Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
Week of April 8, 2014

April editor . . .

Andy Pfeiffer continues as the editor for Writers Mail this month. Next month, Lisa McDougal takes on the job.

Minutes from Tuesday . . .
Lisa McDougal read from Chapter 16 of Tebow Family Secret. Pat liked the racy sex scene. Jerry thought it felt a little summarized. Andy P. enjoyed the metaphors but felt that the sex scene came out of nowhere. Pat disagreed and thought what told us about the relationship of the characters was how they talked afterward. Andy B. expected a bigger reaction from one character and wanted an explanation for why there wasn’t one.

Andy Brown shared the beginning of his novel Man Before the Fall. Judith and others thought the language was really poetic. Andy P. liked the strong verbs used, but he wondered who the narrator was since it wasn’t very clear in the early pages. Lisa had a question about what kind of angel was introduced at the beginning if the story. Pat really liked it. The language was great; places where he didn’t use a power verb almost stand out. Jerry appreciated the fact that we were in another world and how Andy B. sprinkled in the rules for this world as he goes along.

John Schneller shared the beginning of the third novel in his series of books, Final Stronghold. Liam asks if paint is a breed or a color and if it should be capitalized or not. Pat thought the horse had all the best lines, but had a question about the wings. She thinks this version is much tighter. Jerry thinks this version is quite different from the first one. Lisa was confused by the names, only because they weren’t gender specific, but she thought it was very vibrant.

Judith McNeil reads from Chapter 12 of My Mother, Savior of Men. Jerry is looking for some specificity as to what kind of food what on the sofa cushion. Pat thought it was a great chapter for visual description. An in-depth description of freeze tag commences. Lisa feels bad for the main character.

-Thanks to Amber for the notes!

Who’s up next . . .
April 22: Kristin Oakley (short story), Holly Bonneckson-Jones (chapter from novel), Deb Kellerman (chapter 4, Crossing Guard), and Hanna Ruoho (???). Room for two more.

May 6: Amber Boudreau (chapter 4, Stone), Millie Mader (chapter 53, Life on Hold), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter 3, novel), Bob Kralapp (short story part 4, “Hole in the Wall”), Andy Pfeiffer (chapters, The Void), and Jerry Peterson (chapters, Rub Out).

May 20: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Andy Brown (chapters 3-4, Man Before the Fall), Cindi Dyke (chapters, North Road), Pat Edwards (???), John Schneller (chapter 2, Final Stronghold), and Judith McNeil (chapter 13, My Mother, Savior of Men).

Fifth Tuesday . . .
Yes, less than two weeks away . . . April 29 at Mystery To Me Bookstore.

First-and-third hosts our April 29 Fifth Tuesday gathering. We will gather at Mystery To Me Bookstore on Monroe Street. This is a potluck, so decide what you will bring for the food table.

Here’s the writing challenge: Coffee shop stories. Write a story, poem, essay or film scene in which a coffee shop is involved. The coffee shop may be the immediate scene or be nearby or be referred to in some way. You decide. Max length is 500 words

This is a competition. Entrance fee is $5, payable when you arrive at Mystery To Me. The winner receives a critique of the first 50 pages of her/his writing project plus dinner on the town with our judge.

IMPORTANT: Madison novelist Andrea Thalasinos was to have been our judge, but has had to pull out because of time constraints. Consequently, Sun Prairie YA writer and novelist Sean Patrick Little has stepped in. He teaches writing at Madison Media Institute.

Send your super fantastic mini-masterpieces to Jerry Peterson, jerrypetersonbooks@gmail.com , by Friday midnight, April 25. He will forward them to Little for judging.

Yahoo Site Issues . . .
Recently, several of our members have been experiencing difficulty uploading files to the appropriate section of our Yahoo Group and have been forced to do it in Conversations. For the purposes of organization, we are trying to find an answer to this problem.

If you are having trouble, try the following solutions:
1) Try downloading a different browser. Internet Explorer (Windows default) and Safari (Mac default) have some problems associated with them. Try downloading Firefox or Chrome instead.

If this method does not work, then chances are this is an issue with your computer. Run a malware scan (I recommend Malwarebytes Anti-Malware) and see if there might be an issue.

2) Clear your cookies and cache. These are data saved by your browser for faster browsing, and sometimes they are stored for lengthy periods of time and can become corrupted. This can make certain routine functions difficult, including uploading files. The Yahoo site stores cookies and cached files in your browser for faster viewing, and being a member for a long time will keep these files in place for a corruptible period.

To clear these…

…in Google Chrome:
a. Go to the menu button on the far right and click “Settings”
b. Go to the bottom of the screen and click “Show advanced options”
c. Under “Privacy” click “Clear Browsing Data…”
d. Set it to “the beginning of time”
e. Check the “Cookies and plug-in data” and “Cached images and files” boxes
f. Click “Clear Browsing Data” and wait for it to complete

…in Mozilla Firefox:
a. Click the “Firefox” button, go to the “History” menu and select “Clear Recent History”
b. Set “Time range to clear” to “Everything”
c. Tick the boxes for “Cookies” and “Cache”
d. Click “Clear now” and wait for it to complete

…in Internet Explorer:
a. Under the “Tools” icon (the gear), go to “Safety” and click “Delete Browsing History” b. Uncheck the “Preserve Favorites website data”
c. Check the first two boxes below the line, “Temporary Internet Files” and “Cookies”
d. Click “Delete” and wait for it to complete

…in Safari:
a. Choose Safari > Preferences and click Privacy
b. Click Details
c. Click “Remove All”

Experience with Jacquelyn Mitchard . . .
A good number of us, alums and current TWS writers alike, convened in Milton to meet with New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard for a special workshop. One of the biggest things there was an emphasis on structure of any written work, regarding cause and effect

Here are the notes from the event:

When we speak of events in a memoir, a piece of creative non-fiction or a novel, we mean events that have a direct effect on the character, either sooner or later. A MAJOR event produces a MINOR complication that leads to a MAJOR complication later, and so on until the moment of grace or recognition – the point of every story – and its denouement. The author knows at the outset if the character is or is not going to achieve the moment of grace.

The following is the plot of From Here to Eternity by James Jones, a great American tragedy the moral of which is to hold on to love and good times while you have them and try not to lose them because little in life lasts:

1. A strike by coal miners in Kentucky causes a man to lose his job. His son, Prewitt, is harmed even though one of these was not his fault (told in flashback).
2. As a result of the strike in event 1, the father goes to jail. Prewitt’s ailing mother has no help, and dies.
3. Without family, as a result of event 2, Prewitt leaves home (told in flashback).
4. As a result of event 3, he bums around until old enough to enlist in the Army.
5. As a result of event 4, he learns how to box and play the bugle at Fort Myers.
6. As a result of event 5, he falls for a society girl and gets a venereal disease.
7. As a result of event 6, he loses his service record and is banned from the Bugle Corps.
8. As a result of event 7, he re-enlists in the Army and asks for duty at Scholfield Barracks.
9. Also as a result of event 7, Prewitt becomes a prizefighter and runner-up in the welterweight division of his outfit.
10. As a result of event 9, he blinds a soldier named Dixie in a workout.
11. As a result of event 10, he gives up boxing.

This is the traditional rule in every novel: To Kill a Mockingbird begins with Jem’s broken arm and the arrival of Dill, completely outside of the main character’s control but which sets off a chain of events that will lead to the great lyric lesson: Even if good is not rewarded, it is necessary for us to fight for it.

A good exercise is to write ten (or eleven, but no more than that) events of your piece of work in order and be prepared to justify why they must be in that order. It may be good practice to do this for any work– what are the ten major events, and why must the book be structured in that way?

Great phrase . . .
Snow here in way south Wisconsin on Monday and Tuesday, strange! Well, there’s a phrase for that phenomenon says Word Spy Paul McFedries.

global weirding
Meaning: (noun) The worldwide increase in the rate and extent of extreme or unpredictable weather conditions.

Example citations:
“There’s a broad scientific consensus that climate change will bring us a wide variety of freakish weather in the years ahead. Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist, likes the term ‘global weirding’ to describe what’s happening and what’s coming. So do I. And what we’re experiencing right now is just an overture to the loud, raucous, percussion-heavy climate symphony that lies ahead for us.”
– Bob Keeler, The Earth is speaking, folks, and it’s angry, Newsday, November 12, 2012

“She explains that cold-weather conditions have prompted some confusion over the use of the phrase ‘global warming.’ In the U.S., where it is used more often, some advocates suggest replacing it with the term ‘global weirding.’
– Sarah Shearman, Lessons learned from a decade of climate change messaging, PR Week, February 21, 2014

Earliest citation:
“ ‘It could be colder, it could be drier, it could be wetter, it could be warmer,’ said Katy Moss Warner, the new president of the horticulture society. If you can’t exactly point to the climate changes as evidence of global warming, perhaps you can call it global weirding. “
– Anne Raver, Nature: Bananas in the Backyard, The New York Times, November 7, 2002