Next Noble Pen Meeting

November 21st, 2013 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

A court ruled in favor of Google, saying that their book scanning project is a fair use.  The Writers Guild will appeal. (Longer version of story)

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The 2013 autumn (northern hemisphere) edition of the Science Fiction News is available.

Victories

Dylan submitted three short stories and finished a fourth.

Tyree’s steampunk story received a nomination for an award, its second such recognition.

Ciuin Convinced the U of Iowa library to quadruple the size of its Romany-related collection and they asked her to give them a list of recommendations.

Education

It’s about time. Not necessarily time travel. All stories happen over time, and the author must decide whether to present events in chronological order, start at an attention-grabbing point and fill in the background later (in medias res) but not necessarily the most action-packed moment – or any of several other arrangements.

Michael Rabiger explains timelines in terms of film, but novelists should gain insights as well.

The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order: the continuous thread of revelation. ~Eudora Welty

A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order. ~Jean-Luc Godard

And now the sequence of events in no particular order. ~Dan Rather

Upcoming Schedule

Nov 21st
Lesson about commas
Tyree
Nick
Laura

Nov 28th
Thanksgiving – no meeting

Dec 5th
Tyree
Barbara
Dylan

Dec 12th
Cassie
Nick
Riley

Dec 19th
Nick
Jed
Tyree (?)

Keep Writing,
Bill