Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays with Story
April 25, 2015

He said it . . .

“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” – Philip Roth (1933-), novelist

Who’s up next . . .

April 28: Carol Hornung (scene, Ghost of Heffron College), Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter 12, Lookout), Karen Judd (chapter 1, Journey), Ruth Imhoff (part 8, Interrupted Conquest), and Jen Wilcher (chapter 3, Hogoshiro Chronicles).

May 5: Pat Edwards (???), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Cindi Dyke (chapter, North Road), Millie Mader (chapter 62, Life on Hold), Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapters 18-19, Coastie Girl), and Andy Brown (chapters, The Last Library).

May 12: Jim Salimes (chapter 1, Tones of Home).

May 19: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Amber Boudreau (chapter, Stone), Mo Bebow-Reinhard (???), Kashmira Sheth & Amit Trivedi (chapter, novel), Bob Kralapp (short story, part 2, “Flamingo”), and Jerry Peterson (chapters 5-8, Killing Ham).

Meeting Notes – 1st and 3rd TWS

Lisa read from a rewrite of Chapter One of Tebow Family Secret. Jerry had a question about the psychiatrist in the scene as did Pat who suggested softening the language a bit.

Mo wondered what they were talking about before the scene started and how she could put that in dialogue later. Pat was looking for some smells from the scene also. There’s a part in italics at the beginning that the group seemed to think should be told from first person. Kashmira suggested some actions to show the character is afraid. Cindi thought there might have been too much popping going on in the chapter.

Amber read from Chapter Three of Stone, her tentatively titled urban fantasy. Jerry had a question about the colors in the room. Kashmira was looking for more action in the middle of the chapter. Lisa missed the snarkiness of the first draft. Not sure anyone else does.

One of Mo’s published books has been picked up as required reading at a London university, and a publisher is interested in the piece she’s sharing with the group. Lisa was confused by the beginning—it says romance, but there was no sex. Pat wondered if this is all of the first chapter and it is not. The group thought the prologue could be rewritten and put on the back of the book. Bob thought it should be shown in the body of the story and not told in the prologue. Pat’s looking for some story and questioned a couple descriptions.

Bob read the first half of his short story, “Flamingo.” Lisa wanted some explanation up front of who the female characters are. A few of us had an issue with the use of hair color. Some of us missed the sighting of the flamingo, and Bob suggested the car is a red herring.

Kashmira read from her novel in verse. Judith loved it. Jerry had a question about capitalization of a word. Mo thought the novel in verse was neat and wanted to see each section build upon the one before it. Jerry asked if the book is to be illustrated. Kashmira might make the main character a little younger. Pat wanted more than just an age to describe the sister in the first line, but thought the novel was great. Cindi loved it and thought it pulled her in.

Our April editor . . .

Amit Trivedi is our Writers Mail editor for this month. Send your good stuff to him.

Migrating to Wiggio . . .

First-and-third group has joined our second-and-fourthers, using Wiggio’s TWS group to post chapters, poems, flash fiction, and essays for critiquing. Until everyone gets used to our Wiggio home, first-and-thirders also will post to our TWS Yahoo group.

Great words . . .

From Wordsmith Anu Garg:

Writing is hard work. Fortunately, that hard work is only mental now. It wasn’t always so. At one time writing meant chiseling on a piece of rock or dipping a quill into homemade ink and scribbling on a piece of parchment.

Each piece was unique. Archeologists haven’t discovered any ancient photocopy machine yet, so making a copy likely meant sharpening chisels again or finding another piece of parchment and mixing another pot of ink. No wonder books were precious and needed to be protected by any measure. Even with a book curse. [From Wikipedia: A book curse was the most widely employed and effective method of discouraging the thievery of manuscripts during the medieval period. The use of book curses dates back much further, to pre-Christian times, when the wrath of gods was invoked to protect books and scrolls.]

Imagine hopping into a time machine, going a few thousand years back in time, and telling people that you carry hundreds of books in your pocket. Who is going to believe you?
Books may change forms but their job remains the same: to be a depository of histories and stories, thoughts and ideas, to record anything a human mind can imagine. No matter what newfangled entertainment technology comes up, books are not going anywhere. Today we look at two words related to books.

colophon
PRONUNCIATION:
(KOL-uh-fon, -fuhn)

MEANING:
noun:
1. A note at the end of the book giving information about its production: font, paper, binding, printer, etc.
2. A publisher’s emblem, usually on the spine or the title page of the book.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin colophon, from Greek kolophon (summit, finishing touch). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kel- (to be prominent; hill), which also gave us colonel, colonnade, column, culminate, excel, and hill. Earliest documented use: 1628.

USAGE:
“Avon, one of the most resolutely down-market of the major paperback imprints, used an image of Shakespeare’s head as a colophon.”
– Louis Menand; Pulp’s Big Moment; The New Yorker; Jan 5, 2015.

recto
PRONUNCIATION:
(REK-toh)

MEANING:
noun: The front of a leaf, the side that is to be read first.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin recto folio (right-hand leaf), from rectus (right). Ultimately from the Indo-European reg- (to move in a straight line, lead, or rule) that is also the source of regent, regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, surge, arrogate, abrogate, regent, and supererogatory. Earliest documented use: 1789.

NOTES:
In languages that are written left-to-right, such as English, recto is the right-hand page. In languages written right-to-left, such as Arabic, recto is the left-hand page. The other side is called verso.

USAGE:
“The foot of the opening recto displays an unframed heraldic device: the royal arms of England.”
– The Opicius Poems; Renaissance Quarterly (New York); Sep 2002.

The last word . . .
“A book, once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a child is cut off from its parent. The book ‘means’ thereafter, perforce – both grammatically and actually – whatever meaning this or that reader gets out of it.” – James Branch Cabell (1879-1958) , novelist, essayist, critic