On Sunday November 16, 2009, the Magic City Writers met and reviewed the lovely Lindy’s latest submission, Marked. I can safely say, tho’ we beat her and flayed her, by the livin’ Gawd that made her, you are a better writer than I am, Gunga Lin.
A big fat No-Prize to whomever can name the famous poem I pay homage too above.
But first, lets talk about the food.
Let’s Torture Alex by Mentioning What We Ate
The food, as always, was excellent.
Kathryn was suffering from a slight sinus infection, and her laptop suffered a stroke, so she didn't have time to whip up her normal culinary delight. But, she did suggest Brant mixed berry smoothies to drink at the meeting. Snacks consisted of pretzel twists and club crackers. For dinner Kathryn and Lindy made potato gnocchi (thick round noodles) with creamy pesto sauce and grilled chicken. Along with garlic toast suggested by Lindy, dinner was quite delicious.
And Now Back to Flaying Lindy
Lindy submission was more than well received. Nicole was unable to attend, so it was left to Kathryn and I to voice our opinions. We both agreed that quality of her writing in Marked was good enough to capture the eye of some publisher of agent. I went further and claimed, and maintain, that I have seen worse writing in published stories.
On a first read I found very little to correct. My second closer read found minor problems and inconsistencies. The type of details that plague all early drafts. Lindy’s biggest problem was that her story was set in a post-apocalyptical world and the people had too many pre-apocalyptical attitudes and items.
Our biggest problem as a group is we kept going off in tangents, discussing what such a world would be like. Intense brainstorming dominated much of the meeting.
Fortunately, this time I remembered to record the session so Lindy can go back and review the discussion to find the gems among the dross.
Overall, Lindy’s style was good, her characters interesting and convincing, and her plot intriguing. Excellent work Lindy. We are all proud of you. I’m sure that when you flesh out this work it will be an excellent novel. I, for one, look forward to reading it when it is done
The Remains of The Day
After we chatted and ate, the three of use moseyed upstairs where we watched a couple of short videos from Kathryn’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 collection. One was on the world of communication in the future, as seen from about 1960, and the other was on the usefulness of springs. The snarky commentary made both of these quite enjoyable.
Then we settled in to watch the debut of AMC’s mini-series remake of 60’s cult classic, The Prisoner. Heavily symbolic, allegorical, and often surreal, Kathryn and Lindy did not care for it. I, ever the fan of heavy symbolism and surreal tolerant, am withholding judgment until I have seen more. Right now I rate it as, “interesting”.
For next time, I re-submitted chapter four of my epic fantasy, Gods Among Men, entitled …And Strikes Down the Inner Circle. We did not set a date for the next meeting, but given the approaching holidays, along with Nicole’s awful schedule, it seems likely that the earliest possible meeting will be in December or, God forbid, January. Fear not, I shall make sure to keep those interested apprised of the happenings whenever the next meeting occurs.
Until next time, have fun and party down.
Posts
Yes, a wonderful time was had by all. You forgot to mention that you and I had to share a laptop while we went over our editing. Though most of it went off without a hitch, at times it was a little frustrating. Constantly flipping back and forth between two people's comments, both of whom love to talk, is an arduous task indeed. But, you did it well, Brant.
ReplyDeleteYes, I did forget that little tidbit. Thanks for the correction. You win a No-Prize. And thank you for the compliment.
ReplyDelete