Meeting Minutes January 23, 2011

I'm typing up the meeting minutes while nestled beneath a blanket with a cup of tea trying to get warm. Currently it's about -17 Celcius and sunny. For those of our friends in the USA, -4 F. That's COLD! Our water bottles all froze! Sorry, inside joke.

We had a couple new members today, Thomas and Andrew. Hope you enjoyed the meeting, guys!
And two returning new members, CJ and Megan. Glad you came back.

Ron told us he sold a copy of the anthology to the Mayor of Shelburne, who is also his insurance agent. Kudos to Mayor Bill Hill for donating an extra $10 to the literacy fund for children.

Pat posted her "Why I Write?" from last meeting to Triond and will post it to the blog.

Marilyn told us that Gloria is doing final edits on the anthology A Walk in Fields of Gold before we get a second print done.

Judy is considering using a pseudonym for her book, but isn't sure she likes the name yet.

Clare read a piece called "Sound of Silence" about muzak and background sounds. He plans to edit it and use it as a Meanderings piece in the Banner.

Diane read a short story about Dinner at Angel's.

Pat told us that Gloria recommended a book for all of us to read called "Don't Murder Your Mystery" by Chris Roerden. Chris has been an editor for 40 years and offers 25 techniques to save your manuscript.
She also read an email from a gentleman in Pennsylvania, Doug, who has been in touch with her via our website. (The inside joke at the beginning was for him.)

We had a brief discussion about updating our website. Shirley has been looking after it and will be getting help soon to upgrade it and include new members as well as deleting people who are no longer members.

Marilyn read a short story that she will post to her personal blog about a deer leaping over a minivan. She also read a short piece called "Morning" that will appear as part of a "thing" not sure if it will be an article or short story.

Ashley has been rewriting the first chapter of her novel as per advice from members. It drew us all in and we can't wait to hear more.

Ron was "kicked out of school because his teacher didn't have anything else for me to do." He is currently going through his book and editing. He sent a copy of the anthology to his professor friend in England and is eagerly awaiting a response. He showed us two items he's had published. One about Sale and Peltier not getting the gold medal in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. The other published this past Wednesday about Baby Doc Duvallier returning to Haiti. He also read us a poem about war veterans which was very moving.

Caitlyn, CJ and Megan told us they all saw the tranformer and line blow out near the LCBO last night on Broadway that put part of Orangeville in darkness. We encouraged them all to write about it.

CJ mentioned that the Town of Orangeville Small Business Department is offering two courses. One on Business Writing and another on Business Blogging.

Judy read us the sequel to The Bank of Paper Bag and we learned more adventures of the bag and the Gold Dust Twins it accompanied to Florida.

The prompts this week were a lot of fun. Judy picked sentences out of several books and we ended up with 9 very interesting lines to work from. I, apparently, channelled Edgar Allen Poe for mine and will post it on my personal blog after I make a few tweaks.

Enjoy the prompts!

1) The black skid marks on the road told the story.

2) The forensic artist had sculpted layers of plasticine over the skull, fleshing it out, but it wasn't until she placed the eyes into the sockets, smoothing eyelids over top, that the man let out a cry of disbelief.

3) Helen lit a cigarette and put it into his mouth, her fingers lingering for a moment on his lips.

4) Before I begin, before I tell you how I came to be here, we have to go back to the beginning when I was alive.

5) A bunch of people I had never seen before filed into my room and began to sing.

6) The numbing reality set in: she was trapped on the family farm, married to a man who was afraid of his ill-tempered mother.

7) "I have never told you this," he said at length, "but I think if we are going to continue with this venture, you deserve an explanation."

8) She opened the shed door and something, or someone, dropped from the rafters knocking the flashlight out of her hand.

9) The old man removed a dusty volume from the third shelf and a section of the library wall slid open.


Our next meeting is February 6th and Richard is leading, if we can find him.
See you all then.
Happy writing!