Tuesdays with Story

Tuesdays with Story Newsletter
Third Week of March

Notes 3-19-13
Nine of us gathered Tuesday for the first time in 4four weeks since no weather could stop us!

Lisa starts us off with the beginning of Chapter ten of her novel, Follow the Yellow. Jerry tells us she can take out all the foul language. Jen disagrees; it should stay if it’s part of a person’s character But Jerry wonders, why offend your readers? Pat suggests a salty character isn’t bad to have and enjoyed the two chapters, saying they read fast and the dialogue was good. Rebecca thought the protagonist’s actions were out of character when he got in a hot tub naked. Jerry wants to know where the beer comes from in a scene on the phone. Pat enjoys the asides.

Millie shares chapter forty-two of Life on Hold, telling us she received a scathing review from Andy, who explained that he has missed a lot of the story and did not mean to offend. Lisa and Rebecca don’t understand why it’s strange for one character to show up at the end of the chapter. Andy suggests Millie elaborate. Jen had a question about characters popping up out of nowhere. Millie tells Aaron she tried not to have too many telephone calls back and forth.

Rebecca shares Chapter eighteen of her Cheese Logue. Amber likes the limerick. Lisa liked the chapter a lot, she had a hard time connecting some parts, but she really liked it. Pat enjoyed the stream of consciousness and back and forth. As long as each section stands on its own, it works for her. Lisa forgot who a character was when he appeared at the beginning of the chapter.

Amber shares Chapter nine of her YA novel. Pat had to look up a word! Gazeteer. Note to Amber, look up St. Martha (And St. George.) Andy wonders why Zephyr only hisses when he says yes. Jen wonders if Zephyr should have “claws” instead of “hands”.

Aaron shares another part of Whole Again. Pat wonders why one character didn’t die, but they did, she just missed a line. Lisa thinks he does a great job of getting across a lot with very few words. Pat wonders if the two characters jumping into bed again happened too fast or not. Andy found the sex scene very unsettling. Aaron says ‘good.’ The director would decide how to show a flashback.

Jerry reads from The Last Good Man. Some of us wonder where the door to the porch is because everything comes out through the window. Amber had a question about the rating system for the girls.

Who’s up next . . .
March 26: Carol Hornung (scene, Ghost of Heffron College), Jen Wilcher (Work Drama, re-write), David Mayer (chapter 4, Time Traveler’s Guide), and Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter, The Cheese Logue). Room for 1 or 2 more.

April 2: Amber Boudreau (chapter, Noble), Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter, The Cheese Logue), Michelle Nightoak (chapter, memoir), Andy Pfeiffer (???), Clayton Gill (chapter, Fishing Derby), and Alicia Connolly Lohr (chapters 3-4, Lincoln’s Other War).

April 9: Bill Eisinger (short story), Terry Hoffman (The Great Tome), Jack (Jesus at the IHOP), and Andy Pfeiffer (alternate chapter 1, People). Room for 3 more

April 16: Lisa McDougal (chapter 12, Follow the Yellow), Amber Boudreau (chapter, Noble), Millie Mader (chapter 43, Life on Hold), Pat Edwards (???), Andy Pfeiffer (???), and Aaron Boehm (film script/part 5, “Whole Again”)

Great words . . .
Courtesy of Wordsmith Anu Garg:
Most of us stub our toes or run into a glass door from time to time, though some of us are more prone to this than others. The same works with language. We make errors. Sometimes these are funny. I have three words for you to describe such errors. Even though these errors are called slips of the tongue, slips of the brain may be more appropriate. The tongue only does what the brain asks it to do.

spoonerism
PRONUNCIATION: (SPOO-nuh-riz-em)
MEANING: noun: The transposition of (usually) the initial sounds of words producing a humorous result. For example:
“It is now kisstomary to cuss the bride.” (Spooner while officiating at a wedding)
“Is the bean dizzy?” (Spooner questioning the secretary of his dean)
ETYMOLOGY: After William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), clergyman and educator, who was prone to this. Earliest documented use: 1900.
USAGE: “”As for her own red-faced moment on air, Hudson recalled how she coined a somewhat racy spoonerism in a reference to Killorglin’s Puck Fair.”
Seán McCárthaigh; AA Roadwatch Broadcasters Celebrate 21 Years; Irish Examiner (Cork, Ireland); Aug 31, 2010.

malapropism
PRONUNCIATION: (MAL-uh-prop-iz-ehm)
MEANING: noun: The humorous misuse of a word by confusing it with a similar-sounding word.
For example, “pineapple of perfection” for “pinnacle of perfection”.
ETYMOLOGY: After Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan’s play, The Rivals (1775), who confused words in this manner. Earliest documented use: 1830.
USAGE: “Mayor Thomas Menino is sometimes made fun of for his malapropisms; he once said the city’s parking shortage was ‘an Alcatraz* around my neck’.”
Katharine Q. Seelye; Ailing Mayor of Boston Says He’s Still Up to the Job; The New York Times; Dec 17, 2012.
*albatross

Freudian slip
PRONUNCIATION: (FROI-dee-uhn slip)
MEANING: noun: An error that reveals someone’s subconscious mind.
For example, “I wish you were her” instead of “I wish you were here.”
ETYMOLOGY: After Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, who proposed the idea that errors in speech, writing, etc. reveal what is in one’s subconscious mind. Earliest documented use: 1959.
USAGE: “The Freudian slip is invoked to explain some strange and embarrassing behavior. ‘Nice to beat you,’ smiles a woman when she meets the ex-girlfriend of her husband.”
Jena Pincott; Terrorized by the Tongue; Psychology Today (New York); Mar/Apr 2012.

The wisdom in slowing down, man . . .
From YA author and blogger Nathan Bransford . . . There is a lot to love about the time we live in.

We’re more connected to each other than ever. We can be more productive. We can do more with less time. We very often take it for granted.

I remember when my parents had to sit down once a month to “do the bills,” which meant spending an entire night writing checks, balancing accounts, licking envelopes, and driving to the post office the next day.

Now, I write precisely one check a month and it’s to my landlord, and in fact, it’s one of the few times a month I write anything by hand. There are few bills I don’t pay automatically, and it’s easy to manage things online.

I remember phone chains where people scheduled events and spread the word about changes in meeting times by going down a list and calling people one by one. I remember how precarious it could be to meet someone when they could have an unexpected delay and had no way of letting you know. I remember how I sometimes didn’t know baseball scores for two days because the games ended too late to be printed in the next morning’s newspaper.

And I’m only 32!
Read the entire post at http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2013/03/finding-calmness-in-age-of-distraction.html

The last word . . .
“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.” – Linus Pauling, chemist, peace activist, author, educator; Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Peace Prize (1901-1994)