Next Noble Pen Meeting

Feb 2nd, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

See what’s selling in fiction at Publisher’s Weekly.

A panel discussion by authors is enthusiastic about self-published digital books.

Victories

Dylan got another commission for a 15 k-word story.

Ciuin’s four-page rebuttal convinced her professor to discontinue use of a misleading article in classes.

Education

Some reasons why manuscripts get rejected.  And a very brief list of reasons from Lukeman’s book The First Five Pages.

Don’t let anyone, or any rejection, keep you from what you want. ~ Ashley Tisdale

I could write an entertaining novel about rejection slips, but I fear it would be overly long.~Louise Brown

Every rejection is incremental payment on your dues that in some way will be translated back into your work. ~ James Lee Burke

Upcoming Schedule

February 2nd

Shannon
Tyree
Ciuin

February 9nd

Shannon
Aimee
Shanna

February 16th

Tyree
Ciuin
Opne slot

February 23rd

Open slots

March 1st

Nick (returning after vacation)

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Jan 26th, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

A number of our usual attendees are currently too busy with other life events to come to meetings.  This is a good time to get in line for review slots.

Kate is leaving to join the US Coast Guard.  Really.  I couldn’t make that up.  (Well, Shannon could have but didn’t.)  She is still interested in doing reviews and sharing her writing from a distance.  At least when her arms aren’t too sore to type from doing pushups and polishing the boats.  Let her know if you want to be on her distribution list.

Victories

Shannon sold a non-fiction article to ParABnormal Digest magazine, on electronic voice phenomena as seen by ghost hunters.

Ciuin was asked to speak at a symposium in Montreal in October, expenses paid, as a result of the president of the Romani in Canada reading her blog.

Dylan won first place in a writing contest, finished two commissions, and got two more commissions to work on.

Education

Shannon suggests this good article on copy editing versus content editing as well as other subcategories.

The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished. ~George Bernard Shaw

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. ~Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft.~ H.G. Wells

Upcoming Schedule

January 26th

Tyree
Dylan
Ciuin

February 2nd

Shannon
Tyree
Ciuin

February 9nd

Shannon
Aimee
open slot

February 16th

Open slots

February 23rd

Open slots

March 1st

Nick (returning after vacation)

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Jan 19th, 2012 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Winter finally arrived a few weeks late, and we called off the January 12th meeting while they cleared the roads.

For rescheduling, anybody who had review slots two weeks in a row loses one of them to make room to move things out.   The people who lost slots get first crack at new openings.  Confused? See the schedule below.

That gives us four reviews to do on the 19th.  I think we can handle it if we are disciplined about the time.  We’ve already had time to read the first three submissions so preparation should be easy.

Tony reports that he again is teaching a class next semester in addition to a full-time job, so probably won’t be able to rejoin us for a while.

Victories

Tony had a writing victory.  He has a flash fiction piece in the first issue of a new magazine that is available on-line or in print form.  You can download it free after registering at
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/324163
and then re-clicking the same link.

Education

The one-sentence hook is a good tool for generating interest in your story and may also help you formulate it.

I’m writing a book.  I’ve got the page numbers done. ~  Stephen Wright

Ideas only come to me for short stories.  With longer fiction, it is a character (or characters) coming to visit, and I am then obliged to collaborate with him/her/it/them in creating the story. ~ Roger Zelazny

Upcoming Schedule

January 19th

Nick
Ciuin
Shannon
Kate

January 26th

Tyree
Ronda (?)
Ciuin

February 2nd

Shannon
Open slots

Keep Writing,

Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Jan 12th, 2012  7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

E-readers continue to grow in popularity.  One source says that 1.3 million were sold during the Christmas season, and one in 40 adults in the UK got one as a present.  There are half as many book shops in the UK as in 2005.

This isn’t news, but several things went past me this week that reminded me of Nick’s story.
Moat contractors
What’s in your moat?
Tourists cross moat. (a real image to go with his story)

And for lovers of the offbeat, this week would be the 100th birthday of  Charles Addams, who created the Addams family and thousands of cartoons.  He was honored with a Google doodle on the 6th.

Victories

Ciuin will have a working laptop again as soon as the shop finishes installing a new keyboard, so she will be able to start writing again.  It’s just in time because her head is about to explode with pent up chapters.

Kate read her story aloud to her parents, and learned a lot about what to improve in the story.    She had to stop after two chapters because she came down with laryngitis.   An artist must suffer for their art.

Education

There are a number of web sites with something like this random plot generator or this one. As it says on one site, random plots aren’t guaranteed to make sense.  Still, one might inspire you to come up with something better.

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any. ~Orson Scott Card

If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.~Edgar Rice Burroughs

Upcoming Schedule

January 12th

Nick
Ciuin
Shannon

January 19th

Nick
Tyree
Kate

January 26th

Tyree
Ronda
Ciuin

February 2nd

Shannon
Open slos

Keep Writing,

Bill