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Writers’ Mill Minutes March 2022

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Our librarian Alice couldn’t make this month’s meeting, but thank you Christine for looking after us. Around 15 members attended and enjoyed a really productive meeting.

The meeting started with contest results for our Mistaken Identity contest, hosted by David, with:

  • FIRST PLACE going to Lyndsay Docherty for “Mistaken in Marble”
  • SECOND PLACE going to Karin Krafft for “Date Gone Wrong”
  • THIRD PLACE going to Judy Beaston for “Five Letter Word”

Other Entries/Authors were:

  • Best Laid Plans – Von Pelot
  • Celebrity? – Peter Letts
  • Dream (poem) & Kitkit Goes the Wrong Way – Sheila Deeth
  • Sarah After the Sermon – Matthew McAyeal
  • The Cloun Brothers – Gary Romans
  • The Coal Boy – Robin Layne
  • Toni – Jessie Collins
  • The Package – by our host, David Fryer

And please do remember, whether or not you enter the contest, you can help your fellow writers (since we are “writers helping writers”) by reading and commenting – possibly voting – on the entries. It should take around 5 minutes per day for the 10 days that the entries are online, so really, it’s a small commitment offering a large reward to everyone, including you as it will help you read constructively.

FUTURE CONTESTS (1,200 word limit, send entries to contest @ portlandwritersmill . org) are:

  • APRIL – entries being accepted, Deadline Sunday, April 3rd at midnight,
    • Theme: Dazzle Me
    • Goal is to do just that – dazzle us with your writing!
  • MAY – deadline May 1st // entries accepted starting April 4th
    • Theme: Reach for the Skies
    • As was true for April, holds again for May: Reach deep and write
  • June – deadline June 5th // entries accepted starting May 2nd
    • Theme: Dreams and Aspirations
    • Weave the possibilities of a life that is birthed by dreams and lofty ambitions

Find out more at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/

NEWS: Sheila meant to mention this at the meeting: One of our past speakers, Deborah Hopkinson, was mentioned in a recent book review in the Oregonian recently. She has recently published My Little Golden Book about Betty White, a few months before Betty White died at age almost-100. https://www.oregonlive.com/books/2022/02/catch-up-with-these-10-picture-books-by-oregon-authors-and-illustrators.html

Joe introduced our speaker, Melanie Dobson (https://melaniedobson.com/) who has been writing historical/contemporary novels for 25 years, published for 20 years, and is on the Sherwood library board. Notes from her talk will be at the end of these minutes.

After a short break we reviewed upcoming contests (above) and upcoming meetings:

  • Zita, websites, 4th Sunday in April because of Easter, April 24th
    • Stephen Campbell, May 15th, an author with lots of answers for lots of questions
    • Lyndsay (over Zoom), June 19th  – she’s talking about Old World, New World, etymology, pronunciation, Shakespeare and more
    • July 17th MYSTERY MONTH – David Porter, who is writing a real-life family mystery. Plus mystery-writing exercise

Then, at the request of the librarians, we discussed where and how we will meet as Covid, hopefully, recedes.

  • What are the added benefits of in-person meetings?
    • snacks
    • chat
    • easier to interact with each other
  • What have we found to be the benefits of zoom?
    • long-distance members bringing valuable perspective and experience to the local group.
    • long-distance speakers who could not otherwise give talks to us.
    • Local people who aren’t able to travel get to join in too.
    • The ability to attend even when we feel ill or are out of town, or the car’s being repaired.
  • What about health concerns?
    • Is it too early for those of us with health concerns to plan to meet in person?
      • The library will not be requiring vaccinations and
      • Are not in position to enforce mask-wearing.
      • Having different rules from the library would be singularly confusing and inconvenient.
    • Hybrid meetings will allow those with health concerns (and those about to go to weddings) to continue to attend.
    • Hybrid meetings will make it easier to change what we do if Covid surges again.
  • But hybrid’s not the only solution. We looked at other ways to accommodate non-local members and members who can’t travel or feel physically vulnerable.
    • alternating in-person and internet meetings might get too confusing (I’ve only just mastered the art of first Sunday for contest deadlines and 3rd Sunday for meeting dates)
    • split into two groups – this really didn’t get discussed.
  • Can the library support hybrid meetings. According to the librarian, they do hope to provide support. Sheila will talk to Alice about this.

With discussion over, Sheila introduced a small bok called the Goof Proofer. She suggests we look at 3 or 4 “goofs” per month, and we should be well “proofed” in a year. This month’s goofs were:

  1. Me and I:
    1. “Me and Joe” did not go shopping, but Joe and I might have.
      1. Joe and I because it’s polite to put others before yourself.
      1. Remove the second person and see whether I or me is the word to use – I went shopping, not “me.”
    1. She invited Mary and me, but she did not invite “Mary and I.”
    1. Between you and me, “between you and I” is wrong.
    1. “Him and you” shouldn’t go, but you and he should, etc.
  2. Myself should only be used reflexively so:
    1. “Myself and my guest will return” is wrong. My guest and I will return.
    1. Give it to Mary and myself, or give it to Mary and me? You answer this one. And
    1. I told her myself.
  3. Like should only come before nouns, pronouns, and gerunds (verbs acting as nouns):
    1. He looks like his sister.
    1. He runs like her.
    1. I feel like eating.
    1. But as I said, “Like I said” is not right writing
    1. He looks as if he’s happy, but not he looks like he’s happy. And
    1. I feel that this discussion is over, but not I feel like it’s over.

We all scored well on these. Let’s see how we do next time!

Sheila then rolled the story dice, with a view to our creating mini-stories related to the contest theme of “dazzle me.” So, how would you be dazzled in a very short story related to:

  1. An arrow – perhaps a bow and arrow, perhaps a direction, perhaps…
  2. A sad face – or a sad-face icon on the computer, and
  3. An L-plate for a learner driver, or a letter L in scrabble, or wordle, or…?

Suggestions ranged from William Tell’s uncoordinated brother shooting the arrow, to the trials of a Wordle enthusiast trying to get from Lazed to Dazed (and bedazzled on the way). But what will you write? Of course, you don’t need to use the dice, but we’d love to read your dazzling essays, poems, and stories when April’s contest goes online.

Important Links:

  1. https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html for Wordle – guess a 5-letter word
  2. https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/ for Worldle – guess a country of territory
  3. https://www.quordle.com/#/ to solve four wordle’s together
  4. https://books.google.com/ngrams for Google engrams (see Melanie’s talk) to see how and when words were used, and
  5. https://onelook.com/ a great way to find words (with thanks to Melanie again)
  6. https://www.merriam-webster.com/ will give you the first time a word was used
  7. https://www.amazon.com/Zygomatic-Rorys-Eco-Blister-Colours-ASMRSC301/dp/B08T5NLF5S/ for story cubes on amazon.
  8. https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/ for your favorite writing group – find minutes, helpful articles, schedules, contest information and more…
  9. https://library.cedarmill.org/ for our library home – look for events, search for events for writers, or the writers’ mill, and
  10. askuscml@wccls.org – the email address you should use just before a meeting when you realize our emails have all gone to spam and your spam folder is set to delete emails as soon as you log off. (Better suggestion, make sure your spam folder is NOT set to delete emails as soon as you log off.)

Melanie Dobson on where historical novels come from and how they get to you, the reader

Melanie Dobson (https://melaniedobson.com/) who has been writing historical/contemporary novels for 25 years, published for 20 years, and is on the Sherwood library board. If you missed her talk, you missed a lively tour of history, research, and literary inspiration.

Melanie says she writes to support her research habit. But, of course, the question is how do you start, and how do you stop that research.

See https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2018/05/22/the-national-archives-larger-than-life-statues/ if you want to find the “Study the Past” statue that so inspired Melanie. Her studies of the past have included trips to France (to the chateau where family friends grew up, helping allied airmen escape occupied France in WWII), England (to see the spy files first hand!), Netherlands (where she saw a Dutch edition of her translated book), and more.

Where do her ideas come from?

  1. WWII stories sell at the moment, so her publisher has her under contract to write some. But she doesn’t have a story, characters or place in mind at the start.
  2. Someone told her there are “caves” near Maastricht – a photo looks somewhat like a tunnel entrance. She was interested.
  3. Doing some research introduced her to the labyrinth of mines where people would hide in secret rooms during German bombing. It was enough to get started. It was an idea.

Turning idea into book takes 5 steps:

  1. The SPARK: What are the caves? What happened there? While researching, she stumbled on the story of a man (aged 107!) who had been the principal of a school, across the road from the theater that was used to gather Jews for deportation Next door was a nursery and day care. And the three leading characters, from these three places, worked together to release and transport Jewish children to safety.
    1. Useful tools at this stage include online maps, google earth, emails, articles…
    1. She was able to connect to the gentleman’s daughter and “talk” to people close to him.
    1. The spark is becoming a story.
  2. The RESEARCH: Start by invading the library. Useful tools now include:
    1. The reference library – Washington County is great!
    1. The reference librarian – they can (and want to help you) find things that you would struggle to find on your own.
    1. Librarians in the towns you’re going to visit. Contact them before you travel and ask your questions. They have the resources and the connections you need, including connections to locals.
    1. The Library of Congress.
  3. EXPLORE museums, landmarks, the countryside.
    1. Make notes
    1. Make connections with locals and experts – maybe even an expert mortician if your character is going to dig up the dead!
    1. Ask for email addresses so you can get in touch later.
  4. INTERVIEW your experts. Even if you start off shy, you’ll soon discover experts love to share what they know. Just be sure you do due diligence first so they’re sharing serious stuff rather than trivialities you really should have found out on your own.
    1. She learned how to open a 400-year-old casket! But she had to promise not to try to do it herself.
    1. Sometimes an expert won’t want to talk because other people have written books and “got it wrong.” Convince them that you intend to get it right. Then get it right! Don’t let them down.
  5. VISIT locations. This was harder in Covid but there are virtual reality tours, and tours where a real person walks you around (virtually) answering questions as you go.
    1. From a real visit, you’ll get a sense for the sights, sounds, smells and other sensory details
    1. You’ll learn where children would have played in this location
    1. The people you meet will influence your writing and your characters
    1. You’ll learn about unexpected details that make your book more authentic:
      1. The stamp that influential Jews had to stop them being deported.
      1. Where they were sent when time ran out and they were going to be deported
      1. With a few crazy coincidences, you might meet the grown-up children, now living in Oregon, who were hidden with strangers through the war because their parents were Jews!

How do you stop researching and start writing?

  1. Melanie is a full-time writer. She spends a month, full-time, on research then puts the research aside and starts writing. She’ll continue with extra research as needed, taking opportunities as they arise. And she’ll work to her own (and her publisher’s) deadline so she knows when she has to stop.

What are some of Melanie’s WWII books?

  • Memories of Glass was released in Dutch in the Netherlands at the same as its English US release! It’s now published in many languages, including German.
  • Melanie’s latest book, The Winter Rose, came out in January. Her travel research was all done online due to Covid, though she would have loved to visit the South of France
  • The Curator’s Daughter is set in the art tunnels at Nuremberg, with a Nazi archeologist as protagonist.
  • Hidden among the Stars is set in the Alps, with a (real) castle by a lake, where things dumped by escaping Nazi officers still appear from time to time.

What was she writing before WWII books?

  • She started with history books – her passion – but in 1999 no one was buying historical fiction except from famous authors. The first book she sold was a contemporary novel.
  • She started out writing about the 1800s, went back to Biblical times, moved on to the Revolutionary War…
  • She’s writing WWII novels now because one sold well and a publisher signed her on to write more.
  • People read historical fiction when the present world gets too stressful.
  • Time-Slip fiction is fiction where a contemporary character is affected by events of history, leading to parallel timelines side by side.
  • Her Love Finds You In… books are set in the US.
    • The Stranger and the Society are set in the Amana community in Iowa

How many publishers has she had?

  • Eight!
  • Publishers come and go. One of her publishers was sold (with her books) to another company which didn’t push her books, so she asked to “get her rights back.” Sometimes that’s really difficult, and sometimes you have to check what your contract says. They gave her the rights back and she rereleased the books.
  • Her publishers provide the covers
  • She has an agent who will deal with questions about contracts, covers, marketing…
  • She has a box full of rejection slips from her first 7 years of writing, including a rejection from her current publisher for a book they have now published, and one from her present agent!

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