Writing Group at the Warminster Library - Wrote first chapter of new novel

Just got home from the Warminster Library Writing Group.

I found it fine, the Hard Left on Norristown Road, then the first Right on Emma Lane and another left on Emma Lane.

I brought in a Compass and asked one of the librarians if they would distribute it. We'll put it on the director's desk, she said, but she'll probly throw it away. They want REAL magazines.

I walked away and then turned around.

I'll take it back, I said. I won't have it thrown away. So I gave the copy to the challenged individuals at BARC. I sailed it across the table.

Talented Joyce sat next to me and read only a few pages of her short story. Frustrating that she couldn't read more. Told her to email it to me.

Our table was packed. And then Joe came in  And Meg.

I started my novel this morning around 11 am. Actually I started it last night. Was watching a fantastic show about disabled children. Just finished watching INTELLIGENT LIVES about disabled individuals. Very moving. 

Am gonna think of a working title right now.

I can't think of one.

At first I named my main character Sally.

Too plain, I thought. DeeAnna. Three syllables?

She has good strong legs. Even her doctor, Doctor Abrams, thought so.

Our 80 yo teacher Eva loved it. Some folks were confused with all the names. But, she said, I introduced them and the group will get used to them.

Found my way home, Ellen got me there. And I followed Janet the writer to get home.

At the light, she said, make a right.

I did but I was so nervous I couldn't remember how to put my foot on the accelerator.

Popped green grapes in my mouth the second I got home. Then some Triscuits. I plugged in my veggie soup. Have just eaten a huge cold bowl.

Looked very good, but frankly, it's not the kind of soup to eat cold.

Took off my earrings but then put em back on for the picture.

 The group commented on my blue hair. I washed it this morning I said and it lost a lot of the blue. Don't worry, I said, I'll shampoo more of it into my hair. We had a long discussion about strange hair colors for young girls or older women.

In class, Eva read one of her stories. We had a discussion about how to pronounce Aegean Sea. I repeated three times uh-GEE-un.

1. Aegean - Ancient History Encyclopedia

   www.ancient.eu/aegean

   Definition. The Aegean Sea lies between the coast of Greece and Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey ). It contains over 2,000 islands which were settled by the ancient Greeks; the largest among them being Crete (Kriti) and the best known and most often photographed, Santorini ( Thera or Thira).

of course I wanna go there.

What dyou think? I'm daft? Oh no. I think I have it confused with the Panotonix.

Della, we'll take care of that later.

Dover Beach

BY MATTHEW ARNOLD

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,

Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; we

Find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

*
Eva read a great short story from one of her books. I closed my eyes as she read about her and her sister at the Aegean Sea, Sadly I fell asleep so I don't know how it ended.

I went to Goddard College with Carolyn Hughes. She worked at  the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University. for 20 years.

Carolyn wants to help this violent world of ours and is now working in NYC and Brooklyn. Read about her here.

Shall I email her?  carolynhughes3@yahoo.com

carolynhughe

I taught education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN for 20 years. Now I am a researcher in New York City and work with the NYC Public Schools. At Vanderbilt, I taught a class where my students mentored youth from high-poverty area high schools. Many of these students’ lives had been affected by violence. In Brooklyn where I now live, I often see violence—either physical or verbal—on the streets or subways. I know there must be another way for people to get along with each other. In Nashville, I met Bernard LaFayette and other Freedom Riders from the 1960s. They practiced a nonviolent approach to working with the opposition to promote civil rights. My colleagues and I would like to start a nonviolence training center in Nashville to reduce youth homicide and violence. I am looking forward to learning skills at the Summer Institute that will help us do so.

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