Meeting Minutes April 11, 2010

What happens in the writing group stays in the writing group so I'm not posting any more blogs.

Kidding.

We started off the meeting by blowing up balloons. Nancy brought chocolate cake. We were celebrating. Last year Clare turned 70 and we missed marking the occasion due to Len Rich passing away. Can anyone believe it's been a whole year? We were also celebrating Gloria's 70th birthday and found out Caitlyn's was April 10! Happy Birthday to all!

First on the agenda was our choice of a date for this year's Eramosa Eden Retreat. Our options were May 22, May 29, June 19 or June 26. In then end, we chose June 19 from 10am-4pm. The cost to all who want to attend is $10. Coffee will be provided but you are asked to bring a bag lunch. Feel free to bring treats to share. Don't forget to bring your CAMERA as well. Last year we were visited by several raccoons. Please let Nancy know if you plan to attend and submit your $10 to her.

June 19 is also the deadline for submissions to our anthology. There is a limit of 2,000 words per piece of writing. You are also invited to submit poetry. Gloria will get back to us as to how many pieces we may submit. She will also send the publishing information to Richard who will pass it on to Clare via a note attached to a rock thrown through his window. We are also seeking ideas for the Cover of the anthology. If you have any great photos, please bring them in!

Speaking of the anthology, we have Clare talking to the Banner and Richard talking to the Citizen about possible sponsorship to fund it. We also discussed donating the proceeds of our sales to the Headwaters Health Centre. In particular, books for the children's ward.

Ron had some exciting news. He is meeting his mentor from England soon to go over his notes and information for his book. We wish him all the best.

Just a reminder that the book launch for Gloria Nye's book Stories of Prayers and Faith will take place April 26 on 7pm at BookLore.

Clare showed us all a book called "Page Fright" by Harry Bruce that talks about good writing and peculiarities of writers. He asked if we had any peculiarities when we wrote. Some of the more interesting notes from the back cover were: Mark Twain rejected the "new fangled" typewriting machine. Truman Capote wrote only in bed. Friedrich Schiller could only write if his desk drawer was full of rotten apples. Balzac never drank less than 50 cups of coffee per day. And if that doesn't make you raise an eyebrow, Victor Hugo tops them all. He wrote his novels bare-naked ina glass cage that was affixed to the roof of his house and occasionally poured cold water over his head and rubbed his torso with gloves made of horsehair.
I'm afraid to ask if anyone can top that.....

Gloria read about the glories of a mushy brain.

Nancy read a letter she received from Glenn who is still out in Alberta then passed Harry a poem to read. Glenn wrote a poem called Right Place? Right Time? which Harry did a brilliant job reading. Beore he read, he added, "I'm Glenn, you just have to imagine someone who is balding on top." We all agreed that Glenn has found the rhythm of the Spoken Word or Words Aloud.

Nancy's raw writing mentioned that "What surprises her the most is that we're a writing group and hardly anybody posts to our blog." Maybe we should all try to make it a habit to talk about a writing topic on the blog once a month.

Harry read a piece littered with circus lingo. He also reminded us about the Grey Roots Museum's Poetry afternoon for National Poetry Month. He and 4 other poets will appear on April 24 from 2-5pm to recite poems about Climate Changes.

Jayne thanked us all for reading and commenting on her Dean Constable Mystery on http://www.presbyterianrecord.ca/ she said it was a very highly commented on series (thanks to all of us who just have to sing her praises!) Keep it coming, Jayne, we love your book so far!

Caitlyn read poems that were "not rhyming or depressing". One about rock hunting and the other about her dog with "so much hair".

Diane (that would be me in case you didn't read ahead) read a short story about a set of false teeth. Yes, Richard, it is a true story only it didn't happen to me luckily. But she is looking forward to seeing it as part of our anthology.

Richard wanted to stop for cake but was forced to read first. He read from Chapter 2 of his second book of The Ostiary. Can't wait for that one to be finished. No pressure.

Sandy came back to another meeting! She's so brave. She warmed up with a limerick poem about writing then had a great poem about "Reed and Daddy."

Finally we took a cake break. Once everyone's blood sugar was sufficiently spiked, Nancy reminded us that we don't always celebrate birthdays. Two 70th birthdays was a milestone and we had to recognize that. Richard told her that was a good thing or we'd all be diabetic.

We did do prompts later than usual but I'll post them here for anyone who wants to do them to read next week. Clare took the cake home then the room went quiet. Too quiet. So quiet we could all hear the balloons drop...

We did a quick read of prompt writing. Harry slayed us all with a story about "The hand that squirts the words on the page." He was asked (threatened?) to bring it to the next meeting.
If anyone wants a great prompt to write, try writing BEST EXCUSES NOT TO WRITE. Be sure to bring it to the next meeting to read. There will be a prize for the best one...maybe...or maybe not.

Okay, enough drama. Our next meeting is April 25 and Judy will be leading.

And now for the prompts....
1) A word of caution.
2) The reason I can't write today is...
3) "Let me pose a hypothetical question," he began.
4) Music wafted through the air on the spring breeze.
5) She clutched the hot cup of coffee and gazed at her reflection in the window.
6) The only real tragedy in life is not to use the gifts and talents that God gave you.
7) It was quiet. Too quiet.
8) Two men sat at a coffee shop. One looked the other in the face and said,"....."
9) He placed his hand on the hood of the car and frowned.
10) Being curious about other people and their dramas is a natural by-product of a lifetime spent as a writer.

See you all April 25.
Keep on writing!

Meeting Minutes March 21, 2010

First of all, thank you to everyone for their well wishes this past week on the loss of our uncle. It was hard coming to the meeting and concentrating enough to take notes, but it was even harder staying home. I was glad to be with you all and share some laughs as well as meet two new members to the group: Sandy and Ruth. For those of you who missed it, Ruth is also a writer with a piece in the Stories of Prayer and Faith book that Nancy and I are included in and received some copies of after the meeting. (Edited and compiled by our own Gloria Nye!)

Clare led the meeting and had some interesting prompts which I'll post at the bottom. No rushing off ahead to peek, you might miss something along the way!

Jayne warned us about parking in the Organist's spot in the lot. Apparently, she is very "predatory" about her spot. Harry agreed that we definately did not want to "strike the wrong chord with her."

We all introduced ourselves, including Laura who got a "daypass" from her family to attend. She announced that she would write more if Diane would quit writing so much. She is a fabulous editor though and I can never thank her enough. Especially when my books finally get published!

Richard brought up the fact that people don't take the time to comment on blog entries. He has been added to our list of contributors now. We are all glad his writer's block and other issues have been resolved.

Jayne showed us the back cover of the Presbyterian Record (www.prebyterianrecord.ca). Her novel Caught Dead: A Dean Constable Mystery is going to be published on their website beginning April 5. There will be a new chapter every week so make sure to mark it under your favourites and enjoy it!

We also discussed the Anthology that we would like to do. Gloria presented us with a publishing proposal that we will talk about at the next meeting. She had two plan options but Richard suggested a third - that we seek a sponsor to subsidize the book. He will look into that and get back to us next meeting. We decided against a theme for the book since that will limit our creativity. We would just call it something like The Headwaters Writers' Guild Collection. You are welcome to bring any other ideas to the April 11 meeting.

Since the last Brian Henry workshop had very low response, we cancelled it an moved it to Oct 2. The two options we had for topics were How to Make Yourself Write and How to Write for Children. Since a lot of us have no problems with actually doing the writing, we selected the writing for children option. Even if you don't want to write for children, it will teach you how to streamline your writing and simplify.

About half of the group had items to read this time. Gloria gave us food for thought with her short story The Author's Dinner. We had to all rush home to look up words like gelid and sapid. June read more from Death Spiral. Richard read to us from the second book of The Ostiary: Silent Semper (hope I got that right). Caitlyn, who was brave enough to rejoin us after the last meeting, read a wonderfully descriptive piece about a woman visiting a psychic. We can't wait to see what she does with it! Harry read The Garden Tale a great one for the kiddies.

Nancy read a piece about the "R" word and how words have the power to affect people. This led to a discussion of how the meanings of words have changed through history for example: faggot, special, retarded, the list goes on.

The prompts Clare brought were interesting. Laura had a piece about a man humming and cleaning a bloodstain off the floor. Richard had to know what he was humming. Guesses ranged from Hi, ho, hi, ho, It's off to work we go to Zippity-Do-Dah. Nancy read a piece that included the words "blank you". Richard HAD to check to make sure that was what she wrote and not her infamous "f" word. It was!

I found out after the meeting that Laura is going to be published in In the Hills for Kids. Her article is called Bundle of Joy? Way to go Laura! You can find a preview of the story on www.kidsinthehills.ca/blogs/in-the-hills/bundle-of-joy.

Okay, you've waited long enough. For anyone who couldn't make the meeting, here are the prompts courtesy of Clare:
1) A chunk of bologna and gob of mustard fell from his sandwich.
2) Coffee perked cheerily on the back of the kitchen woodstove.
3) The red traffic light sparkled off the icy intersection.
4) Peering into the darkness, she stood with her arms crossed.
5) He was the only customer in the coffee shop at 3 in the morning.
6) "Bonjourno," he clucked, stroking his crop of silver hair. (buon giorno Laura corrected the spelling)
7) I burst out laughing when -------------
8) "HI! I usta be a Wal-Mart greeter."
9) As I looked at --------- all that I could think was ---------.
10) He was nothing more than a smelly old man.

Okay, my work here is done for a day or two. Hope you all enjoy the wonderful rain and keep on writing.