues, Nadia was transformed into a different being. Aesthetically the same, a beautiful female human replica, she returns as a new form, a new species of human, as assessed by science. A young man, Chris, accompanies her to a special school designed to train these new forms, now called terrestrials, on how to perform as real humans. But are they? Chris brings Nadia to Florida, where they join Nancy, Chris’s human girlfriend. The problem is that Chris has fallen in love with Nadia. Nancy knows this and suggests that Nadia is still just a humanoid, not a human. Is she? Is she not human?

 

Roberta Molaro is a poet venturing into the world of fiction in prose. Tonight she brought us Chapter 2 of her story, The Reluctant Heiress. Traveling alone for the first time in her life, Jennifer heads from the suburban life in New York to the small rural towns of Pennsylvania in search of her birth mother. She has only a name, no pictures, no physical description, only the name, Mary Hoover, and the name of a town, Owensburg, PA. Jennifer’s first stop in town is at the Post Office. There, she bumps into a woman in the lobby who is reading a letter from her son in the Navy. The woman looks shocked to see Jennifer, then leaves after apologizing for the collision, and turns back at the door to take another long look at Jennifer. It was as if she recognized her. The Postal Clerk says he hasn’t heard of any Hoovers in town, but he’d only been here for a year. The Postmaster isn’t much help either; he doesn’t recall the Hoover name.

 ***

We are left hanging at almost every meeting. We give suggestions to the reader/writers and wait until the next meeting to see whether they’ve taken them or made changes to the story. Sometimes the whole story changes direction based on an idea given or changed by a suggestion.

 

Well, that's about it for this meeting. Our next meeting is May 6, 2026, at the Nokomis Fire House. We call the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. A group of us usually shows up around 6:00 and visits before the call to order. You’re welcome to join us. There’s no charge, all we expect are you and your opinions. We hope you enjoy and learn. If you like to read but do not write, you are still welcome. Who knows, you may discover a desire to write, and our motto is Writers Helping Writers. So, until we meet again, READ, Read, read some more, and then WRITE, Write, and KEEP ON WRITING.

April 1. 2026

Welcome back. We open the meeting on April 1, 2026, with a promise not to pull off any April Fool’s pranks.

 

Do you use dashes in your writing? There are three popular dashes, em(—), en(–), and hyphen (-). Several articles mentioned that many publishers/editors discourage the use of em dashes in popular writing. They are a legitimate type of punctuation. The em dash is the width of an M in type and is often used to set off additional information. For example:

·         The grocery store—known for its great bakery—was very busy. 

 

The em dash can also be used for an abrupt change in thought or an interruption.

·         I was halfway to the store—but I realized I’d forgotten my wallet.

An em dash can introduce a Summary or an Explanation.

·         We had one goal in mind—making enough money to pay for the car.

In dialogue, it can indicate an interruption.

·         “It was just a—” “No, let me finish!”

Easy ways to insert an em dash in MS Word are: two hyphens without a space --. In some versions, this will work, but not always. Press the Ctrl and Alt keys at the same time as you press the minus key (Ctrl+Alt+- = —.) You can also use the Insert tab and choose the em dash symbol, but for me, this is too time-consuming and difficult to find the proper symbol.

There are other ways to accomplish the scenarios listed above, but you are the author; use whatever method you think is best suited to the work you are doing. Note that the em dash does not have a space before or after it. That is not always the case with the en dash.

The en dash is the width of an N in type and is often used to set off a range in numbers, dates, or times.

·         “Please attend the meeting scheduled for 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM.”

·         “We will discuss pages 19 – 22 in the operations manual.”

·         “The Miami–New York flight has been delayed.”

·         “The Father–Son dinner has been canceled.”

If you are using a Compound Modifier with one of the elements being a compound adjective as a multi-word phrase, use an en dash.

·         The post–graduation party is in Victor’s Hall.

Note the space before and after the en dash in the time and date scenarios (numerical), while there is no space in the text.

In many cases, a hyphen can be used without many readers noticing. Use the hyphen when using compound words or multi-word phrases. Don’t be afraid of the hyphen; it’s a handy tool, a punctuation mark used to join words or parts of words. Be careful, it is not interchangeable with the em dash or en dash.

Have I confused you enough? I think so. Let’s move on to the meeting notes about the readings.

Ernie Ovitz led off the reading session with an excerpt from his latest story, The Crucible. The patriarch of the Chicago mob died at his Florida home. The upper echelon of the organization came to Sarasota for the wake, funeral, and send-off dinner. Ernie gave us an insight into what such a gathering and its almost unlimited financial resources can provide. The alcohol and food were top-of-the-line vintage and prepared by world-class Michelin-starred chefs. Agosto Santino, called El Patrino by his associates, had been the pattern for a typical mob boss. Cruel, bloodthirsty, and unforgiving in his younger days, he changed in his declining years. Using funds generated by nefarious means, he set up a financial program specifically designed to legitimize the questionable funding and use the profits to provide a retirement for his soldiers in the organization. The fund had grown to an enormous amount and was still growing. The fund and its administration were handed over to Leonardo Santino, Agosto’s nephew, the head of a group of Hedge Funds based in Colorado. The problem? Leonardo didn’t want to have dealings with his uncle’s old associates. How’s that going to work out? Look for the book on Amazon soon.

 

When Don Westerfield took possession of the lectern, we knew we were in for a poetry lesson. Having visited the historic battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Don sat down and wrote his verse entitled “Forgotten.” The forlorn message, read with the twang of a real country boy, stirs emotions, allowing us to hear the wind passing over the now-quiet battlefield, to feel the pain of the fallen, and to understand the loneliness of the unknown left behind. In his second verse under the title of “Old Chum.” Don speaks to an old friend from his youthful self. His words bring forth memories of yesteryear for me; for some, the word may apply only days or hours hence. The last line bears an apology for tears wept upon the “Chum’s” stone.

 

Have you ever dreamed of space travel? Remember those books and television shows that show the wonders of other planets. Well, Gary Conkol is midway through a story of space travel that takes us to Mars. A group of visionaries and brilliant scientists developed space travel so sophisticated that they can reach Mars in mere minutes instead of weeks and have established a colony on the red planet. There, they discover pictures of what may be ancient Martians; they look very much like earthlings, except for their eyes. Their eyes closely resemble…

 

Nadia’s story continues. Bruce Haedrich brings Chris and Nadia back to Chris’s home in Florida. They arrive late at night; Chris is glad he doesn’t have to face Nancy until the next day. Finally, at six o’clock that evening, Chris and Nadia met Nancy for dinner. It was awkward, even though Nancy and Nadia hugged, and Chris gave Nancy a kiss. When asked about the future, Nadia says, “We plan to settle somewhere in the States, far away from a major city.” Nancy sets a trap, “Who’s we?” she asks Nadia. In a private conversation the next morning, Nancy plants a sliver of doubt in Chris’s mind about Nadia being humanized. Is there trouble brewing in paradise?

 

Bob Miller, like most of us, husbands and wives, feels an obligation to attend his wife’s class reunion. In this case, they travel from their home in Michigan to Sidney, Montana, for the big event. Bob, being Bob, decides he’ll take the name tag of an alum they know won’t be in attendance. The highlights of the trip are the rodeo and Bob being crowned the alum who changed the most in appearance. Oh, by the way, Bob, I was looking at the Montana Police Blotter this weekend. There’s a warrant out for someone who looks a lot like you.

 

It’s 1918 in France as James H. Kelly begins to read from Chapter 17 of Advance the Line. A thunderous volley of artillery exploding rips Lieutenant Madkenzie from his half-sleep. The barrage continues walking its way down the trench line of the 102^nd Infantry. The concussions hammered the line. The hands on his watch glowed in the darkness, showing 4:00 AM. Shaken awake, but alert and ready, the men scanned the no-man’s-land for movement. The machine gun posts were silent, men straining their eyes to pierce the darkness. “JETZT!” came the command in German, meaning NOW.

The evening ended with Rod Digruttolo reading an excerpt from Chapter 47 of his latest work, The Garden’s Secret. Dale Anderson is a Special Investigator for the Sheriff’s Department of Clay County, Georgia. He is investigating a 50-plus-year-old murder case in which four young girls were raped and murdered. Dale reports to the Sheriff about his latest findings. A murder in Tennessee, suspected to be committed by the same killer, is proven to be the work of a deranged man who committed suicide shortly after the murder. The chapter moves the story along, keeping the mystery alive.

 

THAT’S ALL, FOLKS, at least for this writing. We hope to see y’all at the next meeting, April 15^th. at the Firehouse in Nokomis. Until then, READ, Read, and read some more. Then WRITE, Write, and write some more great stories.