Record of meeting 2 November 2011

Present: Gary, Mandy, Wendy, Leonie, Terry, Geoff and Helene


Helene raved about her recent cruise to NZ. Gary reported that his sister Wendy is feeling great after having a pacemaker installed. Mandy is stressed because a friend is very ill. Wendy brought information about our Christmas lunch to be held at Mel’s Place at St Georges Basin at 12:30 pm on Wednesday 7 December 2011. Leonie asked about David R Terry reported that he is doing well after his surgery and that Terry has his first client for his business coaching services. Geoff received lots of calls for his 70 th birthday today – Happy birthday, you are Looking great.


Word of the day
Gary - reverberated – heard it today in relation to China and the Euro. Mandy brouhaha – a big commotion a loud confused noise. Wendy - mignon -small cute dainty. Leonie – cadence - rhythm, measured movement of sound. Terry unctuous -ingratiating. Geoff - pollard – milling powdered form of bran and a way to trim trees.


Quick write from words of the day
We produced a group of stories with a political, multicultural, religious and gardening focus.


Homework reading
Gary what if there was no lotto, will the muslins take over. Mandy what if I had been born with different genes. Wendy Pressure the poem of life. Terry end of the tunnel – a corrupt police officer. Geoff told us about the email he received called lights at the end the tunnel.


Books and authors
Helene talked about a series of books by Joan Anderson an unfinished woman who ran away to Cape Cod for a year of self discovery. Gary talked about a story by Tom Clancy about a plane that crashed into the White House. Mandy talked about the Diana Gambaldon fantasy story "Dragon fly in Amber" about travelling between the past and present. Wendy talked about the story "Stand by me" a great story by Stephen King. Terry went to the library and found the book by Ted Bullpitt – Put the money on the fridge a funny read. Geoff talked about The "Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society" by Mary Anne Shaffer a very funny story.

From Gary - The new SOS - Slower Older and Smarter.


Exercise - A description using as many of the senses as possible. Helene waited in line in Macca’s. Gary took us on a carefree picnic. Wendy provided the sights and smells of the school room. Terry took us into a fish and chip shop while Geoff took us shopping in Bunnings.


Homework – Having too much or not enough of something. What would be worse?

Meeting 26/10/2011.
Present were Terry, Wendy, Dave, Robyn, Leonie and Geoff.
Terry has spoken to Jo about a project she is working on, good luck with it Jo.
Geoff went to Sydney to a 20th anniversary of a writers' group he belongs to.
Leonies' mum has been visiting from Queensland, and the new house is moving along.
Dave has been spending time with some fellow entertainers from the olden days, he's been roadying and having a ball.He also did the Great Ocean Road, enjoyed it very much.
Robyn spent 3 days in Canberra went to the Archives and the War Memorial.
Wendy is going to see Leo Sayer in 2 weeks time.
Word of the day,
Visceral-relating to instincts.  Panache.- With flair and style.
Swingeing-Punishing, severe.  Timorous-timid, scared.
Fug-Stale atmosphere.  Totem- Tribal badge, emblem.
Perplexed- puzzled.  Belie-Contradict, refute.
Quick writes on word of the day were,
Robyn-Jeremy,  a visit to the museum.
Terry, Luna Park A fun/funny day out.
Geoff, Tonified, hilarious comments about you know who.
Leonie, The homecoming, about a soldied having fun.
 Wendy, A poem about naughty boys at school,
Homework.
Terry, What if-A sad and funny poem, making us think about life.
Leonie, Family-A lovely story about lasting love.
Wendy, Midsomer- A funny poem about living in Midsomer.
Dave, QuandarHilarious poem about people.
We discussed a book Robyn had from an Aboriginal writer called Max Dulumummun Harrison
All about legends and beliefs.
Wendy spoke about Kathy Reichs who is a Forensic Anthropologist, and writes books.
Homework for next week is  End of the tunnel.

WRITERS GROUP MEETING

19TH OCTOBER 11

ATTENDING.

MANDY BYRNE. WENDY WILLIAMS. GARY HOLMES. TERRY MCLAFFERTY.

DAVE RUDDER.GEOFF BOLTON.

Dave printed the new format for the writers group and handed it out. Mandy has spare copies.

News of the Day.

Wendy went to see Red Dog and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mandy. Had a full body scan and waiting for results.

Gary. Enjoying having all his sisters and family around him.

Geoff. Nothing major just enjoyed his week.

Terry. Has decided to write a longer piece of writing, loosely based on his fathers life. To be done in prose

Dave  Very proud of his daughters and showed us their swimming achievement .

He needs picking up from hospital if it is the weekend after his hip operation next week..

Word of the Day

Geoff.   Picayune ...small. petty, mean, trivial

Garry. Readability meaning something very worth while to read.

Mandy. Solecism when someone grammatically uses a word making the sentence sound slightly absurd often when foreigners do it unintentionally.

Wendy. Indefatigable. Untiring Industrious or persistent.

Dave  Sinistral...of the left hand.

Terry. Read an article on words. Very interesting and funny.

We then did a quick write on the words above.

Wendy started us off and did hers in rhyming form.

Mandy and Gary stuck to a quick write.

Geoff tried to include the words in a sports write.

Terry. He did a funny poem well done and good.

Dave is just as clever and did it in poem form.

HOMEWORK.

Wendy did a poem called Why. She wanted to be a super model but was a foot too short. A funny poem.

Mandy wrote a short story called One of Their own. A funny tale.

Wendy Dave and Mandy were only the ones who did their homework. Our Halos shine.

Dave read out his in a poem we all enjoyed his usual funny self.

Stopped for afternoon tea and a natter.

Book Author Discussion.

Geoff.  Raymond Carver he spoke about the style of his writing. Mainly short stories. The film Jindabyne was based on his story So Much Water. American writer. He died two years ago at 45.

Peter Carey. Terry enjoys the way he does his characters and the style he presents them in his novels.

Gary. Jeffery Archer. All about the Masonic Lodge and how they operate. He found it brought back lots of memories of his childhood and his Nan going to the women's Eastern Star Order.

Mandy is enjoying Wilbur Smith. She enjoyed the history and the way he makes you feel like the characters he portrays. Adventure stories with a difference.

We talked about several other authors.

Wendy talked about the Lovely Bones. by Alice Sebold. She told us about the author.

Dave, Spoke about Isabel Allende  a Spanish writer, her books have been translated into many languages. Writes in a very poetic way and Dave enjoys it. He read a passage of her book aloud.

Members On Going Works.

Geoff read some of his work in progress. Based in Japan it is really interesting as Geoff has lived in Japan and can describe the country and people in a believable way.

Mandy read from her current novel War on Words. A story loosely based on her mothers life. Mainly just ideas and some events.

Quick Write On the Carbon Tax. We all had ideas and Wendy decided Shane Warne was a much better subject than the Carbon Tax. Some did it in rhyme.

Homework.

Wendy set the homework 'What If" this can cover anyt topic.

Please note this week the men outweighed the women by two to one. Wendy and Mandy handled the situation with their usual panache.

Record of meeting 12 October 2011

Present: Terry, David R, Wendy, Mandy, Helene, Geoff, Robyn


We held a general discussion on critiquing of other people's work.  It was agreed that we should directly ask a member if we want feedback. 
In addition we had quite a discussion regarding the way we run the weekly meetings. 
Excellent and important feedback was received from existing and other members currently not attending. It was agreed that the brag/news session at the beginning had got out of hand and was becoming a bit of a talk fest. We agreed to trial the following general outline in future meetings and modify it as we go to get the best outcome for all members. 


1 pm – 2:30 pm
Short news (2 minutes max. each)
Word of the day
Quick write from words of the day (10 mins max)
Reading that quick write
Homework reading (allocated from previous week)


approx. 2:30 pm afternoon tea


Remainder of afternoon
Book/Author discussion ( share a taste of your favourite book or author)
Major project reading (share part of your bigger project)
Homework setting


Word of the day
Wendy – disingenuous - lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity; false or hypocritical. Mandy – sagacities – foresight, good judgement. 
Helene - abroad - English people going to Europe. 
Geoff – sycophant – A person who uses flattery to gain favour with someone in power 
Terry – vivify – to give life or make it more vivid or animate. 
David R - Gordian knot – difficult or involved problem.


Homework reading
"What is the one invention I could not live without"
David R – The unicorn – prose on an explosion and a ship and a poem My vibrator
Wendy – a funny poem about the flushing loo. 
Mandy – Being digested - memories of life before, and since, electricity. 
Helene – the lovely one. 
Terry – grey matter...my brain


David R read a poem about word homework. 
Geoff read more of his novel set in Tokyo.


Quick write from words of the day
Helene – the Gordian knot. 
Geoff - the tour guide. 
Terry – poem on writing. 
Robyn – on a tour. 
David R – two poems about disappearing abroad. 
Wendy – a poem - Vivifying my marriage.


Homework - A packet of nuts, 2 lbs of flour and a bag of fertiliser. What was it for?

BLOG FOR 5TH OCTOBER 2011

Attending Terry McLafferty . Leonie Worthy. Mandy Byrne

We were very light on the ground this week.

Word of the Day

Mandy…

Antebellum This refers to a house built during or after the American Civil War.

Cosy…The origin is Scottish and is used in different countries differently. You can describe a room as cosy and in America and Canada you cosy up to someone.

Leonne.

Extant…means existing  now…it can be an old law still used today.

Akimbo…To stand with your arms up with hands resting on your hips.

Terry.

Cadre…It means a small cell of trained zealous revolutionaries. 

Infant…An angel whose wings get smaller as its legs get taller. (Think about it)

Homework.

Terry…Unicorn Unicorn. A poem. A really funny poem and we loved it. Noah's Ark will never be the same again after Terry's poem.

Leonne. The Magic of colour. A short story. Dreams of Unicorns as in all dreams anything is possible.

Mandy. The Little Mother. A short story of a child that could imagine anything and lived her dreams.

Our Quick Write was No More Secrets.

We spent an hour doing this enjoying having time.

Homework.

What is the one invention you could not live without and why?

A short meeting but we spun it out till the time alloctated and enjoyed ourselves.

Terry is concerned that our meetings might be getting a bit same old, same old.  If anyone has any new ideas for our meetings we want to hear about them.

Record of meeting 28 September 2011

Big thank you to Melissa for hosting the meeting at her new house. It was lovely to be at home. Thanks to Terry for the great poem he wrote about Melissa leaving JB soon.

Present: Helene, Terry, Mandy, David R, Leonie, Jessica, Melissa, Geoff - almost got lost on the base.


News: Terry decided to go on a diet and tried to staple himself to the wall. Geoff went to the first day of a writing course at the Sydney Writers Centre and it started off with very basic information. The presenter spoke about Lyn Tranter her mother and a famous agent. Jessica is writing (with Melissa’s help) her auto biography which is about 80% completed and is going back to the Philippines. Leonie – frustrations with the house building. David R two OT's came from the hospital and gave advice how to manage after his upcoming surgery. Mandy survived a weekend with visitors including a 3 year old who had tantrums.


Word of the day:
David R - tonal – adj – the tone of music or writing.  Helene - rebus – an enigmatical representation of a word or phrase by pictures or symbols eg two gates and a head = Gateshead. Terry - perniciousness – that which will destroy. Geoff – sabot – wooden shoe - sabotage comes from the word. Jessica - mananangal a mystical creature that resembles a vampire who sucks the fetus from a woman. Leonie - surreptitious underhand done by stealth. Melissa - lackluster lacking in conviction and dull.


Homework readings
David R – Water music – sounds of sea at the beach great description of waves clapping. Leonie – Madeline and Jonathan at the beach in a buggy Madeline running free and lost to the sounds of the sea. Terry - H2O a poem of rain, tap dripping, tears, water boiling, rain on hot tin roof. Helene – water a poem. Mandy – domestic violence and music. Melissa read from Jessica’s auto biography – Angels in the clouds. Leonie read two great poems about water.


Terry shared some information from an article on tone – attitude, take a position, what the characters sees etc.


Homework


Use the following five words to create a story or poem - unicorn, taxis, algebra, birthdays and cruises.

Record of meeting 21 September 2011

Present: Mandy, Gary, Melissa, Helene, Terry, David C, David R, Leonie and Geoff. (More males than females.)

News: Gary has been to hospital and told us about his experiences. Mandy had someone look at her house but no offers yet. Leonie has had a frustrating week with her house construction but saw a great exhibition by Fred Williams in Canberra. David R is back swimming in the Bay and found money on the beach. David C saw Susie Quattro at the Entertainment Centre in Nowra and it was a great show. Geoff had reunion with his former writing group 11 people attended. Terry injured his knee last week but is recovering, and thanks Leonie for her input to one of his poems.

Word of day: Gary – hamartithia – being likely to make a mistake and gossypiboma a surgical sponge left inside after surgery accidentally. Mandy - monumental has many uses. Leonie – umbrageous – sense of fright, injury or offence and callow – inexperienced raw, unfledged. David R oenophile – connoisseur of wines. David – curt - short and sharp. Geoff outcome and fledge – tail feathers and arrows. Terry – from Donald Trump appreciates depreciation. Helene - Skittish – apt to start or shy, restlessly or excessively lively, fickle uncertain, coy. Melissa - in situ - a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position' It is used in many different contexts.

Homework readings
Leonie – Madeline deep in thought about her time in London and a chance meeting with Mr Jonathan Williams. David R – a poem Bridges – connect us our love is here to stay One thousand miles – I can live without you a humorous poem. David C - The best laid plans – A humorous story of Brandy and battery acid. Terry read a moving poem - Why – leaving his land and his love she stands beside me.  Helene – thinking of many and varied things. Melissa –Wondering - lost thinking about her past 3 husbands and dinner. Mandy – the pirates – love making with an android and 10 years in space.

Other issues
Youth worker wanted 8 hours a week by the church. Contact Mandy for details if you are interested.
We discussed the definition of published work. Geoff will ask the NSW Writers Association.
Geoff also told us about a free primary school music concert at 10:30 am on Sunday at Lady Denman Museum Huskie.



Exercises
1. We wrote an internal monologue of a character in a social situation where they are extremely uncomfortable.Melissa – a weak handshake and banal banter. Gary – I wanted to stamp on his belligerent head. Mandy – how could she live here. Leonie – waiting in the doctor’s surgery. David R – situations and fit as a trout. David C – a gay man at a baby shower. Geoff – Does this suit me? Terry – Julia her inner thoughts was very entertaining. Helene – Humiliation at a make up party.

2. We described the smells we associated with the Moon –Sadness – Cowardice – Velcro – Silver and Sand

Homework- Write a poem or story about Water music

  

Reminder next meeting 28 September at Melissa’s house