Meeting Minutes November 27, 2011

This was our last meeting for the year since the church (and all of us) will be busy with Christmas for the next month.
Our leader today was Nancy.
We also celebrated Ron's upcoming 80th birthday on Dec 10. We sang Happy Birthday and ate chocolate cake for such a momentous occasion!!!  Happy Birthday, Ron!

Business:

A reminder about the Christmas luncheon on Dec 11 at Noon at Kelsey's Restaurant.
Members will be responsible for paying for their own meals and we hope for a great turn out! Please contact Patricia if you haven't responded yet.

Marilyn asked about the Artist's Way group that had been discussed on Oct 16 & 30th. While the group did respond about where and when we meet, we have met each Friday since Nov 11 and will be closed to new members due to the nature of the discussions. In case you haven't read the book, the discussions are very personal and follow the exercises laid out by Julia Cameron. A certain degree of trust and discretion have already been established in those three weeks that would be disrupted by newcomers.  If there is demand, a new workshop may run in the spring.

Ron reminded us about the group he's been involved with Women Writing for a Change. He will send further information.

Diane announced an upcoming show put on by students at ODSS on Dec 15 and 16 at 7pm called "Deadline" about "budding writer, Alex Wilcox, as he struggles to meet an ultimatum set by his father to become published within three weeks." Tickets are available at the door at a cost of $8 per adult and $6 per senior/student.
Sounds like a great event to support an amazing school and fellow artists!

Readings:

Joe got a lot out of Marilyn's premise exercise from last meeting and wrote a premise for his book. He did a great job of it.

Marilyn wrote "The Art of Writing" which stated that "even if it only pleases you, it is good writing." She will post it to the blog for all of us.

Nancy read "Reflections from The Artist's Way" and asked "why do we compare our art with seasoned artists?" and "why can we always hear the negative, but put aside the positive."

Clare passed around pictures about an article he has coming out in the spring issue of Sideroads. The article is about Birds of Prey and he had some amazing photos of a bald eagle and falcon he had the opportunity to meet. There were also pictures of a tree in his yard that he had cut to a stump that was 5 feet tall. He plans to carve it and has already made a dent in it - so to speak.

Shirley is having hip surgery Nov 28th. We all wish her well and hope she has a speedy recovery.

Prompts:

Nancy's writing prompts for this week were plays on movie or book titles:

1) A Few Bad Men (A Few Good Men)
2) Alive Again (Dead Again)
3) The World According to _____________ (my mother, my sister, me, my husband, etc.)
4) It's a Crappy Life (It's a Wonderful Life)
5) Murder in the Writing Group (Murder in Hum Harbour by our own Jayne Self!)

OR let's start at the beginning when I took my first writing workshop with the late Ed Wildman (we base our format on his workshops that he learned from Natalie Goldberg):
1) What I don't remember is....
2) What I remember is....
or 3) The last thing I remember is....

Marilyn made up new titles and premises to books and movies.
Sonja wrote "Lord of the Fries", an interview with Ronald McDonald.
Danielle told us about "The World According to my Daughter."
Trina read the beginning of a good mystery called "The Potato Chip Girl."
Kelli used the prompts "What I remember is..."
Jayne wrote "It's hard to put into words what I don't remember because I can't remember." To which Patricia told us that'd she'd posted a message "How do you know you're not seeing it if you're not seeing it?" Anyone confused yet?
Judy wrote "Murder in the Writing Group."
Patricia did some personal writing based on her learnings in The Artist's Way and used the prompt "It's a Crappy Life."
Nancy wrote "In another life, I'd be queen of the whole world." She also read a poem by the late Janet Bellinger called "In Another Life."
I read my piece called "The World According to Brady" which is part of another novel called "The Bakery Lady."
Ron wrote "It's a Wonderful Crappy Life" and thanked us all for the cake and well wishes. He was very touched by it all.
Clare made a play on "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" and came up with "The Good, The Stupid and The Sexy." He also made us all laugh!
Joe didn't use any of the prompts, but made a commentary about the Internet.

As they say in showbiz, Th-th-th-that's all Folks! See you all in 2012!
We'll be back for our next meeting on January 8th, 2012.
Diane will be leading and will gladly hand over the reins to anyone else who would like to take meeting minutes for the next year!!!


Merry Christmas, everyone!


Diane

Meeting Minutes October 30, 2011

Due to a technical glitch, there are no photos from this year's Halloween meeting. Sorry folks. I can tell you that several of the members were dressed up, including Patricia's "Quarter Pounder" idea. Very cute!

Clare was our leader today and brought wonderful buttertarts from his wife Dorothy, whom we love and have made an honorary member of the group years ago! Kelli and Diane brought chocolate bars, too. Bring on the sugar!

Nancy reminded us of the upcoming Brian Henry workshop on Feb 25, 2012. The chosen topic is: "18 Ways to Write a Page Turner." Time and location TBA.

Nancy and Diane are organizing an Artist's Way workshop beginning in November. Participants can get in touch with either of us to register. There is no fees to join, simply find a copy of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and have a great notebook, you'll be doing lots of writing and soul searching. Nancy told us that she's done the workbook several times and has grown both as a writer and a person each time. Alberta took the course when she lived in Hawaii with Julia Cameron. She told us that it opens up your relationships as well as changing you creatively. Creativity is the focus, but it will enrich your entire life.

The new Anthologies are here, authors picked them up from Gloria after the meeting. If you still have a book or two to pick up, please contact Gloria. She also had copies of a book called "Limericks from the Animal Kingdom" written by I. Mary Hackney a friend of hers who died this summer. The cartoons were done by Carly Hatton, a 19 year old Autistic woman. The books sell for $12.95.

Ron has become a blogger for "Women Writing for A Change." After doing a couple of guest blogs, he is now a regular blogger with them and encouraged us to check them out. http://www.womenwriting.org/

We had a wonderful treat! Alberta brought the movie she's been working so hard on titled "So I'm Dying...Now What?" It featured a feisty woman named Margaret Hackman who died of metastic cancer in 2009. The video will be premiered in Guelph on Nov 5. It was a moving yet inspiring story and had us all teary eyed. To find out more, Alberta's website is http://www.spiritvalleypictures.com/

Readings:

Nancy read an article she'd written for her Brian Henry workshop.

Trina read about an adult getting a child-like view of the world, reminding us all to take time to play.

Ron read his blog article about Foodstock, the protest against the megaquarry. They had originally expected 20,000 people, but over 28,000 showed up. It featured 100 chefs from top local restaurants and looked like a giant cookout. There is another Foodstock planned for the spring if negotiations are not going well with the quarry.
When Ron was done, Marilyn asked if this was a political forum or a writers group.

Clare's next article for the Banner is called "Food for Thought." and will be about Foodstock as well as how we sustain ourselves with gardens. Instead of reading that, he read a page about his accident in 1979 when he was hit by a car and spent a lot of time in Sunnybrook Hospital. "Beware Nurse Boyle" is a very funny piece. My favourite line was: she gave me "a pill the size of a ten-pin bowling ball." He got a rousing round of applause.

The Prompt:

The prompt was a little labour intensive to explain, but once we all got into it, it made for some hilarious reading later!

Number 1: Clare gave us a list of twelve book titles to choose from. We were to choose one and write it along with our name at the top of the paper he'd given us. That part was easy. Sort of.
The titles:
1) Cat O'Nine Tales
2) Footprints in the Sand
3) Who Killed Old Man Horowitz?
4) Shakespeare's Secret
5) The Cappuccino Murders
6) The Archer's Revenge
7) The Scribbling Preacher Makes Her Mark
8) The Monk in the Attic
9) The Voyage of the Tipsy Virgin
10) A Hand-full of Hounds
11) The Time Ticker
12) Wood Chipper on the Loose

Number 2: The Rest of the Instructions

Write the first two killer hook lines to introduce the book title that you selected.
Pass the lined sheet to person on the right. On the sheet you receive, read the title and lines, leave a blank line then add two more lines of your own.
Pass the lined sheet to person on the right. Read ONLY the title and last two lines that were written. Leave a blank line then add two lines of your own. Pass the sheet to the person on your right.
Continue passing the sheets around the group, again reading ONLY the title and the last two lines written.
When the exercise is done, return the sheet to the person whose name is at the top.
Be prepared to read aloud what appears on your sheet.
For homework for the next meeting, write the first chapter of the book, incorporating as many of the suggestions from the sheet as possible.
Good Luck!!

So how did this all turn out? Well, here's mine. I've alternated colours to show when a different person wrote:

The Cappuccino Murders
Java Jo's had been the only coffee shop in Packham for ten years until Lori's Latte's opened directly across the street. Wednesday morning, Lori Archer failed to open her shop for a very good reason.
It's a true story and Joe Cappucano has written about his mafia family and it put his life in danger.
I thought it was old coffee on the floor as I walked into the cafe - but coffee isn't thick or red.
I slipped, leaving a gross streak of burnished blood across my backside.
And feeling ashamed, I didn't look up.
I could feel the eyes of dozens of people staring at me and the cafe grew silent, except for one gasp.
The spoon clattered on the floor and coffee - dripped - in a puddle on the floor. Call for help now, please.
What the hell do you think I am, Mabel, your servant? Well the least that you could do is clean up  the mess!
"Why should I?" s/he yelled. "I do everything around here. It's your turn. S/he turned and left the room.
He ignored her and returned to the coffee machine. He still had time to brew her up a pot of poisoned brew. That would teach the bitch!
When she asked for tea, the plot fizzled out. What next?
Murder plots ran through her head each night. There were cunning ways of disposing of the corpses.

That's my story and I guess I have to stick to it! It was certainly lots of fun reading all the results. Kelli and I laughed so hard we were crying! Nancy found a lesson in the whole exercise: Don't let other people write your story.

Our next meeting is November 13th, 2011. Marilyn will be leading.
November 27th, Nancy will lead.
December 11 will be our Christmas Luncheon.