I started going to TWS in the spring of 2004. Since then I have been a marginally active member, enjoy reading the newsletter and submit various literature reviews and author links from the NY Times. I love 5th Tuesdays and have often brought guests to the parties.
I write daily in my journal recording my world, sometimes writing up to 500 words. I have several big boxes of hard bound, hand written journal entries from the pre-Internet era dating from about 1970 – 2001. I emailed Jerry parts of my Cairo, Egypt journal in 2006 and my Istanbul, Turkey journal in 2007 which he sometimes posted in the TWS newsletter.
I have written about a dozen short stories, mainly about my life in Turkey and Jamaica. I took Creative Writing of the Short Story through UW- Madison Extension with Laurel Yourke which helped my writing a lot. I recommend her writing courses. I have a list of story ideas in a folder which I hope to get back to soon(er or later). I have written a lot of poetry over the years, but after taking a Creative Writing of Poetry course from UW-Madison Extension a few years ago, I have hardly written any poems though I improved my poetry writing style!(?)! I guess I did not enjoy being “up against the wall” of modern poetry.
I try to read the I read the NY Times daily on-line and make frequent comments on some of the articles. I also read the Writer’s Almanac (Garrison Keillor) on-line and enjoy my daily dose of poetry there. I occasionally forward a poem or author bio featured there to TWS for the newsletter.
I have always been a big reader. I often read a novel in a day in the summer when I was a kid. I mainly enjoy literature, but also read nonfiction. I recently read biographies of Coco Chanel, Martha Stewart and hope to soon get my hands on “My Life in France” by Julia Child. I read “Istanbul” by Orhan Pamuk while visiting my husband Amir in Istanbul in the fall of 2008. I love Michael Pollan. Be sure to check out the new two hour PBS special “The Botany of Desire” (2009) http://www.pbs.org/thebotanyofdesire/ based on his book by the same name published in 2001.
