Meeting 24 August 2016

The writers 

Wendy, Juan, Roslyn, Cath, Helene, Terry, Virginia, David C, Diane and welcome to visitor Kath

The words of the day

Hideous – repulsive

Hectoring - bullying

Hero – brave, champion, idol

Hangar – storage for planes

Happy – feeling or showing pleasure

Hyperbole – deliberate exaggeration

Hamstrung – restricted or thwarted

Harangue – tirade noisy long pompous speech

Hobbledehoy – rough, ill mannered youth, unkempt

Writing from words of the day

Helene – Waiting for the plane, Wendy - Harry and Hector, Di – The definition of a bully, Juan – Pepe le pew, Roslyn – Brave Action, David – The Minister for Finance left, Terry – Elected, Cath – Hard to be happy and Kath Seeing my hero.

Reading of homework

Six heroic writers read out the following homework - Cath – A camping holiday, Helene – My ancestry, Terry – My first car smelled a little strange, David – Hesitating, Roslyn – My hideout and Juan – A home coming (read by Lynn).

Exercise - in another life

We created wonderful stories and poems from the point of view of another person or creature.  Helene - My life as a butterfly, Diane – My friend, Juan – My cat, Roslyn – A day in the shop, David – A beared man in white robes, Terry – In the skylight ( a vey clever poem), Lynne – My life as a spider and Kath – A young lady in my shoes.

Homework

Use the letter L

1. To select your word of the day and
2. A topic starting with the Letter L as the basis for your homework on a memory.

Record of meeting 17 August 2016

 The writers

Wendy, Cath, Juan, Helene, Roslyn, Lynn, Elizabeth, Terry, David C

Words of the day - partially staring with the letter P

Phantom - an illusion

Poltroon – dastardly

Potential - possibility

Desultory – digress from

Pitapat – quick succession of beats

Portal – large doorway, window

Poignant – affecting your senses

Hostler - in charge of vehicles and machines

Pot-pouri - a mixture of rose petals, spices etc

Writing from words of the day

The writers purloined the words of the day and pummelled them into the following propaganda: Helene – In Parliament House, Wendy – When I met a hustler, Cath – Emotions, Roslyn – Birds on the roof, Juan – A friend from childhood, Lynn – Tiny feet, Terry – From the Parson – a great poem, David – In a dreamlike state and Elizabeth memories.

Reading of homework

Five pedantic writers produced the following perfect homework: Roslyn - Ten men at my feet, Juan – A most memorable trip to Mars, David – My first holiday, Elizabeth – Never caught a fish and Helene – Sugar sweet holidays.

  

Young Writers Competition - learn, grow, hope, resiliance

Thanks to Juan who organised for Tim and Fiona from the Shoalhaven Suicide Prevention and Awareness Network (SSPAN) and Kathryn from Headspace, who facilitated a workshop to assist us in the process of evaluating entires in the Young Writers Competition. The group was extremely interested and enthusiastically discussed relevant issues.

Entries in the competition close on 16 September 2016. We will continue to discuss the judging of entries and develop procedures.

Homework for 24 August 2016

Write a memoir about something starting with the letter H.

Select a word of the day starting with the letter H

Record of meeting 10 August 2016

The writers

Wendy, Juan, Cath, Helene, Terry, Leonie, Pauline, Elizabeth, David C, Diane

News

Elizabeth thanked the group for their wishes and present

The information session on Suicide prevention will be conducted at 3 pm Wednesday 17 August 2016. This information is to assist us in judging entries in the Youth writing competition.

The words of the day

Fudge = to cheat

Family = groups

Foray = incursion or raid

Fustigate = to beat with a stick

Philanthropy = a love of mankind

Faugh = an exclamation of disgust

Frolic = run and play in a lively way

Funicular = worked by cable or rope

Feral = wild after being domesticated

Finagle = to get something by trickery

Writing from words of the day

Helene – Anything for fudge,  Wendy – give him what for, Juan – communicating with my Telco,  Terry – The senate, David – fire walking, Leonie – Dad didn’t like Felix, Elizabeth – I would rather play marbles, Diane – Wanton behaviour, Cath – They should be fustigated and Pauline - Quoting from a movie.

Reading of homework

Eight writers read their homework on the topic of memories: Di – All we have, Leonie – Contrasts, David – Operation Lullaby, Terry – The best marble – a great story, Juan – The ultimate sacrifice, Helene – My grandmother’s heart shaped locket, Pauline – When the punishment was unfair and Cath – The boat trip.

Reading

Terry read out Juan’s compassionate story “They call me refugee”.

Exercise

We wrote stories and poems starting with the words “Yesterday when”

Homework

Write a poem or a story about a holiday memory

For the meeting on 17 August provide a word of the day starting with the letter P.

Record of meeting 3 August 2016

The writers

The cold winds did not discourage Terry, Juan, Roslyn, Wendy, Cath, Pauline, Lynn, Leonie, Helene, David C and Di from attending.

Kris sent an email saying farewell for now.

Thanks to Wendy for organising our Christmas in July lunch and thanks to Juan for playing Santa.

Words of the day

Halcyon = carefree

Miffed = annoyed, peeved

Decimate = reduce by 10%

Lurid = gaudy or ghostly pale

Vociferous = noisy or clamorous

Plutocratic = governed by wealth

Decadent = detonation of morality

Hoary = white or greyish white frost

Privilege = a right, immunity or benefit

Omnipresent = present every where at the same time

Megalomaniac = passion for appearing important, crazy

Writing from words of the days

The writers grabbed the words of the day and rearranged them to create a range of interesting stories and poems; Helene – The Cabinet, Wendy – the person next door, Juan – Mr Charles Lindbergh, Roslyn – Older folk, Terry – he stood on the stage, Lynn – To rule, Leonie – The opening of Parliament, Pauline – Boredom, David – Donald Trump, Cath - Become accustomed and Di – Remove that child.

Reading of homework

The cooler weather has stimulated writing skills expressed in the following stories and poems; Helene – Charm and beauty, Juan – Johnny,  David – The Real estate agent, Pauline – Tom Jones, Leonie – Angry and resentful, Lynn – Pacing like a cat, Terry – Rick is likeable and Roslyn – A man living in the bush.

Reading

Terry read out an excellent poem submitted to the competition on Mental health by a 14 year old.

Terry also read out a description of the Virgule – a little rod

Miss Understanding exercise

We finished a story that started with “Miss Understanding opened a can of worms when …..

The writers approached this exercise from very different angles as follows; Helene – Its fiction, Di – she used her teeth, David – My mistake, Pauline – A can of spaghetti, Lynn – Misplaced her instructions, Terry – Misses in the library, Roslyn – Jumped over the counter, Juan – mixed up the book for a customer and Wendy – She has sharp teeth.

Homework

1. Write a short story or poem from your family or your own life. Bring an item that relates to your story to the meeting on 10 August 2016.

2. Select your word of the day starting with the letter F for 10 August meeting.

Record of meeting 27 July 2016

The writers

Terry, Juan, Roslyn, Lynne, Pauline, Kris, Cath, David C, Wendy and Helene,

The words of the day

Cuff – turn up of sleeve

Nephologist – study of cloudsMaudlin- tearful, sentimental

Extra curricular – outside regular course of study

Barbarea – perennial herb winter cress

Chromosome - a thread-like structure of nucleic acids and protein found in the nucleus of most living cells, carrying genetic information in the form of genes.

Dallying – wasting time

Crepuscular – resembling twilight, dim or indistinct

In extremis – on the point of death

Traduce – to slander

Writing from words of the day

The enthusiastic group of writers did not dally and created a great range of eclectic stories and poems - Helene - In the garden, Wendy - Stop it, Terry - Sitting on the seashore, Juan – What is freedom?  Roslyn – water is important, Lyn – on a silver plate, Pauline – Roger Rabbit, Kris – Results matter, Cath – A Shiver and David – On his death bed.

Reading of homework

Eight enthusiastic writers read of their homework as follows - David – The affair, Helene – Repeating myself, Cath – Jubilation, Kris – The special gift, Pauline – Not a movie star, Lynn – The distraction, Roslyn – The bridge in Monet’s garden, Terry – I didn’t do it and brilliant poem and Wendy On a dating website.

Young writer’s award

Juan spoke about the competition for he is running for Shoalhaven high school students. The writers have agreed to assist in the judging of the entries.

Word or picture exercise

From a mysterious collection each writer selected a word or picture and used their vivid imagination to write the following stories

Terry – Challenge, Wendy – Performance, Helene – Passion, David – Sunday Rose, Cath – Dollars, Pauline – Combine for police, Lynn – unique, Roslyn – Autumn; and Juan – Light on our life.

Numberplate exercise AAJ 90 37

We used the first three letters of the number plate AAJ to start our story or poem and included the numbers 90 37 in the story.

Juan – Adam and Eve, Roslyn – New identity and new location, Lynn – An aardvark, Pauline – Angela comes to Australia, Cath – Invitations, David – Australian Association of Jag owners, Helene – the rifle, Wendy – Adam’s apples jut out and Terry After Alan jumped off the cliff.

 Homework due 3 August 2017

Create a likeable rouge character.

RECORD FOR THE MEETING 20TH JULY

Writers for the day Terry, Elizabeth, Di, Kris, Ros, Wendy, Cath, Lynn

Words for the day

Yearning         Longing desire

Firkin              Small cask for liquid

Ambrosial        Especially pleasing to taste/experience

Pyrrhic            Victory at great cost, hollow victory

Ebullient          Exhuberant, cheerful

Transmogrify   Change in appearance or form

Non-entity       Insignificant person or thing

Brexit               British campaign to exit the EU

From these words came varied inventive stories with overtones of English culture and an unknown future.

Homework 

From the previous week Di read her story on a hometown dump.  The homework on 'Independent Thinking' of course produced thought provoking essays. The exploration into the reality of individual thought and if it really ever exists and when it is deemed to exist the conservative masses attempts to shut it down.  Reality bites.

Exercise 1 

Using words first seen in Shakespeare's works construct a story - cold-hearted, lustrous, savagery, swagger and watchdog.

Exercise 2

Using each letter of the alphabet in order at the beginning of each word  write a sentence, you can start anywhere in the alphabet.  eg A boy can destroy every foolhardy game however Ian just etc. or Like many nerds only perfecting quantum relativity soon tedium etc.  Try one for next week.  

 
 
Homework due 27 July - I was framed

Remember Christmas in July lunch - Friday 29 July at the Lodge. Let Wendy know if you will be attending

Record of meeting 13 July 2016

July is the month of Independence and drama

Present

Wendy, Juan, Cath, Pauline, Leonie, Helene and welcome to Callum

Words of the day

Skittle – to knock down

Drizzle – very light rain

Jovial – jolly

Prescience – foresight

Blather – talking lots of nonsense

Cuspidor – a spittoon

Kilter – on track, level

Writing from words of the day

The writers had the prescience to gather the words of day and created the following blather - Leonie – a cold grey day, Helene – Stable government, Wendy – In the park, Juan – My right foot wants eyes and Pauline – The gift.

Reading of homework

Six jovial writers read out their home work - Helene – Lifou and Port Vila, Callum - the house was a dump, Leonie – He hated computers, Pauline – Am I a hoarder, Juan – The old man and Wendy – Beads of blood.

Christmas in July lunch

All members are welcome at the Lodge on Friday 29 July at 12 noon for our annual Christmas in July lunch.  Please let Wendy know if you will be attending.

Exercises

The writers participated in two progressive writes. The first write was topic based and the second only shared the last line.

Homework

I am an independent thinker and the result is sometimes dramatic