Meeting Minutes, May 1, 2011

We had a small group of 7 this week.

Clare shared some beautiful photos of birds of prey he took in Wales. He is writing an article to accompany some of these photos and will be submitting it to Sideroads Magazine. He pointed out the Orangeville connections.

Nancy read a small part from a short story she submitted to a short story contest.

Dorothy Papineau joined us for her second time and shared some poetry she had written.

Joe read a letter he wrote to the President of Hydro One complaining about a high bill he received, and responses he received from his original complaint.

Technical difficulties prevented us from viewing Marilyn's movie on Pat's laptop. We will view "Thicker Than Water" at a future meeting, or at the retreat. Instead Marilyn read an essay regarding email etiquette emphasizing that many people are still on dial-up and pictures and videos take forever to download. Marilyn's final words: "When all else fails, delete the suckers."

For prompts Marilyn brought her prompt jar and passed it around. We each took a prompt and were given 15-20 minutes to write. Everyone's writings were fun. The prompts picked were:

1. When you were little, you could swear there was a monster under your bed - but no one believed you. On the eve of your 30th birthday, you hear noises coming from under the bed once again. The monster is back and has an important message to deliver to you.

2. Write a story about two brothers who are competing for the affection of the same woman.

3. You head into the bathroom at work, walk into a stall and close the door. Moments later, as you leave the stall, you notice two people standing there and there's one major problem: They are of the opposite sex. On the spot, you make up an excuse as to why you are in the bathroom.

4. Your plane crashes on a deserted island. You and two other passengers survive. The only salvageable items from the plane are a pair of scissors, a stopwatch and an electric keyboard. Use these items creatively to get off the island.

5. You're late for work because you overslept, but your boss hates over-sleepers. He does love entertaining stories, so create the most outlandish excuse as to why you were late.

6. Your friend tells you he can pick up any girl at the bar, no matter what he says. You bet him $100 he can't. Create the world's worst pick-up line and send your friend off into the crowd. What happens?

7. The countdown clock for Christmas is ticking. Santa's elves begin working their magic on the assembly lines, but the line comes to a screeching halt when rumours leak that one elf is going to get let go that day.

Note: Some, if not all, prompts came from Writer's Digest.

The next meeting is Sunday, May 15th.