INDIAN LAKE WRITERS’ GROUP
Monthly Newsletter January, 2014
Donna Bradley LXXXVI
Our new year started off with an historic group sitting around the table. This was the first time in over ten years that we had more males than females. We were happy to welcome a new member, Ron Aldous to our writing group. Now we need to rally all of our members who have recently been busy to join us in this new year. 2014 promises to be an exciting time to be a part of our group. We are beginning to work on an upcoming publication and are looking forward to many submissions over the next month or so. We look forward to seeing many of you at our next meeting.
A variety of subjects and genres were shared by several writers. We traveled with a young boy on a 14 foot skiff on Toms River, and experienced a surprising turn of events after he sought shelter from a storm in an abandoned building. Travel seemed to be a theme as a young man traveled across many European countries during the sixties. When traveling alone during this time many unusual acquaintances appeared to either offer comfort or confusion. Using the theme of “Freeze and Thaw” we rediscovered the pain a young boy in the forties and fifties felt when trying on a new pair of “frozen” dungarees. It was only after many months of wear that the frozen dungarees thawed and were finally a comfortable pair of pants.
Two poems rounded out this meeting. The first one took a grandfather and his granddaughter on a ten mile bike trip, each joking with the other as to who would be “left in the dust.” The second one found the statue of the Goddess Diana, “frozen in time” and standing tall amidst other statues in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
**Nancy Berkowitz came to our meeting to inform us of two upcoming events. Mark your calendars and set aside time to attend each of these.
First of all, Michael Czarnecki is planning to travel Route 28 from beginning to end and giving readings along the way. His stop in Indian Lake will take place on the evening of June 11. Do plan to come on out that evening to hear Michael read about his traveling adventures.
Second, put aside time in September and October for four workshops, dates to be announced. The Crandell Library Folk Life Center will be offering a free program to all interested in Indian Lake. It is called, “Do Tell”, Learning to Perform Personal Stories. There will be four two hour sessions and the fourth will be a performance. Sounds like a very interesting, and informative series of workshops, and maybe a whole lot of fun. More details will follow.
**Our next meeting: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 1:30 in our library
**Our next assignment: Write a piece which features a person who has had a significant effect on your life.
Below is a quote from the book: If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
“…inspiration does not come like a bolt, or is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten,– happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.”
pages 49,50