Meeting, February 23, 2020

Sonja reported that she sent a proposal to the library regarding a NaNoWriMo event and a writers feedback event. The library is reviewing the proposal and will get back to us.

Judy suggested running a Shakespeare Sonnet Workshop (1 hour). Virginia suggested having Brian Henry in to give a writing workshop. We agreed to wait until we hear back from the library before putting forth more proposals.

After our prompts (below), June mentioned something about an Ode to a Salad. Since there was still some time left in our meeting we all decided to write an Ode to a Salad.

Writing Prompts

The writing prompt was taken from Writer's Digest - a game of Mad Libs.

Fill in the following:

1. A name
2. Noun
3. Noun
4. A place
5. Verb
6. Adjective
7. Adjective
8. Body part
9. Adjective
10. Time of year
11. A verb ending in -ing
12. A consumer product
13. A formal occasion
14. Plural noun
15. A verb ending in -ing
16. Noun
17. Plural form of something you wear
18. A place
19. Noun
20. Noun
21. Verb
22. Noun
23. Noun

Now, insert the words in the story below where numerically indicated.

Call me _____1______. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little to no _____2_____ in my _____3______, and nothing particular to interest me in ______4______, I thought I would ________5______ around a little and see the _____6______ part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing ______7_______ about the ______8_______; whenever it is a ______9______, _____10______ in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily ______11________ before ________12________ warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every _______13_______ I meet; and especially whenever my ______14______ get such an upper hand of me, that it requires strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately _____15_____ into the _____16______, and methodically knocking people's _____17________ off - then, I account it high time to get to _____18________ as soon as I can. This is my substitute for ______19______ and ____20______. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword, I quietly ______21________ to the _____22_______. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or the other, cherish very nearly the same feelings toward the ________23________ with me.

Next Meeting

Sunday, March 8th, 1:30pm

Leader: Judy

May 27, 2018 HWG Meeting

Harry emailed the group regarding the following event:

Prompts for the day:

Horoscope Hullabalooza

Pick two signs from the choices below.

One of your characters will manifest only the positive characteristics of their sign and the other will only manifest the negative characteristics of their sign.

Pick a place/situation card and write a scene where the characters interact showing their given traits. 

OR

Pick one sign and have your characters be twins.

One will embody the positive traits and the other the negative.

Pick a place/situation card and write a scene where the characters interact showing their given traits. 

OR

Pick your own sign and write about whether you think the traits shown are valid or not to you personally. 

OR

Pick one or two signs and have your character “argue with the voices” in his/her head based on the traits of the sign(s). Choose an action card to decide what they are considering.

Click on the picture below to see it in its entirety. 

Place/Situation Cards

Baking Competition

Plane in a storm

Protest Rally

Charity auction

A meeting with the teacher

Robbing a bank

Attending a wedding

Family holiday gathering

A beauty contest

Baby Shower

Company Christmas Party

Cell mates in jail

Action Cards

Going on a romantic date

Going to another country

Going to school

Making a speech

Commiting a crime

Quitting a job

Members of the group are encouraged to share their writing prompt results here on this blog.

Next Meeting Sunday, June 10, 2018, 1:30pm

Nancy is Leading

2014 One Book One County - Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer

One Book One County 2014

The 2014 One Book title was revealed on Tuesday, February 25 at the Orangeville Public Library. This year's 'One' to read is Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer. Set in Washington D.C., Triggers is a science fiction political thriller about the nature of memory.

"Constantly gripping on the surface and seriously provocative deep down." —The Wall Street Journal

"A tense, race-against-the-clock adventure with a surprise ending." —Library Journal

Join us in reading the OBOC 2014 title and sharing the experience with others in Dufferin County. It's a gigantic book club without the meetings.

Events

Wednesday, April 9 - 7 p.m., Mill Street branch - Demystifying book editing with Adrienne Kerr, Robert J. Sawyer's editor. Please register with Orangeville, Grand Valley or Shelburne Public Library or BookLore.

Tuesday, May 13 - 7 p.m., OBOC Finale featuring Robert J. Sawyer - Centre Fellowship Church, 375 Hanson Blvd. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the Orangeville, Grand Valley or Shelburne Public Library or BookLore.

Robert J. Sawyer 

Robert J. Sawyer is a best selling Canadian author who has won every international science fiction award. He is one of only eight authors in history to win all three of the science-fiction field's highest honors for best novel of the year: the Hugo Award (which he won for HOMINIDS), the Nebula Award (which he won for THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT); and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (which he won for MINDSCAN).He is also the recipient of the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for mystery fiction. His novel FLASHFORWARD was the basis for the ABC TV series of the same name.

Robert was born in Ottawa and lives in Mississauga with his wife, poet Carolyn Clink.

For more information about Robert and his award-winning books, check out his web page: http://sfwriter.com/

The annual One Book One County program is presented by BookLore and the Grand Valley, Orangeville and Shelburne public libraries.

HWG Meeting Minutes August 25, 2013

It's late in the summer and many people are away. We had a small group of people attend the meeting but that's okay. Lots of information was shared.

Patricia connected with an Orangeville author via Facebook. She met J.L. (Janet) Morrison for tea and was given a copy of her Y.A. novel to read. It's a great read for teens and parents of teens. Patricia's review of the book can be found here: http://quazen.com/shopping/book-review-surviving-seventeen/.

Hopefully Janet will be able to join our group soon.

Marilyn shared a novel by her newest author, Lynn Albrecht. It looks like a fun story.

Both books are available at Amazon.

Patricia also reminded everyone about the annual Armchairs & Authors event as part of the Headwaters Arts Festival. Information was posted on a previous blog. Buy your tickets now as they sell out fast. The date is a Thursday this year, September 26th.

Richard Scarsbrook is returning to the Orangeville Library for a Creative Writing Roundtable Series. The goal is to give and receive encouragement and editorial feedback. The series takes place over three Monday evenings - September 9th, October 7th, November 4th - from 6:30-8:30pm at the Mill Street branch. Adults 18 years and older. No registration required. Light refreshments provided.

Also coming to the Orangeville Public Library is Orangeville author Graham McLeod (nom-de-plume Russ Graham) for an informal talk on how an 'unknown' gets published, marketing books, and his recipe for a really good mystery. This event takes place at the Mill Street branch on Tuesday, September 17th, 2013, from 1pm to 2pm. You can check out his website and books here: http://russgrahamnovel.com/.

And now for the writing prompts provided by Judy:

1. He was surprised to find that after twenty years apart, he still felt _______ for her.

2. On hearing the explosion, the people of Banion's Corners rushed out doors to see ________ spiraling down into John Carrigan's corn field.

3. She had followed her dream to Nashville, slept on the river bank, hounded agents offices, sang at open mic nights week after week all along the strip, until ___________

4. The plants along aunt Janet's back fence went through an unusual growth spurt that August, opening up huge bell shaped blossoms in reds and violets which oozed a sticky cream coloured substance.

5. She married Clarence in spite of her own secret misgivings and the upshot was ______________

6. Cassandra stared in amazement at the strange script appearing on the paper, which leapt from her printer.

7. Roy awoke in the basement of the _____________

8. When she opened her eyes, she saw a huge creature with shimmering gold wings hovering in the corner of her room at the ceiling.

9. The real estate agent was not there when she arrived at the address.


Next meeting is Sunday, September 8th. Diane is scheduled to lead.

HWG's NEW Facebook Fan Page

Hello everyone,

I would like to announce officially that the Headwaters Writers' Guild now has a fan page on Facebook.  I'm super excited about it as it will help our group to gain more exposure.  I'm still in the process on uploading more pictures and adding more info on it.

I invite you to "LIKE" our new fan page on Facebook and tell your friends and family about it.  Stay posted for upcoming events, pictures and get interactive with HWG.  I look forward to seeing you all there soon and supporting your local Headwaters Writers' Guild.  :-)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Headwaters-Writers-Guild/292262897457797