“It is a general rule of fiction that characters who are presented as neither wholly admirable nor wholly despicable are much more interesting and satisfying than those whom the author presents as either perfect or appalling.” – Allan Massie, Scottish journalist and novelist (1938–)
Tuesdays With Story Writers Mail, June 10, 2010
by Jen Wilcher
Tuesday Night at the Bookstore
Eleven folk gathered at Barnes & Noble Tuesday to discuss fantasy, fiction, poetry, and dragons with English accents. . .
Jen Wilcher presented And So We Meet Again. Might need to explain just a little bit more who these characters are – why two English and one Japanese main character? Seto doesn’t act particularly Japanese. Being fan fiction, Carol said she was able to follow it pretty well, even though the characters weren’t familiar. Jack suggested fleshing out the characters a bit, make them more engaging. Holly wanted to see more action and description applied to the characters and the events around them.
Kim Simmons jumped right into the conflict of her new novel, The City of Winter, with a shipwreck. Anne suggested not using the main character’s name quite so often since she’s the only one in the scene. Jack said to set the scene with the character IN the scene, not referring back to her all the time. Describe what’s going on around her, her actions, etc. Holly wanted more back story – a reader could pick this up first, and needs some idea of who these characters are and what happened before. Terry really liked the way the scene started in the middle of the action.
Terry Hoffman read from The Journal. We wondered how would Aunt Ace refer to the owner of the house? Probably not “your mother’s house,” but “Jeannie’s house.” Create some unease in the main character – she’d react internally but not necessarily verbally to some of Aunt Ace’s comments. Anne said the dialog with Doug was a little sparse – need some emotional/physical reactions, more than just their words.
Randy Haselow submitted the beginning of his novel Hona and the Dragon. The prologue was kind of stuffy and confusing – Holly wanted more indications of who said what. The story with Hona meeting the dragon was quite fun and refreshing and well done, though the little-girl-speak should probably use “you” instead of “yo” which comes off as a bit, well, urban. . . Kim pointed out that the dragon sounded awfully British! Dan felt the all-cap dragon dialog was distracting. Can make it loud without the caps.
Jack Freiburger read his poem “Introit” (which, he explained, means beginning, or introduction). Anne didn’t like the flood/blood pairing, and Carol pointed out that the word “flood” comes up later, and it felt a little distracting. What did the last line mean? We got a sense of drowning, or a sense of “no one has spoken of this, no one should ever speak of it” and yet it was the introduction to a series of poems doing just that, so it was interesting.
Who’s Up Next
June 15: Kim Simmons (chapters 37-38, James Hyde), Jen Wilcher (chapter 1 rewrite, Memories Awakened), Judith McNeil (radio play, “South to Sunday”), Nicole Rosario (???), Millie Mader (chapter 18, Life on Hold), and Patrick Tomlinson (???).
June 22nd: Terry Hoffman, (The Journal), Kim Simmons, (The City of Winter)
Jack Freiburger, (???) Randy Haselow (Hona and the Dragon)
Holly Bonnickson-Jones (Coming Up For Air)
Dan Hamre (???) and, Jen Wilcher (on stand-by And So We Meet Again)
June 29: Fifth Tuesday at Terry and Jan Hoffman’s home in Oregon.
July 6: Kim Simmons (chapters 39-40, James Hyde), Jerry Peterson (chapter 11, For Want of a Hand), and Greg Spry (novella/part 2, Goodbye, Mars), Pat Edwards (poems), Elijah Meeker (???), and Clayton Gill (chapter 13, Fishing Derby).
July 20: Kim Simmons (chapters 41-42, James Hyde), Randy Haselow (chapter, Hona and the Dragon)
A reminder about Fifth Tuesday. . .
Second-and-fourth group will host our next Fifth Tuesday social event on June 29. We will be at Terry and Jan Hoffman’s place in Oregon, the city south of Madison, not the state out in the Great Northwest.
Usual format for the evening. Potluck dinner followed by reading our writing challenge stories. So here’s what you need to do:
#1 . . . Block out June 29 on your calendar for Fifth Tuesday. Do that right now.
#2 . . . Email Shel Ellestad, and tell him you are coming and who you’re bringing as a guest. Yes, guests are welcome. We need to know you’re coming so we have a chair for you. Also decide what you are bringing for the food table. Shel wants to know that, too.
#3 . . . Write your challenge story now. The challenge: Write a commencement speech to a targeted audience – ghouls, kindergarteners, Divas, trolls, whatever group you wish. It’s your choice. 500 words or less.
#4 . . . Email your story to Jerry Peterson, no later than June 25. We have to have a little time to print the stories.
Poetry from Calls from a Lighted House
“Peonies”
by Jeanne Lohmann (Thanks Brandy)
Grandma called them pineys, and I didn’t know why.
They smelled so good, the full lush petals
crowded thick, the whole flower heavy on its stem,
the leaves dark and rich and green as shade in Chatauqua Woods
where each spring I hunted for violets. What could there be
to pine for on this earth? Now I think maybe it was Missouri
she missed, and maybe that was what somebody she knew
called peonies there, before she traveled to Ohio,
a sixteen-year-old bride whose children came on as fast
as field crops and housework. Her flowers saved her,
the way they came up year after year and with only a bit of care
lived tender and pretty, each kind surprising,
keeping its own sweet secret: lily-of-the-valley, iris,
the feathery-leaved cosmos, lilacs in their white and purple curls,
flamboyant sweet peas and zinnias, the bright four o’clocks
and delphinium, blue as her eyes, and the soft peony flowers
edged deep pink. In her next life I want my grandmother
to walk slowly through the gardens in England and Kyoto.
I want to be there when she recognizes the flowers
and smiles, when she kneels and takes the pineys in her hands.
“Peonies” by Jeanne Lohmann, from Calls from a Lighted House. © Fithian Press, 2007. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)
A Call to You All . . .
Jen Wilcher
I’d like to hear people’s thoughts on and experiences while doing researching for their stories/pieces. I can’t seem to find a good article on the subject as of yet, so why not ask follow members? Besides it’s good to get multiple perspectives on the same subject. I want to know things like: why you thought it was important. Did you need to know the region or event you wrote about? What you liked or didn’t like about the process. Did you learn lots of cool new info, but had to check out 50 some odd books from the library, taking hours upon hours to read them? So, anyone who had to do some research before or while writing, speak up. I want to hear from you!
50th Anniversary of To Kill a Mocking Bird (thanks Alicia)
July 11th is apparently the 50th anniversary of the famous book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Alabama is doing a lot of celebratory promotion. It’s a favorite book for many and the author, Harper Lee, is still alive but will not talk about her book anymore. There are tons of other articles out there now on the same topic at:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/93358209.html
Newsletter duty roster
July – Greg
August – Clayton
September -Kim
The Last Word… A riddle for you all (thanks Pat)
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” is a grammatically valid sentence in the English language. Can you parse it out without looking up the answer?
Answer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
Tuesdays with Story 
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