Tuesdays with Story

Tuesdays with Story
01-10-12

Quote of the Week
“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” – Mark Twain

Tuesday at the B&N . . .
A cozy group of writers gathered at Barnes & Noble for a quick round of critiques.

First up, Jennifer Hanson reworked the first two chapters of Shadows of Yesterday. Katelin enjoyed meeting Paige as a young girl. Liked how the child was concerned about things on a completely different level in interpreting the adults around her. Andrea wanted a more specific setting – where does the story actually take place? Jen pointed out that there is more description and detail of the setting, but the name of a town and a specific area/region would be nice. Can be fiction. Andrea felt the description of Solomon and his uniform and Paige and the soggy cereal were good details but in the wrong places. Carol said there was a lot of detail that could be used later in the story. She also felt very close, emotionally, to Paige and wants to know what happens to her.

Carol Hornung read a scene from Sapphire Lodge. Andrea caught a completely boneheaded typo – it’s the Sapphire Lodge on the Aurora River, not the Aurora Lodge… Jen felt the writing was a little awkward when Saffi gets colors off her own emotions. Katelin liked the new characters, felt that they were very clear. Andrea liked the choice of Lloyd Braxton to be the father’s name. Suggestive of Lord Braxton. She was, however, concerned that Simone was a “working girl” because the silky red dress brought on that image. Make it a different color.

Readers for Tuesday, January 24, 2012: Room for more – contact Carol.

Who’s up next . . .
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 (???)
John Schneller (chapter, Final Stronghold).

January 24:
Terry Hoffman (chapter, The Great Tome)
Andrea Kirchman
Holly Bonnicksen-Jones (?)
To get on the reading list, contact Carol at chornung88@aol.com

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)
Jerry Peterson (chapters 22-23, Thou Shalt Not Murder).

TWS Events . . .
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. . .
Sadly, I have not had a whole lot of time to find anything really cool.

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 . . .
My apologies for getting this out so late; I’ve been doing the run-around that always occurs the week before classes actually start. Getting books, swapping classes, etc. College is fun. – Liam Wilbur