MINUTES OF MEETING - September 25, 2011

Now I have to try and decipher my notes . . . sigh!

Thirteen members attended our meeting. Awesome!

Judy mentioned that Nancy (me) and her attended a workshop reading of a new play called Bemused. The actors were amazing. David Narin and Lisa Petrie read. Judy and I had read it in The Banner. It was a pay as you can event. We were able to speak to the playwright and the actors afterwards. And I mentioned at least three times that there was food and wine. Possibly next year we could go as a group.

NOTE: Post it on our Blog next year!

Authors and Armchairs and Art Event – happens on Friday, September 30, 2011 at SGI in Alton. Lots of members are attending. We hope to see you there!

RE: THE WEBSITE

Shirley would like the following:
- Photo
- Bio
- Quote by an author or a quote by you
- Some of your work – short stories or poems -attach it in a word document or a PDF file
- She would prefer to have your work with links to your website & Blog as it would
encourage people to look at other writers on our website

Shirley's email address: shirleywrite@rogers.com


Website address: www.headwaterswritersguild.com

EXCITING NEWS:

Hi Nancy,
Murder In Hum Harbour: A Seaglass Mystery will be officially launched on October 15, 2-3pm at Booklore as part of their Independents' Day celebration.

There will be a brief reading, snacks, a chance to "meet the author" and a draw for a piece of seaglass jewelry.

Thanks for including this on the blog.

:) Jayne

Thanks Jayne for forwarding this info to me. Jayne gave everybody a bookmark of her book. I love bookmarks.

MOVIES & READINGS:

Marilyn showed her movie Thicker than Water on her new Ipad. Marilyn learned when you shoot the movie if the scene it’s supposed to be night shoot it at night. Marilyn’s movie doesn’t have much dialogue otherwise it would be a radio play. What's a radio play? I know I should have asked her ‘cause on Monday night I was told that I’d written a radio play.

Joe wanted to know if Marilyn had taken a screenplay writer’s course? Nope, Marilyn just writes. Joe is taking a screenplay writing in Guelph in October.

Nancy (that would be me) read her Only For This Moment poem and Judy commented that it’s great for writers to help them remember to write in the moment no matter what’s happening in their life. I also read my Shattered Dreams poem – it’s a line I woke up with from a dream.

Joe kept up up-to-date on his letter to Hydro One. He was published in the Guelph Mercury, Wellington Advertiser, and the Erin Advocate. He had a letter from McGuinty and is waiting to hear back from the Energy Minister. Keep your fingers crossed Joe!

June wrote an emotional piece about a little boy loosing his grandmother. It brought tears to my eyes. Welcome back June. We’ve missed you!

Ron read Enough is Enough. Why not use this prompt for your writing. When is enough enough?

Judy gave out prompts and also brought The Mysteries of Harris Burdick – a book of photos that Judy thought would make good prompts.

I hate to admit it but after eating chocolate chip cookies some people were just way too happy. And now Jen isn’t speaking to me anymore ‘cause I used a prompt and brought it into Jen’s reality. I spilled water on Jen’s journal. I think I was a little high from the cookies. Patricia suggested it might be a good idea for me to give up chocolate. No way.

Judy had to use her teacher’s voice twice at this meeting. Actually, I’ve never heard it before from soft spoken Judy. The things we learn . . .

Kelli wrote about a dream with a hidden secret. The child was going to take over the Universe. Judy mentioned the dream was perfect to use a children’s story.

June used Prompt # 1 and wrote to a friend in her past and shared may memories. Life is good for June.

Judy chose Prompt # 4. I like Hiram and hope to hear more about him and the orphan child.

Clare chose Prompt # 5 … and honest Harry wasn’t really a dirty old man.

Ron chose # 8 and provoked lots of thought which I believe is part of the writer’s job.

Marilyn’s Uncle Henry created unusual happenings after he moved in with lots of impending births. Marilyn, of course, made us all laugh! You should have been there!

Danielle chose # 11 and wrote about her first memory she had as a one year old. She wrote as a baby. Very interesting.

Patricia continued to make fun of me. I must be important or something.

Jayne’s Uncle Henry is a mystery. Imagine that a mystery writer wrote a mystery! Way to go Jayne.

Patricia chose what are you afraid of? Heartfelt essay – the thing she fears is want she wants the most.

Jen was creative she used the last four prompts. It was very touching.

Kelli asked me why I hadn’t posted the photos from the last meeting. I promised her I would.

We all laughed and Marilyn said, “I can’t wait to get out of the Twilight Zone.

Joe went back in time to 1935 when he was seven years old and went to a funeral for a two -year -old boy. It was his first encounter with death. An emotional piece touched everybody.

Ron said, “NEVER GIVE UP!” He received an answer to his email that he sent out in
April 2008. I’m going to post the email separately on the blog.

Judy said, “That’s a RAP!”

WE MISSED YOU! I especially missed Diane ‘cause I had to take notes at the meeting.

I think I got carried away.

NEXT MEETING: October 16, 2011 – Jayne is leading

MINUTES OF MEETING - SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

Diane was leading on Sunday and asked me to take the notes.

I would have posted them yesterday but Microsoft wouldn't allow me to cut and paste and I wasn't going to re-type the minutes. I just love Microsoft. When I win the lottery, I'm going to buy an Apple computer.

Rosemary joined us for the first time. She has been writing for a while. She writes poetry and she’s working on a fantasy book for children. She heard about our writing group from Richard and he forgot to mention that she needed a pen and paper. Shame on you, Richard! Just kidding.

Welcome Rosmary.

When Clare introduced himself he told us that he found it comforting to write when he was away.


Judy read her poem, Forfeit– from her upcoming poetry book Fat and other F words. We all loved it. Kelli asked if Marilyn was crying and she said no she had something in her eye.

Kelli – wrote about her health problems and she may post it to her blog. It’s called A Blimp in the Scheme of Things (great title). After she read it, Judy and I were curious about the cause of having seizures. Kelli told us that stress could be a factor or it could be if epilepsy is in our family. Please see the link to Kelli’s Blog.

Harry continues to work on his adult book about the circus. He’s going to have illustrations. He sent his twenty stories out using http://www.querytracker.com/

Welcome back Clare. He was away for six weeks. He made a wise decision and he decided to sip beverages, enjoy snacks in cafes in France, and write. He wrote twenty-five vignettes and he read one of his vignettes. We all laughed. He felt that it was like having an extended artist date as recommended by Julia Cameron. Ron said, “Clare is now a ghost writer.” Clare said it was become the keyboard is different than ours. “I’m not a computer geek. If I can figure out how to send emails from Europe anybody can.”

Marilyn writes a column called, The Last Word. It’s about writing down goals. I asked her to post it on our blog. Thanks Marilyn for posting on our blog.

Ron talked to me about posting to the blog. Thanks Ron for the excellent post and yes I hope it becomes an addiction.

I didn’t mention it at the meeting – but it would be wonderful for volunteers to start posting on our blog.

Ron is taking a grammar course at The Learning Enterprise. Ashley recommended the book, Sin and Syntax – HOW TO CRAFT wickedly EFFECTIVE PROSE by Constance Hale. We congratulated him.

Ashely read from her Sci-Fi novel. It’s thought provoking and interesting. She read from her first chapter, a child asks, “What’s the sun.” It caught my attention. Harry asked, “You’re writing about the year 3,000, how do you build it for the reader?”
It provoked a lot of discussion.

Harry mentioned the he’d asked Linwood Barclay the secret to writing a novel. “Start writing and keep going until you finish.”

Diane is writing a new thing that doesn’t have a name. She read Chapter 1. Creepy, I tell you but I want to read more.
_________________________________________________
Ashley asked authors the question, how did you plan your book? And she read their answers that follow:

“The first book I had mostly in my head before I started . . .except that once you start, it kind of takes on a life of its own and goes places you didn’t expect.

The second book I planned sort of chunk by chunk and the third I actually had each chapter planned and summarized. So . . . they’ve all been different.”
Holly, author of Bone Bender

“I didn’t plane it at all. Once I started writing the characters basically took over.”
M. Trotter

“First, I have an idea. After, I do some research on the subject, and the end, at the end. I write. I usually write after everything is clear: I know my characters, everything.”

My books began with the history. I weave the fiction through the fact and write the story in the spaces we don’t know about.”
___________________________________________________
Personally, I think outline or NOT to outline—the choice is yours. What works best for you?

Clarke used the prompt Can you see me forty years from now? Clare read. “Fat Chance.” We roared with laughter.

Marilyn brought copies of Gloria's latest book - DREAM QUEST DICTIONARY, for us to purchase. I mentioned at the meeting that I am a dreamer and I only use two books and Gloria's book is one of them. It's an excellent book. Check out Gloria's website:

http://spiralpress.ca/www.spiralpress.ca/Welcome.html

We look forward to attending the book launch.

Diane brought the following prompts:

Can you see me?
Fall means a lot of things to different people.
The windshield wipers squeaked against the window of the abandoned car.
I looked for an excuse to leave the room.

Ashley mention to check out http://www.writing.com/


NEXT MEETING: October 17, 2010 – Judy is leading.

MORE MINUTES FROM OUR APRIL 11-10 MEETING

Diane asked me to take notes and I asked her if I could post the few notes that I took.

I read from Glenn's letter and he’d asked if Harry would read his poem, Right Place? Right Time? Harry did an amazing job of reading it. Harry and I agreed that Glen had found the rhythm of the Spoken Word or Words Aloud poetry. Glen is on his way to becoming a spoken word poet. I'd bet my life on it . . .

I read my raw writing that contained the following lines:

I bet that Laura was surprised that I knew that she ate at King’s Buffet yesterday. What surprises me the most is that we’re a writing group and hardly anyone posts anything to our blog.

Gloria said, “I meant to but I forgot.”

I’m looking forward to reading our members postings.

Thanks Diane for posting our minutes to the blog. I enjoy reading them.

Stay tuned! I'll be posting blurbs from Glen's letter.