Meeting Minutes October 16, 2011

Congratulations to Jayne on the release of her novel "Murder in Hum Harbour." We had a wonderful time at BookLore Oct 15. It was a fabulous afternoon with her reading and answering questions. Missed out on winning the seaglass earrings, but I'm loving the book which had sold out by Sunday! Watch for the review in In The Hills this winter as well as a follow up in the Citizen.

Jayne was also our leader for the day. And gave Nancy a thank you note for the group: To the members of the Headwaters Writers Guild, Words can't express how much I appreciate your presence and support at yesterday's book launch. Thank you so much, Jayne Self.

Ashley was back for a visit with us and is planning to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year. NaNoWriMo is the National Novel Writers Month held every year in November for more information, check out http://www.nanowrimo.org/. This is Ashley's forth or fifth year trying to meet the goal of 50,000 words. She also told us about a new version of NaNo called Script Frenzy. And that she is hoping to start a writing group of her own in Toronto geared for University students who are looking for a little moral support.

Pat told us all that our favourite bookstore lady, Nancy Frater of BookLore, received a lifetime achievement award at Authors & Armchairs a couple weeks ago. The group gave her a bottle of wine and handpainted wine glasses as an appreciation gift for all of her support of our writers.

Nancy has been in contact with Brian Henry regarding an upcoming workshop. The workshop will take place February 25, 2012. Our choices of courses are:
1) How to Make Yourself Write
2) Eighteen Secrets to Writing a page-turner
3) Writing with Style (which we needed more information on)
4) You  Can Write Great Dialogue
We were deadlocked between #1 and #2 so Nancy will touchbase with other members who normally attend the workshops and we will decide.

Nancy is interested in doing a series of workshops based on the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. We have talked to someone who offers the course through Continuing Education, but feel we could do the same thing for free as our own small group. If anyone is interested, please let us know.

Marilyn told us she has checked out The Next Big Writer.com and is impressed with what she's seen. For $50 per year, you can post work, enter contests and get feedback from impartial people. Both the contest submissions and the work you can post are between 1000-2000 words. Check it out at http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/

Readings:
Marilyn announced that she is "getting all poetic or something ridiculous" and read a poem she'd written.
Diane read a short story written for a Wynterblue Publishing contest called "She Needs to Lose Weight" which caters to the if-only world of if cake and soda were diet foods.
Danielle read part of her fantasy novel that was written as a journal entry.
Ashley had a wonderful poem written in french that she translated for us. It was called "The Drama Queen" and was about her former drama teacher from Westside who passed away this past September. A lovely tribute to her mentor.
Trina (our newest member! Welcome!) read about Trinity Church, the one in New York City that was a central meeting place during the days after 9/11. We loved hearing how being their moved her and put things into perspective.
Nancy read a poem called "Uninvited." Very moving.

On Gaining Confidence....
Jayne thanked us all for helping her become more confident and able to speak in public thanks to reading aloud in the group.
Trina said she'd put off coming to join us on a regular basis, but after reading such a personal poem and getting so much support and feedback, she feels stronger.
Danielle loves how we are all supportive and encouraging to each other.
Marilyn said that "It is amazing how we credit people with the judgements we don't have."

Prompts
Jayne had a bag full of slips of paper on which were written the names of emotions. We chose two slips. The first time, we wrote about the emotion without naming the emotion. Some words that were used were: Sympathy, Excitement, Shame, Fondness, Suspicious, Contentment, Worry, Happiness, Grief.
The second session, we had to start with the sentence: "Sam opened the door..." and use the second emotion without naming it. More emotions to describe: Love, Despair, Desire, Curiosity, Revenge, Sadness, Jealousy, Hope, Passion, Longing.

Some noteworthy dates:
Next meeting is October 30th. Clare (who was notably absent this week) will be leading.
Our Christmas luncheon is Dec 11, details TBA.

Keep Writing!!!