Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Pencils! Points: February 10, 2009


We're back at Shop Rite for the long haul! Eleven members were on hand and Maria Barresi treated us all to a Welcome Back/Valentine's Day mini-buffet: cheese, crackers, grapes, and apples. Thanks, Maria! It made our first time back feel special!


Announcements

~ We kicked off the meeting with our treasurer's report—Carol was pleased to report that many have paid dues. We have checks that say Pencils! on them (there's nothing to make you feel more special than that). Our first order of business was reimbursing Jerry for website domain costs.

Anyone wishing to pay dues can contact Carol McManus.

~ The 5th Annual Rejection Slip Pyre & Potluck…you'll be getting an e-mail under separate cover with details, but here are the basics:

Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 3 p.m.

at

Kaye's house

Bring a dish to share and BYOB.

Bring some rejection slips to burn and leave feeling renewed for 2009!

~ Joyce is back from her 10-day excursion to the Bahamas with "Singles Under Sail." Tropical drinks, anyone?

~ Photos from John Palisano's reading and signing on January 27 are up on the web! You can check them out here.

And now…on with the show…

1. Joyce opened us with a portion of Chapters 17 and 18 of Venus Ascending: "Estelle saw the new Suburban and her eyes filled. Only three days old, and the front grid was cracked, the hood dented, and its little goat ornament was angled to one side."

2. Henderson was next with his first attempt at short-short fiction: "Child's Play": "I got under the kitchen table to look up at a pirate's map I had discovered there. Mom or Dad never looked under the table, not even Sis, so this map was my secret."

3. Carol was up with Chapter 8 of Buried for Life, which she's been working and re-working: "A blaring horn was the only warning that kept her from driving directly into the path of a car coming up from behind in the adjoining outside lane."

4. Yvonne followed with a piece called "Racial Memories," which is part of a larger project: "She was good as her word, and each night, a new pie emerged from the oven, peach, blueberry, apricot, and rhubarb. She was a tough taskmaster, and [Yvonne's] reward for [her] hard work was a tray full of little tarts which matched the pie in flavor."

5. Kaye closed with a short piece called "What the Dormouse Knows": "This is their final ride on the last day of their decades-overdue honeymoon. Jim turns the center wheel, wishing the cup would spin faster, and Della, whipped by her long hair, notices for the first time she's going salt and pepper."

This week's handouts

We passed out some information on Tips for writers on naming fictional characters from BabyNames.com…and "The Practice of Remaining in the Dark: How to Create Complex Characters", by Robert Boswell, from The Practical Writer column in Poets and Writers' July/August 2008 issue.

This week's Inspirational Kick-Out!

I read a piece called "Take that, Stephen King; Buzz Off, Sue Grafton", by David Howard, which is featured in the 2008 Rhode Island Writer's Circle anthology. Hilarious!

Quotes of the Night

~

"You're going to give us a report, too, for twenty-four dollars?"

-- Maria

~

"The sound of word is important, too."

-- Tom

~

"There's no such thing as a really hot sex scene with a guy named Murray."

-- Jerry

~