Wednesday, March 21, 2012

As the lightning flashes of spring's first thunderstorm lit up the sky behind the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department, the March 21st meeting of the Sarasota Writers Group got under way. After the greetings and catching up on all the latest news, of course.

We welcomed Stephen Aiken of Sarasota to his first meeting, and returning guests Don Westerfield and Kathleen Swartz. We reluctantly said goodbye to Lois Stern who is returning to New York for the summer. Rod DiGruttolo, as always did his masterful job of herding cats to make it another enjoyable meeting.

We started the meeting on a sad note as Susan Haley described the condition and determination of her friend and Pasco County FWA group leader, Dahris Clair, who has decided to drop life support and return home in peace and solitude. Our thoughts and prayers are with Dahris, her family and her many friends.

We resumed our regular readings, after Bill Elan told the “Amoeba story,” with Russ Heitz reading his great response to the “Dialogue Challenge.” Remember, “You're the one who wanted to talk.” Rod mentioned it is intimidating to follow any of our writers when its your turn to read. It is, but that doesn't stop us!

Lois Stern gave a great example by first reading a “Vase Challenge” poem by Jim Kelly, and then showing her writing virtuosity by giving no less than five different twists of her own on the challenge: a memoir piece, a fiction approach, historical non-fiction (!), mystery and suspense, and finally a humorous interpretation of the same challenge. Lois will be missed during her summer sojourn. Ellen Magnuson read a chapter from her book “S'Truth” that captured everyone. Of course she finished with “If you want to hear more, you'll have to buy the book!” (ISBN 13-978-1-4507-9327-0)

Bill Elan read his piece on continuing reflections of an old man, inspired by Cecile Bell Kennedy, who followed with a great poem called “Table Tart,” inspired by the “Vase Challenge.”

Joanne read her next chapter of her autobiographical “Memoirs of a Sea Hag.” The harrowing story of being caught in 20 foot swells in a 40 foot sailboat that had us all relieved when they finally made Dry Tortugas. A spirited 20 minute discussion followed that proved everyone had hung on to every word. A worn out audience then took a 20 minute break!

Ed Ellis kicked off the second half with a test of sorts. He delivered two different approaches to his up-coming book, tentatively titled “The Success Model.” His approach to the subject of thinking, good vs bad decisions, and ideas are time machines, all stirred the intense discussions that followed. Good stuff.

The delightful surprise of the evening was from newcomer Don Westerfield who read a touching piece about war titled, “Hello, Joe!,” and a poem entitled “The Passage.” The poem connected with every father who has ever walked his daughter down the aisle. This was Don's second meeting and we can't wait to hear more of his great writing.

Kerri Dieffenwirth read another chapter from her recently retitled work, now called “Homemade Rodeos, A Memoir,” that reached out and grabbed all the unsuspecting listeners. From light-hearted recollections of youth to the heart-stopping tragedy of a near fatal accident and its trauma on a young girl, wrapped and delivered in almost a single sentence. More great stuff! Great writing!

Susan Davis read her great interpretation of the “Dialogue only” challenge that was really nicely done. Susan can read anything she wants with her “FM” voice, we would all probably listen to her read the telephone book, but when she reads her own stories, it is really a great, entertaining experience.

We wrapped up the evening's readings with Kathleen Swartz, who also returned for her second meeting. Kathleen read part of Chapter 4 from her book “Jazzed at 69,” at least that's the working title, and again, left the group wanting more.

We'll have to wait 'til next time, April 4th, to hear more.

George

New Words, Congrats & Recap

Two reminders: (1)our next meeting, our General Meeting, will be Wednesday evening the 16th, same time, same place, and (2) the Magic Words, contributed by Peter Frickel, are POOR and POUR. Use both words in one sentence, or each word in a separate sentence, or whatever other combination you can come up with. Your choice. And use your imagination. Let's see if we can create some unique sentences.

The congratulations go out to Kerri Dieffenwierth. The poignant and very original story she read at the last meeting about Chupa Chup, the old man who was trapped and died in an amusement park ride, placed 4th in a contest that had 400 entries. Way-to-go, Kerri! Let us know the details about the contest at the next meeting.

The meeting recap will include just about everyone who came to the meeting because nearly everyone brought something to read.

Joe Porter read a very moving piece about his experiences in Hiroshima shortly after The Bomb destroyed the whole city. Ed Lyman brought another one of his humorous short pieces. This one was about pickles and olives. Kris Palmer read a piece about Courage and demonstrated once again that she definitely has more courage than most of us. Our resident actor Tom Smith read, presented, and acted out his version of the Snow White fable. Jean Porter shared a couple poems about swimming and the current oil spill disaster going on in the Gulf of Mexico. One of our new visitors, Micki Knowles read her story about the Demonic Delights of the Cabbage Patch dolls. Phil Dobrin took us all into the operating room again and gave us a glimpse of what goes on during a heart operation. Andrew Parker read another one of his powerful and this time heart-rending story segments, about a young man who is trying to adjust to the results of a life-changing accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. And Peter Frickel brought the evening to a close with another poignant and powerfully presented dying scene from his novel.

During the meeting we also had a very lively and informative discussion about some of the pros and cons of traditional publishing versus author initiated publishing, usually referred to with the very broad and comprehensive terms "self publishing" and/or "POD publishing"

Don't forget to use our two Magic Words poor and pour in a sentence or two. CU all on the 16th.

Posted by
Russ Heitz
www.russheitz.com