Sacramento Suburban Writers Club

Speaker for Monday, November 16:  Terry Prince  

Subject:  Blogs

Terry Prince is a productivity coach and organizing consultant
with over 100 published articles. She has also authored many
technical publications for the National Study Group on Chronic
Disorganization (NSGCD). Terry is currently 4 chapters short of
finishing her first mystery novel.

Terry served on the SSWC Board of Directors for 10 years and was president from 2001 - 2003. She will be speaking about Blogging and the Writer.  If you have ever wondered or considered about starting a blog, this is the SSWC workshop to come to. Individuals who are working on nonfiction research for articles or books may also find this session helpful for learning how to manage all the extra information.

Terry currently writes two different blogs, using Wordpress and Blogger. Learn how blogs can be of great value to both the fiction and nonfiction writer as well as consultants and small business owners. Terry will explain how creating a blog for your writing business or avocation may be easier than setting up a website and keep you technologically up to date with your peers. Terry will talk about various blog platforms and features to consider when setting up your blog. She will also discuss how blogs can provide excellent and unique research material for your writing and articles as ways to organize your blog reading. Terry's blogs are:

 http://terrysthinking.wordpress.com and http://transitionyourlife.blogspot.com

 

Workshop—Viewpoint

Our workshop at the November meeting is going to be   on Viewpoint.  The workshop on Dialogue has been postponed until January since many members commented they need to know from whence (or whom) the articles, stories, and characters come and how much the narrator sees and knows. 

So Viewpoint it is.  Be sure to come to the meeting with ideas and eagerness to participate. 

 

Recent Sales and Go-Aheads

By April Edsberg

 

"The Clue," by Wes Turner.  Suburban Scribe, October 2009

"Best 100 Fiction from the Modern Library Board," by Pat Biasotti.  Suburban Scribe, October 2009

"What To Do About Stress," and "Fighting Fatigue," by Theodora Wilner.  Volume 1 and 2 of Easy Wellness Series, Self Published, October 2009  

Best 100 Fiction from the Modern Library
Board, Sponsored by Random House

Submitted by Pat Biasotti

We are 4/5 of the way through the list of the Best 100 Fiction.

61. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather

62. From Here to Eternity, James Jones

63. The Wapshot Chronicles, John Cheever

64. The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger

65. The Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess

66. Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham

67. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

68. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis

69. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

70. The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durell

71. A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes

72.  A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul

73.  The Day of the Locust, Nathaniel West

74.  A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

75.  Scoop, Evelyn Waugh

76.  The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark

77.  Finnegan's Wake, James Joyce

78.  Kim, Rudyard Kipling

79.  A Room With a View, E. M. Forster

80.  Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

 

MOTIVATIONAL IDEA

You have been assigned cover an event that took place in history — any time, any place, any people.  You will be there to eyewitness _________ …What?  Who?  Where?  When?

Now take that idea and write a paragraph, a story, a novel.   Members, if you like what you wrote, send it in for publication in the newsletter.

Critique Groups

The Sci-Fi/Fantasy group and the Query group each still have room for new members.  The plans for the Query group’s meeting night are for the 2nd Tuesday of the month, 7 to 9 p.m. (or so) and will meet at the different members’ homes.  Contact Mary Lou Anderson for next meeting place. 

 

Contact Wes Turner for the meeting times for the Sci-Fi Fantasy group. 

 

DUES

Don’t forget to pay your dues.  Most memberships expire this fall. 

Be sure to do it very soon since the work is starting on the directory, and you want to be sure to be included. 

Scholarships

Reminder - our club offers it members the opportunity to be given “scholarships” to writers’ conferences.  If you plan to attend one, write a request letter to Wes, our president, stating why you should be given up to $100 towards the registration fees. 

Remember, you will be requested to give a report to the club on what you learned at the conference. 

 

 

Fall Leaves of Promises

By Dolly McClure

Green leaves of promised shade now costumed

In reds, yellow-gold and bronzes

Are pushed through the air like so many lost dreams.

Leaves orchestrated by fierce winds,

Swirl and dance in the streets

Around hurried feet then ebb into lulls of rest,

Waiting for the next gust to prance them on their way.

Street sweepers, storekeepers and housekeepers

Are unknowingly united in sweeping the colors together

Like overworked oils on an artist palate.

Everyone can hear, yet all ignore the crunch

Of yesterday’s promise underfoot.

Tomorrow grows another promise.

Cell Phone Alert

By Andrea Roth

 

REMINDER: Cell Phone Numbers
Go Public

 

All cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls.

YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS! 

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:  888-382-1222 or888-382-1222.  It is the National DO NOT CALL List. It will only take a minute of your time.  It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

 

Lancaster’s Own Dennis the Menace

 

Written in Lancaster for the local paper (probably spring of ’59)

By Jeannie Turner

 

It’s quite amusing to watch Dennis the Menace on television and then turn it off when the program is over or when you’ve had enough. Such, however, is not the privilege of Mr. And Mrs. Warren Turner, for Lancaster’s own Dennis the Menace, their second son, cannot be turned off. Scarcely a day does by that Craig (for that is his given name) does not add to his collection of misdeeds. Some of his pranks are merely amusing, such as putting Bisquick in his sister’s compact, and riding around in Sears’ window at the feet of three revolving mannequins. Others are on the dangerous side, including sampling liquid ant poison (a quick trip to the hospital and a thorough stomach pumping job eliminated any serious effects) and playing “push the board back and forth” over the cement block wall with a 2 x 4 (the stitches in his forehead are showing less each day).

It isn’t that he means to be naughty – quite the contrary. Some of the most memorable incidents have been the direct result of his attempts to be helpful. For example, when he saw the spider crawling on the front of his house, he thought he’d do his mother a favor and get rid of it, for he knew how she detested them. Now, the best way, he reasoned, would be to wash it off; so he got the hose and proceeded to do just that. As it happened the bedroom window was open. For a while there, his folks had the only indoor swimming pool in the neighborhood!

Then there was the time when he decided to “help” his grandpa by filling his gas tank for him. How was he to know that what came from the hose at the gas station and what came from the hose at home were two different things?

But his current, though not most spectacular, escapade seems to be having far-reaching effects. Seeing the key sticking out of the keyhole of an old-fashioned desk in his family’s home, Craig locked not only the glass doors in front of the shelves, but also the writing desk section with the pigeon holes of important papers.

He had what, to him, was a good reason for doing this. He had laid a half-eaten lollypop on one of the shelves. Then, to make sure that his treasure was safe, he buried the key in the back yard.

This, then, is the problem:  his parents are in the process of selling their house; but without the title and other important papers, it is a bit difficult. Neighbors and friends have failed to turn up an adequate substitute for the original key. His parents would be most grateful to hear from someone who has a similar desk and would lend them the key.