Writer’s Mail for April 17, 2010
by Jen Wilcher
A cozy cluster of us gathered Tuesday night, ducking the din of the elementary students participating in a Barnes & Noble fundraiser for their school. Good thing we didn’t have any particular steamy or cuss-filled pieces on the table! Though we did have discussions of galoshes and kumquats…
FIFTH TUESDAY! We have a date, we have a place: Tuesday May 31st, from 7-9pm at the Grumpy Troll in Mount Horeb. We are working on a challenge and a guest speaker, a writer from Mount Horeb. The Troll is lending us their upstairs area, and since they are a restaurant, it would probably be best to order munchies and drinks from them. Details arriving soon. The challenge is likely to be an on-the-spot writing exercise. Yes, kumquats and galoshes could be involved… again, details as we uncover them. We will also work out car pools for folks who need travel assistance. Details… you get the picture.
First on the roster, Terry Hoffman read a revamped section of The Tome. Kim Simmons liked it a lot better. But how does Doug connect Rachel’s trip to the library with the book? Jen Wilcher liked the conversation part, and thought the cancer research sections should be expanded; cut back a bit on saving the earth. Carol Hornung thought that maybe the loss of the child could work its way in there. Jack Freiburger pointed out the many triggers a library could have of memories and children. Start with a Save-the-Children ad on yahoo and she’s off. Jack felt there was a lot of extraneous detail about the librarian and the library doors, etc, but Kim wanted more description – she wanted to feel the atmosphere of the library a bit more.
Jack Freiburger read a scene from Path to Bray’s Head. Holly Bonnicksen-Jones felt there were a lot of good details and sentences, but she didn’t like the golden mane/lion metaphor. And, we realized, lionesses don’t have manes, so applying the mane to a female just didn’t quite set right. She also wondered if Sean might be less focused on her hair and more on her… physical attributes, as it were. Carol felt the words rollers (for waves) and rolled (a character action) were a bit too close together. The scene read well, and is building up to the end.
Carol Hornung just scrapped her reading and said “help!” The scenes are too sedate. Saffi just wanders around playing host and listening to everyone else talk. What can she do? The group dove into the challenge. She needs to shift from citizen to investigator. She probably needs to have a staff meeting to address all that’s going on. Observation skills can kick in. Some people might have some gossipy comments, others may go for the morbid – we could have a haunted room special! Will there be reporters? The Internet allows news to travel fast – some really whacko people could start showing up. There can also be interaction with people checking out of the lodge, too. Start putting observations together. She’s tired of not being able to answer questions, so she needs to find the answers herself. Onward!
Kim Simmons read a chapter from City in Winter. Kime Heller-Neal wanted to know how long it takes kitsune to heal. Jen wondered if Borr knew what kind of help Ryoko wanted him to give her people. Terry wondered why Ryoko didn’t lose form after she fainted. Jack thought there might be a better word for battle dress than “skirt.” Carol wanted a bit more motivation for Ryoko to hook up with Wolfe – maybe get some pheromones going there, make the physical attraction simply unresistable. Terry said drop the “bitch in heat” phrase. Besides, foxes are vixens, not bitches.
Who’s up next . . .
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 26th: Randy Haselow, (Hona and the Dragon), Holly Bonnicksen-Jones, (Coming Up For Air), Kime Heller-Neal (???), Jack Freiburger, (Path to Bray’s Head), Jen Wilcher, (???). Room for one more.
May 3: Chris Maxwell (???), Randy Haselow (chapter, Hona and the Dragon), Amber Boudreau (chapter 20, young adult novel), Aaron Boehm (screenplay/part 7, Hell Cage), Leah Wilbur (chapter 2, Narian Noir), and Clayton Gill (chapter 17, Fishing Derby).
May 10th:
Kim Simmons, (City in Winter), Jack Freiburger, (Path to Bray’s Head), Jen Wilcher, (???) Kime Heller-Neal (???) Room for two more.
BOOK REVIEW: THE LINCOLN LAWYER
Submitted by: Millie Mader
If you were intrigued by John Grisham’s first best seller, A Time To Kill, then Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer will seduce you from the start. It will immerse you in a smoking-hot tale of crime, lies, murder and courtroom drama.
Mickey Haller is a struggling defense attorney, barely solvent with two ex-wives, a young daughter, and a plodding business. He has passed fifty, and his clients are mainly hookers and drug dealers. His ads are plastered on the sides of buses and street benches, and he yearns for a day when he can purchase a glossy, back cover Yellow Page ad. Mickey’s “office” is in the back of a Lincoln Towne Car. Cell phones are his game.
From a spare room in her condo, Mickey’s second ex works as his receptionist. His own home is a small Hollywood Hills residence. The house is ageing and never renovated but with, as he describes it, “a million dollar view with a million and one mortgage.” In his study here, sits a hard wired phone with an unlisted number that few are privy to.
************************
“There is no client as scary as an innocent man” was a favorite adage of Mickey’s long deceased father. It is one his son learns is sometimes true.
When he is approached by the private attorney of a wealthy Beverly Hills family, Mickey stuffs any doubts as to why he is selected into a remote corner of his mind. He salivates over the possibility of a lucrative “franchise” case, and agrees to defend the spoiled family son in an assault and attempted rape charge.
From here the case hurtles forward, leading Mickey through a labyrinth of sin, slime and murder. He is sucked into a vortex of insidious situations, which begin to feed into one another. He is clever enough to navigate full circle–then murder stares him in the face.
Good does not fully conquer evil to his satisfaction; however his personal life begins on a new and kinder course. He still harbors feelings for wife number one—now a judge—and the mother of his daughter.
Mathew McConaughey portrays the middle-aged Mickey Haller on screen. It is with the same gusto and believability that he exhibited in the role of young lawyer Jake fifteen years ago in A Time To Kill.
Monday nights’ TV show, Castle, featured Michael Connelly in a guest role as one of Castle’s weekly group of murder mystery poker players.
Word-Spy
gamification
n. The use of game-related concepts in non-game websites and applications to encourage users to perform actions desired by the business.
—gamify v.
Example Citations:
Businesses, seeking novel ways to engage customers online, are turning to classic video game tactics such as awarding virtual “badges,” points and trophies to make their websites stickier and boost sales.
Dubbed gamification, the practice involves using game mechanics to get people to spend more time on certain products, be it a website or a piece of software. Driven by the surprise popularity of social games on Facebook and applications such as FourSquare, some businesses are experimenting with gamification to capture the attention of consumers.
—Alex Pham, “Businesses are using game mechanics online to rev up sales,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 2011
The latest wave started with virtual badges earned for checking in at various locations. It continued with applications on Facebook that reward you for sharing information about brands with your friends….
“I think 2011 very much will be the year of gamification,” said Gabe Zichermann, author of “Game-Based Marketing,” using the somewhat clunky moniker that has become an umbrella term for the new incentive programs.
—Casey Newton, “Online game-based marketing can be big business,” The San Francisco Chronicle, February 1, 2011
Earliest Citation:
An emerging concept called gamification may just be the jolt the loyalty space needs to shake off the cobwebs and become vital again.
gamification takes lessons from the gaming community and applies them to loyalty programs.
—Patricia Odell, “When Building Loyalty: Think Like a Gamer,” Chief Marketer, April 1, 2010
Notes:
Gamification also refers to the act of turning something into an actual video game, and that sense of the term is a few years older:
[T]his summer online game manufacturers are taking one step closer to simulated sin: They’re turning the keyboard into a sex toy. …
But the “gamification” of romance sends the wrong message to kids raised by video games.
—Andrew Hanelly, “‘Gamification’ of love has serious consequences,” The Mass Media, April 18, 2006
Related Words:
ad creep
advergame
exergaming
social networking
tribal marketing
Categories:
Marketing
Games
Internet
Posted on April 13, 2011
Permalink: http://www.wordspy.com/words/gamification.asp
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