Ruth's Challenge: Write a short story (about 1000 words) with rural settings and an upbeat theme centered on the lives of country women. (For submission to "Country Women" magazine).

Jim's Challenge: Write about a garage sale using a theme of "letting go." Try to capture ONE emotion clearly. THEN, re-write the same scene in another POV (if 1st person POV, rewrite it in 3rd person POV, or vice versa.)

PLOT (collaboratively put together by the group):
    Kwl Dip was born in Columbus, Oh., an Arab-American. He has a younger brother, Anuj, who is in the Guard and has to go over there and then dies in an IED attack. Kwl's parents are hard-working blue-collar types, Kwl is not. Instead, he is a union electrician (IBEW) and clandestinely sings in a basement nightclub downtown. (His grandparents are musically-gifted). He is intensely patriotic and comes at the end to sing America the Beautiful (or some such) at half-time at the SuperBowl. Then....
   Write a story using some or all of the above details. Write "dramatically" and consider who is telling the story, ie who is the narrator?

DRAMA: Using the following lines as a seed, write a few paragraphs that set up the situation and provide a seemingly insurmountable obstacle that will carry the reader all the way to the climax (NOVEL form, tennis-written by members):

   It was a cold rainy night in October. The sheep were billowing from the barn, waiting for their supper.
   They will have to wait, I thought.
   I reached down and wiped the eight-inch blade on the wet grass of the hillside, its point shimmering in the headlights of my idling pick-up. I glanced up and could see the heads of my four children where they sat in the cab of the pick-up. I could feel the cold rain going down my back and I knew they would be coming soon.


  

Add to the following sentences (re-write, edit these if you want), using the very best of SHOW NOT TELL (see Meetings):
   Rachel raised her hand. She really didn't know if she wanted the answer. She dropped her hand into her lap.
   The professor, his eyebrows high, noticed Rachel's reluctance and turned toward her.
   She felt his eyes upon her and looked down.
   He rose from the desk and began marching toward her. She drew her breath in deeply and clasped the fallen hand in her lap....
               (Tennis-written by members)