MINUTES OF MEETING - SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

Diane was leading on Sunday and asked me to take the notes.

I would have posted them yesterday but Microsoft wouldn't allow me to cut and paste and I wasn't going to re-type the minutes. I just love Microsoft. When I win the lottery, I'm going to buy an Apple computer.

Rosemary joined us for the first time. She has been writing for a while. She writes poetry and she’s working on a fantasy book for children. She heard about our writing group from Richard and he forgot to mention that she needed a pen and paper. Shame on you, Richard! Just kidding.

Welcome Rosmary.

When Clare introduced himself he told us that he found it comforting to write when he was away.


Judy read her poem, Forfeit– from her upcoming poetry book Fat and other F words. We all loved it. Kelli asked if Marilyn was crying and she said no she had something in her eye.

Kelli – wrote about her health problems and she may post it to her blog. It’s called A Blimp in the Scheme of Things (great title). After she read it, Judy and I were curious about the cause of having seizures. Kelli told us that stress could be a factor or it could be if epilepsy is in our family. Please see the link to Kelli’s Blog.

Harry continues to work on his adult book about the circus. He’s going to have illustrations. He sent his twenty stories out using http://www.querytracker.com/

Welcome back Clare. He was away for six weeks. He made a wise decision and he decided to sip beverages, enjoy snacks in cafes in France, and write. He wrote twenty-five vignettes and he read one of his vignettes. We all laughed. He felt that it was like having an extended artist date as recommended by Julia Cameron. Ron said, “Clare is now a ghost writer.” Clare said it was become the keyboard is different than ours. “I’m not a computer geek. If I can figure out how to send emails from Europe anybody can.”

Marilyn writes a column called, The Last Word. It’s about writing down goals. I asked her to post it on our blog. Thanks Marilyn for posting on our blog.

Ron talked to me about posting to the blog. Thanks Ron for the excellent post and yes I hope it becomes an addiction.

I didn’t mention it at the meeting – but it would be wonderful for volunteers to start posting on our blog.

Ron is taking a grammar course at The Learning Enterprise. Ashley recommended the book, Sin and Syntax – HOW TO CRAFT wickedly EFFECTIVE PROSE by Constance Hale. We congratulated him.

Ashely read from her Sci-Fi novel. It’s thought provoking and interesting. She read from her first chapter, a child asks, “What’s the sun.” It caught my attention. Harry asked, “You’re writing about the year 3,000, how do you build it for the reader?”
It provoked a lot of discussion.

Harry mentioned the he’d asked Linwood Barclay the secret to writing a novel. “Start writing and keep going until you finish.”

Diane is writing a new thing that doesn’t have a name. She read Chapter 1. Creepy, I tell you but I want to read more.
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Ashley asked authors the question, how did you plan your book? And she read their answers that follow:

“The first book I had mostly in my head before I started . . .except that once you start, it kind of takes on a life of its own and goes places you didn’t expect.

The second book I planned sort of chunk by chunk and the third I actually had each chapter planned and summarized. So . . . they’ve all been different.”
Holly, author of Bone Bender

“I didn’t plane it at all. Once I started writing the characters basically took over.”
M. Trotter

“First, I have an idea. After, I do some research on the subject, and the end, at the end. I write. I usually write after everything is clear: I know my characters, everything.”

My books began with the history. I weave the fiction through the fact and write the story in the spaces we don’t know about.”
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Personally, I think outline or NOT to outline—the choice is yours. What works best for you?

Clarke used the prompt Can you see me forty years from now? Clare read. “Fat Chance.” We roared with laughter.

Marilyn brought copies of Gloria's latest book - DREAM QUEST DICTIONARY, for us to purchase. I mentioned at the meeting that I am a dreamer and I only use two books and Gloria's book is one of them. It's an excellent book. Check out Gloria's website:

http://spiralpress.ca/www.spiralpress.ca/Welcome.html

We look forward to attending the book launch.

Diane brought the following prompts:

Can you see me?
Fall means a lot of things to different people.
The windshield wipers squeaked against the window of the abandoned car.
I looked for an excuse to leave the room.

Ashley mention to check out http://www.writing.com/


NEXT MEETING: October 17, 2010 – Judy is leading.