Scribbles 

California Writers Club — Central Coast Writers Branch centralcoastwriters.org

March 2019

 

 Tuesday, March 19 

Susan Breen  How a Great Pitch Can Save Your Novel (and Help  You Sell It) Most writers write a pitch only when it's time to look for an agent, yet knowing how to write an effective pitch can be incredibly useful during the process of writing. By writing a pitch for your novel-in-progress, you can develop a sharpened sense of what the novel is all about and help you diagnose and resolve problems early on.

Susan Breen has been a workshop leader at the New York Pitch Conference for more than ten years. In fact, she pitched her first novel to an editor there, and The Fiction Class was subsequently published by an imprint of Penguin Random House. She writes the Maggie Dove mystery series for a different imprint of Penguin Random House and she teaches novel writing for Gotham Writers in New York City. She lives in a small village in the Hudson Valley.

  

 

Coming on Tuesday, April 16 Andrew Benzie People DO Judge a Book by Its Cover! How to Create a Strong Cover Design We're all familiar with the old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover," but this statement simply doesn't hold true—readers DO judge books by their covers. The finest books have strong, well-written stories, but to rise to the top and gain traction with readers even the best book needs a dynamic cover. A book's cover is the first thing a potential reader sees and it can make a lasting impression. Designer Andrew Benzie will discuss a host of elements that make a strong cover design and provide samples of successful--and not so successful--covers. Bay Area native Andrew Benzie has over 30 years' experience in the print/design business. He has worked for corporate art departments and as a freelance designer for his own company, Andrew Benzie Creative Design (ABCD). In 2010, he established his own publishing company, Andrew Benzie Books, to help authors design, publish, and market their books.

WHAT’S INSIDE

Announcements 4

As the Pen Flows (Members) 6

As the Pen Flows (Masters) 10

CCW President’s Letter 2

Contests and Conferences 8

If the Shoe Fits 9

Member Profile 5

Speaker Report 3

The Last Word 11

The Poetry Corner 7

Scribbles March 2019 1

CCW President’s Letter By Laurie Sheehan

 

Enchantment and a Worm Moon

 

In the Northern Hemisphere the spring, or vernal, equinox will take place on the 20th of March. The equinox is the date that the sun traverses the celestial equator on its trek north. Day and night are as equal as they can be on this date, so it’s not surprising that the word itself comes from the Latin for equal night: aequus (equal) and nox (night). The exact number of seconds in night and day will never be equal*, but I tend to welcome a bit of imperfection. This date is special for several other reasons; it’s the first day of Spring, and it’s a full moon. But, not just any full moon. This is the third consecutive, and final, supermoon of 2019. It has been almost 40 years** since the last full moon rose over a spring equinox. Not to get all woo-woo on you, but I believe that March 20th has the potential to bring with it a little magic. I’m hoping the prospective charmed nature of this month will help me on March 10th when we “spring forward.” I’ll be looking for a mystic push to help me embrace the notion of forward momentum and the potential of time instead of bemoaning the thought that this night robs me of an hour of sleep. I’m excited that the equinox is the day after our March meeting. Maybe our guest, Susan Breen, will bring some magic with her from Gotham Writers in Manhattan where she is an instructor. Susan is also on the faculty of the New York Pitch Conference , so this should be an interesting meeting! I bet you’re all waiting with bated breath to hear how “worm moon” figures into this missive (bated/baited breath, worm moon—see what I did there?). Well, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac , founded in 1792, this is the time of the year when the ground softens enough for earthworms to reappear, preparing the soil for planting and inviting robins and other birds—a true sign of spring. That seems like magic to me. However you find enchantment in March, I hope it brings you peace, happiness, and good writing. NOTE: Extra points for my Harry Potter Nerd Herd who immediately recognized Nox as the spell to bring on darkness. Just don’t forget Lumos and you’ll be okay.

Fondly, Laurie *https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/monterey?month=3&year=2019 Yes, yes, I see that the 17th is closer to a 12-hour day/night, but I’m using the most commonly stated information for this article. **https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-march

Sunday, March 10

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Speaker Report By Nancy Middleton

  

Expanding Your Emotional Palette 

Author Sophie Littlefield writes deeply character-driven novels. In all of her fiction—historical, young adult, apocalyptic, mystery, or women’s—emotion is the unifying theme and controls all the action. According to Littlefield, emotion is “the confluence of what’s going on outside and what’s going on inside your character,” and this can be challenging to express. She identified six common problems writers make regarding emotion and characters:

1) Showing no consideration of characters’ emotions (common in action novels) 2) Unmotivated or improperly motivated characters (common when the writer doesn’t know their characters well

enough) 3) Relying on cliches for characters (for example, an absent-minded professor) 4) Giving every character the same emotional reactions (common when the characters are very different from the writer) 5) Failing to move the main characters along an arc of emotional change 6) Creating unsympathetic characters with no redeeming qualities or moments of humanity

Every major character needs an emotional arc, according to Littlefield, and although secondary characters don’t need one, it helps. Villains, even if they don’t get much page time, also need to be fully formed characters. To create a character with emotional depth she suggested asking these two questions: 1) What does your character want? (both internally and externally, even if they’re not aware of it), and 2) What does your character most fear?

Everyone has a unique emotional palette, said Littlefield, and it changes over time; there are emotions that we have access to, block, or avoid. As writers, we need to access our own emotional palette to help write our characters, she said. We need to be mindful of our emotions as they come and go, and how we feel them in our body.

By showing your character’s relationship to their environment, said Littlefield, a writer can reveal a lot of emotion. She suggested doing emotional “reads” of various public spaces (gyms, coffee houses, bars) to gain insight on how people experience and reflect emotion. The body’s experience of emotion is complicated and varied, she said. There are “leg jigglers, sighers, and starers.” Gesture is very important for revealing emotion, said Littlefield. There is a big difference between a character “flicking” their hair and one “twisting” their hair.

When asked about how to handle deeply painful emotions in writing, Littlefield admitted that this is challenging as readers often don’t like darker material. People don’t talk about difficult emotions, she said, yet as writers we have the advantage of being able to examine and explore deep emotions and radical truth-telling. “If we can tell our deepest truth, said Littlefield, we can also tell our characters’ deepest truth.”

5-minute reader Brenda Taylor

Speaker Sophie Littlefield

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Announcements 

Welcome to our new CCW members: Andrew McPhail, Adrienn Mendonca-Jones, Elizabeth Stacey

Member Congratulations Jack Erickson wants us to know that his Vesuvius Nights is now launched online at these major digital book sites: Vesuvius Nights link. Consider buying the ebook before publication, while it’s available at a discount price of 99 cents. After publication, the price will be $3.99. Readers who pre-order ebooks receive it on publication day, March 15, when your account is charged. Pre-sales on digital book sites raise the visibility of books that receive good sales and reviews shortly after publication. (Amazon does not participate in pre-sales.) This book is the backstory in the Milan thriller series; the first two books are Thirteen Days in Milan and No One Sleeps .

Jane Parks-McKay placed third in a regional essay contest “Women’s Issues” sponsored by the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). Her piece, “A Woman’s Work is Never Apparently Still Done,” concentrates on the challenges of caregiving and how it still falls to the women in the family and notably the wife. The caregiver for her husband since 2007, she ended the piece by listing what she wishes she would have known going into caregiving and what she wants to share with others to help ease the load.

Good Old Days Parade April 6th Submitted by Nancy Swing and Russell Sunshine

Let's see if we can outdo our outstanding showing in Pacific Grove's Good Old Days Parade. Last year we wowed the crowd with lots of participation and nifty costumes. Once again, we'll give a prize to the CCW member whose outfit best combines a literary theme with “Good Old Days.” (A reminder: Dennis Hamilton won last year for his Edgar Allan Poe, complete with raven.) So put on your thinking caps and dazzle us! If you'd like to participate, please contact us at sunswing44@gmail.com. We'll be sending participants emails with specific info about meeting place, time, parking, etc., as we get closer. [Also, Janet Tezak has volunteered to be the point of contact for members who wish to sign up for booth time. Reach Janet to volunteer at jrtezak@hotmail.com. —Ed.]

Dennis Hamilton as E. A. Poe

Critique Group Opening Rare opening in a long-established critique group. We meet monthly on Sunday afternoons. Our current members are working on novels, short stories and memoir. We're not necessarily picky, but we do want to make sure we get the right person. If interested, email Joyce Krieg, pacificgrovejoyce@gmail.com.

Screenwriters Forum of Pacific Grove The Screenwriters Forum of Pacific Grove would like to invite additional writers from all levels of screen writing experience. We are an interactive forum of screenwriters that considers spec script development from logline, story, and structure. We will also cover pitching the script and how to approach screenwriting with the greatest chance of success overcoming obstacles in the confusing and arbitrary world of filmmaking. For more information: SCREENWRITERS FORUM, Wolf Bukowski, wolf.b@live.com.

Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference Laura Curry just alerted us to this conference, a four-day Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Portland OR, March 27-30. All details here: awpwriter.org/awp_conference/registration_overview.

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Member Profile By Michelle Smith

 

“Rising to the Challenge” Evelyn Helminen 

Evelyn Helminen loves a challenge, especially when it involves creativity.

“You can’t help but improve at something you dedicate yourself to every day,” says the author and blogger who grew up in a family of fifteen children, ten brothers, and four sisters. “It’s hard to be recognized as an individual when you have so many siblings, so I wanted to differentiate myself. I could paint and draw, but so could my grandma and at least half my siblings. I could play the guitar, but so could about half my siblings. I ran cross-country and played volleyball and basketball, but—I think you know what’s coming.”

Evelyn, who joined CCW two and a half years ago, first demonstrated an affinity for the written word back in elementary school.

“In the third grade, for a short story assignment, I turned in thirty-three hand-written pages and got an A+++ on it,” she recalls.

Rising to the challenge yet again, Evelyn has been a regular participant in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) during which she’s written a full novel for nine consecutive years. She also completed a “thirty paintings in thirty days” challenge.

For the last several years, Evelyn has also been utilizing her bachelor’s degree in scientific and technical communication from Michigan Technological University in her work with social media marketing. She was the web and social media manager at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey for five years and, later, the Assistant Director for Digital Initiatives. Currently, she manages the social media, website, blog, and e-newsletter for Earthbound Farm and the Farm Stand in Carmel Valley.

Evelyn touts the importance of finding time to write, which she does at least one hour nearly every day, preferably at a coffee shop. She also loves to travel and has visited more than twenty-five countries and forty-two states. For one of her overseas adventures, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia where she taught computer classes to college students and their teachers from 2011 to 2013.

Past writing accomplishments include a monthly article for a business newsletter and two works published in Life in Pacific Grove, volume I. Evelyn has also been blogging “semi-regularly” since 2008. Though she writes nonfiction, she’s currently focusing on her science fiction novel and hopes to be a best-selling author in both genres.

Evelyn’s newest hobby is burning pictures and logos into wood and personalizing cutting boards for her boyfriend’s clients. Her work can be found on Instagram at @ehwoodart. Her website is EvelynHelminen.com.

Michelle Smith’s articles have been published in a variety of magazines. Her website is theebonyquill.com .

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As the Pen Flows Writings from CCW Members

 Donne and Dusted:  

An English Poet foresees Britain’s Death 

By A.D. McPhail

The Brexiteers had a dream. And in that dream, they would cease to be an EU member, pay no penalty, block immigration, and enter bilateral trade agreements around the world, at better terms than they have had under Europe. They did not ask how 60 million UK citizens could trump the bargaining power of 500 million Europeans. Or why Brussels would allow painless exit, and risk a rush to the door.

But to understand the logic of the Leavers, one must think back to a time before WWII, and before WWI, when Britannia ruled the waves. They are driven by the pride of a Britain that could once write its own rules for its colonies, and make sure that Adam Smith’s invisible hand always benefitted the mother country. Perhaps the Hard Brexiteers have overlooked the fact that the shoe is now on the other foot. Former dominions like India and China are growing the British off their feet, and gradually buying London real estate out from underneath them. A single American state, California, now exceeds the GDP of the UK.

The one remaining comparative advantage of the British economy may be financial services, although even this is debatable. Yet when separated from the EU, brokerage houses in London will cease to offer favorable terms to European markets, collectively their best trading partners. Firms in Frankfurt are quietly rejoicing. In British soccer, putting the ball in one’s own net is termed an “own goal.” Well that is effectively what the British have done. “Rule Britannia” goes the patriotic drinking song of the old Empire. A new song could be “Rue Britannia,” as they may well regret thinking they could resurrect the international trade equivalent of the steam engine.

Perhaps John Donne foresaw the tragedy of Brexit four centuries ago. He seems to describe the pain of Brexit from Europe’s perspective: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.” And he appears to warn the British from across time: “Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” These lines today could be a eulogy for Britain: a once great nation that could not become a part of a greater whole like Prussia giving rise to Germany; like Piedmont to Italy; and like Virginia to America.

Let’s hope the British re-read John Donne, and conduct a second referendum. They are an important contributor to European output and demand. Not to mention European liberal democracy. May the sun never set on the European Union—the worst form of continental relations, except for all the other ones we’ve tried.

Andrew is a British American (father from Pinner, Middlesex near London, mother from Sacramento, CA), who grew up in Santa Cruz, went to high school in Santa Barbara, did a BA in political science in Vermont, and an MA in Spanish in Madrid, as well as an international MBA in Phoenix. He worked for Puma in Germany as a business unit manager of motorsports, and for Nike in Holland as a soccer licensing director, as well as consulting for Diadora in Italy. He currently lives in Los Feliz, is a member of the Hatchery Press in Larchmont, and writes pilots for TV series (credits still to come). This essay stems from the lifelong study of history, politics and macro economics, and is the first in a series.

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The Poetry Corner By Nancy Jacobs

Samuel Beckett  

Born in Foxrock, Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1906, Samuel Beckett led a storied life. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, 1923 to 1927, attended the University of Dublin (where he loved to play cricket) and Portora Royal School. He was known as an Irishman, but was of French descent. In his own words Beckett states, “I know what darkness is, it accumulates, thickens, then suddenly bursts and drowns everything.” He lived in Paris most of his life and considered writing in French to be a discipline. In Paris he met James Joyce, who had a tremendous impact and a strong influence on his writing. Beckett became one of the Twentieth Century’s most influential and creative writers. He was a member of the Absurdist movement. His poems are few, only writing approximately 30 poems and in his own words he “jettisoned around a dozen.”

In an article in The New York Times , a description of his writing states, “Sentences, phrases, images even, are the veritable arias in the plays and the later fiction.”

Others have commented that his writing lacks explanation. For example, in Waiting for Godot , Godot never shows up; the readers are left without explanation and must arrive at their own conclusions. (In the film adaptation, Bert Lahr of Wizard of Oz fame plays Estragon.)

In 1934 Beckett published a short story called “More Pricks than Kicks.” During World War II Beckett decided to stay in Paris and join the resistance. It was here that he met his future wife Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil. Someone turned in the resistance and he and Suzanne made a hair-raising escape to the south of France. After the war the French government awarded them the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille de la Resistance . Beckett’s writing after the war made him famous and it was also at this time that he broke away from the influence of James Joyce. Beckett and Suzanne were married in 1961. Beckett also had a lifelong relationship with the widow Barbara Bray. In 1969 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

In 1936, Beckett wrote a love poem called “Cascando,” full of contradictions and in which he introduces a new word: “wordshed.” The back and forth of the contradictions creates a strong emotion in this very modern poem.

Beckett was skilled in writing in several genres: plays, books, and movies. He died on December 22, 1989, at the age of 83, not long after his wife died. They are buried in Montparnasse.

 

Cascando by Samuel Beckett 1

why not merely the despaired of occasion of wordshed

is it not better abort than be barren

the hours after you are gone are so leaden they will always start dragging too soon the grapples clawing blindly the bed of want bringing up the bones the old loves sockets filled once with eyes like yours all always is it better too soon than never the black want splashing their faces saying again nine days never floated the loved nor nine months nor nine lives 2

saying again if you do not teach me I shall not learn saying again there is a last even of last times last times of begging last times of loving of knowing not knowing pretending a last even of last times of saying if you do not love me I shall not be loved if I do not love you I shall not love

the churn of stale words in the heart again love love love thud of the old plunger pestling the unalterable whey of words terrified again of not loving of loving and not you of being loved and not by you of knowing not knowing pretending pretending I and all the others that will love you if they love you 3

unless they love you

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Contests and Conferences By Patricia Watson

CONTESTS The 2019 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction Deadline: March 14, 2019 Entry Fee: $17.00 online submissions, $15.00 USPS submissions, no limit to number of entries. Website: coloradoreview.colostate.edu/nelligan-prize/submission-guidelines Prizes: 1st Prize: $2000.00 plus publication in the Colorado Review Judge: Joan Silber Guidelines: See website for complete guidelines. There are no limits to themes. All stories, previously unpublished, must be at least 10 pages or 2500 words, but no more than 50 pages or 12,500 words. The Frank McCourt Memoir Prize Deadline: March 15, 2019 Entry Fee: $15.00 Website: thesouthamptonreview.com/frank-mccourt-memoir-prize Prizes: First Prize: $1000.00 Second Prize: $500.00 Winners published in the Summer/Fall edition of The Southhampton Review. Guidelines: 4500-word maximum. Submission must be an unpublished memoir. One submission per author. Author name should not appear on submission. See website for complete guidelines.

WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES Carmel Literary Festival – Alive in the Arts Carmel Literary Festival - Alive in the Arts provides a unique opportunity to observe and interact with best-selling authors, top NY publishers, and other creative luminaries in Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula. Location: Pine Inn Hotel, Ocean & Lincoln, Carmel Date: February 28–March 3, 2019; registration currently open. Website: carmelliteraryfestival.com Costs: $190 per person until tickets sell out.

ScreenCraft Writers Summit Conference at the Atlanta Film Festival Location: The Georgian Terrace Hotel, 659 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, Georgia Date: April 5–8, 2019 Deadline: Badges for sale until March 22, after that date purchase at door of event. Website: screencraft.org/atlanta About the Event: Price: Summit Access $350.00, Elite Access $525.00, Combo Fest & Elite Access $699. Hotel and travel costs are not included with passes. (At door prices are higher.) Pitch session registrations with film industry professionals are available with passes purchased before the March 22 deadline.

The Get It Done Writers Group with Roxan McDonald and Jane Edberg Location: Moss Landing, CA Dates: April 10, 17, 24 and May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 2019. Registration Open, tuition $440 for 8 weeks Contact: Roxanmcdonaldconsulting@gmail.com About the Group: Everything a writer needs to create new work, move writing projects to completion, polish existing writing, and develop a sustainable writing practice. This group alternates weekly between workshopping participants writing, crafts talks, and dedicated time to write. Includes one-on-one coaching sessions.

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If the Shoes Fits… By Jonathan Shoemaker

 

“Start Your Day with a Smile” “With the new day comes new strength

and new thoughts.”—Eleanor Roosevelt    

Cicero said, ”If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” Reading in the ambiance of the garden somehow precludes distraction and enhances my creativity. In my happy morning mood, I might notice a curious change in the behavior of the protagonist in a novel and I wonder if it suggests development of character or attitude that will result in an unexpected Gestalt—or possibly warn me of malicious behavior in the near future. As readers, we learn how premonition foretells a positive or negative outcome, drawing us increasingly deeper into what we are reading. I think that an integral part of writing is rereading the great authors like Bradbury, London, Michener, O’Henry, Poe, Salinger, and Twain; and reading more current favorites, to see what seems to work for each of them. I’m learning what not to do, noticing that desultory details distract the reader from the main gist of the work. When violence, or the general mood of the characters, becomes too lurid or dismal, the reader feels uncomfortable and puts the book down. A lot can be learned from a book that we decide to put back on the shelf after twenty pages. We analyze each discarded book and list those tendencies that bother us. Yes, we jot them down and save them to remind us what to avoid in our own work. We also take personal notes to remember positive styles by proofreading the “greats” to see what intrigue each of them employed to entice the readers’ interest and kept them turning pages and buying books. In passages describing violence, how do they manage to be explicit without being uncomfortably graphic? How do they make us feel warm inside and happy for the protagonists? What makes us admire some characters and detest others? I also learn positive techniques from members of my critique group as I listen to them present their work. As readers, we are thus learning how to enhance our own writing. The notes we jot down help us develop insight and perspective in the joy of writing, as well as efficiency in the task of proofreading. I have noticed that there are a few national news reporters who confuse their readers by giving multiple possible antecedents for the pronouns they use; or when they use ”we” without clarifying the nature or limit of the group they presume to represent with that pronoun. In proofreading my work, I take care to begin a sentence with “As writers,” (or, as parents, etc.) if my meaning is not sufficiently clear as to whom I mean by “we”. I enjoy checking these notes while I proofread my work and find it quite exciting to realize that my skills are improving by analyzing others’.

“Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.”—James A. Baldwin

Be well, and keep taking notes,   Jonathan

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As the Pen Flows  Writings from the Masters

The Woods and the Pacific Excerpt from THE OLD PACIFIC CAPITAL 

By Robert Louis Stevenson

[Ed. Note: Given the extreme weather and California wildfires we’ve been experiencing, I was struck by reading the following, written by R.L. Stevenson in 1879. It’s every bit on target with events today, with a bit of a twist.]

The woods and the Pacific rule between them the climate of this seaboard region. On the streets of Monterey, when the air does not smell salt from the one, it will be blowing perfumed from the resinous tree-tops of the other. For days together a hot, dry air will overhang the town, close as from an oven, yet healthful and aromatic in the nostrils. The cause is not far to seek, for the woods are afire, and the hot wind is blowing from the hills. These fires are one of the great dangers of California. I have seen from Monterey as many as three at the same time, by day a cloud of smoke, by night a red coal of conflagration in the distance. A little thing will start them, and, if the wind be favourable, they gallop over miles of country faster than a horse. The inhabitants must turn out and work like demons, for it is not only the pleasant groves that are destroyed; the climate and the soil are equally at stake, and these fires prevent the rains of the next winter and dry up perennial fountains. California has been a land of promise in its time, like Palestine; but if the woods continue so swiftly to perish, it may become, like Palestine, a land of desolation.

To visit the woods while they are languidly burning is a strange piece of experience. The fire passes through the underbrush at a run. Every here and there a tree flares up instantaneously from root to summit, scattering tufts of flame, and is quenched, it seems, as quickly. But this last is only in semblance. For after this first squib-like conflagration of the dry moss and twigs, there remains behind a deep-rooted and consuming fire in the very entrails of the tree. The resin of the pitch-pine is principally condensed at the base of the bole and in the spreading roots. Thus, after the light, showy, skirmishing flames, which are only as the match to the explosion, have already scampered down the wind into the distance, the true harm is but beginning for this giant of the woods. You may approach the tree from one side, and see it scorched indeed from top to bottom, but apparently survivor of the peril. Make the circuit, and there, on the other side of the column, is a clear mass of living coal, spreading like an ulcer; while underground, to their most extended fibre, the roots are being eaten out by fire, and the smoke is rising through the fissures to the surface. A little while, and, without a nod of warning, the huge pine-tree snaps off short across the ground and falls prostrate with a crash. Meanwhile the fire continues its silent business; the roots are reduced to a fine ash; and long afterwards, if you pass by, you will find the earth pierced with radiating galleries, and preserving the design of all these subterranean spurs, as though it were the mould for a new tree instead of the print of an old one. These pitch-pines of Monterey are, with the single exception of the Monterey cypress, the most fantastic of forest trees. No words can give an idea of the contortion of their growth; they might figure without change in a circle of the nether hell as Dante pictured it; and at the rate at which trees grow, and at which forest fires spring up and gallop through the hills of California, we may look forward to a time when there will not be one of them left standing in that land of their nativity. At least they have not so much to fear from the axe, but perish by what may be called a natural although a violent death; while it is man in his short-sighted greed that robs the country of the nobler redwood. Yet a little while and perhaps all the hills of seaboard California may be as bald as Tamalpais.

(continued on page 11 following)

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The Last Word By Lana Bryan

The Woods and the Pacific By Robert Louis Stevenson

(continued from page 10)

CCW EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President Laurie Sheehan Vice President Sharon Law Tucker Secretary Joyce Krieg Treasurer Clarissa Conn Programs Chair Nancy Middleton CCW Workshops Sharon Law Tucker Membership Maria Skyttä Publicity Jason Warburg Hospitality Sarah Pruitt Newsletter Lana Bryan Webmaster Ken Jones Writing Contests Ned Huston/Dennis Hamilton Assistant Webmaster Kemberlee Shortland Central Board Representative Lana Bryan

Scribbles is the official monthly publication for members of Central Coast Writers, a branch of California Writers Club, a registered non-profit corporation. All material is copyrighted ©2019 by California Writers Club and may not be reproduced without permission. Opinions expressed under individual bylines do not necessarily represent an official position of, or endorsement by, Central Coast Writers or California Writers Club. Scribbles is published by: Central Coast Writers, Post Office Box 997, Pacific Grove, CA 93950 Editorial Staff Lana Bryan Editor Nancy Middleton Speaker Report Nancy Jacobs Poetry Corner Michelle Smith Member Profiles C. Jonathan Shoemaker If the Shoe Fits Patricia Watson Contests and Workshops Leslie Patiño Proofreader

CCW Website centralcoastwriters.org

For anything Scribbles related: Contact Scribbles editor Lana Bryan:

lana.bryan@writeteam.com

Not yet a member of CCW? You can join at a monthly meeting or online at:

centralcoastwriters.org

I have an interest of my own in these forest fires, for I came so near to lynching on one occasion, that a braver man might have retained a thrill from the experience. I wished to be certain whether it was the moss, that quaint funereal ornament of Californian forests, which blazed up so rapidly when the flame first touched the tree. I suppose I must have been under the influence of Satan, for instead of plucking off a piece for my experiment what should I do but walk up to a great pine-tree in a portion of the wood which had escaped so much as scorching, strike a match, and apply the flame gingerly to one of the tassels. The tree went off simply like a rocket; in three seconds it was a roaring pillar of fire. Close by I could hear the shouts of those who were at work combating the original conflagration. I could see the waggon that had brought them tied to a live oak in a piece of open; I could even catch the flash of an axe as it swung up through the underwood into the sunlight. Had any one observed the result of my experiment my neck was literally not worth a pinch of snuff; after a few minutes of passionate expostulation I should have been run up to convenient bough.

To die for faction is a common evil; But to be hanged for nonsense is the devil.

I have run repeatedly, but never as I ran that day. At night I went out of town, and there was my own particular fire, quite distinct from the other, and burning as I thought with even greater vigour.

* * *

Until next time, Lana

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California Writers Club Central Coast Writers Branch Post Office Box 997 Pacific Grove, CA 93950  

March 19

Susan Breen “How a Great Pitch Can Save Your Novel

(and Help You Sell It)” 5:30 p.m. - DINNER

6:30 p.m. - MEETING

Point Pinos Grill 79 Asilomar Boulevard, Pacific Grove

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