What is wrong with you?

The question most asked since November, 1961.....

Event: Writers' Guild of Texas Monthly Meeting --Monday, October 17, 2011

WRITERS' GUILD OF TEXAS MONTHLY MEETING

 

 

Monday, 17 October 2011

7-8:30 p.m.

 

Topic: Screenwriting: Getting Your Words on the Big Screen

Speaker: Rex McGee

 

Richardson Public Library

900 Civic Center Dr.

Richardson TX 75080

Basement Room

 

 

Sometimes a letter is more than just a letter. No one believes that more than Rex McGee, screenwriter, journalist, teacher, and creativity coach. While a film student at the University of Southern California, Rex wrote what could have been dismissed as an ordinary fan letter to his idol, six-time Oscar winner Billy Wilder, about the director’s newest film at the time, a romantic comedy called Avanti!

 

Wilder was impressed with the letter, and invited 21-year-old Rex to meet him at his office. That first introduction ultimately led to a 29-year friendship like no other, with Rex assisting Wilder with The Front Page, starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and then Fedora with William Holden and Henry Fonda.

 

Rex teaches screenwriting at the KD Conservatory for Film and Dramatic Arts in Dallas and conducts creativity workshops at Southern Methodist University based on the bestselling book The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. A member of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Dramatists Guild, he has collaborated on screenplays with directors Jon Amiel, Peter Masterson, Robert Mulligan, and Billy Wilder.

 

* * * * * *

WRITERS' GUILD OF TEXAS NOVEMBER WORKSHOP

Saturday, 12 November 2011

9 a.m.-1p.m.

 

Steve Garson, of 18^th Street Books. E-Publishing Workshop.

Richardson Civic Center

111 West Arapaho Road, Suite 102

Richardson TX 75080

972.744.4090.

 

Learn how to work with major internet stores and get your books out to the emerging e-reading audience.

Each attendee will receive a free copy of Principled Leadership.

Fee: $25.00/members; $30.00/non-members.

Pay online at www.writersguildoftexasorg or send a check to:

            Writers’ Guild of Texas

            6009 W. Parker Rd.

            Suite 149-175

            Plano TX 75093

Limited seating.

* * * * * *

 

 

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Improve your writing/editing skills; attend Writers' Guild of Texas PCS (Planned Critique Sessions). 3^rd Wed. every month. Participants present their own work, receive feedback from fellow members. Richardson Public Library Basement, 7-8:45 p.m. To sign up, contact Earl Stubbs, earlstubbs34@gmail.com, 214.683.2489.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Please welcome John Vance as WGT’s new Membership Chair.

 

Annual 2011 WGT dues of $20.00 may be paid at meetings, by mail to Writers' Guild of Texas, 6009 W. Parker Road, Suite 149-175, Plano TX 75093, or online at http:/writersguildoftexas.org/joomla/.

 

All WGT events located at the Richardson Public Library are free and open to the public. For information on the sponsoring organization, visit http://writersguildoftexas.org/joomla/.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011: The Muse Literary Mingle. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Geisha Steak and Sushi, 3801 George Bush/I90 @ Coit. Happy hour and conversation with Cindy L. Herb, author of Awakening the Spirit. Share an informative, casual conversation with our featured author and meet other writers and publishing professionals. Learn about DFW’s thriving literary community. Sponsored by Preface Entertainment and Writers' Guild of Texas.

Third Wednesday of every month: WGT's PCS meeting (see description above). Contact: Earl Stubbs, earlstubbs34@gmail.com, 214.683.2489.

Saturday, 12 November 2011  Steve Garson, of 18^th Street Books. E-Publishing Workshop. 9 a.m.-1p.m.Richardson Civic Center, 111 West Arapaho Road, Suite 102, Richardson TX 75080. 972.744.4090. Learn how to work with major internet stores and get your books out to the emerging e-reading audience. Each attendee will receive a free copy of Principled Leadership. Fee: $25.00/members; $30.00/non-members. Limited seating.

Monday, 21 November 2011: Heather Wood, E-Commerce, Your Online Selling Options

Monday, 19 December 2011: Holiday Open House and Networking Opportunity

Monday, 16 January 2012: Diane Kelly, Tax/Business Tips for Writers

Monday, 20 February 2012: Christine Perez, Writing for Magazines and Newspapers

Monday, 19 March 2012: Carmen Goldthwaite, Narrative Non-fiction

Monday, 16 April 2012: Mike Farris, Literary Agents

Monday, 21 May 16, 2012: Rachel Simeone, High Impact Book Marketing

 

All Writers' Guild of Texas events held at the Richardson Public Library are free and open to the public. Visit WGT's website: http://writersguildoftexas.org/joomla/

 

Writers' Events Calendar (contact carol.woods@verizon.net to have your conferences, meetings, or other writing-related event listed here—no individual book signings, please):

Thursday-Thursday October 20-23; 2011: 2011 Conference and October 20-27: Austin Film Festival. Austin TX www.austinfilmfestival.com.

Thursday-Thursday October 20-23; 2011: Austin TX http://www.texasbookfestival.org/

First Saturday each month: Dallas MWASW (Mystery Writers of America, Southwest). Texas Land & Cattle, 812 South Central Expressway, Richardson, TX 75080, from 9:30-11:30 a.m. $5.00 door fee, cash only. All who attend are invited to remain for lunch. Contact info: rebecca@rebeccarussell.com. Permission to forward.

The Dallas Area Writers Group (DAWG) put together a summer reading list—including a reading list for writers. Check it out! The more readers in the world—the more opportunities for writers! www.alanelliott.com

Second Saturday each month: North Texas Speculative Fiction Workshop. Meets every 2nd Saturday at the Hurst Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 6pm.http://www.ntsfw.com

Frisco Writers Meet-Up Groups: Day group meets every 3rd Thursday and night group every 2nd Tuesday. See website for more details. http://www.meetup.com/writers-749/

Visit http://www.writersleague.org/programs/classes.html for up-to-date information on Writer's League of Texas workshops held in Austin TX.

Visit http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/ for guidelines to participate in the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

 

The Writers' Guild of Texas is a nonprofit professional organization whose primary purpose is to provide a forum for information, support, and sharing among writers; to help members improve and market their writing skills; and to promote the interests of writers and the writing community.

 

If you don't wish to receive these announcements, please let me know.

 

Permission to forward this email is not only granted, but encouraged. Let's get the word out to as many in the writing community as possible.

 

Carol Woods, Communications

Writers' Guild of Texas

carol.woods@verizon.net

FFB Review: "A Real Basket Case" by Beth Groundwater

With the upcoming re-release in November of Beth Groundwater’s first book, A Real Basket Case, it seemed more than appropriate to take another look at this very good book for Friday’s Forgotten Books. For the complete list of the wide ranging books selected by various folks head over to Patti Abbott’s wonderful blog at http://pattinase.blogspot.com/  Lots of good reading there everyday and certainly Fridays generate incredible book lists……

Claire Hanover is not very happy these days. Her husband Roger spends way too much time at work, the kids are grown and out of the house and her gift basket business isn't much consolation. Rather bored and lonely, this wasn't the way her life was supposed to go at all. Then, there is the fact that her close friends are divorced and generally bitter towards men in general. Men aren't the good guys they may have been years ago and Roger is one of them.

Her good friend Ellen seems to believe that what Claire really needs is a good fling and suggests that Enrique is just the one to show her a good time. It won't be serious and there won't be strings and of course, it won't hurt anyone. Beyond that, Enrique teaches a couple of exercise classes which is how Claire met him and gives a great massage. Even if it doesn't lead to anything else, Ellen is convinced that a really good massage will help adjust Claire's outlook on life. Backed into a corner by Ellen, Claire finally allows Enrique to come over to give her a massage.

Whether it could have led to something more, Claire will never know because Enrique is gunned down in her bedroom while giving her the massage. As it happens, Roger is home and there to hold the gun and for Claire and the police it initially appears that Roger did the deed.

Claire, slowly realizing what Roger must think she has done and what they stand to lose, begins to try to figure out the case. The police consider it an open and shut case since Roger was there holding the gun that fired the fatal bullet and she no doubt was committing adultery. They see it as nothing more than the husband gunning down his wife's lover in a fit of rage. The fact that Roger also believes she committed adultery makes her finally realize how close she has come to losing him. She soon becomes determined not only to save her marriage but to save her husband. Unlike her basket making business, her blundering could get her killed and yet she soldiers on in her efforts to gift wrap the real killer for police.

This cozy style mystery is a real treat to read. Claire quickly becomes a character the reader cares about and one alive in every sense of the word. As her character development continues to grow throughout the novel it becomes clear that Claire is relying on inner resources she never knew she had. At the same time, several of the secondary characters also grow and change and none are given short shrift in terms of plot or development. While the focus is primarily on Claire, the other characters play major roles and contribute to the overall read.

Full of twists and turns along with plenty of suspects is sure to keep readers entertained all the way to the end. Clearly the start of a series and a good one at that, this is a book that is sure to please a lot of readers.

For more information on this book and others by Beth Groundwater, surf over to her blog at

http://bethgroundwater.blogspot.com/  

Kevin R. Tipple © 2007, 2011

Sandi's Knee

Today has been an exhausting and brutal day. But, I did want to give everyone a brief update as to Sandi's knee.

Her knee is doing really well. Beyond really well. He described it doing "incredibly well."

The stitches are now out and she is to remain off of it. Supposed to start physical therapy next week for two to three times a week for the next 10 weeks. This is in addition to her continuing to work her knee on the CMP machine until insurance cuts it off on October 21.

At this point he says she is doing remarkably well and far better than he expected.

In about seven weeks he will evaluate her again.

Sandi asked me to pass along to everyone her thanks for all the prayers, well wishes, etc as she has dealt with the strokes and now this. From both of us---thank you!

Kevin

Scummy Behavior

So, I ran across this earlier today and I am annoyed.

http://www.thedigitalin.com/


Of course, the folks involved don't name names or stand behind the garbage they have created here. they identify no one involved in this little project--and for good reason. Just give them ten bucks and they will generate false positive reviews at Amazon and Goodreads. If enough of that wasn't already going on at both sites already.

As I always say, know your reviewer!

Look at the body of work. See what they "read" and how they "review" and make your own judgment as to whether or not the reviewer is worth anything. You can always spot the scammers and the fakes--if you look at the reviewer history.


Kevin

Ten Days Post Surgery (With Pictures)

Ten days post-surgery at this point and she seems to be doing really well. Pain has been minimal and she is back making things for sale at  http://www.ioffer.com/users/sanditipple where she has holiday as well as everyday items like quilts, baby blankets, stuffed animals, etc. over there. The picture below shows her working this morning while doing the rehab work thanks to the CMP machine. The machine is at the ninety degree mark according to the little digital hands device located at the end of the machine.

As of today, she is up to ninety degrees of flex in the knee having gone up five degrees every day since the day after surgery. What pain she has remains very low and only happens on the inside of her knee cap. She sees the doctor Thursday to have the stitches removed and discuss where she goes from here. When he did the surgery, he said she would be on crutches for four weeks and could not put any weight at all on that leg. She wants to be rid of the crutches now!

                                                                                                                          

And, of course, her cat, Duncan, likes to sleep in it now when she isn’t using it. He also does not much care for being woken up either.

Kevin

My Last Weapon

and impossible.

A POEish Pun

FFB Review: "Die Laughing And Other Murderous Schtick" by S. S. Rafferty (Reviewed by Barry Ergang)

DIE LAUGHING AND OTHER MURDEROUS SCHTICK (1985)

by S.S. Rafferty

Reviewed by Barry Ergang

Chick Kelly is a funny guy. 

Seriously. 

But then, he has to be funny. He's a stand-up comic by trade. Having given up the road to run a night club on Third Avenue with Barry Kantrowitz, his former agent turned business partner, Chick also has a penchant for getting into trouble, frequently of the murderous variety, which always ignites the temper of  bullet-headed NYPD Homicide Lieutenant Jaffee. Jaffee would love nothing more than to see him in prison. 

Die Laughing collects seven of Chick's escapades, which originally appeared in either Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine or Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. These first-person narratives are wry, breezy, and so conversational the reader will easily be able to imagine sitting across a table from Chick and being regaled by his predicaments. As in many a real-life conversation, the narrative shifts easily from past to present tense and back again—e.g., "'What in the hell is this about?' Summers asks the two delivery guards. He was agitated because my escort had me in hand and ankle manacles complete with lead chain. I looked like Houdini about to jump in a river."

In "Alectryon Slept," Chick is the prime suspect in the death of Julio Martinez, one of his employees, who owned a valuable fighting gamecock. Julio appears to have been bitten by a poisonous snake. Was he, and is the snake still somewhere in Chick's night club? Or was Julio murdered?

When his young niece and nephew, both of whom were witnesses to the murder of an assistant D.A., go missing, Chick uses his connections among New York City's cabbies to track them down—and identify the murderer—in "Two Tokens to Trouble."

When his headwaiter, Ling, a compulsive gambler, runs up a $50,000 tab with the mob, Chick is approached by Sam Sidlock, "front man for the mob's East Coast gambling operations." Sidlock wants Chick to pay the money so they can return Ling to him. In hock to his eyeballs, Chick doesn't have the money. But he comes up with a wild challenge to Sidlock that could mean big trouble if it backfires in "The Ling Woo Longshot."

"Vodka and Vipers" has Chick accepting an invitation to a Park Avenue society party accompanied by a date, a young performer in a Broadway musical who seems to get the dander up of several guests simply by showing up. When she takes the long hard trip from the penthouse terrace to the pavement, Chick has to prevent the wrong suspect from being arrested by his old enemy, Lieutenant Jaffee. The only way he can do that is to solve the murder himself.

When Chick (nickname for Charles) Kelly comes down with a mild toothache and his regular dentist is on vacation, Barry Kantrowitz's wife Sylvia calls her dental hygienist niece who, in turn, gets Chick an appointment at the office she works for in "Caries Can Kill You." When a patient named Charles Killy dies in the dental chair, Chick has to determine whether he or Killy was the intended target—and who the intender is.

In "Going, Going, Gone and Dead," Chick makes the mistake of telling his sometime paramour, high society dame Tish Loman, and several of her girlfriends that he owns a painting given to him by a deceased artist named Kevin Fleming "to square a bar bill." Fleming's work has become quite valuable, despite the artist's being known for his depravity with regard to some of his subjects, most notably in a painting dubbed The Degraded Madonna. When Chick's cleaning lady, Mrs. Gull, is murdered and the painting stolen from his apartment, he devises an elaborate scheme to solve the murder and recover the painting.

Millionaire church elder Jay Porter Pemberton, a friend of Chick's, has a problem. Having gone up to his summer place in Newport, Rhode Island during the winter storm season to check on the place because of recent severe weather and reports of looting, and having gotten caught in a storm himself, he's staying at the summer home when a woman named Gina Velker pounds on his door. Her car has skidded off the main highway, and she urgently needs shelter. Pemberton puts her up for the weekend—innocently—and then drives her back to New York. Soon after he receives a letter from a lawyer representing Gina's husband, and it appears that the Velkers may have set him up to fleece him for a cash settlement. When the Velkers are murdered and Chick is arrested because of his involvement with Pemberton, professional liar Tall Tommy Tanuka goes into action to prove Chick's innocence in the novelette-length "Tall Tommy and the Millionaire."

I can and do recommend Die Laughing and Other Murderous Schtick to any fan of short mystery fiction who enjoys quick reads leavened with humor and some offbeat characters. My sole complaint is that the book could have used a good proofreader. Misspellings and some punctuation errors abound, which I found odd because the publisher, International Polygonics, Ltd. did immaculate work with many other books they published that I own. Readers who can overlook the errors will get a kick out of  Chick Kelly and company.

Barry Ergang © 2011

Formerly the Managing Editor of Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine and First Senior Editor of Mysterical-E, winner of the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s 2007 Derringer Award in the Flash Fiction category, Barry Ergang’s written work has appeared in numerous publications, print and electronic. For links to material available online, and fiction available for e-readers, see Barry’s webpages. Remember, too, that he has books from his personal collection for sale at http://barryergangbooksforsale.yolasite.com/  He'll contribute 20% of the purchase price of the books to our fund, so please have a look at his lists, one of which includes Die Laughing and Other Murderous Schtick.

Coping Skills

A Sandi Knee Surgery Update (With Pictures)

It has been a few days since her surgery and things seem to be going well. Almost too well and that makes me a bit nervous.


Last Saturday morning, the doctor removed what little was left of the meniscus, poked little holes in what little remained of her cartilage to help the new stuff bond in and build, and then pumped the joint full of the replacement stuff. Just before noon he sent her home with dire warnings about how she had to stay off of it a minimum of four weeks and the fact she would be in much worse pain than she had been for a week or more. We were told she had to start using the joint flexing machine, CMP, the same day no matter how much it hurt to prevent the formation of scar tissue and to get the new stuff to go everywhere it should go in the joint.

The picture above is from this morning where I am starting the machine for her first session of two hours.  She has three sessions a day where the machine pushes her lower leg back in order to bend her knee. Every day she goes up by five degrees on the machine. While strapped into it, Sandi sews, watches TV, and even manages to sleep. Pain is very minimal so far as she has had to take one pain pill twice since Saturday.

Sandi is happier than it appears because she got her first post surgery shower last night after managing to navigate up and down our inside stairs. She is doing so well, she can't wait to try and walk on it.

That is forbidden! 

So, she waits, grumbles, and we shall see if the doctor can pull the stitches out late next week as scheduled.


Kevin

Finding The Elusive Muse.......

Short Story Review: "Teed Off" by Mark Troy

Val Lyon, based in Honolulu, Hawaii is a tough no nonsense private investigator. Her latest case involves Glenn Floeck, owner of “Teed Up,” a line of golf shops. He plans to expand his company to the islands. That means he and his bodyguard, Frodo Baggins, need a car and a driver.

Val Lyon can provide both along with plenty of attitude and investigative skills. By working undercover and getting close to him she can get the answers she needs. The answers will come one way or another in this very good story.

Originally published in Fedora, Private Eyes and Tough Guys edited by Michael Bracken and released by Wildside Press back in 2001 the story serves as a nice introduction for readers unfamiliar with the Val Lyon character.  The former cop, former basketball player, and former couple of other things also appears in several other short stories as well as the very good re-released novel Pilikia Is My Business also available from Ilium Books. 

That novel was reviewed here as part of Friday’s Forgotten Books back in September 2010.

In the interest of full disclosure I should note that not only do I consider Mark Troy a good friend, he also recently posted on his blog a plea to help us in our ongoing nightmare. That was done while I was reading his story and did not influence this review.

When you have been reviewing books and other materials as long as I have been, it is inevitable that at some point you will be reviewing the work of a friend. In addition to being a valued number of the writer’s group I am, Mark Troy writes good stuff.  I’m not about to start stripping the work of friends from my review pile. But, I can and will tell you of these relationships so that you can decide whether or not to consider that sort of thing when you read my reviews.

TEED OFF

Mark Troy

http://www.marktroy.net/  

http://hawaiian-eye.blogspot.com/

Kindle e-book

September 2011

Despite being a member of my local writers group, this story was never seen before by me prior to this review. It was supplied by the author at my request for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple

Recovery Mode

As a few folks already know, Sandi had her knee surgery yesterday morning. Once we realized Thursday morning we were safe rent wise another month thanks to numerous and much appreciated folks, we took advantage of a cancellation at the surgery center for Saturday morning. While her ACL and MCL were fine as expected, the doctor confirmed the fact that arthritis is very present on the knee and that the meniscus was pretty much gone. So he cleaned that out, poked little holes in what remained of her cartilage to help the new stuff bond in and build, and then pumped the joint full of the replacement stuff.


At this point, over all, she is doing pretty well. The anesthesia is not clearing from her lungs as well as it should be so she is using the inhaler they sent her home with as needed. Her pain level is down significantly from where it was pre-surgery. As I write this, she is comfortably using the CMP, a knee flexor machine, that manually bends and straightens her knee to prevent scar tissue and aid in moving the new stuff around in the joint.


So, she is doing really well and seems to be at a good place in her recovery mode.


Kevin