Poppen's Thoughts on Writing and Stuff: Spring Frenzy 2008

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Spring Frenzy 2008

What a fun day!! This is the week our city's Parks & Rec. Dept. hosts a week of activities geared to the senior citizen to help them become aware of what things are available for life enrichment in Lake Havasu City. The activities range from exercise, to golf, to cooking, to dancing, to financial planning and some academics like Intro. to Spanish and writing workshops. I will be conducting workshops on 'Writing Short Stories' and 'Journaling'. Today was my Short Story session. Had almost 30 folks in attendance. Very attentive, eager to learn folks that ranged from curious to serious, from fiction to memoir. I gave them handouts to help with grammar and gave them my four favorite bits of advice - write every day, write for yourself (doesn't matter what your family/friends think about your work), join a crit group and know when to quit editing. Folks waited after the workshop to tell me how much they enjoyed it and I sold one of my novels and three LHCWG anthologies. Nice!!

Tomorrow I do the workshop on journaling. Hope it goes as well as the one today. There was a man at my workshop today who took the journaling workshop last year and has been a daily journalist this past year. How nice to hear. This year, I'll add the option of blogging to the types of journals one may keep.

Moved 'Lita' along. I'm liking it more and more. I really like the Farrells. Didn't get any subs sent out due the workshop prep, but I'll get to it this weekend.

Got a thank you from Susan for the answers to her questions. Hope it helped her. Hope it was what she was asking.

Talked with Jim and Hailey today. He's coming down to Laughlin in a week or so. Hailey and I have been talking to each other's answering machines, so it was nice to finally chat, although I was interrupting her from 'American Idol'! Went to bingo tonight. Not a win amonst the four of us!

Need my beauty sleep so I can be bright eyed for the workshop tomorrow, so goodnight for now ...

1 comment:

jabberingjo said...: Sharon, I wish I'd gone to your writing classes. I truly meant to this year. Just get too caught up in life to do the things I want to do.Instead of the things I need to do. who would care if the floor didn't get mopped? I'm such a creature of habit.Keep blogging JOan; 10:44 AM

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Questions of the Week - WIN A $15 Amazon.Com Gift Certificate

In Sharon Poppen's latest release, Mama Played for the King, when Phillip is forced into the French orphanage system, he is farmed out to work in what industry?

- or -

In Poppen's best seller, Hannah, what is the name of the man Hannah spends her every waking moment trying to bring to justice.

The first correct answer to either question wins a $15 gift certificate at Amazon.com.' Send your answer as a comment to the most recent post for this blog.

Reader Lena Casper knew the name of Michael's home planet was Maurac in Poppen's novel, Regardless. Ms. Casper received a $15 Amazon gift certificate for posting that answer.

Story of the Week

The Band
By Sharon Poppen

When Buddy rounded the corner, he saw two of his band members pacing and stamping their feet to stay warm.

“Hey,” he announced his arrival. “Sorry, I’m so late. My mom was baking cookies until after eleven.
Couldn’t sneak out until I was sure she was asleep.”

“Dang, we’re freezing. You know old Jack won’t let us in until we’re all here,” said Glen.

Buddy hurried past them and rapped loudly on the service entrance to their local high school building.
Almost immediately, Jack, the black janitor, opened the door and hurried the young white boys inside.

“You’re late,” he reprimanded.

“Sorry,” said Buddy as he followed Jack through the hall and down into the boiler room in the cellar.

Jack’s son, Dwayne, was already set up and tuning his
guitar. Greetings were exchanged as the boys got their instruments ready. Buddy sang lead and played lead guitar. Dwayne played rhythm, Glen played bass, Ronnie was their drummer and all three did back-up singing.

Buddy glanced at his watch.

“Shoot! It’s already past midnight.” He looked over at Jack. “We still have to be out of here by two?”

“Pa,” begged Dwayne, “another half hour. Please?”

“Two-thirty, then you boys gotta get outta here.”

The boys gave Jack a thumbs-up as he closed the door to the almost soundproof boiler room. Jack listened for a bit as the boys began playing their version of “That’s All Right, Mama.” He smiled. Big Boy Crudup would be proud, but Elvis had nothing to worry about. Still, the boys were in tune and their voices rang with enthusiasm.

Jack went about his janitorial duties. He needed this job desperately and despite all the preaching and marching by Dr. King, even a janitor’s job was hard to
come by for a black man in Georgia in the late fifties.
\His wife was against him allowing the boys these secret practices. She just knew they’d be found out and Jack would be fired.

But Jack saw the want in his boy’s eyes and unlike most of the town, he didn’t think the new rock and roll was Satan’s music. In fact, he liked the way
gospel, blues and country music were being inter-woven to create this new fad that all the kids
were excited about. So, he let the boys sneak in every Sunday night for a couple hours of jamming. And who knows, new singers were being discovered every day. Jack felt the boys deserved their chance.

At two-thirty, Jack ushered the boys out and told them to be careful going home. And so it went for
a couple of years.

When the boys graduated, they loaded up Buddy’s old station wagon, said good-bye to their disappointed folks who hadn’t given up hope that their boys would get serious and go on to college, and headed for
Philadelphia. It seemed all the ‘discoveries’ were being made there.

Jack hugged his son, then spoke to all four boys. “Just remember, I want you boys to follow your dreams, but make sure that while you’re chasing them down, you don’t lose the real you along the way. Every morning, look in the mirror and be proud of the face staring back at you. You hear me?”

“I hear ya, Pa. I’ll do like you said,” said Dwayne while the others nodded.

Jack wished them well and waved good-bye. For a few years, he listened to all the news about rock and roll on their small black and white TV in the parlor and on the big red plastic radio in the kitchen.
He listened, but his boy and his mates were never mentioned.

*******

Thirty years later, the boys, now men, gathered for a final ‘thank you’ session with Jack. Dwayne greeted them at the side door to Rayne’s Funeral Home. He ushered them into the visiting room containing his father’s coffin.

Each man paid private respects to Jack, then Dwayne directed them to the musical instruments he had set up next to the coffin.

“Thanks for coming,” said Dwayne. “Pa was always our best and biggest supporter. Somehow, I know he’ll hear our efforts to say good-bye with the music he, and only he, allowed us to play all those years
ago.”

Buddy, now Dr. Bud Phillips, spoke for the others. “It’s our honor to get together for this special gig. Jack believed in us from the beginning. Always said we’d all do well, only we thought he meant with the band. What he really saw in us was a determination that would serve us in any field we chose.”

And so it was that Jack’s memorial service was highlighted by a band consisting of a doctor on lead guitar, high school teachers on rhythm and bass and a U.S. army major on drums.

The End

Poppen's Thoughts on Writing and Stuff

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Spring Frenzy 2008

1 comment:

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