Tuesdays with Story

Tuesdays With Story Writers Mail, June 16, 2010
by Jen Wilcher

Tuesday Night at the Bookstore

Kim got an agent!

Kim – Pat wondered if the font size shift was intentional. Kim said she using the font to show thoughts fading in and out with distance. Pat K thought she could get rid of it. Clayton suggests that the publisher is going to want to set everything in the same typeface, and not mess around with size. Bill doesn’t think that holds true as long as the font is a fairly simple one. Jerry judges from the length of our conversation, there’s a problem there. A long discussion of magical power follows, is magic inborn, or can one learn magic? Shel wants to know if there’s a difference between humanness and humanity. Cathy had a favorite line! Jerry didn’t believe that Ryoko would turn to jelly when faced with the river because she can fly. Kim explains Ryoko has a phobia of water, but Pat didn’t understand why she would run toward it, if she did.

Jen – Wants to know if the scene where Biff almost attacks Walter is more dramatic. Pat K didn’t read the original, but he didn’t find anything humorous in it. Pat found the whole idea kind of funny, not ha ha ha, but funny weird. Bill got mixed up in the first paragraph between the father and son and who spent seventeen years where. Judith wondered if there was a reason she went into so much detail about what Peter and Walter were wearing, but she liked the flow of it. Greg didn’t find the descriptions earned. Bill thought it worked. Millie wondered about re-writes. Greg thought the story was interesting, humorous even.

Judith – Pat K asked for an explanation of ‘reverse racist.’ Clayton liked the set up, looking forward to more. Pat thought she did well with contentious issues associated with a road trip, regardless of race. Pat K sympathized with Marshall at the beginning and wondered if this was a contemporary story, which it is. Pat had a question about blocking and one character seeing the hat. Kim wanted to know where they were driving to. Clayton wondered if Marshall and Sam were going to end up in the front seat together some time.

Nicole – Kim really liked it, but she was still trying to figure out what it was about. Greg thought that was part of the experience, figuring out what it was about. Millie thought it was a prose poem, not so much a short story. Pat K thought some parts were better than others – parts he really liked and other parts that frustrated him. Kim thought it was okay because it was poetry, but both Pats disagree. Pat wants to know what the title of the poem meant because that was really the only part she says she didn’t get. Clayton was wondering about the ‘you’ and the ‘him’ in the second stanza, but that worked for Pat. Jerry had a question about the italics. Kim got it, but Jerry didn’t. Neither did Pat K. A discussion about sloughed-off blood follows.

Millie – Judith thought she captured the period well. Pat thought the character uses a couple words a good Catholic girl wouldn’t use in the time period. Even if she only thinks it, Jerry found it out of character as well. Nicole thought she comes across almost too sweet. Bill suggests the author think of it in terms of who their readers are. Jerry had a problem with the key – Erin takes the one key off, but Jerry thinks she needs to take the whole set of keys. Some people in the group know a little too much about keying cars, uh-hum. Kim wondered if other people in the restaurant would notice what was going on. (more…)

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