Tuesdays with Story

Tuesdays with Story
March 28, 2021

The first word . . .

“Fiction is not life, It needs to reflect life if it is to be believable, but virtually all readers unconsciously seek out novels for an experience of human life that is admirable, amusing, hopeful, perseverant, positive, inspiring, and that ultimately makes us feel whole.”  ~ Donald Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel.

Tuesday evening on Zoom . . .  

— Amber Boudreau (Dragoneer 2, Chs. 6-8)

Amber did not read from the massive amount of pages she sent but jumped straight into comments. Jerry liked the witty banter between two characters at the start of chapter six. Jaime wondered if Moira might not offer Urion a ride on Zephyr if they have very far to go. Answer: Urion is a halfling and does quite well on his own. He can find his own dragon if he wants a ride. John brought up a good question about Zephyr’s scales being overlapping and how Moira might have found a toe-hold on his back. Bob and Amit were looking for more in at least a few spots. 

— Jack Freiburger (Poem: “Halloween Fire”)

I send in Halloween Fire, a found poem that I apparently wrote sometime in the past and filed in the  “to be forgotten” file.  It’s a slight effort but some found some value in it while I felt more like a reader than the author

— John Schneller (Precious Daughter,  Ch. 4-5)

Two major problems were identified. The confusion of who is Captain of what Guard will be solved by the lesser character becoming Lead Sentinel. The discussion of how much DinShaw knows or believes about the forces in the mountains is a major plot point in the next chapter. Should clear things up for the reader, less so for the Captain. Most tolerated my little Covid intrusion within the chapter for the attempted humor. It is good to have friends. Thanks to all.

— Jerry Peterson (Escape to the Conch Republic, Ch. 3-5)

There was agreement among John, Jack, and Larry that there was excess material in chapters 3 and 4 that should be cut, Jack even suggesting the two chapters should be combined. Larry wanted to know how DEA Agent Hampton just happened to have a fire marshal’s jacket in his car when he wants to investigate a suspicious house and garage fire without the local police and firefighters knowing he’s DEA.

— Mike Austin (The Bet, Ch. 2)

            The comments and the edit suggestions that I received for “The Bet” were encouraging and helpful. Larry pointed out that the flashback, or his life flashing before his eyes, became conscious thought instead of a sort of dream state when Joe’s relationship with Scott was mentioned. Good point. And where was Joe when his parent’s furnace asphyxiated them? Thanks everyone! 

— Bob Kralapp (Poem: “In Retrospect”)

The poem “In Retrospect” was well received. Jerry liked certain word choices as well as the line ending the poem. Larry focused his comments on the mystery of it and wondered about events that gave rise to things mentioned along the way. Several in the group commented on the frustrated or sublimated eroticism and the longing expressed. Thanks to all for the fine insights.

Who’s up next . . . 

On April 6, here’s who will be presenting:

Larry F. Sommers

Kashmira Sheth

Jaime Nelson Noven

Paul Wagner

Amit Trivedi

Amber Boudreau

Our editor . . .

Amit Trivedi will edit the March issues of Writer’s Mail.

The great language we have . . .(from Jerry)

Said Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The English language is the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.”

And it has. As a consequence, of the 2,700 languages in the world, ours has the richest vocabulary at a half million words in the Oxford English dictionary. The next language closest in volume of words is German at roughly 185,000. French comes in third at fewer than 100,000 words.

Because English is now the dominant language in the world—the language of trade, diplomacy, and science—when Stephen King writes a novel, it sells millions of copies here and multi-millions of copies around the world. In contrast, the most popular Dutch novelist writing in his or her native language, sells only a couple thousand copies.

Swedish thriller author Steig Larsson’s Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women) copped all kinds of attention and awards in Sweden when it came out in 2005 and sold modestly well . . . in Sweden. Outside of Sweden, it was a dud. That changed when the English translation was released in 2008. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo became an international bestseller, selling in excess of 30 million copies.

And then came the two sequels. And the movie.

The third and final novel in the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, sold 80 million copies in the five years after its release in English in 2010.

All this after Larsson died. He died in 2004 at the age of 50.

The last word . . . “If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing. I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think composition a great pain.” ~ Lord Byron