Writers' Group - good shtuff! - Carly's comment - I 'buried the lead'

Today is my daughter's 41st birthday. She's in the country of Colombia, visiting one of her friends from boxing, Raquel Ruiz, a photographer.

When I came home from the writing group, she had left me a phone message, thanking me for giving birth to her 41 years ago.

She was born in Bohne Hospital in Brenham, TX. I was married to her late father, Millard, aka Mike.

He was only 64 when death caught him off-guard.

Left Sarah a message on FB. Read her blog here, the last post is about a fire in the upstairs apartment of their Brooklyn apartment. 

 Just ran over to Scott's with my veggies for our pizza.

"Did you read my story?" I asked him.

"No!" he yelled from downstairs.

"Why not?" I said.

"I'm busy," he said.

I left and went home, having left him a jar of Acme creamed herring to open. Jews love herring, but I'm not sure about Acme. Vita is the best.

At the Giant, where we hold our writers' group, I picked up new needles for my Novolog pen. I called up Erich, the pharmacist, to ask about them.

"They're different than before," I said to him.

He looked it up and said, Yes, they are. He said I haven't ordered new needles in over a year.

 Told him I use a new needle every other day, instead of switching them daily. There's nothing wrong with that. They still hurt like hell and are a pain in the ass. I do not like having diabetes, but I sure do take good c/o myself.

Most people, unconscionably, do not.

The phone should ring any minute that the pizza is ready.

Donna Krause said she'd like to learn to make pizza.

Easy. Buy the whole wheat crust at the Giant, then the sauce - Scott buys the only spag sauce that has no salt or sugar in it -



and then saute your veggies - and slap cheese over it. Mozzarella and sprinkle with Romano or Parm cheese.

Linda Barrett went first since she had to leave for work at 2 pm.

What's work?

"Star of Wonder" was a science fiction about an emperor who manned his own rocket ship, avoiding 'fake stars' put there to trap him. He had many enemies.

While he was out among the stars exploring, he went back in time and discovered, to his amazement, the star in Bethlehem that guided the Magi to the manger.

He could not forget it. We're waiting to see what happens next.

This is a perfect story for Linda, who loves writing sci-fi, and is a devoted Christian.

Martha wasn't feeling well, so left early. One of those bugs she caught.

  Am trying to remember, w/o looking at my notes, what she brought in.

Can you see me sitting in my jacket at the laptop in the living room, typing with my terribly chipped nails - Marf's were a lovely pink - listening to jazz on WRTI?

Ah! Thank goodness my brain is still working.

An absolutely wonderful piece, she calls it a 'romance' but I calls it, Just damned good fiction.

"The Scotsman" is a period piece, starting in the early 1900s, I believe, and moving forward. Great dialogue and also great dialect.

The characters are complex, not black and white. 

This book-to-be is a winner! Marf said she read a couple of Harlequin romances, best sellers, which were simply awful.

We know Martha can do it!

Here's a needlepoint she is working on.

Feel better, Martha!

My friend Ellen Rosenberg from New Directions just called.

  Here she is at the golf classic to raise money for kidney disease.

Ellen called me from the Philadelphia International A'port where she will take a plane to Miami and then to Lima, Peru, and then to the small town in Peru where she will be leaving and teaching English to orphans.

We'll keep track of her on FB.

She has a bunch of books to read on her Kindle, including Guantanemo Diary, serialized by The Guardian in London. It describes how Guantánamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi endured savage beatings, death threats and sexual humiliationfor 15 years w/o being charged.

We agreed this is another American atrocity. I told her the great and powerful RZD would write a letter to Obama.



I was thinking of an email, but I think I'll do it on ND stationery. No, I did send His Majesty an email and posted it on FB, where I got a lot of responses.

Here's the neatly typed ms. of Allan Heller's "Clutch in the Crypt," a story he wrote last night, though he'd been thinking of it for awhile, about a haunted graveyard, where deaths will soon take place.

We have all sorts of deadbeats in here



Please don't be frightened. It's only Lon Chaney dressed to kill.

  My son Dan loved scary movies as a kid. I remember telling my then-psychiatrist Alex Glijansky that my bipolar was similar to being a werewolf.

Most times I would be fine, but then - presto! - my illness was upon me and I would change into another person.

He liked that analogy.

High marks to Allan's story. I said I didn't "get" the title. "Clutch" is supposed to mean a 'coffee clutch' or a get together.

When I first saw the word, I thought of the former cartoon character, Clutch Cargo.

Donna wrote "Short Story ?" last nite when she was really tired. Perfect way to write, we said. You're closer to your unconscious.

She used a very fancy font I was unfamiliar with. She also successfully used her new printer. It takes a lot of courage, she wrote, to write a short story, especially since she's a poet and has never written one before.

Well, I said, you have the courage to say you're a poet.... which does indeed take courage. She's been published online.

She mentioned that some of the folks in our group have minds like the Encyclopedia Brittanica - his initials are AH - and that at our next meeting, she'll arrive with a short story.

See, there is nothing like sharing this with our group b/c then if you don't do it, you must face us all and render your alibis.

Carlana, yes, that's her real name, wrote a delightful piece called "The Need: My Morning Joe."

Her best friend, Gwen, called with the sad news.

Her Keurig had "died."

And, oh how she loved it. Individual servings of HOT coffee. Some beverages are only good when they're hot and coffee is one of them. Iced coffee, of course, is another story.

My son, Dan, has a Keurig and I certainly enjoy a cuppa when I go over there. 

Her darling best friend resorted to using her old coffee machine, a Mr Coffee, she kept on a high shelf. The finished coffee would spill all over and was lukewarm, the worst sin in the coffee world.

Gwen ordered a new Keurig on QVC and the story ended with the UPS man delivering it. Hopefully, Gwen doesn't answer the door in her transparent negligee and invite him in for a cup of coffee.
  I make coffee in a drip coffeemaker. I must stand right there and pour boiling water in the cone.

I don't mind, tho. I simply listen to my audio book, just finished this good un



We wondered about the name "Chemex" which Allan said reminded him of a lawn treatment program, so here's the story on its name and history.

I don't have time to read it, as I'm anxious to spend the night w/ the  sweetheart next door. Gee, I hope I don't accidentally visit Bill Adams.

We all wished Carly well. On Tuesday, Feb. 9, she'll report to Temple University Hospital for an operation to correct her hearing.

I gave this cheerful laffing woman - Laffing Carly - a huge hug of good luck.

"The writing group that you have put together so lovingly," Carly wrote me, "is an island among the discords of life.  Its the one place this group of writers can be themselves with no regrets."  

Last night Scott pulled out his white telescope and we viewed Comet Lovejoy a few feet away from his front porch.

Quite a site to see.

  That's what my story is about. Five people sneaking into a park, that closes at dusk, walking up the high hill, to view the comet.

Of course they bring along some hor's d'oevres with them

  
and also some booze.

Don't rightly know what the group thinks about it. Haven't read their comments yet, but I really like the story.

The surprise ending is



At Sammy's suggestion, we all remove our clothes and get nekkid as the day we were born.