Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Isolation

A little poem on how writing about isolation makes me feel. You know you're struggling when you write about writing...

Isolation
Trepidation
Perspiration
Inspiration
Salutation
Permutation
Compilation
Completion

Monday, November 29, 2010

Writing

Hi all,

Lately I have found myself with much less time on my hands, so I am opting out of our writing meetings for awhile. I feel that I need to put my head down and write, write, write in order to complete some of my personal projects. When I have achieved a sense of completion, I hope to re-join our group, and hopefully participate in a critique group.

Happy writing!
Susan

Monday, November 22, 2010

Workshop

That writing workshop was magnificent.

I would enjoy hearing everyone's thoughts and insights; what you liked, what we can bring to the group, what you will be working on. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful thing my friends.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

messages

Hi
Susan asked if I would post my message from Tues. evening. Thanks for the kind words and support.
I spoke openly and honestly face to face
Wrote a wordy letter to you
Made a phone call
Sent a note
Forwarded an email
Resorted to the maze of Twitter, Facebook, and Blog
Even text
Yet, still you did not get the message

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Re: Cabin Fever Daze

Hi Ingrid,
 
The Write On writers' group met last night and the following plan has been adopted for action.
 
The event will be a variety show called Cabin Fever Daze, subtitled Verse & Worse, and will take place in the Theatre at Centre 64 on Friday, February 18th, starting at 7.30 p.m. The entertainment plan is to include readings of poetry and prose, songs and instrumental music, comedy sketches and other as yet undefined performances by local amateur musicians, singers, actors, and writers. The event will be preceded by a reception in the Gallery at Centre 64 offering suitable refreshments which will also be available during the show's intermission.
 
The event will be organized on behalf of the Kimberley Arts Council by an organizing committee composed of members of the Write On writers' group, which is an ad hoc group that meets every second Tuesday to share members' writings under the auspices of the Kimberley Arts Council literary arts programs committee, of which I am currently the default chair.
 
Admission prices to Cabin Fever Daze have not yet been determined but will probably be kept as low as possible, sufficient to cover costs and perhaps make a donation to an appropriate cause, such as the expansion of Centre 64. This will be decided by the organizing committee which will meet next Tuesday to develop plans for the event.
 
I hope this information is sufficient for your purposes and I thank you for providing this opportunity to get the word out early.
 
Mike
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2010 8:40 AM
Subject: Re: Cabin Fever Daze

Thanks Mike -

I've arranged with Maurice and Jenny from GO Kimberley to hold things open until next Wed evening, so if we could plan to touch base on Wed morning after the writers' group meeting, that would work really well.

Would that work with your schedule?

Ingrid

On 11/10/2010 5:36 PM, Michael Redfern wrote:
Hi Ingrid,
Currently Cabin Fever Daze is in the conception stage. The Write On writers' group meets next Tuesday evening at which time we will select a date and time and firm up the contents of the event. For now I can tell you it will be a literary and musical event, possibly subtitled "Verse & Worse", in which local poets and writers, actors and musicians, will entertain in the Theatre at Centre 64.
If you send me a reminder next Wednesday I'll fill in you in on as many details as I can. I'm out of town for the next four days so can do nothing earlier than that, I'm afraid. I hope this will be in time for your next issue of GO Kimberley.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 12:15 PM
Subject: Cabin Fever Daze

Hi Mike,

I'd love to learn a bit more about what's planned with this event - as it would be great to include it in the general write up of the arts I'm doing for the winter issue of GO Kimberley.

Give me a shout when you have a chance - 250-520-0059

Cheers,
Ingrid

Last night's workshop

Don and I collaborated on this blog - Don did the work and I'm taking the credit.

Writing Group was, once again, a lot of fun last night. We laughed, cried, laughed some more, heard heartfelt writing and vivid childhood recollections.

We also discussed our Cabin-Fever Evening(I can't remember the subtitle, but it's a good one - Mike?) in February. Nola, Nina, Heather and Mike are going to head up this event. Any other volunteers will be welcome - just contact one of the above for the meeting time etc. (I believe it's 7 pm at Heather's house next Tuesday). It sounds like it will be a hoot!

We are looking forward to the workshop this weekend. We have a whopping 17 registrants - yahoo! See you all (who are attending) Friday at the Alpen at 7 pm.

Now back to last night. We wrote about the messages that we got in our Fortune Cookies. A fun exercise provided by our facilitator, Margaret. Next week's facilitator will be Nina, and our writing assignment is: isolation.

Last week's writing assignment brought forth some very interesting results. Here goes (thanks for the notes, Don):

Susan's characters found a message from God in their butter dish, only to have the family mutt eat it. But a message doesn't need to last, it just needs to reach its destination.

Heather A very heart rending story of messages from the past. Clara had died the year before and her husband Charlie took a walk through memory lane, holding history in his hand with a letter from his deceased wife. A jar was filled with mementos such as apple blossoms and one of Clara's handkerchiefs.

Nora A delightful stanza about a message sent in a variety of formats, by blog, Twitter, face to face, email and texted The bottom line "but you still didn't get the message".

Don A humorous array of answering machine messages to get away from the usual boring trite stuff that we are used to hearing, eg The advantage of call waiting. "Hi I'm probably home right now but I'm just avoiding people I don't want to talk to. Leave me a message. If I don't call back it's you."

Nina wrote about a place of healing. "What good is love when it comes at such a high price? Who am I without you? "Who would you rather love, who would rather love you?' The tempo of fhe writing was very musical with great potential for a new song.

Margaret mused about an email from son Daniel on a travel adventure across the province to Tofino where he learned to surf. He was successful in disputing a parking ticket and the response not only indicated a cancelled fine but empathy for his situation. It was a philosophical exploration with a variety of high and lows, finding room and board for $150 a month in Vancouver and discovering that the forest is a place of healing.

Mike received an email message from a friend in England whose dad had recently passed away at the age of 99, but it was not a cause for grief. He died at home surrounded by family at a grand old age. It stirred many past memories for Mike as a youngster with his earliest memory at two and half years of moving to Warminster during the war years and looking for lodging. This is where they found Molly Dawkins and her husband Bert, an association that along with Beret's daughter Aryda (?) that lasted for more than 60 years.