Well, AT LAST! We weren't cancelled out! But, the wait was worth it. Even though this wasn't a normally scheduled meeting time, we still had ten people in attendance and were able to allot twenty minutes of time to each presenter—not too shabby! That said, on with the show:
Announcements
~ The "Oh! Sweet Rejection!" Burning Slip Dessert Party is still on track for February 23 (that's today, folks!) at 7:30 p.m. Despite yesterday's dumping, the roads and all should be fine tomorrow night. If we decide to change our minds, however, you will all be notified by e-mail and by any phone numbers that we have on file. As of right now, though, we're sure that we're going to go ahead with it.
What to bring: a dessert to share, something to drink…and rejection slips! No worries, if you don't have one, come anyway. Moral support is always an upper!
~ Pencils! new "Pre-text" program: is not yet up and running. Jerry is in charge (he'll basically be setting us up with a submission system and do all the disseminating of the stories, as well as scheduling which stories will be discussed at which meeting and who has read what so far) and we're also going to change the name. We'll keep you posted, so stay-tuned.
~ Believe it or not, THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY PARTY is…well, not too far away. While it may be hard to think of summer partying in this dreary crap, Maryanne and Kaye have already got some really exciting plans in place. Based on the feedback we got from the Pencils! survey, we know that everyone likes that particular party the way it is—so we're just going to one-up it a bit. Stay tuned for more information.
~ Even though we are coming to the end of winter, PLEASE BE SURE I HAVE YOUR UPDATED PHONE NUMBERS. A few I have don't work.
Meeting Update…
Here we go, folks!
1. Yvonne kicked off our first meeting of 2008 by reading a portion of her novel (for which I don't have a title): "After a brief tour of R&D, Melanie thanked them and left. As she walked towards her car, she thought that it sounded like an excellent opportunity, with good experience and a substantial salary hike. Suddenly, a premonition that she could not name came over her and chills ran down her spine."
2. Joyce was up next with more of Venus Ascending (refresher: the novel about Estelle. When we last left her, she was partying it up on New Year's Eve with a potential new beau). "Joe hobbled in late in the day carrying a carton of coffee containers, jelly doughnuts and box of aluminum foil. His eyes had a ruby cast, and he looked exhausted, but his voice sounded cheery. "Here's the one-man snack and cleanup squad." He put the carton on the floor, and winced as he stood up."
3. Shirley presented the first part of a NEW short story, "The Little Pink House": "The only pink house with a pink garage and a pink mailbox on Salteri Road belonged to Jenny and Gio./Jennie fastened her seat belt and uttered a sigh. "Gee, I hope Susie isn't too mad at us when she finds out we're gone. We did promise her we'd wait awhile."
4. Dave put us on a planet full of vampires with – well, an excerpt from Planet of Vampires: "It was that odd mix of fascination and contempt that only a warrior who has dehumanized an enemy for years and years of waiting for attacks in hot stinking trenches and cold silent-running assault vessels could fully contain."
5. Kaye took us to the Magic Kingdom with an excerpt from her short story "It's a Small World", which is part of her master's thesis: "There could be no denying that twelve-year-old Kevin Shagumbria was a brat…he demanded his laundry be done every Wednesday, refused to eat the food that was made for him, and regularly walked past adults who were smoking and told them how disagreeable their habits were."
6. And last but not least, Jerry showed us a little bit of what his new novel Omniscience is like: "He had known it would take time to get his life back together after the accident. He went through the first four stages of grief quickly. Denial ended the day he got the news, when he identified her body. Anger subsided quickly because there was no one to be angry at. And what little faith he'd had was shattered by Jenni's senseless death, so the bargaining stage was the shortest of all."
Quotes of the Night
"Yeah, and I know no disclaimers, but…"
-- Shirley
~~
Dave: Or I thought maybe the Devil was going to show up—
Yvonne: The Devil does show up; wait until you read the rest of the story.
~~
