Bonjour a Paris

For this week, put your beret on, mes amis, and compose a postcard from Paris that could indeed fit on the back of a postcard.  A plus tard Jeudi!  


Here's a video to get you in zee mood.

Sucrets..? No, Secrets

For tomorrow, fair poets and writers, write a short short proem on Sucrets, "the non-habit forming lozenge that works on your control center."  No?  I'm being told that's wrong (told by whom you'll never know).  The assignment is actually to write a piece about secrets, the act of hiding information from another person or, if you're daring, even yourself.  Mmm...self-secrets.  Enjoy.  See you tomorrow at 7.




Here's another little secretive film (not about Sucrets).

Bad Endings

And then he woke up...

And she knew he was the man of her dreams and they lived happily ever after...

And the rope snapped taut and broke his neck...

Gazing up into the darkness he saw himself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and his eyes burned with anguish and anger.  

Bad endings.  We all know them (I'm looking at you Joyce), but let's embrace one for next time.  Write the worst possible ending to a novel for next week--one final paragraph that really puts the nail in the coffin, sealing away the rotting corpse of a work we will only know through its death rattle.  Have fun and see you on the 23rd.

I leave you with these clips from the worst film ever made. Enjoy.

Wall Scrawl Contest -- Solo Novo

For Thursday, we're doing a wall scrawl, courtesy of Solo Novo Press.  It's basically a chance to scrawl your musings, narratives, bromides, clever sayings for all the world to read if the world were, say, a men's bathroom stall or a huge internet message board.  Either way, Solo Novo is having a contest.  THe link is here with full (and clearer) directions.  Remember, we all pledged to submit at least one poem this week.  So get going.  See you Thursday!

http://www.solopress.org/Solo_Press/Submissions.html

Also, here's some nerd graffiti courtesy of the University of Chicago.  

http://www.crescatgraffiti.com/graffiti/b-level-mens-bathroom/

Letters

For this week, follow Joe Wenderoth's lead and write a letter to a specific character or real person.  Have something at stake for both the writer and the receiver.  Hopefully someone will write a letter to one of the mad dogs in this video and ask him what he's holding and if he'll give me some because it looks good (BTW is that Mama Cass singing back up?).  See you all on Thursday.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RnjWLVyMps

Shert Stery

I have a new short story coming out in McSweeney's Quarterly and also on Salon.com right now for free.  Here is the link.  Enjoy!  


http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2010/07/14/patrick_crerand_short_story/index.html

It's been a long time coming....

Hello AWGOWCers...


Sorry for the delays, but I've been busy and--let's face it--the group goes on with or without the blog.  Anyway, we're meeting this Thursday.  The assignment/obstruction is to write a conversation using a code/euphemism/symbol a la Hemingway's story Hills Like White Elephants.   Bon chance, mes amis.


I'll see you there, I promise.

Findings

For next time, write a proem imitating the style of Harper's Magazine's "Findings" section (link below).
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/11/0082730

It's a random collection of facts but feel free to make up your own.  See you Thursday at 7.

Bodice the Ripper

For next time, we are writing a proem (no more than a half page) in the style of a bodice ripper/harlequin romance.  It's an exercise in writing badly in the hopes of writing goodly er, uh, better.  Here are a few rules:


one: nothing graphic or rather pornographic, as we are all familiar with anatomy.


two: you must use the following words -- plant, button, trick, fly.


three: you must commit to the basic harlequin conventions, whatever those may be to you, keeping in mind rules one and two.


four: have fun.  


Remember we'll meet the second Thursday of May--that is May 13, not this upcoming week.  See you then at 7.

Glass Slippers

I thought I'd post a link to this article about the 2010 Pulitzer winner, Paul Harding's Tinkers.  It's an inspirational story about sticking to your guns and writing and how every once in a while, the little guy (or gal) wins out.

Take my wife...please.

For Thursday, brush up on your best one-liners and write a one-line story about Andrew Wyeth's famous painting "Christina's World."  Bon chance, mes amis.  See you at 7 on Thursday.

Picture This

For this week, write a short proem in response to the photo from the NPR web site's 3 minute fiction contest.  Happy writing and see you this Thursday at 7.  

 

In Dreams

For this week, please write a proem that begins with the phrase "In my dreams..."  Simple enough.  To inspire you, I've included this clip from Roy Orbison (with all deference to Dean Stockwell in drag--if you haven't seen Blue Velvet, give it a watch).  See you Thursday 3/25 at 7.

Extend a Metaphor

Extend a metaphor for this weeks assignment.  Sorry for the brevity, but daddy's been busy.  See you all on Thursday.

Where You're Calling From

For next time, we leave behind our work-themed essays and head back into poems, courtesy of Billy Collins' "Where I Live."  Check it out here from google books: 

So, please write a brief poem (half a page or less) about where you live.  Good luck writing.  

As promised, here is that scene from Mamet's film Glengarry Glen Ross.  Remember, "Always be closing."  See you 2/25 at 7.

Working, Das Ende

 

For this week's meeting, we are writing our final two paragraphs of the essay we wrote the introductions to at our last meeting.  This sounds more confusing than I had intended, but as I'm pretty sure there are only three people who read this blog, this won't spike the national confusion average much if any, as these three should know what I'm talking about.  As my favorite fortune cookie slip ever stated: "Good to begin well; Better to end well." Let's see your finales this Thursday, 2/11 at 7 p.m.

Working, Part Deux

For this week, bring in a first paragraph or two (half a page) of a Sunday Journal-esque article (see last  week's post for links) from the St. Pete Times on the theme of "work"/ "working."  Pretty simple.  Give it a shot.  See you this Thursday (1/28) at 7:00. 

Sandhill Review Submissions Are Open

Saint Leo Hosts St. Pete Times Editor & Pulitzer Prize Winning Writer on Wednesday, January 27, 7:30 p.m.

SAINT LEO UNIVERSITY
invites you to
An Evening with Professional Writers
Mike Wilson & Lane DeGregory
of the St. Petersburg Times

Mike Wilson, Times managing editor, and Lane DeGregory, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, will discuss Composing First-Person Narratives

Wednesday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m.
Cannon Memorial Library, Saint Leo University, in Pasco County

The writers will also announce a creative non-fiction contest for the Sunday Journal section, co-sponsored by The Times and Saint Leo University’s English Department. After they speak, Mr. Wilson and Ms. DeGregory will answer audience questions. 

A reception will follow.

It's the work, the work, it's just the working life...

Happy New Year, AWGOWCers.  We'll be meeting for the first time this year on January 14th at 7 in the Wiregrass Barnes and Noble.  In an effort to kick start the year and perhaps the economy, we're going to write essayistic proems about a job you have had or currently do have.  As the boss says, we're writing about the working life. 

In addition to these two videos up here from the man himself, (two great poems in their own right) I'm posting two links to the wonderful Sunday Journal section of the St. Pete Times.  Enjoy and see you next Thursday.

 

http://www.sptimes.com/News/022501/Floridian/Sunday_Journal.shtml

http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/sunday-journal-for-eighth-grade-boy-lunchtime-becomes-a-highlight/1053275