Tuesdays with Story

Tuesdays With Story
WRITER’S MAIL for December 24, 2011

Good Words from Way Back o’ the Head
“Just keep writing. Your perfect beginning is probably right ahead of you.” –Johanna Harness, “middle grade” and young adult novelist and blogger on the craft of writing. See for example, http://johannaharness.com/blog/2011/12/14/the-craft-of-writing-revision/. This quote comes from The Story Merchant at http://donmarquis.com/. Thanks again, Jerry!

December 20 Meeting: Five on a Ride
Meeting at Alicia Ashman Branch Library, five First-and-Thirders take the group for a spin around their stories. Our travelogue is courtesy of Amber Boudreau.

Greg Spry offers Chapter 16 of Beyond Cloud Nine. Getting straight to the action, John Schneller asks, Why are the doctor’s wrists crossed? From the text it isn’t clear that his hands are tied. Jerry Peterson suggests the removal of a speech tag. Pat Edwards wonders why the shuttle is analog, could it be digital instead? Millie Mader really worries for the main character, Brooke. John questions Brooke’s character: Is there anything else redeeming about her character besides her attractive/toughness? He’s looking for a sense of humor. Pat thinks Brooke’s reverence for flying attracts other characters. She finds Brooke’s flaws interesting.

Aaron Boehm shares some ideas for his new screenplay. Pat wonders, if instead of vampires in “Blood Feud,” the characters could be cannibals. She asks whether the big showdown would be too similar to the conclusion of “Hell Cage,” Aaron’s previous screenplay. Regarding another screenplay idea, “Exodus from Nazi Egypt,” a group member asks whether the scientist character is the protagonist or antagonist. Pat wonders whether the story would appeal to young people. John wonders if Aaron’s list of characters will include the major player, God. Lisa McDougal considers that “Thrice Bitten,” another screenplay idea, sounded better read out loud than it did in her head. Another idea, “Stealing From Yourself,” reminds the group of the unconscious reality world of Inception. Greg asks how Aaron would explain the science behind the alternate realities. Pat wonders how all of the characters become aware of each other.

Lisa McDougal brings Chapter 1 of Tebow Secret Family Recipe, a working title. Millie wonders whether the story about the alligator was a dream of one the characters because it has nothing to do with the main story. Pat thinks the alligator story could be a metaphor for other things that happen in the story. Jerry imagines the character would type the alligator story into a file on a computer but not publish it. John has a good point: The character’s amnesia needs to come up sooner rather than later.

Millie Mader reads from Chapter 31 of Life on Hold. Amber Boudreau wonders what, exactly, was “yucky” about the food court. Greg is looking for more conflict in the story line. To him, it seems there’s a lot of telling going on when there could be more action. He wonders why the guys “snarl” at each other. Pat agrees that there could be more emotional conflict. She suggests that Millie could include a lot of the information as dialogue, which would set the stage for debate and conflict. Aaron wonders whether Millie is preparing the main character to start questioning her relationship with her current beau.

John Schneller presents Chapter 10 of Final Stronghold. Millie asks what is “Nor.” John explains that this is the new name for his imaginary world, originally called Avatar. Greg asks about the point of the chapter and how it contributes to moving the story forward. Pat thinks the chapter is very well written but “a little heavy-handed” on the moral side. She wonders if John is using the animal characters as “some kind of plot device.”

Thanks for the reading recap, Amber!

Who’s Up Next?
January 3: Rebecca Rettenmund (Chapter 3, The Cheese Logue), Liam Wilbur (Chapter 6, Scott & Rory), Kim Simmons (?), Amber Boudreau (?), Lisa McDougal (Chapter 2, Tebow Secret Family Recipe), and Jerry Peterson (Chapter 20, Thou Shalt Not Murder). Note: First-and-Third returns to Barnes & Noble Westside.

January 10: To get on the reading list, contact Carol Hornung at chornung88@aol.com. This Second-and-Fourth meeting again takes place at Sundance, upstairs!

January 17: Jim Cue (short story), Judith McNeil (more of “The Waldorf Hysteria”), Aaron Boehm (?), Millie Mader (Chapter 32, Life on Hold), Jennifer Hansen (?), and John Schneller (chapter, Final Stronghold). Meeting at Barnes & Noble Westside.

January 24: Terry Hoffman (more of The Great Tome). To get on the reading list, contact Carol at chornung88@aol.com. Check again for location of this Second-and-Fourth meeting.

January 31: Fifth Tuesday at Booked for Murder. Note: See below.

February 7: To get on the reading list, contact Jerry Peterson.

Ooo, Yes! Brave Hearts at Fifth Tuesday. . .
First-and-Third group hosts our January 31 Fifth Tuesday at Booked for Murder, our independent mystery bookstore here in Madison (2701 University Ave., visit http://www.bookedformurder.com/.)

Put your heart and storytelling skills into our writing challenge for this event and you could win a free critique of the first 50 pages of your manuscript from UW script-writing instructor Chris DeSmet.

The challenge: Write a short-short story, poem, film scene, or essay with a two-word title. One of the words must be either “heart” or “hearts” as in . . . “Twisted Hearts,” “Bleeding Hearts,” “Heart Burn” . . . you get the idea. Length: 500 words max. Send your manuscript to Jerry Peterson at petersonjerry@att.net.

There is a $5 entry fee, payable to Clayton Gill, our bag man and enforcer, who can collect at First-and-Third meetings in January (Jan. 3 and Jan. 17) or first thing at Fifth Tuesday (Jan. 31). We’ll use the loot to fund dinner on the town for the winner and Chris where they can discuss her critique.

So grab an idea and write . . . write, write, rewrite . . . and polish, polish, polish . . . until your heart’s content . . . or at least until it aches.

January 7: TWS Post-Christmas Party . . .
Come on down to Janesville, to the Smith Peterson Christmas castle – Marge and Jerry Peterson’s Victorian house – for one last holiday blast on Saturday, January 7.

Friends and spouses welcome. Bring some great food for the feasting table and a game you’d like the group to play. Start time is 1:00 p.m.

Please send Jerry an email telling him and Marge that you are coming. They want to be sure they have a chair for you.

Now the driving directions: If you have a GPS, program in 920 Glen Street, Janesville.

If you don’t have an electronic navigator, jump on I-90 heading south, then . . .
1. Take the first Janesville exit.
2. At the bottom of the ramp, guide right onto Highway 26/Milton Avenue. Stay with that street. You’ll pass through the business district . . . it’s a couple miles long . . . then enter the Milton Avenue residential district. Once you see houses on either side of you, drive on to the first stop light. Memorial Drive is the cross street.
3. Turn left at the light, onto Memorial.
4. At the first stop sign, turn right onto Garfield Avenue. Proceed two blocks . . . the second block is verrrry long . . . to Glen Street.
5. Turn right on Glen. Proceed one block. 920 will be on your left. Park on the street and come to the door.

Do carpool if you can and save the environment. Let Clayton know if you can help with car-pooling or if you need a ride. For planning purposes, drive time from B&N Westside is 47.327 minutes.

Oh, yes: Shel Ellestad, TWS world traveler and raconteur will be with us.

An Evening with the Insect Literary Society
First-and-Thirder Pat Edwards brings this wriggle little cutie to our attention: Director Marilyn Zornado presents an evening with the Insect Literary Society in an animated film featuring poems (read by Mr. Spider, Mr. Dragonfly, Ms. Firefly, and Ms. Moth) from Inside the Rainbow Garden by Meme. Marie Meyers, a poet from Portland, Oregon, who passed away recently. See the film at: http://www.pw.org/content/insect_poetry_1.

For Pat’s work, visit http://poetiosity.com/ and keep in mind for this holiday season one of Pat’s favorite sayings from the poet Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Thanks Pat!

Writer’s Mail: Duty Roster
Many thanks to Liam Wilbur and Carol Hornung for getting Writer’s Mail off to a great start in 2012. As these TWS story tellers know, newsletter editing is great practice for writing.

January – Liam Wilbur leads us into the New Year!
February – Carol Hornung edits from the heart!
March – Get some mo’ better writin’ by editing Writer’s Mail.
April – Shower us with your unique perspective.
May – Spring springs forth in the editor in you.

Join up with an e-mail to Clayton.

TWS Alumni News
Remember First-and-Third’s Chris Maxwell? Said she in a note this week, “My big news is that I got married to Jack, whom I have been seeing for over a year, so it will be our first Christmas as a married couple.”

Chris now is with a Middleton writers group whose meeting schedule better meshes with her work schedule. However, she does plan to pop back in on first-and-third in the spring, to say howdy and catch up.

Thank Jerry for this news!

The Last Word: Onomatopoetic Way Back to the Greek
The word “lissotrichous”—pronounced li-SO-tri-kuhs—is an adjective meaning having straight or smooth hair.

However, as Anu Garg at A.Word.A.Day (http://wordsmith.org/awad/index.html) point out: “The origin of this word isn’t hairy at all. It’s pretty straightforward–the word is from Greek lissos (smooth) and thrix (hair). Some cousins of this word are cymotrichous (having wavy hair), trichotillomania (the compulsion to pull out one’s hair), and its end result atrichia (baldness).”

The wordsmith notes 1880 as the earliest document use of lissotrichous and offers this more recent example: “Madonna’s Blonde Ambition tour notwithstanding, women really aspire to be lissotrichous brunettes, since sleekness and shine–the season’s chief criteria–show much better on dark hair.” –Pamela Swanigan in “Blondness: It’s Probably Not the Real Thing,” Vancouver Sun (Canada), June 16, 2001.

With thanks to Jerry for this gem, best wishes for happy holidays for all Tuesdays With Story members and their families, and encouragement to keep on writing and sending some of it to your December Writer’s Mail editor.