Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 2nd, 2017 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

It’s becoming almost too common to make news when someone discovers lost work by a famous author.  This time it’s Walt Whitman writing prose, not poetry.

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Requests for review slots are at an all-time low.  Polish up something and get your slot.  You can email me with your request or wait until the meeting.

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Here’s an interview with an author about what many recognize as a major problem for our democracy.  Too many people only hear one side of things so are not informed enough to recognize fake stories or to vote objectively, and social media contributes strongly to that trend.

Victories

Dakota will participate in a large book signing next week in Kansas City.  She released another book for publication and expects the cover art soon.

Uriah made a web site to be used for his book.

Stacie S. is finding time to write again during the baby’s naps.

Education

Run-on or comma spliced sentences are a common problem (another discussion).  Those are words that should be two independent sentences, but are spliced together with a comma or no punctuation at all.

For example, “We will miss your party we  are going to the concert.”  There are two complete sentences here that could stand alone, each with a subject and verb,  “We will miss your party.” and “We are going to the concert.”

Adding a comma between them does not make them legal.  A semicolon would work since they are closely related and the semicolon is a more powerful punctuation, but semicolons are generally discouraged in fiction.

The other way to join independent clauses is with a conjunction (and, but, because, after, etc.).  “We will miss your party because we going to the concert .”  This may be a smooth or clumsy method depending on the sentences.

Upcoming Schedule

March 2
Nick
Uriah
Dylan

March 9
Open slots

March 16
Open slots

March 23
Open slots

March 30
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill