Record of meeting 15 May 2013

 

Present

Garry, David C, Elizabeth, David R, Wendy, Jo, Leonie, Trish, Melissa, Terry, Helene, Cath

We had a fun and informal meeting at DDs Serendipity café in St Georges Basin to say farewell to Garry who is leaving us for 3 months or maybe longer.

We will miss Garry’s sense of humour and colourful characters like Prince Lucky Mole and Gina. Thank you Garry for your great contribution to the group. Garry says he will send his homework and writing from words of the day by email – that’s the dedication we expect from Garry.

Homework reading

Garry, David C, David R, Jo, Leonie, Trish, Melissa and Cath read entertaining stories and poems about lost and loose body parts including a body, a tooth, a kidney, big toe, finger top. Trish read a great tribute to Garry.

 

Sorry if I forgot anyone I didn’t take minutes today.

 

Homework for next week

Farewell

 

 

Record of meeting 8 May 2013

Present

Robyn, Terry, Jo, David R, Trish, Geoff, Melissa, Helene, Cath

News

Geoff had a quiet week with doctors visits, Robyn will have back surgery on 17 May 2013 and will move house in June 2013, Cath donated shelves and timber to the Men's Shed, Jo has been writing and editing her murder mystery book, Terry made a spider web game for his grandson’s 6 th birthday, Melissa taught a TAFE class in Sanctuary Point, Helene talked about her damp chaser in a cupboard, David enjoyed a visit to the Pigeon House tea house a few weeks ago, Trish told us about plants growing  wildly in her garage in NZ.

 

Words of the day

Ecstasy – frenzy, beside oneself, catalytic trance, rapturous

Bagatelle – a mere trifle

Betwixt – between

Locus – a place area locality, a curve described by various points

Panacea – Greek goddess, universal cure

Clandestine – hiding information for people or groups

Attenuate – reduce

Farrago – jumbled mixture of things

Irascible – cranky, prone to anger

Anonymity - secrecy

 

Writing from words of the day

We wrote great stories about Mood swings, The bag of toys, Romance, Having his say – a very smart poem from Terry, The spy needs a holiday – a great story from Melissa, Maz the goddess, The jangling stage coach – a great poem from David R, Meeting at the church, Promises.

 

Reading of homework

My nude glory like human elastic, Kept in or out, Maz leaves town, Don’t fence me in – sung by David R on behalf of Garry, The right to make the wrong decision, Monument to Geoff cordial relationships over the fence and Barricades.

 

Reading

Geoff – a lovely tribute to Geoff’s son’s wedding on 20 October 2012 in the land of Mercia

On the shore – poem by David R based on the White Sands Walk

 

Writing exercise

We each wrote a list of characteristics and passed it on to the next person who developed a story.

We created great stories - Joe with green eyes in the jazz band, Life is not boring, Not anticipated, A donkey, Sally has a secret, Jim a motivational speaker, Icy water, Purely platonic, Dancing to Jazz.

 

Next meeting

Wednesday 15 May at 12:30 pm DDs Serendipity Café for lunch and short meeting. Bring your homework for reading.

Homework

Loosing a body part

 

 

 

 

 

 

Record of meeting 1 May 2013

Present

Leonie, Elizabeth, Garry, David R, Helene, Wendy, Cath, Terry, Jo and Lynne

 

News

Cath had a message from Optus and strange phone conversation, Wendy had x-rays she doesn’t have sciatica but arthritis and now has the right treatment & is going to apple day at Talong, Helene went to Tarago, David R is enjoying the weather, swimming and walking, Garry has sold his car and now has the money, Elizabeth went walking in her slippers, Leonie has built a kind of step, Jo has written 50,000 words.

 

Words of the day

Idiolect – jargon, slang

Aberrant – diverging from normal type, deviant, uncharacteristic

Maunder – to talk incoherently or move aimlessly

Caudal – having a tail

Phantasmagoria – illusions, deception

Fixation – stability and exaggerated attachment

Mojo – magic, charm

Ebullient – full of enthusiasm

Nescience – lacking knowledge

We used the words of the day to produce a range of strange stories including The cat at the council meeting, The baker and the cat, Non rhyming poetry, On the stage, The pain in my butt, Cats, An idiot who grew a tail a great poem by David R, The archaeologist, Awful.

 

Reading of homework

Maz and Mustafa – the next chapter of Distant Lands; Fun at the surgery – a funny poem; Fatla - I want to break free; Tomorrow; His own company; Her courtroom image; The flying jumbo; Maz and Distant Lands; Coco the entertainer.

Discussions and reading

Garry spoke about Ghost writing as a way to write and earn income – Terry will send out details by email.

David R – read his poem called Mirage

Terry – the circus – a funny poem based on fact

 

Exercise

We each listed four or five aspects for a character and passed it on to the next person who wrote a story about the character. The stories were Bright eyed Jenny, Peace would reign, Stay, Make me an egg sandwich, Janette had a runny nose, Home comfort, The blind man, The food lover, Fred at the pool, The bottle blonde.

Homework

The fence

Record of meeting 24 April 2013

Present

Wendy, Elizabeth, Cath, Amanda, Leonie, David C, Garry, Geoff, David R, Helene, Lynn

 

News

Cath has her car back. Amanda had a sore back. Leonie went to see family in Melbourne and walked this morning. David C has been back to the specialist and GP and is now well - had his brothers visiting from the UK & went on a sailing lunch on Sydney Harbour. Garry’s foster brother in law had twin boys this week. Geoff had a quiet week and a local friend passed away. David R had some lovely swims at Greenfields beach. Helene has been looking after her grandchildren for a week. Wendy had a lovely week in Mudgee. Elizabeth’s daughter has had overseas visitors and enjoyed political discussions. Lynn had a week of did nots.

 

Word of the day

Melsan - melancholic sanguine – type of psychological type – good organisers

Boorish – crude, rude, unattractive

Raze – erase or raze – completely raized – level

Accord – agreement or settle

Integral – necessary to part of the whole

Permeate – to pass through the air by liquid

Bombilate – to hum or buzz

Fashion – popular at a particular time

Rabid – infected by rabies also used to describe mad

Coruscate - To flash or sparkle

 

Writing from words of the day

We produced a range of good stories including Fashion and politics, The night meeting, Fashion was supreme, The boyfriend, The evil king, The voice and mass suicide, The sequin jacket, The demi god, Sam on MKR, The image from the past – very good, Same sex marriage and the tent.

 

Reading of homework

The family circus at home, Working for the circus, The shearing shed, Freaks in the circus, Circus at home, The girl on the flying trapeze, vegans versus meat eaters, Bingo Pop, Escape through books, Return to the book store.

 

Exercise

We each developed a list of characteristics and passed them on to the next person who then wrote a story about the character. A great exercise from Geoff based on Tim Winton’s book “Distant Lands” and “The writing book” by Kate Grenville.

 

Reading

David R read his poems “Beneath the surface” beautiful descriptions and “Seventh heaven”

 

Homework

Take the character we developed today and write more of the story.

Or

Write your own 500 words following after the section of story included in Geoff’s exercise. Contact Helene or Geoff if you want more details.

Or

Write on the topic - Indecision.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting 17th April 2013

Meeting 17^th April, 2013

Attendees

David R, Wendy, Elizabeth, Cath, Jo, Terry, Garry, Geoff, Lynn (facilitator today)

News

Geoff: a quiet week

David: enjoying the weather and enjoyed walking the ‘White Sands Walk.

Wendy: going to Mudgee tomorrow for 6 days. It sounds very exciting (tongue in cheek)

Elizabeth: missing her friends in Orange but is now making new friends.

Cath: has no car at the moment but a good looking bike at her home till she gets it back.

Lynne: enjoyed the White Sands Walk this week.

Jo: doing plenty of writing – over 20,000 words

Garry: good week.

Word of the day

Quandary = perplexity, dilemma, sticky situation

Apoplectic = enraged, furious, irate, annoyed

Smirk = grin, sneer, leer

Pique = bad feeling, annoyance, ill will

Whimsical = fanciful, quirky, capricious

Soporific = sleep-inducing, dull

Succinct = concise, short and snappy

Altruism = unselfishness, self-sacrifice

Hegemony = dominion, authority, subjugation

15 minute Quick write

All the poems and writings were ‘whimsical’ and none were ‘soporific’ truly showing the ‘altruism’ of the B&BW

HOMEWORK

Topic : The Book store

All poems and stories were well written and received.

DISCUSSION :

various ‘writing’ topics were informatively discussed. Impress or express in the purpose of writing a story

Writing activity

Describe a situation without actually saying what that situation is.

Once again, poets and writers excelled.

HOMEWORK

The circus

Record of meeting 10 April 2013

Present

Melissa, Cath, Amanda, Terry, Leonie, Helene, David R, Garry, Geoff

 

New Format

David R produced the new meeting format which we followed and it worked well giving us time for an exercise. Spare copies of the new format are in our storage box for everyone. Thanks to David for producing the new meeting format for us.

 

News

Cath has been to the beach enjoying the warm water and beautiful weather. Amanda has been doing motherly things and will take her children to the beach. Terry has been an active dreamer - he acts out his active dreams. Helene saw the movie Amour. David R walked from Vincentia to Huskisson this morning. Garry attended a seminar on the Futures Market and has made money in the first week but nothing the second week. Geoff met up with his old writing group which has been going 25 years. Leonie went for a BBQ brunch this morning. Melissa is a finalist in a writing contest.

 

Word of the day

Merit – verb and noun – value or worth

Propensity – inclination, tendency to behave in a particular way

Ebullient – adj – cheerful, full of energy

Riposte – reply, retort, comeback

Inured – accustomed or to take effect

Indolence – laziness

Archaic – old in language

Abhorrent – detest

Panache – flamboyant

We created a range of wonderful stories from words of the day.

 

Reading of homework

The reincarnation of Elvis – a great poem from Terry; I’ve missed you too – an excellent story from Amanda; Is that you? - a sad story from Cath;  Dementia and mushrooms – a great story from Melissa;  We must do it again - very familiar from Geoff;  A woman scorned – fiction from Garry; Long staying visitors - true story from David; Elvis often looses his way - a dream from Helene; Work and life experience - good lessons for writers from Leonie.

 

Books and ideas for writing

Helene spoke about Private Papers by Margaret Forster a family memoir with comments from a daughter.

Melissa spoke about Ray Bradbury – who advised “write every day”. Melissa will bring in his book “Zen and art of writing”.

Leonie has been having horrific dreams, she started writing each night and she hasn’t had a bad dream since.

Helene talked about writing a grateful diary every day. Melissa recommended using “The Artists way” by Julia Cameron as a stimulus to start writing everyday.

Helene spoke about using track changes for editing documents and Terry spoke about a program of identifying passive words.

David R talked about his daily program of creativity, he writes first, goes for a swim or walk, then writes 500 words longhand in a diary and has been doing so for many years.

Most of us agreed about the enjoyment of being alone and having quiet time.

Geoff talked about using the ellipsis to register a pause, suggests we read Wikipedia about ellipsis.

 

Exercise

We picked 5 people and wrote a one sentence description of what made that person note worthy. Lots of great characters emerged.

 

Homework due 17 April 2013

The bookstore

 

 

 

 

Record of meeting 3 April 2013

Present

David R, Geoff, Garry, Leonie, Lynne, Robyn, Jo, Cath, Helene and welcome to Amanda

New format

We discussed the proposed changes to the format for the meetings and decided the following standard format

• News session limit to 3 minutes, no timer to be used
• Word of the day and writing from word of the day to continue unchanged
• No change in hours for the meeting ie 1 pm to 4 pm
• Homework reading around 500 words
• No roster for facilitator - to be decided at each meeting
• Facilitator to manage the meeting, exercises etc
• Reading of personal projects around 1,000 words
• David R will prepare a handout on format and time and size requirements to be available to current and new members

The group agreed on the desire for spontaneity and fun while following a few guidelines to keep time under control.

 

News

Helene told the group about Piksters tiny toothbrushes to clean between teeth. Cath has a birdbath but the birds are vetoing it. Amanda lives in Basin View and has an interest in writing. Jo has been writing and finishing old projects.  Robyn has a bad back and Joe has been in hospital. Lyn has been walking with Joe. Leonie has planted the last tree for her garden and has 30 stepping stones left to position. Garry went to his mother’s celebration of life in Melbourne and sold his car for what he paid for it. Geoff will allude to his news on his homework. David looked at Energy Watch on line to find the cheapest electricity

 

Words of the day

Bespoke - made to individual order, custom made

Malevolent – wishing ill to others or malicious, evil

Bilbo – rapier or sword

Worrisome – worried

Melancholy – sadness, low mood

Recalcitrant – resisting authority or control

Awash – level on the surface of the water, flooded

Dudgeon – resentment, anger, huff

Apprise – to tell, inform

Drupe – a fleshy fruit with seed eg plum or olive

 

Writing from words of the day

The dress designer, Eat more druplets, A sad pirate, The sister queen, Awake on the wave, The trespasser, Relief in the Antique shop, Do not go near, Not a replica of her mother, Sleeping in the Dungeon – a brilliant poem by David R.

 

Reading of homework

Inspiration, Add spice and stir, The valentine rose, It came to be so, Did you get that, Memories grow sharper with time like a ripple on water – a powerful story from Leonie, Entertainment appropriate for us – a funny story from Garry, A special procedure then a hearty breakfast – a true story from Geoff, She knows the names – a photo taken – a memory.

Reading, writing etc

Shoalhaven Literary award short story contest closes 31 May see www.fawnswshoalhaven.org.au

Jo spoke about Cyril Maude she has sketches and books on him and suggested we look him up on the net

Geoff spoke about a review on Radio National of a book about Madeline St John’s life

David R read a poem called Soon that he wrote overlooking a lake and volcano in Chile

 

Exercise

Helene shared a bag of words, pictures and objects and we wrote about

Leonie – the paint brush reminds me of the love of painting at home sweet home. Robyn – Boot hill drawn to the graveyard. Jo – how not to appreciate a gift.  Amanda – The false Tommy.  Cath – a visit to the beach. Helene – the peach orchard. David R – Mothers girl. Geoff – guns under the bed. Garry – Monastery Island – heaven on earth.

 

Homework

The visitor