Sunday, February 20, 2011

Meeting Minutes February 20, 2011

Wow, big group today. That and with other activities going on in the church, we ran out of chairs! First time ever! Oh, that and Gloria forgot her name(tag).

Kudos to Caitlyn for stepping in to fill Harry's shoes and take over his role as leader today and for the rest of the year. She did a great job keeping us all in line and the meeting humming along.

Ashley mentioned a group she has checked out and is becoming a part of called Me to We. It is an international group started in Canada, which sends aid to other countries. She thought it would be a great group for Richard and his daughter Eryn to check out to get an oxygen machine to the hospital she helped out in over in Africa. Me to We has a Facebook page which earns them $1 for every person who clicks "Like."

Anthology Update. Gloria is working on corrections and will have one more proof made up before the next printing. She will let us know via email when it is ready.

We had two new members today: Joe, a friend of Ruth's who writes about the Navy, and Dorothy, who lives at the Ecology Retreat and is a poet. We also welcomed back Judy M. who can only make it occasionally when her horses and the weather don't hamper her visits to the HWG!

Ruth announced that if anyone wanted to buy a copy of her book Mystical Verses directly from her, that she would give members of the guild a discount. You can also find her book at Artisan Store in Guelph and BookLore in Orangeville for $14.

Ashley treated us to a song she'd written after attending the Me to We meeting. The song was called Caged Bird and she also played guitar. One of the best lines commented on was "the cage was open, but you stayed." Pat was reminded of her dad, Mr. Bird, who passed away 5 years ago.

Jenn said Ashley's performance was a hard act to follow, but read from a journal entry about "experiencing life's eccentric journeys" and how it has brought her to us. Please check out Jenn's blog to read the entire article. Jenn, the warm fuzzy feelings are mutual. We are blessed to have you in our lives as well.

Ruth, as a membership co-ordinator for a group that dealt with the rules and regulations of self-publishing in Canada, got letters from all over the world and struck up a friendship with a man from Egypt. He works in downtown Cairo who sent a petition to her to support the uprising. When she told him she had lots of people sign it, he commented on how "courageous" Canadians are for signing it. She did some research and discovered there are only 4 publishers in all of Egypt. As a consequence of knowing this man and reading his emails and letters, she wrote an article about  choices and how "life is a game of truth and consequences."

Ruth's article led to a discussion of freedom in the Middle East. Joe wondered "what is happening in the villages as opposed to the major cities?" We don't hear about the whole of Egypt, mostly Cairo. Dorothy gave her views as a tourist who visited Egypt in the 1980s. Nancy talked about women in Egypt, how they are fighting back against the sexual attacks and protesting side by side with the men.

Marilyn, on her turn to read, announced, "And now for something completely different." She read us her script that won Second Prize (!!!) in the Screen Writing Challenge. The theme was "Everything but Love" and involved a breakdown in communications. She and her partner had 4 days to prepare a 6 minute script they titled "The Heart of the Matter." One of my favourite lines from her scripte was: "Not only are we not on the same page, we're not even in the same library."
She has also had a movie accepted for show in "Local Focus" in Kitchener and was proud to announce that she finally posted her "Why I Write" prompt on the blog! Way to go, Marilyn!

Diane (that would be me) read a short piece from her story that won Wynterblue Publishing's Murder in Ink contest this month.

Prompts: Caitlyn had an interesting prompt for this meeting. We chose two pieces of paper, one from each of two bags. One was a question, one was a word we had to use in the piece we wrote.

So, your mission, should you choose to accept, is to take one of the questions I'll wrote below and one of the words below them and write for 10 minutes. Or 15 minutes. Or until your pen runs dry or explodes from the force.

Questions:
1) Are those your muffins?
2) What do you do when you're caught between a rock and a hard place?
3) Where's the corn on the cob?
4) Are we there yet?
5) Did you walk the dog?
6) How could he say that?
7) What did you do with the good plates?
8) What did the rancher say?
9) How come cat's butts go up when you pet them?
10) Why do I keep making the same mistakes?
11) Do dentists go to other dentists or do they just do it themselves?
12) What am I doing here?
13) Who is in charge?
14) Can a short person talk down to a taller person?
15) Is there an exception to the rule?
16) Who is in charge?
17) At a movie theatre, which armrest is yours?
18) Do butterflies remember life as a caterpiller?
19) How far can you fly east before you're heading west?

Words:
1) pudding (that one was for Richard, Caitlyn said.)
2) computer
3) moustache
4) disaster
5) egg
6) clock
7) lather
8) essential
9) razor
10) behind
11) repulsive
12) diamond
13) Navy
14) corner
15) radio
16) pavement
17) mist
18) tomato
19) manipulative

Our next meeting is March 6 and Jayne will be leading.
Happy Writing!

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