Next Noble Pen Meeting

Jan 7th, 2016 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

With two holidays coming up, we won’t meet again until January 7th.  Best wishes to all.

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A while back we heard that Tyree was (involuntarily) doing research for a medical novel.  He reports that two surgeries to implant and correct an automatic atrial defibrillator didn’t seem to help right away, but now he is feeling more energetic and capable.  He also managed to move to a different residence during that time.  Despite all this he has some literary victories.  He sends his regards and hopes to drop in again sometime.

Victories

Dylan finished a commission.  Surprisingly, it was within the target word count.

Charlie got his submission for review out despite some obstacles.

Tyree sold a short story in October and a poem in November.  Nomadic Delirium published a collection of his short stories.  The Yoelin story we reviewed is being considered by a publisher.  Despite originally liking the apocalyptic story we reviewed, a larger publisher has taken no action on it, so he is moving it to a different publication route.

Education

How do you know if your story is finished?  Well, actually, nothing is ever as nearly perfect as it could be, but when you think it’s close you need to stop and examine it dispassionately.  Chris Robley offers a checklist to help you decide if it is good enough.  And here’s another list.  Stephanie Gayle talks about what her novel needed after she thought it was finished.

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 24
Christmas Eve – no meeting

Dec 31
New Year’s Eve – no meeting

Jan 7
Randy
Nick

Jan 14
Bill W.
Aime W.

Jan 21
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Dec 17th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Barnes and Noble is looking to increase revenue by broadening their offerings beyond books to include games and toys.

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A new book discusses Cedar Rapids native Carl Van Vechten, who is best remembered for his photographs of authors, artists, and entertainers.  You can also see some of his photos at CSPS hall.

Victories

Cassie has the final proof of her book.  It is available for pre-order on line, she signed up for a PR blitz, and has scheduled a launch party.  She has drafted a third of the next story in the series.

Dylan has a subscriber and started serializing a second novel.

Daniel’s book on role playing game is in stores.

Education (?)

Commas can make a big difference.  The classic example is “Let’s eat Grandpa,” which was probably meant to read “Let’s eat, Grandpa.”

The Oxford Comma, the one that precedes the “and” in a list, is favored by many but rejected by others.  Commas or their lack can be expensive sometimes, as shown by this court case and this one.

A discussion at the last meeting about a bag of commas reminded me to reprint this attempt at humor from an older newsletter.

Some people do not favor commas because their ancestors learned to get along without them, after they found commas too difficult to transport over the mountains as they moved west.  They chose an extra barrel of flour over a supply of commas when they packed their wagons.   Even today, the cost of shipping a carton of commas restricts their use.

People may resort to modifying apostrophes, which seem to be in excess supply these days.  However when lowering the apostrophes it is easy to drop and bend them so that the best you can do is cut them down to salvage periods, which are only worth pennies on the dollar.  Few people use semicolons, so if you have an unneeded one you can cut it in two and have both a period and a comma for little effort.

I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.— Oscar Wilde

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 17
Dylan
Charlie

Dec 24
Christmas Eve – no meeting

Dec 31
New Year’s Eve – no meeting

Jan 7
Randy
Nick

Jan 14
Bill W.
Open slot

Keep Writing,
Bill

Next Noble Pen Meeting

Dec 10th, 2015 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

An article argues that many real-world events would  be rejected as implausible in fiction.

There is nothing so powerful as truth – and often nothing so strange. ~ Daniel Webster

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You don’t always need complicated words.  Randall Munroe, creator of the XKCD comic, has a book coming out that explains a lot of things using a 1,000-word vocabulary.

Victories

Dylan has a subscriber on Patreon.  He finished a draft of his commissioned piece, and AMAZINGLY it is within the target word count for once.

Kelsey outlined a story.  She started using Scrivener.

Education

Interesting characters can be critical to a book’s success.  They need to be developed, but not necessarily all at once.  This article suggests giving each character some distinctive characteristic for people to remember them by, and has links to further explore the subject.  David Corbett offers some advice on developing characters as the story progresses.

Upcoming Schedule

Dec 10
Randy
Aime W.

Dec 17
Dylan
Charlie

Dec 24
Christmas Eve – no meeting

Dec 31
New Year’s Eve – no meeting

Jan 7
Randy
Nick

Keep Writing,
Bill