Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
April 19, 2012
By Pat Edwards

“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.” – Edgar Rice Burroughs

Notes from 4-17-12
Eight of us around the table tonight – 1 guest. Jaida, finishing her English degree, sits in with the group after having visited with 2nd and 4th.

Rebecca shares chapter 6 of The Cheese Logue. Lisa really enjoys the writing and admires her clarity. Pat wonders if there should be a break after a particular scene. Jen agrees it needs a better transition. Jerry didn’t follow the description of putting the money in the register. Greg thought this was the best integrated chapter so far. A couple of people were surprised at the age of one of the characters. Pat liked the juxtaposition of Rebecca not being afraid to wear a cheesehead in public, but terrified of reading in front of the group.

Lisa shares Chaper 2 of Follow the Yellow. Jerry had a question about the way something was written – it sounded as if one character placed a hat on her own head instead of another characters. Pat wondered why there was so much info about a new character. Rebecca thought it was strange someone bit their lip so hard it bled. Jen wonders how much ASL one character knows. Turns out, none, the character’s mother is translating. There’s some question and discussion about the level of mental ability of one character and all of the childlike characteristics she displays.

Pat shares her poem, Luna. First of all, I’m honored to have my name mentioned in a poem by Pat. Lisa admits the moon is her favorite heavenly body. Greg didn’t think it was Pat’s most poetic poem, but he likes the moon, too. There’s some question of measuring the moon with one’s thumb; Greg didn’t like it, Jaida liked the visual. Jen liked the last two lines, Lisa didn’t –that’s poetry folks.

Greg reads from both chapter’s 21 and 22 of Beyond Cloud Nine. Pat thought this chapter was a nice way to move ahead without throwing all of this data at us. She has a couple of questions about the future tech. Jen wondered if the communication between the mother and daughter was too direct; she wanted more body language. Rebecca wanted some reaction from the crowd after a speech is given. Jaida mentions there are a lot of references to eyes in the chapter. Greg has a question about viewpoint character for the group. In chapter 22, Jerry has a question about the character raising her arm quickly, though she’s suspended in gravgel. Pat asks about the consistency of the gel; she thought it was like heavy air. She also has a question about the flames consuming one character.

Jerry shares Chapter 3 of Thou Shalt Not Murder—Book 2 Rage. Pat thought it read very fast, though she still found it uncomfortable to read. Lisa thought there were a lot of names popping up; they’re hard to keep up with. Greg thought there was character overload also. Things picked up for a couple readers when we go back into the school up to the classroom.

UW Writers Institute Recap – from Greg Spry
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the annual 2012 UW Writers Institute, the University of Wisconsin’s three-day writing conference.

The Institute offered numerous concurrent educational sessions covering topics such as promoting your work online, book trailers, query letter writing, finding and working with agents, and more. Sessions with author and instructor John Vorhaus on publishing in the post-paper world and corporate creativity coach Brendan Sullivan on sparking your creativity were particularly inspiring. In addition, several published authors discussed how they got published while literary agents offered insight into the internal workings of the publishing industry.

I also had the opportunity to pitch my novel Beyond Cloud Nine to a couple of agents, who asked to see more. In preparation for these eight-minute meetings, I had to learn about loglines, pitches, author bios, synopses, and other aspects of writing and speaking about your work in order to sell it. Agents wanted to know key plotting concepts from the novel such as inciting incident, first plot point, midpoint shift/crisis, climax, and resolution (parts of the three-act structure) as well as themes and set-piece scenes (scenes that best convey what the book is about). If you’re unfamiliar with any of these terms, I strongly urge you to look them up online and learn them.

Furthermore, I paid for a half-hour session with a UW instructor, who read and critiqued the first ten pages of my manuscript. Ultimately, he convinced me to ditch the prologue along with the epilogue. While I believed that it framed the story within the larger Beyond book series, the prologue just isn’t necessary. The story really begins in chapter one, which possesses a stronger hook with more sci-fi “cool.”

The Institute’s one huge drawback (for me, at least) was the lack of attention to genre fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, etc.). Only one agent who accepts genre fiction attended the conference, and she tended to represent more urban fantasy. None of the agents represented what I would call “true” science fiction (hard science, space opera, cyberpunk, etc.). The conference showed definite bias toward literary fiction and non-fiction. So, as you can well imagine, this sci-fi author found a wee bit of disappointment in that.

But all in all, I view the Institute as a must-attend for any local author serious about being published. Read more from Greg at http://www.gregspry.com/blog.php

Top Ten Blogs for Writers
http://writetodone.com/2010/12/21/top-10-blogs-for-writers-2011-the-winners/
Here are some very interesting blogs for writers chosen by the members of WritetoDone.com. http://Writetodone.com
1. StoryFix http://storyfix.com/
2. Men with Pens http://menwithpens.ca/
3. Make a Living Writing. http://www.makealivingwriting.com/
4. Cats Eye Writer http://catseyewriter.com/
5. The Renegade Writer http://www.therenegadewriter.com/
6. Writer Unboxed http://writerunboxed.com/
7. Word Play http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/
8. The Creative Penn http://www.thecreativepenn.com/
9. Victoria Mixon http://victoriamixon.com/
10. Courage to Create http://ollinmorales.wordpress.com/

Who’s up next . . .
April 24: Holly Bonnicksen-Jones (chapter, Coming Up for Air), Carol Hornung (scene, Sapphire Lodge), Kat (???), Jack Freiburger (chapter, Jesus at the IHOP), and Terry Hoffman (chapter, The Great Tome).
May 1: Aaron Boehm (???), Greg Spry (chapter 23-25, Beyond Cloud Nine 9), Amber Boudreau (chapter 5 rewrite, Noble), Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter 6, The Cheese Logue), Millie Mader (chapter 34, Life on Hold), and Alicia Connolly-Lohr (???).
May 15: Greg Spry (chapter 26-28, Beyond Cloud Nine 9), Jaida Temperly (???), Millie Mader (chapter 35, Life on Hold), Pat Edwards (poems), Aaron Boehm (???), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 4, Rage)

Fifth Tuesday . . .
It’s a-comin’, it’s a-comin’, May 29. Got it on your calendar? Second-and-fourth group hosts. We will be at Terry and Jan Hoffman’s home south of Madison that evening. The writing challenge is not yet set.

Our Writers . . .
As with every organization that is alive and serving the purpose for which it was created, our TWS members come and go. Coming is Jaida Temperly, a writer of young adult fiction, to the first-and-third group.
Going is first-and-thirder Greg Spry. He departs in July for Florida Tech where he will be in graduate school, working on an advanced degree Space Systems. Tech is near the Kennedy Space Center. The group will critique the last 13 chapters of Greg’s sci-fi novel, “Beyond Cloud Nine”, before he heads south.

LitFest at Spring Green
This year it’s Suspense in Spring Green, the Spring Green LitFest’s look at crime, mystery, and thriller fiction. Dates are April 27-29.
If you’re looking for a great evening out, head over on the first day – Friday, April 27.

The evening starts at 4:00 with “Murder In The Park”, a community WhoDunIt at the Post House Garden. You’ll find clues at the downtown businesses. Solve the mystery and win a prize.
At 5:30, you can meet the featured authors at a community reception at Arcadia Bookstore.
At 7:00, the Minnesota Crime Wave will talk about the writer’s craft at the Gard Theater. The Crime Wave are New York Times bestseller William Kent Krueger and his colleagues, Ellen Hart and Carl Brookins. The event is free.
Saturday’s events cost $45 to take in. The Murder Mystery Dinner that evening is another $25.
Here’s the link to LitFest’s website: http://www.springgreenlitfest.org/