Tuesdays with Story
WRITER’S MAIL for August 6, 2010
by Clayton Gill
Another Madison with Good Ink
It was a hot and sticky night. In my backyard, the long dog day of August collapsed at last and rolled over in the dark to pant with tongue hanging out. Distant lightning bared its fangs, but I heard no bark, no growl of thunder.
Unfortunately, I heard no Tuesdays with Story members begging for ink in Writer’s Mail, either. So I prodded the laptop to attention and googled “visiting writers” plus “Madison.” Then I discovered there is another Madison, a lively writers’ place, back East in Connecticut. This New England Madison is the home of RJ Julia Booksellers (http://www.rjjulia.com/) where mystery writer Karen E. Olson regularly reads her work.
Karen has a part-time day job editing a medical journal at Yale University. But she also has seven books under her by-line, including three in a series called “The Tatoo Shop Mysteries”—every book features “ink” in the title. See http://www.kareneolson.com/index.html. For insight into Karen’s choice of narration style and point-of-view, check out her blog at http://kareneolson.blogspot.com/.
Many thanks to Greg Spry for editing Writer’s Mail during July. Please see below for the “Newsletter Duty Roster,” which needs editors to volunteer for October and November.
But hey fellow Tuesdays, we’ve got more dog days ahead, so please throw some meat – or ink – to your August newsletter editor. Always hungry, despite the heat. Thanks!
You Overslept, You’re Late, But You’ve Got an Excuse
And it’s a doozy. Just what your boss wants to hear. We’re looking forward to hearing it, too – all 400 words — at our Fifth Tuesday feast and festival on August 31.
Make your reservations now. Send a note to Shel Ellestad or Jerry Peterson to say you are coming and how many others you plan to bring as guests. Friends, spouses, and children are welcome. Details on the exact time and location are coming soon.
Fifth Tuesdays are the best time for First-and-Thirders and Second-and-Fourthers to meet and mingle. Nearly 30 attended the Fifth Tuesday on June 29.
And send your Writing Challenge “Late-to-Work Excuse” to Jerry as soon as possible. In the last newsletter, Greg reported that the first two manuscripts were in already. You’ve still got a couple of weeks, but only fictional excuses remain.
Reading Recap from August 3 Meeting
Twelve First-and-Third members met August 3, 7:00-9:00 p.m., at Barnes & Noble West to hear five authors.
Millie Mader read her poem “Anonymity,” which is set in a shopping mall. Greg thought the poem captured the feeling of just being “another face in the crowd.” Elijah liked the mall as a stage for self analysis and appreciated the way Millie made the experience more universal through the use of “just” and “only” statements. Pat liked the image of the mall, but found use of the word “visage” redundant. However, she added, it might work on a different level “because poetry is poetry.” Pat also noted that this poem is the first Millie has offered which does not rhyme throughout. Only the last line has an internal rhyme, which Bill and some other Tuesdays members considered did not add to the poem and may be an unnecessary distraction.
Randy Haselow read from the “fairly dramatic revision” of the first chapter of his fantasy novel Hona and the Dragon. Kim said she misses the Prologue of the earlier version. She wanted a little more description, “like where and when are we?” Bill had a similar concern but John thought the chapter included enough subtle description to set the scene. Millie enjoyed the down-to-earth descriptions in the opening sequence of scenes. Greg thought Randy could play up the kids’ interest in the menacing figure of the Lord of the Valley. Pat considered the mention of “summer vacation” incongruous with the medieval or feudal setting. Maybe “before the harvest” would be a better way to set the season. Clayton had similar concerns with common elements of what would be a relatively primitive agrarian lifestyle. For example, would the characters use another word for lunch? Should it be dinner? Kim pointed out that horses don’t “screech,” they scream. Several Tuesdays members wanted to know more about the family relationships, especially of the father to his daughters. The father’s manner in the beginning suggested to some that the girls wouldn’t want to risk listening at the door.
Greg Spry read from Goodbye, Mars Part 3. Pat wanted to know “why Mars sucks?” It was settled at some time, she pointed out, so it must have been worth something at some point. How it became a dystopia isn’t really a main part of the story, Greg explained. Kim noted that for some reason dystopia were much more interesting than utopias and were much more prominent in fiction. In the opening scene, Elijah didn’t know whether “the young woman” (who turns out to be Ryssa) would want to lead Ethan on if he was such a klutz as to fall off the fence and plant his face in the dirt. Randy wanted to know why Ethan had been chosen for this special mission to Mars, considering he was such a klutz. Pat enjoyed the scenes with the “jetter.” Also, based on her own experience of broken ribs, she remembered that inhaling hurts more than exhaling. John could not tell whether the disheveled young woman described at the end of Part 3 was Ryssa. Greg confirmed it was. Members discussed whether contractions should be used only in dialogue in a story and not used in narrative. Very common contractions like “won’t” for “will not” may be acceptable, while less common contractions, such as “would’ve” for “would have” may not be acceptable.
Amber Boudreau read from Chapter 15 of her as-yet-untitled novel. Pat liked the idea of the “living book” which can change its language to suit the reader. Clayton liked the image of little squiggles of characters reforming and altering themselves like tiny worms before the reader’s eyes. Millie liked the development of the Zephyr character as a Wyvern dragon. Randy and Pat think Bucktown should defend his teaching of yoga. There was some discussion about whether yoga was strange enough to cause Bucktown’s embarrassment at having to justify teaching it. Kim suggested that he could teach jazzercise. John thought the chapter offered many good opportunities to promote the bond between girl (Moira) and dragon (Zephyr).
Kim Simmons, who substituted for Clayton, read from Chapters 41 and 42 of City of Summer. Elijah was really drawn into the story through the action scenes, but a few incongruous phrases brought him out again. Clayton thought Leviathan’s wrenching metamorphosis from human to dragon physical shift was really neat, what with rupturing back, emerging wings, etc., but didn’t think “pus” was appropriate. John agreed, but pointed out that infection and pus could be a factor if Leviathan was sick when he was in his human state. Then he could heal when in his natural, dragon state. Clayton wondered how this character changes back to human, which Kim said happens in the next chapter. Elijah contrasted Leviathan’s metamorphosis with that of Ryoko and thought there might be a limit to the number of times a character could change shape. Pat has an issue with the way Leviathan speaks – his modern American lingo — because she finds it incongruous with the story’s setting in a fantasy world.
Special thanks to Amber for her extra effort as scribe!
Who’s Up Next?
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 details of exact time and location to come.
September 7: Randy Haselow (chapter 3, Hona and the Dragon), Cathy Riddle (chapter 6, Beer Crimes), Jen Wilcher (???), Amber Boudreau (chapter 15, unnamed novel), Pat Edwards (poems), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 12, For Want of a Hand).
Writers Mail: TWS Newsletter Duty Roster
August – Clayton
September – Kim
October – volunteer needed
November – volunteer needed
December — Clayton
Another Great New Word – New for Yanks, Anyway
Last newsletter, Greg noted Sarah Palin’s new word “refudiate,” which gave British commentators a good laugh. This editor followed up with the UK newspaper, The Guardian, and found Michael Tomasky’s blog from July 29 commenting on Kentucky politico Rand Paul:
Here’s the lead of Tomasky’s piece, which is titled “Rand Paul hits a hazard”:
“This Details magazine profile of Rand Paul is getting some play, and for good reason: Reporter Jonathan Miles plums (sic) new depths of Paulian ignorance or at least insouciance about how the world as we know it came to be.
“The piece opens with this little vignette of gobsmackery….”
However, whatever “gobsmackery” is, a Yank might think, it can’t be too good. Unfortunately, the term does not yet appear in Merriam-Webster Online, nor in Wiktionary. It’s not in the Oxford Dictionaries Online, either, but “gobsmacked” is there (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0340160#m_en_gb0340160), meaning “utterly astonished” or “astounded.”
So gobsmackery refers to something that is utterly astonishing or astounding. Oxford notes the root word’s origins in the 1980s “from gob + smack, with reference to being shocked by a blow to the mouth, or to clapping a hand to one’s mouth in astonishment.” The words nearby are interesting, too: Gobony, gobshite, and gobstopper.
From the Wordsmith
Courtesy of Anu Garg in this week’s “A.Word.A.Day”: Jejune, pronounced “ji-JOON,” an adjective, meaning: (1) dull, insipid; (2) lacking maturity, juvenile; (3) lacking in nutrition.
Jejune, Garg writes, comes from the Latin jejunus (empty, hungry, fasting, meager): “A related word is jejunum, the middle part of the small intestine. It was so called because it was usually found empty after death.”
In usage: “Some songs are inspired and done with a knowing sense of irony. Others are jaw-droppingly jejune.” — John Doyle; Glee’s Back; Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); April 13, 2010.
For more: http://wordsmith.org/words/today.html
From Word Spy: Quite Treatable in Wisconsin
Paul McFedries offers “nature-deficit disorder”: A noun—“A yearning for nature, or an ignorance of the natural world, caused by a lack of time spent outdoors, particularly in rural settings. Also: nature deficit disorder.”
In usage: “Now a nonprofit educational enterprise, the manor is among the New York-area farms attracting locavores, green-minded students and urbanites suffering from nature-deficit disorder who yearn to raise produce and livestock for a day, a week or longer.”—Kathryn Shattuck, “City Slickers Take to the Crops, With Song,” The New York Times, May 28, 2010
For more: http://www.wordspy.com/
The Final Word
Former Tuesday with Story member Kashmira Sheth conducted a book-signing for her novel Boys without Names earlier this year at Barnes & Nobel West. Written in the first-person voice, Boys follows the ordeal of a young Indian villager, Gopal, as he is abducted and learns to survive forced labor in an illegal Mumbai tenement factory. Following a harrowing episode, Gopal narrates: “My mind is no longer blank. It moves from one thought to another like a monkey moving from branch to branch.”
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