groups

Hi Everyone:

I had no idea how many of us live in far flung locations of this country. I seem to be the only one from California....and with a Berkelely address no less. Which of course makes for a lot of ribbing. Since we cannot gather physically to share our written musings, why not do so in a virtual location like this group? We could hold a virtual salon. The rules are simple: constructive feedback if asked for; friendship, trust and love of the written word rule! If you are concerned about someone taking your idea, just copywrite it or show ownership of somekind.

We could have a salon day where we all submit a piece no more than 500 words in length about any topic. If you, like me, prefer more direction, we could choose a topic (an idea, a photograph) that we could write about. Anyway, it's just an idea. I hope that some of you go for it as it is really fun to share our love of writing.

So, I'll start by sharing something that I wrote last year about a friend's art showing.

TL

Bill's Art Show
@lz

My buddy Bill hosted a retrospective of his paintings this afternoon at the Nexus Gallery. The gallery is located in industrial Berkeley at 2707 Eighth Street. The gallery is a generous space. Paintings cover every wall and pillar.

Bill's paintings are huge. His palette does not stray from blue, white, red, yellow and black. His images are monolithic and singular.

Bill has a message erupting in each canvas. Quite literally, he spews words in lines that curl and weave over and around the figures. Painted arrows tie in phrases and carry the viewer's eyes upside around each composition. Everything moves across the canvas. These are huge, noisy, paintings. One of the paintings depicted a single flaming figure walking through a blue sky background filled with words. I did not understand what all the words meant. Indeed, it seemed that Bill cut up all of his favorite words, put them in a bag, shook the bag a lot and then drew out messages which he transposed on canvas. But, he did not do that. Bill is a poet. He told me that he was the reincarnation of William Blake. Then everyone standing around us said that they knew of or were themselves reincarnations of William Blake.

William Blake must have had a lot of karma to spread around.

I do have favorites in the show. One of my favorite paintings is a profile portrait of a man suspiciously resembling Bill. The man is crying. Every bit of his face is covered with tears. The wall that he is front of is also crying and so is the sky. Everything is covered in tears painted with blue, white, red, yellow and black.

One of my favorite phrases of Bill's come from the flaming figure painting. The words spiral up then down the figure forming this message, "It is best to stay open and accessible like a puddle of compassionate gasoline or an oily rag of unconditional love."

Hi Everyone:

A while back, I posted my proposal for a virtual salon. It appears that there is a legitimate concern regarding proprietary rights to whatever material is posted on the Eons site. I don't know what to write about that as I believe that such concerns are valid. However, my proposal had more to do with writing than copywriting. The idea was to write something brief (500 words) about a chosed topic. This would be more in the notion of practicing writing to help us become the writers we believe we are. Certainly, one would not need to post one's master work on the site. It really comes down to what you are all comfortable with. Me? I need to practice to be good so I write daily about anything including groceries. :-D

TL

I'm about to begin my magnum opus, a novel set during the transition period of the Old South to the New, and was wondering what you people might think of my plot line: A willful but pretty daughter of a plantation owner falls for an effete, but ultimately heroic son of another planter. The object of her affections can't reciprocate her feelings, and I plan on dwelling on his reasons in great detail. But here's the kicker, I'm going to drop into the mix a devilishly handsome aristocratic character from New Orleans or maybe the Carolinas or Savannah or somewhere. To the reader, he'll actually be a sympathetic character, one who loves her just the way she is, but she can barely stand the sight of him. Until the last page, that is, where she says something that leads us to believe maybe she really does love him, but too late -- whoa! At that point, he'll realize he's had about five hundred pages too much of her, and he'll respond to her pitiful bleating with, "Honestly, you, I don't give a happy rat."

Since during the course of the novel the American Civil War has come and gone and pretty much changed up the landscape, I'm calling my book, "Off Course on a Stiff Breeze."

Catchy title, don't you think?

I joined the enos about 3 weeks ago, and just now getting back to it. I'm so happy to see they have a writers club.
So far I have wrote a book about my great-grandfather who was shot in a gun fight in 1886, that now sits on 9 publishers desks, and I am still waiting to here something.
One childrens book, 3 fictions books, working on one now called "The Mothers Load, great story." I love stories of the old west.
I also am doing a screenplay version of one of my books, good luck was with me I now have 2 profession screenwriter helping me.
I want to wish all the inspiring writers , to keep hanging in there, when you finish your book , then the hard work really begans.
Remember "An author is a writer who never gives up. Good Luck
Verla

MARVELOUS to find so many interested in writing in one genre or another. Me? I'm an 82-year-old retired military/civilian journalist. I began writing for my high school newspaper in University City, Mo., St. Louis County, in 1942 but dropped out and enlisted in the Army Air Corps and World War II. I was in uniform from 1942 to 1965. During WW2 I was a Signal Corps cryptographer and wrote a "foreign correspondent" column ("The GI View") for weeklies in Maplewood, Missouri, and University City, Missouri. After the war I did a hitch in the regular army and was unit news editor of the Berlin Observer in West Berlin from 1949-50. While there, I also wrote a column like "View" for the Alexandria, Va., Gazette. From 1950 to 1965 I was editor, columnist and reporter for Air Force base newspapers in the U.S.A., Alaska and Canada.and then retired. While at a base in Canada, I was also local air base news and features reporter on the regional television station co-managed by our air force and the Canadian television network. In 1965, to 1990, I worked as a reporter, copy editor, columnist and even night city editor, and then went into "final retirement" here in southern California. I've also recently stopped writing "Ellis in Wonderland", a column circulated on the internet until this past Spring. Always wanted to write a book but like a lot of egotists, always come up with a great book title and then of course, the by me byline...and got writers block and writers cramp from there.
Oh well, perhaps I can just enjoy some of your writings, people? "DOC" ELLIS

I just found out that Borders Books in Dillon CO. will be selling my ski fitness book, Open Your Heart With Winter Fitness: Mastering Life Through Love of the Slopes.

A few years ago, I would have never believed that this would be possible. New writers: Keep the faith!

Good Morning Fellow Writers!

I am new to this group and have spent days perusing through all the posts. I am currently in the process of revising my dissertation on spiritual recovery from food addiction to a book. It is more work than I had imagined it to be. If anyone out there has experienced this arduous task (or any pearls of wisdom from those who did not experience this) I would love to hear about it.

Monna (aka Dr. Lisa)

Monna:

Sorry, no pearls of wisdom; all my oysters are empty, just a heartfelt wish of good luck! Happy Thanksgiving!

NOTE TO ALL: For some reason that I cannot figure out, my PC does not show the "reply" button, so I have to post a new message to reply.

I am terribly sorry for your loss. I remember a book written by a man whose last name was Green. He wrote a book called "Alex" about his little girl who died from cystic fibrosis when she was eight years old. This was several years ago, but I heard just recently that that book has provided help, comfort and solace for countless people dealing with illness or death of a beloved child, which in turn made the author feel like his daughter's suffering and death were not in vain.
The musician, Eric Clapton, wrote a beautiful, very moving song, called "Tears in Heaven" as a tribute to his four-year old son, lost in a fall from a high-rise apartment building window in New York. His song and story inspired a woman in the city to begin an ultimately successful campaign to have guards put on these windows so that no more children can fall from them. It might give you strength to keep going to realize that the story of your child may bring comfort and maybe even inspiration to others who need it desperately.

Well if you've been reading you know me already. I spent the afternoon reading and responding to the posts already here. It's nice to know I'm not the only dinosaur pawing a keypad. The only advantage I see for us in this cyber world is typing was a requirement when we were in high school. Who knew? :)

Oh! Darn it! I just thought of another "good" thing. We don't look like high school anymore, do we? Oh well, at least we made it past 30.

Anyway I thought I should write something myself rather than just responding to the rest of you. And, again, if you've been browsing you know I'm never at a loss for words. However, I do worry that I make ears bleed in person and I really don't want to start making eyes bleed. Makes me think of ebola. Yuck!

So I'll just say how nice my afternoon was getting to know some of you. I'll tell my writing dreams some other time. Right now I'm going to the main page to see if I can find any of you there.

Tata for now!