Author: Staff

We take care of business.

When Pigs Fly

Bev Walker, a long-time member of Writers in the Grove, contributed this poem. Bev specializes in writing stories and poetry with a bright and lighthearted spirit. an accomplished painter and writer, she’s published books on her family’s history and genealogy, and contributed to many anthologies. She is currently working on a memoir.

There once was a man most curious
who went from silly to serious
when the town he was happily in
was met with a great big wind.
He went up in the might swirl
of a hurricane – and with a girl.
Round and round in terrible weather
Went cow, pig and house all together.
Said the man to the spinning sky,
“Oh, oh, my, look! Pigs can fly!”
They came down in a far off land
set down by a gentle hand.
Man and girl married in a jig,
fixed the house, milked the cow, styed the pig.
And because of their whirlwind romance,
Everyone knew how to dance.
And it never caused a moment’s stir
that they never knew where they were.
So don’t fret if your life is a jumble
one day it will land all a tumble
in a haven where all things come right,
and even pigs dance with delight.

Labor Day 2015 At Parks and Paula

On Labor Day, September 7, 2015, the Forest Grove Senior and Community Center will be closed for the holiday. We will be meeting at Paul and Parks in downtown Forest Grove. The address and directions will be available at the next meetings.

If you would like to attend and are new to the group, please comment below or use our contact form and we will email you directions.

Prompt: Hero, Villain, Victim

The prompt this Monday involved choosing a picture from a magazine of an adult. The images represented advertising, marketing, and the photographs used in articles to help tell their stories. Your task is to randomly search through magazines and find a picture of a person of your own to work from. Could be male or female, someone alone or with others.

Study the body language of the person, their facial expression, the way they are positioned in the scene. What stories are evoked as you examine the person in the image?

The prompt was to imagine this person as first a hero, then as a villain, then a victim, and write.

Doesn’t matter what happens or how you want to handle this, just write what comes to mind.

Seeds of…Volume II: Anthology of Pacific Northwest Writers

SEEDS OF…Volume II: Anthology of Pacific NW Writers (Volume 2) is the latest collection of writers from Writers in the Grove and community writers from around the Pacific Northwest published by Tawk Press.

Complied, edited, and published by Writer’s in the Grove leader, MaryJane Nordgren, the anthology features a wide but cohesive collection of stories, poems, and prose that will delight you and keep you reading page after page, even out loud to friends, family, and strangers on the bus.

The publisher’s description on Amazon describes the book best:

This second collection of essays, stories and poems by writers from Oregon and Washington varies in outlook and philosophy, in form and style as widely as does the Pacific Northwest community.

Diana Lubarsky leads off “Coping” with a hilarious crisis in the lives of her characters from Dante’s Angels. Mark Thalman reminds of the fragility of the line between life and death. Ross Hall, Lois Akerson and Bunny Hansen grow from loss. In a letter to Dorothy, Fred Melden contemplates where we are after life’s experiences. Joe Schrader follows poachers from Minnesota who are little better off hunting in Oregon. Mitch Metcalf engulfs us in a disaster in the North Sea. “Relating” brings Roger Ritchey, Rebecca Robinson, Hannah Kolehmainen and Matthew Hampton in touch with Nature. Beverly Walker and G.A. Meyerink rely on love of animals to bring out the best in people. Charles Pritchard, Joan Graves and Everett Goodwin define self in relationship with another. Joan Ritchey is reminded of generations of love by the family mantle clock. Bill Stafford’s humor wrings joy from plays on words beginning with ‘O.’ In “Finding Self,” Jessica Morrell’s planned escape to Nature becomes a lesson in tolerance and the joy in giving. Nel Rand, near the end of life, returns to what has mattered most. Paula Adams’ fearful tadpoles ponder one of their own who reaches beyond the known.

Rosemary Lombard, Barbara Schultz and Susan Munger reach into foreign settings. Karen Hessen, Eva Foster, Sarah Hampton and Gerlinde Schrader grow from difficult childhood challenges. Julie Caulfield and her brother’s inability to swallow at the dictate of their father brings challenges to their mother. Sandra Mason’s heart is beside the Pacific, but her roots are deep in the Midwest in “Remembering.” Susan Schmidlin wrestles with the hitches in farm maintenance. Susan Field and Muriel Marble remember life changing in a hurricane and a war. In “Reflecting,” Marilyn Schmidlin leans on and learns from a strong tree of life. Phil Pochurek and Wafford Tornieri explore humanness in the cycles of season and the moon. Alisa Hampton and M.J. Nordgren ponder the interconnectedness of seen and unseen.

These thirty-nine authors scatter wild and domestic seed abroad into the far-flung, fertile soil of imagination. But uniting them all is the love of the strength, beauty and challenge of Pacific Northwest area of the country.

Seeds of…Volume II is available in print on Amazon.com as a paperback.

Because

By Writer’s in the Grove member Patti Bond inspired by the July 4, 2015, prompt “Because.”

Because I want to achieve
Because I want to change
Because I want to get better
Because I need to
Because I want other people to like me
Because I want to be proud
Because I want to gain respect
Because I am special
Because I want to meet goals
Because I want to be me

Scrivener Basics Workshop July 23, 2015

Lorelle VanFossen is presenting an informal free workshop on Scrivener Basics in her home north of North Plains, Oregon, at 6:30PM on Thursday July 23. For directions, use the comments below, the contact form, or get them at the next Writer’s in the Grove weekly workshops. Carpooling from Forest Grove Senior and Community Center maybe available.

Scrivener Logo and Screenshots from official site

She has already released an ongoing Scrivener series of tutorials, videos, and guides to help you learn more about how Scrivener works. These are the workshop notes as well.

The workshop will cover:

  • Introduction to Scrivener
  • Explain and demonstrate why to use Scrivener for writing
  • How to create a simple project in Scrivener
  • Working with documents and research
  • How to import your writing and writing material into Scrivener
  • Basic tips on how to organize your writing and research in Scrivener

We will go slow as we can but it will help if you watch a few of the videos and read the referenced articles in What is Scrivener, Scrivener: Bootcamp, and Scrivener: Organize Your Writing and Thinking. The latter article will help you get your head around the difference between working with a word processor and Scrivener.

You will be required to bring your laptop with Scrivener installed. If you do not have it, go to Literature and Latte to get Scrivener as a free trial or paid downloadable (or order CD) version. The laptop does not have to be wifi enabled but it helps. You will also need a mouse (trackpad is painful but works), power cords for the laptop, and extra batteries for the mouse.

If you would like to bring food, drinks, and snacks to share, that would be appreciated. We will snack and work as there is much to cover.

To speed up the process, please bring a COPY file of a writing project you are working on (one or more files), pictures, scanned images or documents, and other digital research material you are using for your writing project.

This is a one time event. A follow-up event may be possible, or a class series at the Senior Center this fall if the demand is high enough.

Celebrate and Be Thankful

The following is by Liz Winston, a guest to Writers in the Grove Monday workshop. She wrote the following and shared it with us with permission to publish based upon the 4th of July prompt. Liz is a singer specializing in jazz and gospel in Seattle and also works retail during the day.

Another day
Full of fun,
Family, friends,
food, and faith.

A time to celebrate and
Be thankful for a chance to
Choose to make a positive
Difference in life.

Whether I face emotional,
Physical or mentally challenged,
Being thankful for past
And present progress
Things that have molded me into
The person you see today.

Being thankful
For another year to
Celebrate life whether
I feel ready or not.

Boom, bang, pop, sizzle,
Oooh, awwww, wow, oooh
As the lights are bright in
the sky tonight.

Together on the Fourth of July

This week, the prompt was 4th of July. A guest visiting the Writers in the Grove Monday workshop gave us permission to publish her prompt. Her name is Susan Siverson and she is proud mother of 4, lives in Seattle, and is a former bank manager now working at Seattle Pacific University in the Education Department.

That’s not fair – I have rights
But where do your rights end and mine begin?
Will you keep pushing the boundaries
Blind to your selfishness?
Could you be oblivious
Or do you just not care?

Then I think, and wonder –
Were you taught manners?
Or did you grow in
An environment of pain and uncertainty?

Yet today these differences fade
As we shift focus to a single theme
To dine, laugh, watch
Mesmerized by moments of light
Predesigned to enchant.
Speechless and awed together.

Inspiration

Inspired by a prompt on where you find your inspiration, Writers in the Grove member, Diana Kay Lubarsky wrote the following.

Where do I go to find inspiration for my writing? Good question.

When seeking inspiration I tend to go to the darker corners of my life. The black hole of unresolved issues, unwiped tears, fears and longings, or embarrassing situations. Old thoughts, long forgotten memories gleefully swim to the surface of my mind eager to be set free. Surprisingly, not all of the stories emerge as sad. Moments of social maladjustment often morph into humorous ditties. Like the one about my husband’s cane. (After years of yelling at my husband to use his cane he finally picked it up only to use it as a pointer and promptly knocked over a prized vase.)

My writing takes two forms … that which I share, and that which I don’t. I’ve never categorized it like that before, but it is true. The writing I do not share is comparable to a child’s temper tantrum, filled with the angst of not getting my own way. While that which I do share tends to be kinder and more tolerant and encouraging. But always, the inspiration comes from within.

Surrounded now by kindred writers every Monday morning in the ivory covered halls of the Forest Grove Senior Center, I am learning how others seek inspiration from the outer world, which I find fascinating. This wonderful group share the most marvelous inspirational tales … about Rosemary’s turtles, and Beverly’s flush toilets, from Susan’s farm happenings to Lorelle’s imaginings. I am learning to look outward.

Perhaps someday soon I will be inspired by buttercups smiling in the field. But for today the inner images still sing most loudly in my head.

DKL 6/8/15