Pinellas Writers

UPDATED TO ADD: Completed version of the chapbook: Overly Fond Of Prisms emailed to 2 Sylvias / Wilder press today!!! See poetry page for details!

In my about page I mention that I am a member of Pinellas Writers.

We have a Zoom meeting weekly where we critique & accept critique. One of the rules is - don't respond. This can be hard but it is valuable to take a critique in and sit with it a minute. This article talks about why.

Giving critiques is also useful to developing skill as a writer. Learning to listen for plot holes or vague wording or whatever takes you out of someone's story helps you to learn how to find the same weaknesses in your own story.

Tonight I was moderator for the meeting for the first time. It was a little scary yet at the same time enjoyable. 

Lately I have been writing funny recaps of meetings for our Facebook page.

This was tonights recap:

For everyone who didn't make it to the meeting tonight - let me recap.

It was my first time moderating and I feel I was a success. No one died on my watch so that means success, right?

No one died but Louise did talk about killing. I'm telling you that little lady can be scary. And her story was killer, too.

Glenn read more of his Mato story and we were all sorry to hear the timer go off at 10 minutes.

Tad talked about drinking coffee which was from 3600 miles away out of the bum of an Ethopian goat - which is kind of true of all coffee if you think about it. Tea anyone?

We were a blood-thirsty bunch with Eve reading a story about learning to use a gun to protect herself from burglars and such.

Monica stayed on target (get it - on target?) continuing her story about finding out who murdered the woman who donated an expensive purse to the charity store.

Yours truly read about adventures in the rain. Now I would have thought there wouldn't be any way to make death an important factor in what I read - but B.J. did it. I was getting feedback about whether I should include a story that ends in my friend dying.

B.J. Did your husband die?

Me: he's not my husband.

B.J. Oh, kill him off then.

Your next opportunity to join us is Tuesday 10/25. Zoom meeting starts at 6 for show up / tech difficulty stuff. Actual meeting 6:30 to

9PM Eastern time.

I call myself being clever and I definitely have a good time writing my recaps. I think I deserve some fun considering that I stayed up all night yesterday getting 53 pages of poetry shaped into a chapbook!

Speaking of poetry - I have definitely decided to include the tanka and the story behind it in my wip about rain adventures. Tanka is 31 syllables in one continuous line. This is my Tanka For Michel:

>We strolled the beach laughing while you chased our umbrella that kept blowing away and rain got in our coffee days before you died.<

RIP Michel.