Noble Pen Meeting

June 2nd, 2011
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

This is it. This is the answer. It says here that a bolt of lightning is gonna strike the clock tower precisely at 10:04 p.m. next Saturday night. If we could somehow harness this bolt of lightning, channel it into the flux capacitor, it just might work. Next Saturday night, we’re sending you back to the future.

–Doctor Emmett Brown, Back to the Future

Victories

Nyx IV has begun. High body counts are expected.

Tony has had ideas about Tunnels.

Kris completed another illustration to her book; a scary, scary, illustration. I haven’t seen it. I don’t want to. It’s that scary.

News

Kurt Vonngut on a chalkboard.

An interesting interview with Mary DeMuth.

Upcoming Schedule

June 2nd
(12) Nick
(12) Ciuin
(12) Tyree Kelly?

June 9th
(12) Kris
(12) Tony

June 16th
(12) Shannon
(12) Dylan
(13)Ian

June 23rd
(13)Tyree
(13)Kris
(13)Shanna

June 30th (Possibly bumped for 4th of July weekend)
(13) Shannon
(13) Dylan

Keep Writing, Penites.

Shannon

Noble Pen Meeting

May 26th, 2011
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

We live in an age where illness and deformity are commonplace, and yet, Ploppy, you are, without a doubt, the most repulsive individual I have ever met. I would shake your hand, but I fear it would come off.

–Blackadder

Victories

Nyx 3 is done, and somehow, this has stopped the rapture.

Tony wrote another 1700 words of St. Lucy’s in 1 day. Many of them are good.

Kelly is graduating from Mt. Mercy on Sunday. This is all I can think of.

Ciuin has finished school for the year and she’s starting a new novel. She got an A in Creative Writing. Also, or reasons which cannot be discussed here, she received a generous out-of-court settlement from Adventureland–no livestock was harmed.

News

Slate explains why punctuation makes no sense.

Here are some open university classes on writing.

Agent Jennifer Laughran has some information on word counts for younger readers.

Upcoming Schedule

May 26th
(11) Kelly Tyree
(11) Shannon R

June 2nd
(12) Nick
(12) Ciuin
(12) Tyree Kelly

June 9th
(12) Kris
(12) Tony

June 16th
(12) Shannon R
(12) Dylan

Keep Writing, Penites.

Shannon R

Noble Pen Meeting

May 19th, 2011
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

He had a collection of science-fiction films on DVD and Blu-ray discs, and although he said he’d seen most of them before, Caitlin was surprised to discover how many of the cases were still shrink-wrapped. “Why’d you buy them if you weren’t going to watch them?” she asked.

He looked at the tall, thin cabinets that contained the movies and seemed to ponder the question. “My childhood was on sale,” he said at last, “so I bought it.”

— Robert Sawyer (WWW: Watch)

Victories

Nyx is almost to the last chapter. Will she ever get to take her vacation?

Ciuin finished her final final. Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo.

One of my beta-readers started reading my novel. However, I have in on good authority that he has been side-tracked by a Friday 13th marathon.

Shannon 2  The second Shannon Female Shannon Shannon M joined us this week.

News

Forget witty headlines. They aren’t searchable. Which reminds me, I’ve decided to rename “Fangs for Nothing” to “Funny Vampire Beta-Male Story with Cross-Dressing and Slight Homo-Erotic Undertones.” I may call the sequel “Funny Vampire Beta-Male Story with Cross-Dressing and Slight Homo-Erotic Undertones 2.”

As you may have guessed from the quote above, I am currently reading Robert J. Sawyer’s WWW series. In case you did’t hear me the first 100 times I mentioned it, he’s got a nice section of writing tips on his website.

Upcoming Schedule

May 19th
(11) Kris
(11) Tony

May 26th
(11) Kelly Tyree
(11) Shannon R

June 2nd
(12) Nick
(12) Ciuin
(12) Tyree Kelly

June 9th
(12) Kris
(12) Tony

June 16th
(12) Shannon R
(12) Dylan

Keep Writing, Penites.

Shannon R

Noble Pen Meeting

May 12th, 2011
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

Success comes to a writer as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed.
–P. G. Wodehouse

Victories

Dylan sent out one story and got a rejection from another one. And he finished another commission. And he’s taking over the website. I don’t think he sleeps.

Tyree has conquered sodium. It is scheduled to be removed from the Periodic Table on Thursday.

Tony wrote 1000 words on the next installment of St. Lucy. Yes, there is a joke in there, but it’s much too dirty for Tony.

I went to DemiCon and hung out with some cool authors. They also don’t want to be my beta-readers.

News

From Galleycat comes the top 10 professions of romance story heroes. I hope you’re paying attention Kelly.

Here’s a guide on how to request a blurb.

Upcoming Schedule

May 12th
(11) Ciun
(11) Dylan

May 19th
(11) Kris
(11) Tony

May 26th
(11) Kelly
(11) Shannon

Keep Writing, Penites.

Shannon

Noble Pen Meeting

May 5th, 2011
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

If you’re writing about a character, if he’s a powerful character, unless you give him vulnerability I don’t think he’ll be as interesting to the reader.
–STAN LEE, interview, Mar. 13, 2006

Victories

Dylan submitted a story to torque press. They refuse to admit his existence.

Ciuin is winning.

News

From the LA writers group, what’s in it for the critiquer?

An article on agency agreements.

Housekeeping

First: A huge thank-you to Dylan for taking over the website from George.

Second: Starting next week, we will be going to 2 critiques a week. This is in response to complaints that we are hitting high word counts some weeks and low critique requests for the last scheduling session. After a couple sessions at this pace, we will reevaluate and decide how to tweak the system. Maybe we need to go back to three and set a lower, definite maximum?

Upcoming Schedule

May 5th
(10)Kris
(10)Tyree

May 12th
(11) Ciun
(11) Dylan

May 19th
(11) Kris
(11) Tony

May 26th
(11) Kelly
(11) Shannon

Keep Writing, Penites.

Shannon

Noble Pen Meeting

April 28th, 2011
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

There are two kinds of folks who sit around thinking about how to kill people: psychopaths and mystery writers.
— Richard Castle

Victories

I sent out four beta readers’ copies. Current count: I’ve lost count on how many I’ve sent out. None received back.

Ciuin finished another declaration for the artists’ initiative. She plans to let Sam Raimi know that his characters are cheap stereotypes. I doubt he will be surprised.

News

From George: A public domain copy of THE GREAT GADSBY. And you can read about the author here. Apparently, Wright never used the letter ‘E’ in the entire book, which mean he had as much luck with typewriters as Ciuin has with computers.

From Dylan: An nice article about how not to freak out while writing a novel. Actually, it’s not all that nice.

Upcoming Schedule

April 28th
(10)Shannon
(11) Tyree
Education -> Tyree

May 5th
(10)Kris
(10)Tyree

May 12th
(11) Ciun
(11) Dylan

May 19th
(11) Kris
(11) Tony

May 26th
(11) Kelly
(11) Shannon

Keep Writing, Penites.

Shannon

Noble Pen Meeting

April 21st, 2011
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

“Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal”
–Attributed to Pablo Picasso

Well some people try to pick up girls
And get called assholes
This never happened to Pablo Picasso
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare and
So Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole
–“Pablo Picasso” by Johnathon Richman

Victories

Bob obtained a copy of Power Writer, dooming him to become Ciuin’s tech support.

The Artist’s Initiative asked Ciuin to be on their advisory board. I’m sure that entitles her to some great deals, like discounted coffee at McDonald’s or 10% off every stay at Howard Johnson.

Tony wrote 95% of Chapter Nine of Breaking History in one day.

News

Pimp My Novel wonders if the physical book will become a niche market like vinyl records.

From Dylan (imagine this in epic reverb): The Periodic Table of Storytelling

Upcoming Schedule

April 21th
(9)Kris
(9)Shannon
(9)Tony

April 28th
(10)Shannon
(11) Tyree
Education -> Tyree

May 5th
(10)Kris
(10)Tyree

May 12th
(11) Ciun
(11) Dylan

May 19th
(11) Kris
(11) Tony

May 26th
(11) Kelly
(11) Shannon

Keep Writing, Penites.

Shannon

Noble Pen Meeting

April 14th, 2011
Scott’s Family Restaurant
1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

It is written, “He who makes the best egg salad shall rule over heaven and earth.” Don’t ask me, “Why egg salad?” I’ve got enough aggravation.
–High Macha Of Rashpur, What’s Up, Tiger Lily?

Victories

Kris designed a t-shirt for a benefit pub crawl. It’s not really a writing victory, but it’s all we’ve got, so I’m using it.

News

In the “Publishers can’t do math” category, a small publisher explains why they take a loss every time they sell a book on Amazon.

Steal like a pro.

Upcoming Schedule

April 14th
(8)Tony
(9) Tyree
(9) Ciuin

April 21th
(9)Kris
(9)Shannon
(9)Tony

April 28th
(10)Shannon
Education -> Tyree

May 5th
(10)Kris
(10)Tyree

Keep Writing, Penites.

Shannon