Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays with Story
01-05-12

Quote of the Week
“If to love Story is to love excitement, then I ought to be the greatest lover of excitement alive.” — C.S. Lewis, On Stories

Tuesday at the B&N
14 people!

Rebecca shared the chapter “Treasure Hunting” from her Cheese Logue. Pat had a question about commas and quotes. Jerry wonders if the italic section should be set up the same way as the poem at the beginning of the chapter instead of as prose. Lisa and Jen liked the voice of the pirate. John says it’s the first pirate he’s heard of who wanted health insurance. Millie asks if Rebecca ever saw any fifty cent pieces at the cheese shop.

Liam shared chapter six of his novel. Judith liked the professional altercation that occurs. Liam wasn’t sure the student would report a slur so shortly after hearing it, but Millie was glad the student did. Clayton was surprised the principal would discipline a teacher in a student’s presence. Jerry agreed. Pat liked the way Liam slipped in the age of the character (centuries old) but in the next chapter he can’t talk to girls. Pat has to ask if there are really kids who don’t know who famous people in history were. Millie wondered why the girl is a senior at 11 years of age. Pat wondered about that, too. Pat also had a question about voice and pronouns. Amber covets Liam’s giant whiteboard!

Amber shared chapter one of her rewrite, Jerry thought this was much better than the first draft. Millie and Jen wondered if the first part could be in italics, since there was confusion regarding the fact that it was supposed to be a sort of cycle of events. Some mention of Alice in Wonderland. There was mention of a need for a break between the first and second part.

Lisa shared the second chapter from her novel. Pat thought the dialogue was good. Clayton likes the set-up of the mystery of what happened to the main character’s wife. Rebecca didn’t know the second character was the first’s brother-in-law. Amber wondered why the chapter didn’t start with the main character. Pat thought she could get rid of a lot of physical descriptions of characters. Clayton suggested limiting the “invisible narrator” as much as possible. Jerry has a problem with the brother-in-law encouraging the main character to date a student, which would be against the rules at almost any university.

Jerry shared chapters 20 and 21 of Thou Shalt Not Murder.
Pat wondered how they knew the secretary was a former Miss Kentucky? She also had a comment about the changing of a thoroughbred’s name after having been in a race. John asked what year it is that this takes place. Millie enjoyed the dialogue. John didn’t think a person would call themselves a horse farmer, but Jerry says that’s common in Kentucky. Clayton wanted to know how many people knew what a stagger wing was and wondered if deleting the flight plan was a big deal. Pat and Millie did not enjoy the hairpiece metaphor.

Who’s up next . . .
January 10: Second-and-fourth . . . Jennifer Hansen (2 chapters) . . . To get on the reading list, contact Carol at chornung88@aol.com

January 17: Jim Cue (short story), Judith McNeil (more of “The Waldorf Hysteria”), Kim Simmons (chapter 2, City of Autumn), Millie Mader (chapter 32, Life on Hold), Jennifer Hansen (???), and John Schneller (chapter, Final Stronghold).

January 24: Terry Hoffman (chapter, The Great Tome).

January 31: Fifth Tuesday at Booked for Murder

February 7: Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter 4, The Cheese Logue), Liam Wilbur (chapter 6, Scott & Rory), Lisa McDougal (chapter 3, Tebow Family Secret Recipe), Amber Boudreau (chapter 2 rewrite, Noble), Lisa McDougal (chapter 2, Tebow Secret Family Recipe), and Jerry Peterson (chapters 22-23, Thou Shalt Not Murder).

TWS Events . . .
Saturday’s post-Christmas party . . .

It’s one last chance to party before the snow and cold of January really gets here in inaugurate winter. It’s our third annual TWS psot-Christmas party, hosted by Jerry and Marge Peterson at their Victorian home in Janesville.

Showtime is 1 p.m., and, yes, it’s potluck . . . so bring your lucky pot filled with good food to share. Friends and spouses welcome. And do bring a game you’d like the group to play. Also email Jerry that you are coming. He and Marge want to be sure they have a camp chair for you.

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.
– Take the first Janesville exit.
– 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.
– Turn left at the light, onto Memorial.
– At the first stop sign, turn right onto Garfield Avenue. Proceed two blocks . . . the second block is verrrry long . . . to Glen Street.
– Turn right on Glen. Proceed one block. 920 will be on your left. Park on the street and come to the door.

The Clayton Gill carpool will meet at B&N Westside at 12:00 noon. Meet Clayton there if you want to ride with him . . . and send him an email at clytngll@yahoo.com so he knows you are coming.

Hey, hey, hey, Fifth Tuesday . . .
First-and-third group hosts January 31 at Booked for Murder.

Have you started your writing challenge story? Do it well and you could win a critique of the first 50 pages of your manuscript from UW script-writing instructor Chris DeSmet plus dinner on the town with Chris.

Here’s 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 . . . Twisted Hearts, Bleeding Hearts, Heart Burn, you get the idea. Length: 500 words max.

Yes, for this one there is an entry fee of $5, payable to Clayton Gill, our bag man.

Deadline for your story is January 27. Email it to Jerry Peterson, our story collector.

Alright, grab an idea and write!

A Word From Our Writers. . .
Word Enthusiast: Bustaurant
n. A restaurant set up in a converted bus. Also: bus-taurant.
Example Citations:
But when Mr. Schick and his business partner, Blake Tally, decided to open Le Truc, a San Francisco “bustaurant,” with a gourmet kitchen and dedicated seating area inside a converted school bus, the two quickly learned that the kitchens in food trucks are very different from their brick-and-mortar equivalents.
—Todd Lapin, “The Vehicle of Street Food Is Getting an Overhaul,” The New York Times, January 14, 2011
As the name implies, a bustaurant is not a truck but a bus, often a double-decker with the lower level for the kitchen and the upper level for customers to sit and eat.
—Rich Mintzer, “Beyond the Food Truck: Six Ideas for Mobile Food Businesses,” Entrepreneur, September 26, 2011
Earliest Citation:
That time — and place — is about an hour later in a “bustaurant”, a beautifully appointed mobile restaurant hired for the services of the star during the shoot.
—Mark Lawrence, “Super sleuth is, aah…a super bloke,” The Age, October 31, 1992
Related Words:
butt bus
eater-tainment
fast-casual
Greyhound therapy
groceraunt
Categories:
Companies
Food and Drink

Book Review
EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN
BY JANET EVANOVICH
Submitted By:
Millie Mader
This is number eighteen in a series about Stephanie Plum, an inept, bungling bounty hunter. Her assistant, Lulu, is a self- proclaimed “best ex ‘ho in Trenton.” Janet Evanovich writes with humor, and the stories are like a crazy quilt, woven in vivid color. The stitches are mismatched and wander in an errant pattern. Incredibly, they eventually meet—often by sheer luck.
Many of the same characters spring to life on the pages of each book. There is the ninety year old grandma, who has now joined a bowling league, LWB—ladies with balls. Her social life consists of visiting funeral services of acquaintances from “the burg.” She and her buddies are curious to view the deceased and the attendants, but mostly to sample the food and drinks.
Cousin Vinnie, who owns the bond office, is married to a lady with big time mob connections. Stephanie describes him as a “weasel.” In the previous book his building was torched. For a time the group officed in the RV of an ageing hippie, who made delicious pastries loaded with pot. Ultimately, this went up in flames too. Next came a rusty bus, which met the same fate. This novel finds them in a rat infested rental space.
There are two men in Stephanie’s love life. One is “movie star handsome” Italian Detective Morelli. The other is an ex Special Forces agent, suave and mysterious. He now owns a multi-million dollar security firm, has a fleet of vehicles and drives a Porsche. Stephanie describes him as “more of a jungle cat than a golden retriever.”
Stephanie’s mother and grandmother just want her married to one of these men. The mother hides a secret stash of whiskey in her cupboard to help her cope with many distressing scenarios.
Lulu, Stephanie’s assistant, carries a Glock in her handbag, and is always hungry for “Cluck-in-a Bucket” and/or “Tasty Pastry Bakery.” Stephanie tells us Lulu wears latex made for a woman two sizes smaller. Stephanie usually hides her Smith and Wesson in her cookie jar. They tool around Trenton, hoping to “capture” bail jumpers, mostly meeting with failure and disturbing foibles. Stephanie always loses her latest vehicle, either to robbers who own a chop shop or to flames.
This latest best seller involves the familiar characters plus an influx of new crazies. Stephanie comes close to death on several occasions. This time her jagged journey takes her from Honolulu back to Trenton. On the trip home, her seat partner inadvertently puts a picture in Stephanie’s tote bag. When they stop over at LAX, he doesn’t return. His body is later found in a dumpster. Thus begins a hunt for the picture, with Stephanie becoming a target. Her harrowing exploits–personal danger not-withstanding–will leave you laughing out loud. How Stephanie eventually captures the ring leader leads down many slippery slopes. The dialogue is always hilarious, as are the mental impressions Stephanie muses on.
The first book of this series, “One for the Money” is coming out as a movie this month, starring Katherine Heigel. Janet Evanovich has written other novels, most of a romantic nature, but all with the same dry and clever wit.

Newsletter editors . . .
Liam Wilbur is our editor for January. Please send all the good stuff you want in the newsletter to him.
Carol Hornung is our editor in February and Lisa McDougal in March.

The Last Word . . .
Real magic doesn’t have anything to do with dancing under a Solstice Moon; reciting old Latin spells or overly elaborate rituals. That’s all just optical illusions and sleight of hand.
For me, the magic is in words. I shape them; listen for the right rhythm at the right time and then something incredible happens. A story is woven out of thin air.
Have you ever read a story that touched you deep inside and had your mind overtaken by thoughts about it all day?
Did you ever think that maybe it was the writer’s own inner magic, and not just his/her ability to follow the rules of grammar and language?
— Liam Wilbur