Tuesdays with Story

March 17, 2011
Writer’s Mail – Happy St Patrick’s Day! Who is your favorite Irish Writer?
by Carol Hornung

Quote of the Day. . .
“The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.” – George Bernard Shaw

Fifth Tuesday . . .
If you’re looking for that one last thing to tip you over the decision edge, to decide it for you that you have to be at this month’s Fifth Tuesday, here it is: John Galligan!

Published mystery writer – he’s got five books to his credit – and Madison College creative writing instructor John Galligan will share his list of “The Dirty Thirty”, thirty things we shouldn’t do in our manuscripts.

All right, so now email Jerry Peterson, with your reservation. Tell him you’re coming and whether you intend to bring a guest.

Also write your writing challenge story. 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. Be imaginative . . . take your character to lunch or explore a cave with him/her or have your character take you for a ride on the Black Mamba rollercoaster at Great America.

Deadline for getting your writing challenge story in is March 20. Email that to Jerry, too.

Fifth Tuesday, March 29 at Booked for Murder, 7 p.m.

Be sure to bring something for the feasting table

So it will be:
Great food
Great fun
Great fellowship

As always when we get together.

Tuesday night
Yea! – we have a guest. Kime joins us this evening and tells us she’s working on a fantasy novel right now.

Amber shares chapter 19 of her untitled YA novel. Kim wants to know how Zephyr shows he’s moody. She also wants the brothers to be a bit more suspicions of Moira meeting a man in the woods. Pat wondered how to show the magic in the woods. Clayton wonders what kind of magic Bucktown has if he’s able to fix a hole in his sleeve so quickly. Jerry suggests an arrow is nocked, not notched. Pat wanted to know why the character is fighting with a bow and arrow anyway.

Aaron shares Part 6 of his screenplay, “Hell Cage.” Kim wants to know if the eyes glowing with intensity refers to light. She’s also done some research into the word demon. Pat thought it read really fast and could hear some of the noises. Kim wanted to see one character go through a little more realization instead of jumping to a conclusion. Jen has a question about the demon, and Pat points out none of the characters are going to call it a demon – instead it’ll be referred to as that thing, or whatever it was.

Jen shares Chapter 6 of Hogoshiro Chronicles. Kim wanted to know what shock smelled like. Pat and others accepted that shock has some scent associated with it if the character smelling it is a fox, literally. A fox with two tails, no less. Jerry doesn’t think she needs the sound effects spelled out. Millie had a question about the text in italics. Pat lets us know the italics represent a telepathic conversation. Clayton wonders how a character can think their own thoughts but not reveal them telepathically. He also appreciates the consistent verb tense. Kime asks if the telepathy is like e-mail or more like a broadcast.

Clayton has no chapter to share with the group, but presents a synopsis. He has some questions about the direction of future chapters, including some procedural questions. How many lawmen would show up at the scene if someone called 911? Pat wonders if a character needs to die to motivate his main character to action. To her it seems trite if he dies from the fish attack. Aaron suggests that maybe the fish is poisonous and that the character in danger ends up in a coma instead of dead. Kim thinks one character would try to downplay the action while the kids want to tell the authorities exactly what happened.

Kim reads chapter 59 and 60 from her novel, The City of Summer. Pat says she’s a little confused about the rules of Kim’s world and some of the terms she uses. Jerry wants to know how many hands one character has if he picks up the kid and then several other items. Clayton wondered how the sun chases them south though it doesn’t move at all. Bottom line, Pat says, is that the character can only walk for an hour. Jerry didn’t think one character would really freak out so bad if water washed over her sand castle. Pat found the section to be a little melodramatic. Jerry doesn’t think it is okay for a sister to marry her brother. Neither does most of the table.

Jerry shares three chapters of his novel Thou Shalt Not Murder. Kim thought all the chapters were an easy read. Pat had one note on the first page; she didn’t like the verb, gazed, and suggested another verb might work better. Millie wondered if the widow is a shady character. Aaron asks if Jerry’s original title for this story was something to do with a watch, which was introduced in one of these chapters.

Who’s up next . . .
March 22: Andrea Kirchman (???), Kim Simmons (chapter, City of Winter), Holly Bonnicksen Jones (chapter, Coming Up for Air), Jack Frieburger (chapter, Path to Bray‘s Head), Jen Wilcher (???), Carol Hornung (chapter, Sapphire Lodge).

March 29: Fifth Tuesday at Booked for Murder.

April 5: Pat Edwards (poems), Aaron Boehm (screenplay/part 6, Hell Cage), Leah Wilbur (chapter 2, Narnia Noir), Clayton Gill (chapter 17, Fishing Derby), Randy Haselow (chapter, Hona and the Dragon), Millie Mader (chapter 25, Life on Hold), and Greg Spry (chapter 5, Beyond Cloud Nine) as the alternate.

April 12: Terry Hoffman (chapter, The Tome), Jack Frieburger (chapter, Path to Bray’s Head).

April 19: Pat Edwards (poems), Kime Heller-Neal (???), Judith McNeil (???), John Schneller (chapter, Final Stronghold), Kim Simmons (chapter 62, City of Summer), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 11, Thou Shalt Not Murder).

April 26: Randy Haselow (chapter, Hona and the Dragon).

From one of our fellow writers . . .

Alicia Connolly-Lohr has returned to the working world. She’s employed by the Veterans Benefits Administration in Milwaukee, rating disabilities.

“It’s really technical medical/legal, and I’m in training for months,” Alicia says.

She drives daily from Sun Prairie to the VA office near Brewers Stadium and back home. “The commute is not too bad – lots of iPod downloads – but it takes a toll. Not getting in any writing. I’m observing life for that future great American novel.”

From WordSpy:
hint fiction
n. An extremely short literary work, typically no more than twenty-five words, that hints at a longer, more complex story.

Example Citations:
Excited by the possibilities of the hint fiction form, the staff of “Any Other Word,” Penn State York’s online literary magazine, is running its own hint fiction contest now through the end of March 2011.

—”‘Any Other Word’ Hosts 2011 Hint Fiction Contest,” Penn State York, March 8, 2011
Students participated in two workshop sessions based upon their interests. Available workshops included music composition, multi-modal creations, hint-fiction writing, acting, advertising/marketing/ expressive color, digital photography, and musical emotions.
—Nicole Shaw, “CAL high school students participate in Humanities Day 2011,” The Cadet Gazette, February 23, 2011

Earliest Citation:
Me, I want to coin a term, so I’m going to do it here and now: those very, very, very, VERY short stories should be called Hint Fiction. Because that’s all the reader is ever given. Just a hint. Not a scene, or a setting, or even a character sketch. They are given a hint, nothing more, and are asked — nay, forced — to fill in the blanks.
—Robert Swartwood, “Hint Fiction: When Flash Fiction Becomes Just Too Flashy,” Flash Fiction Chronicles, April 20, 2009

A website you should check out . . . . . . Porn for book lovers. A photo blog collection of all the best bookshelf photos from around the world for people who love books and bookshelves.
http://slyoyster.com/book-club/2011/bookshelf-porn/

Last Words. . .
“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.” – Oscar Wilde