Williamsburg Creative Writing Group

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Prompts for the week of May 23rd, 2013

Prompt
This week we are going to do something a little different. Do you ever wonder where stories come from? There are many ways to develop a story line. We are going to explore a couple of them this week. First I am going to ask you to journal this week. That means writing about the things you do every day and the way you feel. It doesn’t have to be pages and pages just a few sentences or paragraphs.
Next I want you to jot down things that you see around you that might make a story. For instance, you may see a woman correcting her child in a grocery store. You might think that a story could be made from that. list as many as you can.
Have fun with it.
Five Words
Create a short story using these five words, have fun.
Association, defend, participation, injuries, whale

The Williamsburg Creative Writing Group meets every Thursday at 10:30am. Please join us! If you would like to participate but can’t attend consider sending submissions to vogelam@oplin.org.

Books with Buzz

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Jacket.aspxCheck out these recent releases that are generating buzz in the book world.

American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms by Chris Kyle:  Chris Kyle—fallen hero and #1 bestselling author of American Sniper—reveals how ten legendary guns forever changed U.S. history.

The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Söderberg:  Breaking her personal code to date a charming patient, Sophie Brinkmann discovers that he is the head of a powerful international crime organization warring against a ruthless German syndicate.

The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig:  Feeling unfulfilled in the face of an imminent legal partnership and a broken engagement, Manhattan lawyer Clementine Evans learns of a long-buried family secret that leads her to the inner circles of World War I British society and the red hills of Kenya.

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan:  Traces the unknown contributions of tens of thousands of women residents of the Manhattan Project’s then-secret city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, whose uranium-enriching jobs in support of the Project were shrouded in secrecy and whose legacy is still being felt today.

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker:  Combining elements of Jewish and Arab folk mythology, this stunning debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures, Chava, a golem brought to life by a disgraced rabbi, and Ahmad, a jinni made of fire, who form an unlikely friendship on the streets of New York until a fateful choice changes everything.

Instant Mom by Nia Vardalos:  After adopting a preschooler, the writer and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding shares her hilarious and heartwarming parenting experiences, explores innovative ways to conquer the challenges new moms face and celebrates the fact that motherhood comes in many forms.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson:  Ursula Todd is born on a cold snowy night in 1910 — twice. As she grows up during the first half of the twentieth century in Britain Ursula dies and is brought back to life again and again. With a seemingly infinite number of lives it appears as though Ursula has the ability to alter the history of the world, should she so choose.

Life After Life by Jill McCorkle:  The residents, staff, and neighbors of the Pine Haven retirement center (from twelve-year-old Abby to eighty-five-year-old Sadie) share some of life’s most profound discoveries. What they eventually learn about themselves and one another will transform them all.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight:  When her high-achieving fifteen-year-old daughter Amelia supposedly commits suicide after she is caught cheating, litigation lawyer and single mother Kate Baron, leveled by grief, must reconstruct the pieces of Amelia’s life to find the truth and vindicate the memory of the daughter whose life she could not save.

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler:  A tale inspired by the marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald follows their union in defiance of her father’s opposition and her scandalous transformation into a Jazz Age celebrity in the literary party scenes of New York, Paris, and the French Riviera.

 

Curry

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After having been born in Kuwait and living my childhood years in Saudi Arabia, I think the Middle Eastern spices of curry, cumin, and coriander are in my bloodstream. I can smell curry and I am instantly whisked back to the Suq’s of Khobar, Saudi Arabia. In 1958, while living in Kuwait, my mother was taught how to make beef curry by Ali, our Pakistani houseboy. In 1960, while on vacation in Minnesota, she entered this recipe into the local newspaper and won first prize. First prize was $5.00. To say I was weaned on Curry might be an exaggeration; in reality, I have been eating curry since I was a small child. Even now, it remains being my requested meal when visiting my parents because we all know, everything tastes better when Mom makes it! I have included the original recipe and a much easier recipe made with chicken that my mom uses today.

Kuwait Beef Curry

1 chopped onion

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/2 tablespoon curry powder

3 cups cut up cooked beef

1/2 cup tomato sauce or 1 small can tomato paste

Juice of 1 lemon

Cooked rice

Brown onion in butter, add salt, pepper, ginger, curry powder. Stir and cook 2 minutes. Brown cut up meat; add lemon juice, tomato sauce or paste.  Add water to cover meat. Simmer 20 minutes. Serve over hot rice, surround rice with condiments.

Condiments—raisins, chopped onions, cut up tomatoes, coconut, peanuts, mango chutney

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chicken Curry

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup minced onions

1 tablespoon curry powder

Dash or two of Tabasco sauce

3 tablespoon flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon cardamom

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup milk

2 cups diced cooked chicken

Cooked rice

Melt butter over low heat, sauté the onions. Blend together curry powder, flour, salt, sugar, ginger, cardamom. Add to onions, cook over low heat until mixture is thick and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in chicken broth and milk. Add Tabasco sauce (not too much now). Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat to medium and cook 1 minute. Add the chicken, cook until hot.  Serve over hot rice, surround rice with condiments.

Condiments—peanuts, raisins, chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, coconut, mango chutney

 

Williamsburg Creative Writing Group

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Prompts for the week of May 16th, 2013

Prompt
Create a short story from one or more of the following prompts.
It will all work out for the best
If I had a nickel for every time I heard
If mother’s have eyes in the back of their heads, then what do dads have?
How far is too far and how far is not far enough?
What in the world was I thinking?

Five Words
Create a short story using these five words, have fun.
Fire hose, apocalypse, closet, microwave, armadillo

The Williamsburg Creative Writing Group meets every Thursday at 10:30am. Please join us! If you would like to participate but can’t attend consider sending submissions to vogelam@oplin.org.

Willliamsburg Creative Writing Group

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Prompts for the week of May 9th, 2013

Prompt
Create a short story from one or more of the following prompts.
Where ever you go I will follow
Moving down the lane
Navigating the tunnels of my mind
The big red barn sat silently

Five Words
Create a short story using these five words, have fun.
Valley, submission, reference, wildflowers, raven

The Williamsburg Creative Writing Group meets every Thurs. at 10:30am. Please join us. If you would like to participate remotely, just email your submissions to vogelam@oplin.org.

Poetry Contest Winners

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poetryIn April, Clermont County Public Library celebrated National Poetry Month with a poetry contest.  On May 6th, the New Richmond branch library, and River City Writers’ Group, hosted our first annual poetry reading.  Here are the 1st place winning poems in the youth and adult categories.

I Am and Nothing More

By youth winner, Tiffany Fite

I am the harmony

I am the melody

I am the tenor of voice

I am the sunshine

I am the darkness

I am the gray of the dawn

I am a quiet moment

I am a lioness roar

I am also none of these things

I am and nothing more

 

The Moon is My Companion

By Lisa Brandstetter Holt

She is a silent chaperone,

A quiet presence ever known

as reflected light, a wave’s flight,

caught atop firs that cool the night.

 

Her weight, I sense within my bones

caressing me with miles of stone.

I carry her less well these days,

a willow bending with her phase.

 

Amid a velvet sky so starred,

our surfaces are pocked and marred.

Our atmospheres are cold and spare,

with rigid hearts, this lea is bare.

 

Yet she has guided all below

with gentle pull and tender glow.

Though far away from those a tilt,

she makes her loving presence felt.

 

A faithful friend, she does abide

when no one else is by my side,

when my house is not a home.

Sequestered, yes, but not alone.

 

 

 

Williamsburg Creative Writing Group

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Prompts for the week of April 25th, 2013

Prompt
This week we will pick a person. Each of you will pick a person from the pictures that I bring in. I want you to create an identity for that person. Tell us who they are, what they are like, give them a background etc. Then the next week you will put them into a story.
Ex. Linda came from a long line of black haired ravens. She always wore it long, thereby enticing the boys to pull on it every chance they got. She was from a large family where even her brothers were considered beautiful.
When she graduated high school it was assumed that she would go to college but Linda had other ideas. Etc., etc., etc.

Five Words
Create a short story using these five words, have fun.
Journal, confident, awkward, revolutionary, Persian cat

The Williamsburg Creative Writing Group meets every Thursday and 10:30am. Please join us. If you can’t join us, please feel free to create something from the prompts and share by email to vogelam@oplin.org.

Classical Music at the Library, Opera Edition

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soundsOpera is one facet of classical music in which I’ve never indulged. I’m a patient man, but I don’t have the endurance for a composer like Wagner, whose Ring Cycle lasts roughly eighteen hours (seriously). And then there are the over-the-top melodramatic beltings, the proverbial fat ladies singing, which seem ridiculous to me. That isn’t to say that opera is trivial; you’ll find many devotees. Like those freaks on NPR’s Opera Quiz who are able to identify an aria by hearing half a note. So, yes, I’m not exactly the biggest fan of opera.

I say “not exactly,” because behind those warblings, you’ll find some great classical music. Take for example, Verdi Without Words, an arrangement of his best-known themes by former Cincinnati Pops conductor Eric Kunzel. Even for the uninitiated, you are likely recognize the Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore, which is often parodied in popular culture (just think of Looney Tunes). And then there’s “La donna è mobile,” whose melody has become for many the epitome of Italian opera. My personal favorite piece is the “Egyptian March” from Aïda.

Put on your Viking helmet complete with horns for the Overtures and Preludes from the operas of Richard Wagner (pronounced vahhhg-ner, not wag-ner). Sure, the man’s legacy isn’t exactly without tarnish, but the music is brilliant and you won’t be subjected to eighteen hours of Germanic mythology in song form. Who can’t resist banging their head to The Ride of the Valkyries? A favorite from this album is the Prelude from Act III of Lohengrin, which puts me in the mood to be heroic.

Until next time–may your personal rite of spring not be riotous.

New Contemporary Christian Music

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burningChris Tomlin, one of my favorite artists, has a new CD titled Burning Lights.  It is a marvelous mixture of songs with lyrics that inspire and music that is fresh and exciting.  I just love his new songs, “Awake My Soul” and “Lay Me Down” that are included on this album.

If you are looking for an awesome Contemporary Christian Music CD, check out the Burning Lights Album.

Beyond the Best Sellers

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stardustThese books did not make the Best Seller list but they are still good reads!

The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley
This is Priscille Sibley’s first novel. The novel opens on the aftermath of a tragic accident that leaves astronaut, Elle Beaulieu brain dead and the families at odds about life support once they learn that she is pregnant. The story is told from Matt’s point of view. Sibley does a good job of weaving their back story with the present scenes of medial and courtroom drama. A good read alike of fans of Jodi Picoult.

The Bughouse Affair by Marcia Muller
On a lighter note Marcia Muller has written a new series. Two former Pinkerton detective form forces and set up their own detective agency in San Francisco. This first novel in the series has the detectives trying to solve several burglaries with the help of “Sherlock Holmes”. Takes place in late 1880′s

The Good Dream </a>by Donna VanLiere
The setting is 1950 in a small Tennessee town, and Ivorie Walker finds herself lonely after the death of her elderly mother. When she discovers a boy stealing from her garden, she reaches out to uncover where he comes from and seeks to help him, only to face fierce resistance from the town who wants to keep certain secrets. This is a character driven novel with strong women, mystery and inspiration.

Love Anthony by Lisa Genova
While dealing with her husband’s infidelity, Beth tries to recapture the independent, creative spirit she used to be through writing. What emerges is a startling new voice, one that will help her heal. Newly separated Olivia Donatelli is struggling to understand the unraveling of her marriage, and to make sense of her eight-year-old autistic son Anthony’s short life and accidental death. A chance encounter between these two women develops into an unexpected and meaningful friendship, giving one writer the opportunity to find her voice and a grieving mother a chance to finally understand her son. The characters are flat and the stories of the broken marriages really aren’t developed and didn’t need to be there. I only included this book because I thought the author’s portrayal of autism and its misunderstandings and effect on the family were well done.

In Sunlight and in Shadow by Mark Helprin
Leisurely paced and intrically plotted this novel is about Harry, a Jewish special-ops WWII paratrooper (we learn all the throttling details in sustained flashbacks) who has just returned home from the front to find his family’s top-of-the-line leather goods company failing and his father dying. Harry is determined to rescue. When he spies a beautiful woman on the Staten Island Ferry he seeks to learn her identity and to marry her. Catherine turns out to be a level-headed, musical, blue-blooded heiress. With the backdrop of 1940s mobster rule and Harry’s business woes their love grows against all odds.