With thanks to Zita, as Sheila was distracted with dog-sitting!

Meeting started at 1:00 pm

In attendance:

1. Jennifer (Library programs)
2. Sheila Deeth (host)
3. Zita  — Meeting minutes recorder
4. David Porter
5. David Fryer
6. Gabrielle Goodloe
7. James Elstad (story, The Clock, being critiqued this month)
8. Jean
9. Jessie
10. Joe
11. Judyb
12. Karin
13. Matthew
14. Peter Letts
15. Robin Layne
16. Steve

Meeting Logistics

Meeting Host/Leader:  Sheila Deeth

Meeting Minutes:  Zita

Critique Leader:  Matthew

Contest Announcer:  Karin with Results of August’s Serenity Contest

Meeting started with the Contest Winners.

Contest Winners:

3^rd Place  — Jessie   — poem “Perfect Peace”

2^nd Place – Steve – “Is Serenity Overrated”

1^st Place – Von – “Looking for Serenity”

Contest submitters:

• Susan AE sent two poems: “Ah, Serenity”  -and-  “Dream the Most”
• Peter Letts sent in “Back to the Future”
• Sheila sent in the poem “Eden” and the Kitkit tale: “Kitkit’s Really Hot Day”
• Robin is the author of “Eye on the Sparrow”
• Iain Yuill wrote the poem “Nothing Like Serenity”
• Michael Fryer wrote “Serenity Is?”
• David Porter composed the poem “Stretch of Serenity”
• David Fryer wrote “The Sleep Score”
• Judy Beaston wrote “Threads of Serenity”
• Zita Podany sent in two poems: “Timelessness” and “What I Should Do Today”

General Announcements at a Glance

Upcoming 2021 contests, entries to contest @ portlandwritersmill.org due by end of first Sunday

• September — School Days (details at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/sept-2021-contest-page/)
• October  —  All Roads Lead to Rome
• November – Adjusting Expectations

Anthology

• Sections for the Anthology correspond to contest prompts from October 2020 to September 2021

• Deadline:  End of first Sunday in September (three weeks from now, Sept 5, 2021)

Hopefully everyone can send at least one item to the anthology

Send to:   anthology @ portlandwritersmill.org

About Booking Speakers

Jean answered question regarding the speakers. Jean has booked speakers for several years.  Joe has offered to help her. Please send name of possible speaker, why they would be a good speaker and their contact info to speakers @ portlandwritersmill.org to lessen the confusion of booking multiple speakers.  

Anthology Matters

Deadline for submissions

Sunday, September 5, 2021 by 11:59 pm

Email submissions to:  anthology @ portlandwritersmill.org

Be sure to specify to which section your submission belongs.

Your submission to the anthology should fit one of the sections below. The sections correspond to the last 12 months of contests so, if you submitted something to the contest, you should already have something ready for the anthology. Just polish it and send it in!

1. Beyond the Headlines
2. Words I never want to hear again
3. Endings and beginnings
4. Dreams
5. Let me Count the Ways
6. Winds of change
7. The Sea and Me
8. The Mystery of…
9. Meeting my First Stranger
10. Why answer is YES
11. Serenity
12. School Days

The rules are simple:

• Submissions close at the end of the first Sunday in September. YOU MUST SEND THEM IN BEFORE THE END OF SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 5th
• No more than 5 submissions per person
• No more than 5,000 words in total per person

VOLUNTEERS FOR THE ANTHOLOGY BOOK

We are coming onto a busy time for the club activities so we need more volunteers!

• Sept 6 Judy will be busy with the contest entries
• Sept 6 Sheila will be downloading all the anthology submissions for each section.

• Submission Analysts  (6)

Their job starts on Sept 7, when Sheila sends them each two files. Each file contains all the entries for one section. Their job is to quickly read and analyze the entries, making two new files which contain

• Title
• Author name
• Author email
• A brief description of the entry (e.g. it’s a funny sci-fi story, with political undertones, about cats going to the moon)
• Genre – poem, story, essay, for kids, humor, sad, etc.

Current Submission Analysts are:   Donna, Catherin, Steve, Judy, David P, Robin

Their job runs from Sept 8 to Sept 12: Analysis files must be sent to the Title Researchers, Cover Designers and the Content Organizers by the end of Sept 12th

• Title Researchers  (2)

So far there are two people who will research possible titles for the anthology.

Current Title Researchers are:    Jean and Catherin

Their job runs from Sept 13 to Oct 4

• Content Organizers  (5)

They will work as a team, choosing how to order entries within the sections, and order sections within the whole document. They will use the brief descriptions of the entries to create a smooth flow in the book

Current Content Organizers are:    Jean, Donna, Von, Judy, Steve

Their job runs from Sept 13 to Oct 4 when they send the final contents list to the Pre-Formatter. They will be invited back to verify the full manuscript file from Oct 11 to Oct 17

• Pre Editors  (5) WE NEED ONE MORE. PLEASE VOLUNTEER

Pre-editors will receive the files for two sections each from Sheila on Sept 7. Their job is to make sure all the headings are headers with entry name and author name in matching formats, remove blank spaces between paragraphs and replace blank lines between sections with *s, replace strings of periods with ellipses, standardize em-dashes, etc. Sheila will send them a “how to do this file” soon…

Current Pre-Editors are:  Peter, Judy, Steve, Robin, David F

Their job runs from Sept 8 to Sept 19 when they send their files to the Content Editors

• Content Editors  (6)

They are proofreaders. Content editors will will read the files carefully, looking for typos, wrong word choices, inconsistencies, etc. They will contact authors to approve any changes, and they will make sure every author has sent in an author bio.

Current Content Editors are:  Peter, Jean, Gillian, Iain, Judy, Steve

Their job runs from Sept 20 to Oct 3 when they send their files to the pre-formatter. They will be included in the final verification process from Oct 11 to Oct 17 too.

• Pre-formatter  (1)

The pre-formatter takes the twelve files, combines them into one, orders the sections and orders the entries within each section in accordance with the wishes of the content organizers.

Current pre-formatter is:  Robin

This job runs from Oct 4 to Oct 10 then the files goes to the content editors and content organizers for verification. The pre-formatter makes any changes they request during that period, sending the file to the formatter on Oct 17

• Formatter  and Finisher (1)

The formatter formats the document for the correct size, fonts, margins, gutters etc, adding headers and footers, page numbers, content and copyright pages etc,  and cleaning up the pages, so poems are well-placed, and stories don’t go just one line over a page, etc. The formatter sends requests for images (if we decide to have them) to the illustrations coordinator and includes them as soon as they arrive.

The “master file” will be used in creating PDF then converting to epub format

Current Formater and FInisher is:  Zita

This Job runs from Oct 18 – Oct 25, when illustrations must be requested, then continues to Nov7

• Illustrations Coordinator   (1)

Gathering copyright-free, personal photos, original artwork.

Let Catherin know if you are a photographer, or artist, or someone who can quickly find good copyright free images

Current illustrations coordinator:    Catherin

This job runs from Oct 25 to Nov 1

• Uploader   (1)

Uploading book to Amazon during the meeting on Nov 21

Current possible Uploaders are:  Zita and Robin

• Advertising:  

Let everyone know.

Karin mentioned her Facebook friends. Everyone can spread the word.

Current Advertisers:   Joe, Karin, Jean

• Banker

Our banker will take orders and collect money before or during November’s meeting, then the final order can be placed using the Library’s account for books to be picked up before or during December’s meeting.

Current Banker: Mark

!!! We are working on a tight deadline for the anthology
so ALL deadlines are hard deadlines !!!

Job  (# needed) The order in which they need to be done)	Volunteers	Timeline
Submission Analysts (6)	Donna Catherin Steve Judy Robin David P	Sept 8 – Sept 12
Pre-Editors (5 NEED ONE MORE)	Judy Peter Robin Steve David F YOU	Sept 13 – Sept 19
Content Organizers	Jean Donna Von Judy Steve	Sept 13 – Oct 4 And Oct 11 – Oct 17
Editors (6)	Peter Jean Gillian Iain Judy Steve	Sept 20 – Oct 3 And Oct 11 – Oct 17
Pre-Formatter (1)	Robin	Oct 4 – Oct 10 And Oct 11 – Oct 17
Formatter and Finisher (1)	Zita	Oct 18 – Oct 25 And Oct 26 – Nov 7 And Nov 8 – Nov 21
Illustrator(1)	Catherin	Oct 25 – Nov 1
Title Researchers (2)	Jean Catherin	Sept 13 – Oct 4
Cover Creator	Catherin	Sept 13 – Nov 14
Uploader (1)	Zita Robin	Nov 21
Advertisers  (spread the word)	Joe Karin Jean
Banker	Mark	Nov 21

As a reminder, all proceeds from online sales of  the Anthology sales go to the Cedar Mill Library.

Writer’s Mill Organization Matters

More volunteers for the Writer’s Mill organization

• Meeting Organizer and someone to run the meetings:  Sheila, Steve, need more volunteers
• Meeting Minutes: Karin volunteered after a discussion about the depth and breadth of meeting notes and the possibility of recording the meeting to get the transcript.
  • Jennifer will look into ramifications of recording the meetings if needed
• Email addresses — if you want an official Writer Mill’s email then it needs to be requested. Need a volunteer to manage the emails for the membership. 
  David P volunteered for this task. Ron will give out the addresses
• Web pages – Steve runs the links page. Joe volunteered to take over the Books page, Judy runs the contest pages, Sheila uploads minutes and speaker notes when she remembers…
• Website maintenance – Ron
• General admin, replying to queries etc – Sheila, and David P can take some of this
• Schedule – Jean schedules speakers. Sheila fails to keep the schedule up to date. Joe volunteered to help with this
• Snacks – When we meet in person, someone will need to coordinate this
• Critiques – scheduling someone to be critiqued and someone to lead the critique each month Matthew volunteered

Website and Writer’s Mill Organization Tasks

If you are interested in helping with any of these tasks, or with any others you can think of, please email admin @ portlandwritersmill.org. Thanks

• Check out the website links.

We had a quick poll to see how many members knew about the resource links on the Wirter’s Mill website. 

The link to the links page:      https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/links/

Ron does the web site maintenance. More help needed.

• Judy runs all the contest pages and has been doing a fantastic job for many years.

• Look at the website. Some pages have not been updated for a while.

• Such as the Books Page – a mini library. Need a volunteer to manage that.   Some questions:  Logistics of managing and uploading the info to the web site. Could the library store it? 
  • Joe has volunteered to take possession of the box for the Books page and Joe will work out the logistics of managing the book collection.
  • Are there pages YOU could take over?
• Newsletters – currently they are sent by Sheila and Judy  (admin@writersmill.com)  Need volunteers.

• Snacks during F2F meetings  — who can coordinate?

• Critiques – Let Matthew know if you want to be critiqued or to lead a critique

Robin asked for a list of jobs/duties and who currently has those positions.

5-minute break before the critique of Jim’s work, which Matthew volunteered to lead.

News

• James Elstad asked for volunteers to read their organization’s book. Robyn volunteered.
• Sheila went to the  Willamette Writer’s conference and pitched her novel to one agent. The agent wanted to read the whole thing. Sheila has sent it off.  Middle grade fantasy book
• Robin was a volunteer at the conference.  She learned a lot especially about writing compelling protagonists.  One technique is the Spider web. Less important characters are on the outer edges of the spider web. A visual representation of what each character wants and their motivation. She will check into if she can share the handouts.

2:00 o’clock   — CRITIQUE –  led by Matthew  —

Are there any slow parts in Jim’s story?

Joe :  Nicely written. Had a nice flow from beginning to end.

Is Michael a believable person?

Robin:  At first she though he was a mysterious type. “He was walking like a slave.” Has the nuance of sounding bigoted

Sheila:  Liked the way it invited the reader into the stereotype that brought deeper meaning later.

David:   Is the way Michael is portrayed being consistent with some phrases, such as, “he turned white.” At the end, when Michael is knocking out what h has done for the firm without acknowledgement, it was met with “smirking.”  The words, “smirking” was inconsistent with the character development throughout the story.

Steve:  Agrees. Some items before they walk through the door would have been settled. Confusion – the interchange with ……….. We find out that Mrs. McKinlay is not an ally.   “you’ll make?”   Maybe change that to “You’ll make policy.”

Joe:  Regarding that Michael should have taken care of how he was treated before  — perhaps he lost courage.

Sheila: Confusion about the will being changed…..

Steve:  Michael should have been a bit more

Impression of Mrs. McKinlay

Karin:  She was not being professional

Steve:  Plot twist. The dialogue did not click.

Karin: She seemed smug

Sheila:  She had a right to be smug

Impression of James

Steve:  — Biggest stereotype. Cigar smoking fat cat

Robin:  Did not know who he was

David:  It was not clear. The younger brother is the underdog.  Based on shares as to who was the underdog. Maybe that was in the first chapter

Steve:  If there is no  word count, then some scenes could be fleshed out.

Impressions of Jonathan

Steve:  A little bit of a snot nose

David: Redeemed toward the end to justify not being cordial with them

Robin:  Bigoted and sexist both. There is still some interplay going on but did not know what it was.  Was confused about the place  and who was doing what  (the setting).

Is the Clock developed ?

Sheila:  I would have liked to see more of the clock.  I would like to have the clock strike more

David:  Why is the clock the chapter title? Can that be explained

Does the Title fit the Plot?

Robin:  Did not know what kind of company it was. How the clock plays into that.

Steve: Thought the metaphor was cool.  Symbolism of the Rolex being knocked loose.

Sheila: Liked the metaphor of the clock — that time is ticking and things are changing.

Robin:  How could the Rolex be dislodged

Peter:  Is the clock related to the father in some way?

Joe:  Upon second reading, the clock made more sense. Sense of urgency — everyone being in a hurry.  Then the title made sense.

David:  Liked the underdog aspect

Joe:  Is this going to be a mystery?  On the first page, “the eyebrow  ……”  that intrigued Joe and grabbed him.

General Comments on the story

Robin:  I liked the story. It is not always clear as to the POV of the characters. She will send Jim notes.  At the end the board just adjourned. Kind of an abrupt ending.  Glasses being off…. or on….

Sheila:   At the end  — the bending of the finger — Ouch!

   End of Critique

Jim’s response to the questions and suggestions: 

• Modeled after someone he knew. He purposefully built the stereotype. Will work on consistency for Michael’s character.  Focus was on getting Jonathan to the meeting.. Will work on “smirking, “ building confidence in Michael, Jonathan being more congenial.  First meeting did not go as well as Jonathan wanted so he brought Michael to the second meeting.  No they did not know about the will; they thought they knew enough about the situation to force the issue. The will being changed affected a lot. Mrs. McKinlay is not professional; her affair with the boss’s son gives her a perceived leverage.  Yes, Jonathan is a snot-nosed kid. Question is if his character should be changed or be redeemed at the end.
• Did Jonathan need to wink at the secretary?  Jim will think about that. Karin looked at it as a way he knew what she was up to and that was his way of playing her.
• This is going to be a short story only. Jim is working on his own anthology of his works.
• The setting — top floor of a property management firm.
• Clock – second wife’s sister had a clock and when it would chime, it would expose the inner workings of the clock.  Every 15 minutes to chime, every hour it opens up.  The chiming timing… how long is the meeting for the clock to chime –seems a bit random.  The clock should strike at the end.
• Why a chapter title of Clock? It is symbolic — of opening up the different layers.  The father’s presence of the clock —needs a little info about it – to symbolize the deceased father’s presence of the clock.
• Sheila:  Maybe the choreography is missing in terms of the setting.
• Rolex watch — overtime the clasp upon being bumped can be undone.
• The face of the clock is an eagle and it does open up.
• Ending is unfinished. Jim caught that and will fix that.
• Likes Robin’s suggestion of the POV being from Michael’s perspective.
• Planned on James being a stereotype  — based on the concept of White Privilege.  Wanted James being a stereotype just to knock that stereotype out – to change that perspective.
• Steve:  Jonathan comes out too arrogant and might appear he is using his brother, Michael

Quick writing exercise from the Writer’s Conference

IF you missed the meeting, why not try this at home?

Part I

Write down three positive emotions

• Excitement
• Encouragement
• Serenity
• Pleasure
• Laughter
• Joy

Choose three from the list or pick your own

Negative emotions

• Anger
• Sadness
• Envy/jealous
• Alone/Loneliness
• Bitterness
• Depressiobn

Pick three from the list or pick your own

Part II   ~~  Create a very simple character with one verysimple needs. Write a brief sentence

The  _______ wants ______________

Examples:

The old lady wants a cup of tea

I want a peaceful birthday

The golfer wants a beer.

My neighbor needs encouragement.

I want a vacation.

Part III   ~~  Write a short paragraph where the characters obtains what they want, while moving from three positive emotions to three negative emotions (or from three negative to three positive).

Sheila’s example:

Yes, tea was what she needed. Mary struggled out of her chair, letting the joy of being able to move lift her aching body and carry her to the counter and the teakettle. Tea bags waited. “Serenity tea” would be the perfect choice, and excitement bubbled with the boiling of water. Then, with the splashing of too much water spilling over the counter top, she felt a familiar bristling of anger. Who overfilled the kettle again? Why could nothing ever go right? And why was she trapped in this stupid, aching body, scarcely even able to make a cup of tea? Why? She sat back down, sipping on her brew of depression.

Taking five minutes to write the paragraph

Sharing results

• Joe shared his about the neighbor needing encouragement.
• Karin shared hers about being bitterness changing to excitement.
• David shared his about the golfer and happiness achieved.
• Sheila shared hers about the old lady wanting a cup of tea and serenity.
• Robin shared hers about wanting peaceful birthday wishes.

Next Month’s Critique:  Peter will submit a story.

Next Month’s speaker:     Deborah Hopkinson on non-fiction writing for young readers, from picture books to chapter books etc. (Remember, when you learn how to tailor your writing to one audience, even if it’s not your preferred audience, you also learn how to tailor it to others.)

Next meeting: 3^rd Sunday in September, Sept 19

Contest and anthology deadlines are both the 1^st Sunday in September, Sept 5

End of Meeting Reminders

ANTHOLOGY:

Deadline for submissions:  Sunday, September 5, 2021 ~~ 11:59 pm

Email submissions to:  anthology@portlandwritersmill.org

Be sure to specify to which section your submission belongs.

For more details, see the Anthology Matters section of these minutes.

SEPTEMBER CONTEST ENTRIES: 

Sunday, September 5, 2021 ~~ 11:59 pm

Topic: School Days

Send to:   

contest@portlandwritersmill.org

~~~ or to  ~~~

judyb@PortlandWritersMill.org

Don’t forget to volunteer!