Tuesdays with Story

Tuesdays with Story
November 25, 2019

The first word . . .

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.”

― Robert Cormier (1925-2000), author of YA novels

Tuesday evening at B&N Westside . . .

Hey, we had a long table to gather around for our last meeting of the year at B&N Westside. Five of our colleagues shared their works. Here is some of what was said:

— Huckleberry Rahr (synopsis and chapters 1-2, YA novel) . . .

— Kashmira Sheth and Amit Trivedi (chapters 14-15, untitled novel)

The two chapters are from a different point of view, but they fit well into the story.

Point of view from the older characters is interesting as it is different from Uma and Kedar. Also , contrast between the chapters is very effective.

Grammar and punctuation need to be corrected.

— Chris Zoern (chapter 4, Apostate)

The group reviewed chapter 4 of Apostate.  The primary concern was the looseness of the setting.  Many said the scenes were unclear in terms of spatial awareness, and needed to be worked on. Additionally, there were some concerns about grammatical errors, which I will try to fix in future chapters. Thanks, Chris.

— Larry Sommers (chapters 31-32, Freedom’s Purchase)

The main critique was that Anders’ opposition to slavery does not stand out as his main motive for enlisting, as distinct from lesser, more personal motives.  There were some snags in dialog and action in the scene with John’s body at the railroad station. Jerry thought Aanon had too much of a general’s or military historian’s view of the Battle of Shiloh; he also pointed out inaccuracies about Anders use of a seed drill as distinct from a corn planter for planting corn. And everyone agrees that Anders’ horses need more horsey names so they don’t get confused with other characters.  Thanks, everyone.

— Mike Austin (short story, “Lenny’s Moon” rewrite)

Once again, I got some great suggestions and observations from TWS. Among those were that perhaps I could let the reader know that John is the name of the narrator a little earlier. I also need to let the reader in a little more on their planning, that they’re not just blundering through. There was also the thought that the ending could be re-arranged so that it ends with John wondering about the woman at the bar. Everyone seemed to like the addition of Lars as a one of the main actors, not just a hired gun who comes and goes. But there also needs to be a little more backstory, or just hints, about Lars’ personal loss because of DJ. And then there’s the whole myth about freezing in space, in a vacuum. There needs to be matter to help the freezing process, or it won’t happen in that short of time. Which, when I think on it, makes sense. It made even more sense after I did a little research. It’s still a little hard to wrap my mind around it though. And I like my characters sitting and shivering and drinking hot coffee! Maybe they can just have coffee without shivering. Thanks to everyone! Mike

Who’s up next . . .

December 3

Huckleberry Rahr (chapters 3-4, Wolf Healer)

Larry Sommers (chapters, Freedom’s Purchase)

Jack Freiburger (poem)

John Schneller (chapter, Broken rewrite)

Bob Kralapp (chapter, Capacity)

Jerry Peterson (???)

Also next month . . .

December 3 and 17, we meet at the Alicia Ashman Branch Library in the High Point Shopping Center. For your GPS, the address is 733 North High Point Road. We will be in the large community room. And, yes, do bring Christmas cookies to share.

And more for December . . .

Jack Freiburger steps up as our editor for Writer’s Mail’s two December issues. If you have good news or stories about writing you’d like to share with the group, email it to Jack now for the next issue.

Author writes in Morse code

Madisonian Steven Salmon, a writer with Cerebral palsy, has brought out his fifth book, a memoir. He’s written each book the hard way—but only way for him—one letter at a time using Morse code.

Wisconsin Public Radio’s Wisconsin Life recently featured Salmon’s story, written by Salmon and read by Norman Gilliland. It starts this way: “I sit in my manual wheelchair in front of the computer swaying my head back and forth tapping Morse code. Every five seconds another letter appears on the computer screen. A clock hanging on the wall ticks away. Time keeps moving as letters turn into words, becoming sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters, and eventually novels.”

Because of CP, Salmon can’t use his hands to type, nor does dictation work because he can’t speak clearly. He first used a computer program that recognized when his eyes focused on a particular letter on the screen, then typed that letter for him. He now uses a computer program that translates his tapping into letters.

It’s a fascinating story. You can read it by clicking on this link: https://www.wisconsinlife.org/story/steven-salmon-the-tapping-author/

You also can learn more about Salmon and his books by going to his website, http://www.stevenbsalmon.com/

The last word . . .

“Writing is an extreme privilege but it’s also a gift. It’s a gift to yourself and it’s a gift of giving a story to someone.”

― Amy Tan (1952-), novelist