Tuesdays with Story

TUESDAYS WITH STORY
WRITERS MAIL FOR JULY 29, 2010
by Greg Spry

Next Fifth Tuesday: August 31st, 2010
It’s only 5 weeks away, August 31. Make your reservations now. Send either Shel Ellestad, or Jerry Peterson, a note telling them you are coming and who you’re bringing as guests. Yes, guests – friends, spouses, children – are always welcome.

It’s also time to write your Fifth Tuesday mini-masterpiece. The first two are already in.

Announcements
Anne Allen wrote an article for Nebraska History and won Best Article of The Year. It even involved a cash prize! Anne Beiser Allen’s article, “A Scandal in Niobrara: The Controversial Career of the Rev. Samuel D. Hinman,” has been selected by the Nebraska State Historical Society to receive the 2010 James L. Sellers Memorial Award for the best article to appear in Nebraska History during 2009.

Andrea Kirchman’s short fiction piece, “Don’t Listen to the Sirens” just got published on the Six Sentences blog. Check it out! http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-listen-to-sirens.html

Meeting Recap: Tuesday, July 27th – 2nd & 4th
Eleven folks gathered at BN for critiquing Tuesday night.

We started with Terry Hoffman’s piece from The Journal. Patrick Tomlinson liked it and wanted to keep reading on. Anne Allen and Carol Hornung both felt the quotes and talking aloud to herself wasn’t necessary. Carol did like quotes and speaking aloud to Mom, though. Annie Potter felt it built up the tension really well, and we all knew Tara was going to be a troublemaker!

Annie Potter read the next segment of her memoir. Outstanding job describing the uncle’s stroke, the way he spoke. But be sure to be consistent on how you spell Eddy/Eddie. Felt there should be some more reaction from Annie to the kiss on the cheek. For time’s sake, it might be worth investing a couple of sentences about the ice cream to keep the situation from jumping so suddenly.

Anne Allen brought in Chapter 17 from Homecoming. Dan Hamre wasn’t sure about the use of the word frisson. Some of us didn’t know what it meant, and wondered if it fit, style-wise. Terry liked the one use of sleeping like the dead, but cut out some of the further comparisons of sleep/dead. She really liked the metaphor of silk stockings draped carelessly on the floor. Andrea Kirchman said to be more specific about the number of people at the bar – it’s either two or three. Some confusion, too, over who discovered Grandpa’s body – seems like Chris, but on the next page Sheila is the one who discovered him. Hmm.

Karl Bryan read segment 3 of Dubai Stopwatch. Why does Omar yell at the kid even though the kid is of higher rank? Omar is afraid of change, afraid of losing his daughter. He does everything he is supposed to do, struggles to do what’s right, but it’s not working. Make sure Omar is very sympathetic when East-West ideas of education and women clash. Show don’t tell is an important rule, but when dealing with something like a culture that’s quite foreign to the target audience, a fair amount of explaining is needed. And the time/speed metaphor works quite well.

Karl is heading to China next week, but would like to keep up with the group via email.

Who’s Up Next?
August 3: Kim Simmons (chapters 41-42, James Hyde), Greg Spry (novella/part 3, Goodbye, Mars), Randy Haselow (chapter 1/part 2, Hona and the Dragon), Amber Boudreau (chapter 15), Clayton Gill (chapter 15, Fishing Derby), and Millie Mader (poem).

August 10: Patrick Tomlinson (chapter, A Hole in the Fence), Jen Wilcher (???), Holly Bonnicksen-Jones (chapter, Coming Up For Air), Jack Freiburger (chapter, Path to Bray’s Head), Dan Hamre (short story, “Tractor Jockey”), and Carol Hornung (new mystery).

August 17: John Schneller (chapter 1, book 3), Patrick Tomlinson (???), Judith McNeil (radio play/part 3, “South to Sunday”), Aaron Boehm (???), Elijah Meeker (???), and Skye Winspur (???).

August 24: Randy Haselow (chapter 2, Hona and the Dragon), Andrea Kirchman (???), Terry Hoffman (The Journal), Anne Allen (Homecoming), and Patrick Tomlinson (chapter, A Hole in the Fence).

August 31: Fifth Tuesday

September 7: Randy Haselow (chapter 3, Hona and the Dragon), Cathy Riddle (chapter 6, Beer Crimes), Jen Wilcher (???), Amber Boudreau (chapter 15, novel), Pat Edwards (poems), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 12, For Want of a Hand).

September 21: Chris Maxwell (???).

Newsletter Duty Roster
August – Clayton
September – Kim

Laugh a Week
Subscribe to Sara Barnes’ weekly e-letter from her store, Booked for Murder – you remember, we were there for Fifth Tuesday back in the spring – and you’re guaranteed a laugh. Here’s how she started last week’s letter:

Hello Mystery Fans!

You just deep-fried who?!

I was dining out with my parents several years ago and the restaurant’s special-of-the-day was walleye, which our server (obviously not a lass of the Northland), proudly decreed to be “deep-fried Wally”.

Bummer.

I’ve been thinking about other easily-mispronounced names, such as: Socrates (when pronounced as though his favorite hobby were to “sew crates”). My high school self, while reading classics, was personally responsible for pronouncing Penelope as though it rhymed with “antelope”; pronouncing Persephone as though it rhymed with “telephone”; and who could forget Hector’s lovely and tragic wife, Andromache? (I remember wondering how such a famous heroine could have been called by so stumpy a name as “Andromash”.)

Do you have any favorite pronunciatory problems to share with the rest of the class?

If you’d like to get Sara’s weekly e-letter, send her a note at sbarnes@bookedformurder.com

Great New Word
Check out the new word Sarah Palin invented: “refudiate.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/jul/19/sarah-palin-refudiate-new-word

Great Word
Courtesy of Wordsmith Anu Garg:
nebbish
PRONUNCIATION: (NEB-ish)
MEANING: noun: A pitifully timid or ineffectual person.
ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish nebekh (poor, unfortunate), of Slavic origin. Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhag- (to share) that is also the source of baksheesh, Sanskrit bhagya (good fortune), and words related to -phagy (eating), such as onychophagia and xerophagy.
USAGE: “Nebbish son-in-law Lando must stand up to his shrewish wife Tiffany.”
David Schmeichel; Greed is Good at Celebrations; Winnipeg Sun (Canada); Apr 4, 2007.

Great New Phrase
Courtesy of Word Spy Paul McFedries:
qwerty tummy
n. A stomach illness caused by typing on a germ-ridden keyboard. Also: QWERTY tummy.

Example Citations:
“One common bug that researchers have turned up is staphylococcus aureus, a classic causer of food poisoning, signs of which include nausea and diarrhea. Accordingly, stomach sicknesses caught from computer equipment have been dubbed ‘qwerty tummy’ after the ‘Q-W-E-R-T-Y’ keys on a keyboard.”
– Your keyboard can give you food poisoning, MSNBC.com, July 2, 2010
“No one wants to have to look at a dirty keyboard. Too often, people don’t bother to wash their hands after eating or using the restroom. Not only is this unhealthy for you in many ways…it can also end up causing you to fall ill with QWERTY Sickness.”
– Chris Pirillo, A Cleaning a Day Will Keep the QWERTY Tummy Away, Chris.Pirillo.com, July 3, 2010

Earliest Citation:
“Many users are at risk of becoming ill with stomach bugs, according to the consumer group Which? It warned that ‘qwerty tummy’, named after the first six letters on a keyboard, could sweep through workplaces after tests on equipment in its own London offices showed alarming results.”
– Sean Poulter, How your computer keyboard is FIVE TIMES dirtier than your toilet seat – and could even give you ‘qwerty tummy’, Daily Mail, May 1, 2008

The Final Word
“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”
— Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam to Paul Atreides in the novel Dune