The Journal for November 2012

The Wannabe's Journal
for
November 2012

We hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving Holiday.  The Wannabe's had a monthly meeting last Friday at UD and we were able to share a lot of good stories and interesting information.  Before we review the details of the meeting we wanted to point our to our members that the annual Christmas Brunch will be held at Mary Lou's condo in Centerville again this year.  The date of our next meeting will be December 21st.  The fellow below looks a lot like me in my other uniform with the exception of his nose. 


                                                                                                       

The annual Christmas Brunch at my condo Friday, Dec 21at 9 am! 

I will make the Egg Casserole and serve coffee.

Need volunteers to bring:

Orange Juice

Bagels and cream cheese

Sweet rolls

Fruit salad

Champagne (To mix with OJ to make the mimosas!)

Small bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream (to mix with coffee)(Don Q will bring...the Irish Cream that is)

Any and all brunch treats are welcome!Please email Mary Lou at the following email address to confirm your attendance and what item you will be able to bring. 

What we talked about in our meeting

Rosie:  Shared with the group a new project she is creating for her granddaughter's 18th birthday.  Made from custom made paper, the picture book which is structured like an accordion contains a  life time of pictures, poems and Hiku's that will be a treasure that will be cherish forever. 

Don H. He and his partners have formed a company to help writers who want to self publish.  Don helped a close relative publish a book about coal mining entitled " Black Damp Century" 
He also recommended a book entitled "Monkey Paw" a short story by W.W. Jacobs.  Don also announced that the Anthology is still in development but will not be ready this year. 

Fay D. She read from a Memoir that she wrote about her life entitled "Bits and Pieces".  She read a portion of the book for us to enjoy.  The books style is unique in that it is entirely formated in short paragraphs with pictures used to support the story that was told in a few sentences.  It was interesting that she wrote this book a number of years ago well before the advent of Twitter with its 140 character thought stream format.  Who says we are behind the times at our age. 

One of  the interesting items in the story she read to us on Friday was the reference to a penny candy she bought as a child called:  Chicken Bones.  Chicken Bones are made with a rich, nut-meat center of chopped, fresh roasted almonds, cashews and coconut covered with butterscotch.  The use to cost 3 for a penny.  Now that penny won't even get you one. 

Martha.  Recommended that we read a book entitled:

 

One of her quotes from the book was:  "Don't act your age".

Jud. She has written about 30, 000 words for her new fictional novel.  She is participating in the NaNoWriMo which  is an annual (November) novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world.  Her goal is to write 1667 words a day. 

We also discussed writing your memoir in either 3 word or 6 word sentences. Try doing that. 

Wanda:  read a new story entitled: "Just Before Thanksgiving". 

Just Before Thanksgiving

It was November twenty third, a wet wintery afternoon, when our grandmother realized

she was out of cranberries and decided to make a last ditch run to Gus' Super Market. 

After she parked her car, she discovered she was parked in the middle of a 

puddle. In an attempt to avoid the puddle, she jumped to the front of her car almost 

landing on the toes of an elderly woman trying to avoid the same puddle. The woman 

smiled and said, "It's hard to believe this parking lot has so many puddles".

Grandmother not wanting to appear rude replied"Yes it is, especially because it is so late

in November one would expect snow not rain". The woman, to Grandmother's surprise, 

did not want to let go of her cordial reply and continued to converse. "I just returned from 

Virginia where I buried my husband", she said.

Grandmother stopped dead in her tracks, she was blindsided by the stranger's

openness. That was the last thing she expected to here from this pleasant woman,

who by the way was no longer very pleasant, for her eyes were full of tears . She said

"I miss him so much".

Grandmother was dumbfounded, but managed a sympathetic response and said 

"I am so sorry". At that, the woman replied,"Well it's all right, he had been sick for quite awhile.

He had diabetes and a heart problem. They had to remove his leg and his heart could not 

withstand the surgery". Grandmother again replied,"I am so sorry" and hurried into the 

grocery store. A feeling of guilt began to prick at her conscience. She did not think

there were words of comfort significant enough to meet this strangers immense sense of loss.

While shopping, Grandmother passed the woman in the store and noticed her shopping

cart had very little groceries in it. A thought raced across Grandmother's mind, not only

did this lady lose her husband, but now may have to face Thanksgiving Day alone.

Grandmother walked up to the woman and asked "are you going to be alone for

Thanksgiving?". The woman replied " Yes. My youngest son died in Vietnam, my middle 

son died in a car accident and my oldest son, who was a mine inspector, died of a lung

disease.She continued on. "My mother burned to death in a house fire and now my

Husband is gone."

Grandmother could not believe what she was hearing. The woman attempted to explain

why she still maintained hope despite her enormous loss by referring to Job's trial and

tribulations. Grandmother was overwhelmed with the magnitude of her loss and blurted 

out "Would you like to come to  Thanksgiving dinner at my house?". The stranger looked

surprised and said "Thank you but I think I want to be alone". Grandmother said, "I

understand, but in case you change your ind, I will give you my phone number."

The woman said, " My name is Dorothy, what is yours?". After exchanging names and 

phone numbers Grandmother returned home. She wondered if Dorothy would call. She

knew Dorothy may need some alone healing time, but she also knew Dorothy realized

the world was not quite as lonely as it was before she went to the grocery store and

Grandmother realized how fortunate she was to be with family for Thanksgiving

Don P.  Related his personal experience in trying to join the Army.  He tried numerous times to enlist but he unfortunately did not weigh enough to pass the physical.  They even recommended that he not visit the bathroom prior to his next visit so he would have a better chance of qualifying. 

A member of their church is moving to Tennessee and they have a  problem with relatives that have the same birthday.  Don said that he could relate to that.  You see Don has a identical twin brother. 

I have a very serious question to ask Doug and Cindy.

Since both of you were born on the same day who's birthday is dominant on each annual 17 November? I understand that this can be a problem. Does the one born first automatically claim the day? Does the one who gets out of bed first on the 17th claim the day? Do you set a time limit so that getting up before that time doesn't count towards this major decision? Do you just draw straws after you get up to see who gets to claim the day? Do you divide the day so each one has dominance for half a day? Is this called a half-birthday?

If there is need of a consultant to resolve any problems, I have an identical twin so I understand the magnitude of this problem of identical birthdays completely. I have been involved with the problem for 76 years now, with the next one coming up in two months. You may feel free to call me at any time and let me give you the benefit of my vast experience with this problem. The good news is that my fees are not excessive.

I have made two copies of this since I didn't want to play favorites or start a fight. Each of you can draw a card and write your name at the indicated spot on the top left.

Call me.

Don Peacock

Don Q.  Discussed the fact that our meeting for the next year are on the following dates:

Year 2013 Meeting schedule for the Wannabe's in the LLI lounge, 2nd floor of the River Campus building from 9 AM to 11:30 AM.

Jan 18th
February 15th
March 22nd
April 19th
May 17th
June 21st
July 19th
Aug 16th
Sept 20th
Oct 18th
Nov 15th

Remember this year our meeting will be held at  Mary Lou's condo on Dec 21st. 

I will be doing a number of book signing events in the next few weeks for my new book entitled Santa's Magic.  Here is just one event where you are more than welcome to come and have a chance to buy an autographed copy of a Wannabe's members book for the holiday.  They make great teachers gifts and stocking stuffer. 

Ho! Ho! Ho!
Dear Friend, I have put together a wonderful
evening for you at the Miami Valley Country on
November 30th, 2012, from 7 - 11 pm. The halls
of Miami Valley will be decked with whimsical
jolly that surely will bring a twinkle to your eye.
The stockings will be hung by the chimney with
care in hopes that you and yours will soon be
there!
Scattered about the Miami Valley Country Club
will be crafts by We Care Arts; The Brian Hafer
Foundation Christmas Golf Collection; A Winter
Art Collection from the Town & Country Fine
Arts Gallery; a book signing of two new books,
“Santa’s Magic” and “The Little Bird Who Loved
Taking A Bath”; beautifully designed wreaths
tailored from pinecones collected from the
Dayton Area; music from Scott Lindberg and
Rodney Corbin; a reverse raffle with a grand
prize of $7500* and delicious hors d’oeuvres’
magically put together by the Valley’s own
kitchen elves. And of course I, Santa Claus will be
there. Better check that list twice because that’s
a lot of Joy packed into one evening.
Please don’t wait, buy your ticket now! November
30th will be here in a nod and I need to know
how many stockings to fill.
Sincerely yours,
Santa Claus
aka....The Brian Hafer Foundation,
We Care Arts, The First Tee, and the
Miami Valley Country Club.
Purchase your ticket online at
www.brianhaferfoundation.com or call
937-522-0738.
*$7500 Grand prize based on the sale of 200 tickets.
May be adjusted to number of tickets sold
Coming to you live from the North Pole....
Scenes from the Brian Hafer
Christmas Golf Collection

Don Hart and I will be selling the Christmas Anthology and Santa's Magic at the UD Bookstore on the evening of December 5th from 6 to 8 PM. 

New Photo editing tool:  Snapheal is a Apple Mac Photo editing tool that has similar capabilities of Photoshop with a more reasonable price tag. I think the price of the software after  a 14 day trial use was around 20 dollars.  It has a great editing feature.  Here is their Website.  http://www.snapheal.com/

Our group also discussed the possibility of having a Writers Seminar next Fall(2013) that will be a Workshop format with speakers on poetry, fiction, non-fiction, photography and even self publishing topics such as Formatting using In Design and Marketing using Facebook, Twitter and Linkin.  We will provide you with more information as we start to put the program together.  We will try to schedule the event in early November so that we can have a book signing for local authors who have self published a book recently and want to share the wealth of their talents with friends and family. 

May you and your family have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving.  For those Snowbirds who are traveling make sure you understand that Turkey season has already started in some parts of the country...so be extra safe. 

---

The Wannabe Journal
for
October 2012

The last days of Fall are here in all their beautiful colors.  We recently held our monthly meeting of the Wannabe's at UD's River Campus.  I would encourage you to take a look at our Blog site to see the picture of some of our writers and contributors.  We had a very good meeting even though we changed room three times during the course of the morning. 

Here is an update on what we are all talking about and writing:

Mary Lou:  Read her story entitled: "Baby in a Basket" which she has submitted as one of the stories to be included in the new anthology that Don H. and his team are putting together.  Great short story of life in eastern Europe when large families. did I say twelve children, and parenting responsibility was a requirement of all townspeople. 

Rosie H:  Reported that the Fine Art gallery in Town and Country is having a gala on November 8th and the public is welcome.  Here is a copy of their invitation




Don P:  He always has a new project.  He has been working with his Pastor to have each parishioner write a one page biographical summaries of their life.  The leaders of his church hope to have it published in the future. 

He shared a poem that his pastor wrote about our current election process: 

A Prayer for the Final Weeks of the Campaign

Dr. Rodney Kennedy

O Lord,

Where can I flee from the political ads that disturb my peace?

Behold I live among a people of lying lips.

How long, O Lord, will I cry to you, "Liar, liar, pants on fire,"

And no one listens?

"Well, at least he's our liar," cry the partisans.

If I ascend to heaven, the ads are there.

If I make my bed i hell. the ads are there.

If I watch football, baseball, or CSI, the ads are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest

  limits of the sea,

Even there the ads reach me

By internet, television, radio, newspaper, by osmosis,

The ads are in the air I breathe.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover for me," the ads haunt my dreams.

"I approve this ad" resounds in my head day and night.

Is there nowhere I can hid?

The cleft of a rock?

The wilderness of temptation?

The Mount of Transfiguration?

The Isle of Patmos?

After this I heard what seemed to be the voice of the Lord,

"Gird up your loins, and go to Louisiana.

Take no purse, or bag; no sandals; and greet no one on the road.

Leave your computer and cell phone.

There you will find peace.

There are no presidential campaign ads in Louisiana.

Neither party is crazy enough to spend money there."

Then I said,

O Lord,

Thank you for hearing my prayers,

But if it is all the same to you,

I will stay in Ohio.

See you in church Sunday. Amen

Don also shared with us a listing of all the publishers and the genre's that they specialize in for our use. 

Cindy K: Recommended that we investigate a library in Columbus for Ohio authors and publishers.  The organization's name is Ohioana and has over 45, 000 books in its collection and reviews over 200 books a quarter for its Ohioana Quarterly.  Too bad but they do not take self-published novels or eBooks.  Too bad...they must be living in the past. 

Fay D.  She read a wonderful story that she wrote in the late 1970's about a woman's convention that she attended in Cincinnati.  There were over 1, 000 young women in the audience who were captivated by the talk that was presented by Maria Von Trapp, of Sound of Music fame. 

She Gave Her Love Away

            Maria Von Trapp, whose life story is portrayed in the movie, The Sound of Music,  entered on stage dressed in her native Austrian frock, a scarf wrapped around her head and knotted at the nape of her neck.  She humbly acknowledged the cameras that flashed like fireflies about the banquet hall at the Netherlands Hilton Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 17, 1979.  It was the event of the 59^th Annual State Convention of the Ohio Child Conservation League, an organization dedicated to the study and betterment of children everywhere.  One thousand women had gathered to welcome her.

            “Dear friends,” she voiced and waited for the applause and flashing cameras to subside.

            “Dear friends,” she repeated, paused, and looking to her right, said, “I don't see any cameras over here.”  The audience warmed to her and cameras flashed again. 

            “Dear friends,” Maria began again and reached to remove a flower from the bouquet in front of the lectern.  Placing it in a glass of water, she leaned forward and

explained, “It was blocking someone's face and I could not see her.”

            We all knew well the story of The Sound of Music, but eagerly awaited to hear it directly from Maria Augusta von Trapp, who as a young child was an orphan in Austria.

She told us she entered a convent in the hopes of becoming a nun.  One day her superior called her aside and asked her what she had learned while at the convent. 

           

            “To find out what is the will of God and then go and do it,” she answered.

            When a request came to the convent for a governess to care for the seven children of a widower, Captain Georg von Trapp, the consensus of opinion was certainly Maria should go.  Maria told of reluctantly leaving the security of the convent to tutor the children for ten months.

            “I fell in love with the children immediately and then grew to admire and love their father,”  she said.  Maria and Georg von Trapp were married on November 26, 1927. 

            Maria enjoyed teaching the children to sing, but when friends urged the family to take part in the contest at the festival for group singing in Salzburg, the Baron von Trapp refused.  Of her husband, Maria said warmly, “He proved not to be a prophet when he said, 'my family will never be on stage' for the first prize was awarded to the Trapp Family from Salzburg at the Festival in August, 1936. 

            Then the touring began.  The Trapp Family sang for many dignitaries in many countries, including Paris, London, Brussels, and Rome.

            On March 11, 1938, the radio brought the news of Hitler's invasion of Austria.  She told about hearing the church bells ringing from every church in their town and when they called a priest inquiring about this, they were informed that a Gestapo man with a gun was supervising the ringing of the bells in all the churches.  However, she said, the radio announced the bells were ringing a greeting to their liberators.  This was the first of many lies they were to witness. 

            “Overnight our freedoms were gone”, Maria told her audience.  “We lost our freedom of speech.  We found ourselves whispering things.  We lost our freedom of religion.  If we went to church, we lost our job.  We were afraid all the time.”

......................

Anyone who wishes to read the entire story please send me an email. 

Jud:  Busy as ever.  She took a family sabbatical on Bald Head Island for two weeks as a retreat for her writing ambitions.  She reminded us that November is National Writing month.  National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo /ˌnænoʊˈraɪmoʊ/ na-noh-RY-moh) is an annual internet-based creative writing project which challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel between November 1 and 30.  Twitter even has a separate group who helps encourage writers to write at lease 2500 words a day.  Jud was busy during her retreat organizing her plans to write the next best selling fictional novel. 

She also recommends Wordsworth Writers Center in Dayton for their classes and support groups for this program.  Here is their website:  http://www.wordsworthdayton.com/

She is also involved in her radio program and is learning the new world of photo editing. She recommends The Reinvention Story. 

Wanda:  has been busy as well.  She read two different poems to the group.

Here is one of them.  

                                                                                                                  

TOAD

THERE WAS A LITTLE BOY

LOOKING FOR A TOAD

HE WENT ON A HIKE

OFF THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

ALTHOUGHT HE WAS ONLY FOUR

HE WAS DETERMINED TOEXPLORE

HE LOOKED UNDER A ROCK

HE LOOKED UNDER A TREE

HE EVEN LOOKED UNDER

A SLEEPY OLD ME

COME ON, I SAID

IT’S TIME TO GO

THE LITTLE BOY CRIED

NO, NO, NO, NO

THE TOAD, HE SAID,

I SAW IT COME HERE

WE MUST WAIT

EVEN IF IT’S A YEAR

ALL RIGHT, I SAID

JUST ONE MORE LOOK

AND I STOOD UP

AS I PUT DOWN MY BOOK

AT JUST THAT TIME

IF YOU WONDER OR DOUBT

I SAW THAT TOAD, FROM

A HOLE HE CAME OUT

THE LITTLE BOY YELLED

AND SHOUTED WITH GLEE

HE CAUGHT THAT TOAD

JUST FOR ME

   

Don H  brought us up to date with the status of our latest Anthology book that he and Robert MacKenzie have been working on.  Don indicated that there are now 26 stories and poems in the current novel entitled "Triumphs and Tragedies". 

Don Q:  Announced that the annual Christmas Brunch will again be hosted by Mary Lou at her Centerville condo.  Santa has even attended the event in the past and this year will again prove to be something that you should add to your meeting list early.  The date for our brunch this year is December 21st from 9 AM to noon.  Directions and suggestions on what to bring will be sent out next month.  We hope to have everyone attend. 

Some other announcements: 

Marketing your book:  Check out Google Adwords at:  ttps://adwords.google.com/

It will allow you to investigate tags for a new novel to see which words will attract the largest audience in web searches. 

While we are on the topic:  check out this article which I found on the web about putting together a marketing plan for Non-fiction titles.

https://www.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1556

An excellent Blog post of ISBN rights and Copyright protection from Jane Friedman's newsletter blog.  http://janefriedman.com/2012/10/15/qa-on-copyright-with-an-attorney/

Last of all since I mentioned Jane's Web site I had the opportunity to corespondent with her recently.  I had sent her an email hoping that she would like a copy of my recent book:  Santa's Magic.  I knew what the immediate answer was before I hit the Enter key.  However being the good friend that she is, she directed me to web site which provide me with the same kind of support I was looking for.  She recommended that I investigate the following:  "I know there are a number of community sites that can help you get some readers, e.g., Wattpad, Authonomy, Book Country."

I had already heard of Authonomy so I thought I would give it a try.  It has been fantastic.  I recently uploaded the first three chapters of the book and immediately started to get feedback from many of the 13,000 writers who participate in the site.  You do not receive feedback everyday but when you do many times it is very informative:

Gosh, I haven't written a letter to Santa in a long time! This is a nice, nostalgic tale about one of the greatest bits of magic most kids get to hold onto, at least for a while. You tell your story well, quite clearly and with obvious deep affection. Nicely done! Critique-wise, there were just occasional missing commas or other minor errata. A couple were: a question mark that should be a period in : "Little did I know that it would become an annual passion for more than 30 years?" and a period that should be erased in: "but Billy . would remember".

I could hear the joy in your voice as you told these special stories. It's not whether St. Nick really exists is it? It's about compassion for all humans beings, kindness towards all, and lots of therapeutic hugs that bring warmth to your heart, like the lady in the green smock.
Thanks for sharing this magical tale, Santa.
If you wants some feedback from your writing peers this is an excellent site.  I am going to check out the other sites with some other short stories that I have written and put on the shelf.  I will let you know. 

Our next meeting of the Wannabe's will be early in November due to Thanksgiving being early this year.  We will have our meeting on November 

 16th.  

 

Thank you Paul Logus for this cartoon:

Also look for an announcement in the coming weeks on a Writers Event at UD River Campus.  Happy Halloween