Tuesdays with Story

February 9, 2011
Writer’s Mail
by Cathy Riddle

Quote of the Day…
From The Weather in Berlin by Ward Just: “Much later, Harry told his son to listen carefully always to the stories that people told. Listen to the words and the music, too, the cadence. That was the way you came to know people, by the stories they told and the manner of their telling. When you listened hard enough, the stories became yours. A story belonged to whoever could tell it best.”

Jazz up your profile photo…
Tired of using a standard mug shot for your profile picture on Facebook or your webpage? Go to http://funny.pho.to/ where you will find several hundred photo effects to make your mug shots special. Best thing, it’s free.

Fifth Tuesday…
March 29 at Booked for Murder.

The writing challenge: interview one of your characters—major or minor, you pick—and distill that interview down to a dynamite piece of no more than 500 words.

The writer of the best wins a critique of the first 50 pages of her or his novel by Madison College creative writing instructor John Galligan. And dinner with John at one of our finest restaurants, too.

Deadline for getting your well-polished mini-masterpiece in is March 20. Email it to Jerry Peterson.
Two submissions are already in.

Last night…
Eight folk came in from the cold Tuesday night at Barnes & Noble for critiques and laughter (no “buts” about it).

Annie Potter started us off with “The Pact,” a chapter from her memoir. Anne Allen thought the piece was fun but the title didn’t quite fit. It wasn’t quite a pact, but the kids did, in fact, break all the rules and kept quiet about it all. Kim Simmons liked the ending with the narrator falling asleep behind the sofa. Carol Hornung was glad to hear this chapter would be placed well toward the beginning of the book – the teasing would be very uncomfortable after the revelation of abuse. Some streamlining should be done, too, to emphasize the relationship between Annie and Mike.

Next up, chapter from Randy Haselow’s Hona and the Dragon, titled “The Shield.” Kim felt that he used the character names too often. Jack Freiburger pointed out that this is an indication of too many scattered actions and observations. Put the information into clumps and names aren’t needed as frequently. Anne said to lose a lot of the “said”s and incorporate action into the dialog to identify the speaker. Jen Wilcher said the characters seemed “too loud” in the scene – they are under attack and need to keep things quiet.

Kim Simmons read a chapter from City in Winter. Jack said the fissure opening with the earthquake is unclear – needs a bit more description. Jen was confused by the term “II arch.” Annie Potter really liked the visual descriptions, and Jack pointed out that since the sorcerer was a centaur, you could smack him on the flank.

Jen Wilcher presented Chapter 5: Hibiki’s Point of View. Kim was giddy over the anime poster reference in the story. Jen, pleased, said she put it there as something of an “Easter Egg,” without explanation. People who would recognize it would enjoy it, and it doesn’t distract otherwise. Jack – need to cut down on the “I”s and “but”s – lots and lots of those. Same issue as with Randy – try to group things together better so characters don’t need to be identified so often. Anne and Kim wanted more details of the death scene – not so much gore, but lighting, posture of the other characters, expressions, emotions. Also concerned about the motivation for Hibiki going after Rin. Jack pointed out there was opportunity to play with symbolism of the moon and spirits as well.

Last on the docket, Jack Freiburger with “The End of Argos.” Kim says she’s always able to see the Maine coast in his writing. Carol wanted more of a reaction from Agnes when Lester appeared at the exhibit. There was also talk of Mz vs Ms. Ms is correct, but Lester would use Mz. Randy wanted to see what the donation box looked like, and Annie just marveled that “Modern Sunbathing” was a real magazine! (now we all have to go home and Google it).

Who’s up next . . .
February 15: Jen Wilcher (chapter, The Hogoshiro Chronicles), Leah Wilbur (???), Clayton Gill (chapter 16, Fishing Derby), Greg Spry (chapter 4, Beyond Cloud Nine), Aaron Boehm (screenplay/part 6, Hell Cage), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 7, Thou Shalt Not Murder).

February 22: Terry Hoffman (chapter, The Tome), Carol Hornung (scene, Sapphire Lodge), Kim Simmons (City of Winter), and Anne Allen (chapter, A Fatal Homecoming), Holly Bonnicksen-Jones (Coming up for Air), Randy Haselow (???.)

March 1: Pat Edwards (poems), Chris Maxwell (???), Millie Mader (chapter 24, Life on Hold), Judith McNeil (???), Amber Boudreau (chapter 18, young adult novel), and Kim Simmons (chapter 57, City of Summer).

March 8: Jack Freiburger (chapter, Path to Bray’s Head), Jen Wilcher (???), Kim Simmons (chapter, City of Winter), Leah Wilbur (???.) There’s room for two more. Contact Carol at chornung88@aol.com to get on the schedule.

March 15: Randy Haselow (chapter, Hona and the Dragon), Amber Boudreau (chapter 19, young adult novel), John Schneller (chapter, Final Stronghold), Jen Wilcher (chapter, The Hogoshiro Chronicles), Cathy Riddle (chapter, Beer Crimes), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 8, Thou Shalt Not Murder).

‘Survivor’ producer to turns CliffsNotes into online mini-shows. . .
Mark Burnett and his production team will turn CliffNotes, those digests of the world’s great literature, into an animated comedy series for AOL.com.

The aim is to give students refreshers on, say, “Hamlet” – a play they probably didn’t read – before a test. And, said Burnett, the series may actually turn students on to reading the book or the play.

There will be two versions of these online CliffsNotes, the long, five-minute ones you can watch on your laptop and the really, really short one-minute versions you can watch on your smart phone.

CBC Radio’s news magazine, ‘As It Happens’, did a great story on this on Monday. It’s worth a listen. Here’s a link: http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/ Go to Monday, February 7, and click on Part One. Move the slider to 24:40 into the program. Host Jeff Douglas includes his own one-minute version of ‘Moby Dick’.
(Thank you, Jerry.)

Keep up your writing habit…
Try this writing prompt from Poets & Writers Magazine:

Make a list of objects. One thing should be from your desk, one from your closet, one a body part, one a thing you covet that belongs to someone else, one enormous, one slippery, and at least one that makes an odd or evocative sound. Now, describe each using a simile. Do this twice for each one. Using as many of the similes as you can, write a poem with a title such as “Checklist to Survive a Nuclear Winter” or “Things That Have Nothing To Do With Grief.”

Word of the Day…
From Paul McFedries at Word Spy: landscraper.

n. An imposingly long building, particularly one that houses a commercial enterprise, such as a factory or hotel. Also: land-scraper.

Example Citations: To put up almost a mile of space-age, super-luxury grandstand, including a four-block, 11-story hotel, within 12 months—the “longest landscraper in the world”—and then to establish two different racing surfaces, one turf, one the artificial Tapeta, which won universal approval, is an amazing achievement. –Brough Scott, “Lloyd Webbers win Dubai millions,” The Sunday Times, March 29, 2010.

Earliest Citation: Another aspect of the towns we build today is the use of three types of building; the bungalow, the skyscraper and the landscraper (factory) spread out all over the landscape in loose function of suburb, downtown and industrial zone. City Magazine, January 1, 1986. (approx.)

Related words: Big hair house; farmscraper; Garage Mahal; megashed; starter castle.

A really, really super-short review …
Have you read Parallel Play by Tim Page (Anchor Books 2009) yet? Consider doing so.

Page is a professor of music and journalism at the University of Southern California and a music critic who received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1997. He also learned, at age 45, that he had Asperger’s syndrome. He’s written one other book—a biography about American novelist Dawn Powell.

In Parallel Play, a memoir of his boyhood—a rebellious one at that—he writes with unique clarity and refreshing frankness. Others have described his work as illuminating, intellectually stimulating and “well tuned.” Midway through the 191-page book he explains how he found guidance in a most unexpected place:

“…the book that helped pluck me into the human race was Emily Post’s Etiquette, which I had picked up in a moment of early-teen scorn, fully intending to mock what I was sure would be justification of bourgeois rules and regulations. Instead, Post explained the world to me. Etiquette offered clearly stated reasons for gallantry, gentility, and scrupulousness—reasons that I could understand, respect and implement. It suggested ways to inaugurate conversations without launching into a lecture, reminded me of the importance of listening as well as speaking, and convinced me that manners, properly understood, existed to make other people feel comfortable…My confusion and ferocity began to be disciplined into courtesy; I reveled in Post’s guidance and absorbed her lessons.”