Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays with Story
December 16, 2014

“Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head. The first key to writing is… to write, not to think!” – William Forrester in the movie Finding Forrester played by actor, Sean Connery

At Barnes & Noble . . .
1st & 3rd Notes 12-16-14
Ten of us gather round the tables at the Alicia-Ashman Library Tuesday night.
Kashmira read from Chapter 11 of her and Amit’s novel. Lisa liked one line in particular about a cat. Pat was a little disappointed there was no conclusion to the character walking in the rain. Lisa missed the satisfaction of the completion of that scene as well. Jerry and Lisa wondered about the motivation behind starting the chapter from a certain character’s POV. Judith asked for some specificity in one scene. Jerry wondered why a certain reveal had to wait till the end of the day and wants the other character to push for more info. Pat liked the letters and the dream sequence.
Lisa reads from Chapter twenty-five of Tebow’s Family Secret. Jerry had a question about the train two characters get on and wants one to suffer. Pat finds the writing is getting so much better, chapter by chapter – all thanks to TWS, we’re sure. Judith had a question about the redness of character’s lipstick and if it’s important. One of the few things Pat is struggling with is if a character cares about prices consciously or unconsciously. Andy had a couple questions about POV and asks for a cliffhanger at the end.
Mike shares a poem with the group. Judith asks how the poem itself relates back to the title of the piece, a mantra about honoring the divine self. Pat thought he had some great lines and only had a question about one line in particular, can’t versus will not. There’s also an overall theme of war and fighting, but no boo-boos. Lisa asks if the blue light means something and Mike explains it’s a pearl and the color of shiva’s skin.

Pat reads The Scar, a poem with the group. Millie thought it might have been about a lumpectomy, but it’s not about that. Lisa was confused about the hair being all gone enough to be buzzed all gone. So it was a lumpectomy, but it wasn’t cancer. Next Pat shares The Arts. Everybody liked this one a lot. Lisa identified with the piece. Mike wonders how you critique a poem, anyway. It’s tough to those of us who aren’t poets. We all liked it though.
Millie reads from Chapter Sixty of Life On Hold. Lisa thought the main character makes a bold statement about being an adult, but then has to turn around and ask for her birth certificate. Pat thought there should have been more resistance as well to show how resolute the character is about going forward. Jerry suggests the mom tell her she’s her only child. Judith recommended a better transition later in the chapter. Jerry questions the end of the chapter and wants her to take advantage of so many people telling the main character to read all the signs.
Judith reads the final chapter (epilogue?) of My Mother, Savior of Men. Millie liked the end and how it brought everything all together. Pat wondered what kind of crowd there was at the gallery in the previous chapter. Pat senses a very different young man at the end of the novella than from the beginning in the tone of the writing. Andy thought the end was a little too easy and convenient with a lot of solution and not a conflict. Jerry notes that after Mom shows up nothing bad happens, so something else bad needs to go wrong and give Charlie a chance to resolve some conflict. Jerry didn’t like the poem in the middle of the chapter.

* Need an editor for the January newsletter
* Anybody know why the Yahoo Groups page requires formal signing in so often after password has already been set???
* Please send in your writing submissions also as an email attachment

Who’s up next . . .
December 23: Second-and-fourth group . . . NO MEETING!

January 6: Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter 9, Coastie Girl), Andy Brown (chapter, The Last Library), Pat Edwards (poems), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Bob Kralapp (???), and Jerry Peterson (chapter 5, Rooster’s Story).

January 20: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Amber Boudreau (???), Mike Rickey (poems), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter 10, Coastie Girl), Millie Mader (chapter 60, Life on Hold), and Judith McNeil (???).

And we have a winner . . .
Second-and-fourth’s Kristin Oakley’s novel, Carpe Diem, Illinois, has been selected to receive one of four Chicago Writers Association’s 2014 Book of the Year awards. Congrats Kristin!

Quick tips about making book trailers
By Teacher-Librarian, Michelle Harclerode

• This is not a book report; it is an old fashion book talk.
• Get really big pictures. 640 by 480 at least
• Use advanced searches for images.
• Script writing and image searching go hand in hand.
• Get the narration right.
• Think end game – how am I going to share this?
• Youtube, Schooltube, my own web or wikisite, school news.

Great word . . .
From Wordsmith Anu Garg: juggernaut
PRONUNCIATION: (JUG-uhr-not)
MEANING: noun:
1. Anything requiring blind sacrifice.
2. A massive relentless force, person, institution, etc. that crushes everything in its path.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Hindi jagannath (one of the titles Krishna, a Hindu god, has), from Sanskrit jagannath, from jagat (world) + nath (lord). A procession of Jagannath takes place each year at Puri, India. Devotees pull a huge cart carrying the deity. Some have been accidentally crushed under the wheels (or are said to have thrown themselves under them). Earliest documented use: 1638.
USAGE:
“Amazon is a retailing juggernaut, but its revenues are still a fraction of those of Walmart, whose tills ring up about $900,000 a minute.”
– Big Companies’ Revenue and Profit; The Economist (London); Feb 8, 2014.

Writing in 2015 — Contests . . .
There’s a lot of overlap in the annual recommendations for writer’s New Year’s resolutions. Make more time to write. Try writing something new – outside your comfort zone. Read more. Read widely. Finish your writing projects. Writing contests can function as kick starters for such resolutions. Here’s a list of 17 no fee contests for 2015. http://www.writersviews.com/writing-contests.php (although ABNA rules have not been announced yet for 2015.)
Also, here’s a look back at a 2014 list; most contests are annual, so 2015 announcement and rules should be out soon. It’s a 7 page listing covering a wide variety of genre contests (about 140). The site has a sorting function so you can screen by genre (nonfiction, poetry, fiction, book) and by deadline, prizes and when a contest was added to the list. Good stuff for generating creative ideas. http://www.freelancewriting.com/creative-writing-contests.php
He said it . . .
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
– Desmond Tutu, clergyman (1931- )

Are you an e-book fan? . . .
YA author and blogger Nathan Bransford polls his fans each year about their like/dislike of e-books. Here’s his most recent posting:
Will you ever buy mostly e-books? The results!
It seems that one-fourth of the population just really, really likes paper books.
For the fourth consecutive year we are seeing a steady number of people willing to risk the displeasure of our future robot overlords by reveling in the pleasures of paper. In fact, there was even a slight up-tick in the number of people who say we can pry their paper books out of their cold dead hands (all caveats about different samples, non-scientific poll etc.):
2007: 49%
2008: 45%
2009: 37%
2010: 30%
2011: 25%
2012: 25%
2013: 25%
2014: 28%
And similarly, a slight reversal in the pro-e-book crowd:
2007: 7% (!)
2008: 11%
2009: 19%
2010: 32%
2011: 47%
2012: 47%
2013: 49%
2014: 44%
One thing that’s interesting to note is the extent to which this could be a device-driven trend. The first Kindle, of course, was released in 2007 and gathered steam shortly thereafter, and Apple introduced the iPad in 2010.
Since then we haven’t seen technological innovation when it comes to e-books, and publishers have mostly successfully resisted a decline in e-book prices that could have spurred further e-book adoption.
What do you think is behind these numbers? Are some people just really never going to make the switch? Or is there a technological/economic explanation?
See you next year. . .

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ’ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!”

– Clement Clarke Moore 1779 -1863
Last stanza of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

Did you know that the author of this famous poem, originally titled A Visit from St. Nicholas A Visit from St. Nicholas, was American? The British-sounding syntax of the poem is probably because Moore was an early American. He was born in New York in 1779. Legend has it that Mr. Moore wrote the poem on Christmas Even in 1822 during a sleigh ride while returning to Greenwich Village. The pot-bellied, Dutch driver with whiskers may have been the inspiration for his St. Nicholas character. Moore read the poem to his wife and six children the night he wrote it. A friend of the family submitted the poem anonymously to a newspaper the following year and the Sentinel published it. Its popularity took hold thereafter and up to the present day. Moore never copyrighted the work and only took credit for its authorship a decade after it was published.
Source: http://blackdog.net/holiday/christmas/twas.html