THE SUN: "Readers Write"

If you haven't submitted a short autobiographical piece for THE SUN magazine, I encourage you to do so.

Here are the topics and deadlines:

THE BACK DOOR--due October 1st

SHOES--due November 1st

RITES OF PASSAGE--due December 1st

Mail to: Readers Write, The Sun, 107 Roberson St. Chapel Hill, NC 27516

Readings from Naming The World

I've created a suggested reading break-down for the next few months.

The book: Naming The World by a variety of writers and teachers of writing, edited by Bret Anthony Johnston.

By October, try to read the first 64 pages. These pages all suggest a variety of excellent stretches to get you started.

By November's meeting: pages 67-74

By December's meeting: pages 75-85

By January's meeting: pages 86-98

And by February's meeting: pages 99-115

All these chapters have to do with creating believable and complex characters--if you are writing fiction. If you're not writing fiction, you're still dealing with character, including your own character self on the page. Whatever you're working on, these exercises will give you practice in the craft of writing and will deepen your pleasure of reading.

Starting in March, we'll move away from character and into point of view.

Carlene's Birthday Party

Here's my movie for Carlene's birthday party

If you'd like to see it, go to http://gallery.me.com/linda_harris48/100203

Your user name is nana

Your password is BLUEBIRD

Gate C22 by Ellen Bass

GATE C22

by Ellen Bass

At gate C22 in the Portland airport

a man in a broad-band leather hat kissed

a woman arriving from Orange County.

They kissed and kissed and kissed. Long after

the other passengers clicked the handles of their carry-ons

and wheeled briskly toward short-term parking,

the couple stood there, arms wrapped around each other

like she’d just staggered off the boat at Ellis Island,

like she’d been released from ICU, snapped

out of a coma, survived bone cancer, made it down

from Annapurna in only the clothes she was wearing.

Neither of them was young. His beard was gray.

She carried a few extra pounds you could imagine

her saying she had to lose. But they kissed lavish

kisses like the ocean in the early morning,

the way it gathers and swells, sucking

each rock under, swallowing it

again and again. We were all watching--

passengers waiting for the delayed flight

to San Jose, the stewardess, the pilots,

the aproned woman icing Cinnabons, the man selling

sunglasses. We couldn’t look away. We could

taste the kisses crushed in our mouths.

But the best part was his face. When he drew back

and looked at her, his smile was soft with wonder, almost

as though he were a mother still open from giving birth,

as your mother must have looked at you, no matter

what happened after--if she beat you or left you or

you’re lonely now--you once lay there, the vernix

not yet wiped off, and someone gazed at you

as you were the first sunrise seen from the Earth.

The whole wing of the airport hushed,

all of us trying to slip into that woman’s middle-aged body,

her plaid Bermuda shorts, sleeveless blouse, glasses,

little gold hoop earrings, tilting our heads up.

CORRECTION

I incorrectly attributed that "ART IS THE HONEY" quotation to Picasso. Actually, credit should go to Theodore Dreiser. Ooops. And now, I can't figure out how to edit the title.....

Prompts for August and September

Think: "timed writings at home."

Using your book, Naming the World, as the treasure trove of prompts that it is, read the first 28 pages. Then flip to the end of the book, the section called Daily Warm Ups.

Write for 5-10 minutes a day, one prompt a day.

Choose the one you like best.

Turn it into a 300-600 word piece and make copies to pass around at the August and September meetings.

Dates for September Writing Groups

Sunday: September 5th: 2:30-5:30

Monday: September 13th: 7:00-10:00

Thursday: September 16th: 6:30-9:30

Saturday: September 11th: 2:00-5:00