January 24, 2010 Meeting

We had an interesting meeting today. We were glad to see Alex back with the group. We've missed him while he's been in French River and beyond for the past several months.

The meeting started off with a few limericks courtesy of Pat, Clare and Judy, who led our meeting today.

I finally sat down to write
Much to my muse's delight
But I wrote silly stuff
Twas not nearly enough
To cure my writer's block plight.
Pat

And a couple from Judy:

There once was a poet named Harry
Whose talent was extraordinary
His words flowed like milk
from a tongue made of silk
And soothe the bile of the contrary

There once was a woman named Nancy
When she could't write she got antsy
So she talked to God
and he did the job
And she won the accolades fancy

Okay, on with the show! I'll post some more limericks later.
Harry read us a piece he is working on with a fellow poet. They will present it in support of a new art centre in Collingwood - date to be announced.

Nancy's article from the Globe and Mail called I Love to Drop the F-bomb has placed 6th in the Globe and Mail's most popular facts and arguments article of 2009. If you haven't read it, you can find it at www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/i-love-to-drop-the-f-bomb/article1262227/ Nancy also reminded us that it is a gift to be able to read your work aloud to others and feel like a REAL writer.

Jayne showed us an article she had published in The Presbyterian Record this month. It is called Ghana: Boogie to the Front and is about her trek to Ghana last year. It is a nice article about the people that touched and inspired her and some of their struggles. It has a few of the wonderful pictures that she took. You can check it out at www.presbyterianrecord.ca. Jayne will have another article in the next issue. The Presbyterian Record also plans to publish one of her novels - one chapter per issue. Congratulations, Jayne!

Clare also made us laugh with a story about an irate nurse with a hypodermic needle in one hand and a suppository in the other.

We also got into a discussion about Haiti which led to Ron writing a thought provoking article that we hope he will finish and submit.

Jayne brought up that she ordered a course from The Great Courses www.getgreatcourses.com. The one she is currently doing is called Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft. We hope she will give us the short version. Today we discussed cumulative syntax. Creating strong sentences by removing conjuctions. Simplifying your work. One of the names that came up as an example was Hemingway.

While on the topic of writers we enjoy, the name Robert B. Parker came up. I had brought a couple of his books along for Nancy to read and someone mentioned that he was dead. I checked it out when I got home and found his obituary online. Robert B. Parker died Janary 20, 2010 at his desk in his home. He died doing what he loved: writing. He was influenced by Hemingway, Faulkner, and Scott Fitzgerald.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7038200/Robert-B-Parker.html

Also a reminder that the Brian Henry workshop has been moved from March 6 to March 13, 2010.

AND our next meeting is February 7, 2010. Richard will be leading.