Welcome to AWEsome Writers Group!

Hi. This new site will showcase some writers in the Afton Writers Group and the W. B. Ogden Writers Group of Walton, who live and work in the beautiful Southern Tier of New York, plus some friends from “Elsewhere.”

Please look around at what we’ve posted so far. Our site is new, so come back soon for more samples of our work and discussions about writing craft and the writing life. It’s always challenging, but never unrewarding!

Please note that all posts, images, audio, and other content posted by this site’s authors are copyrighted material unless otherwise specified or attributed. All rights are reserved by the respective authors.

  – Linda Bonney Olin, Site Administrator

TUGBOAT ANTS

For six months my husband and I lived in the state of Gracias a Dios, Honduras, an area accessible only by air or a long winding river. Our house was basic but adequate. It had been built many years before out time there. A house keeper kept it spotless, but in the tropics houses are kept open to catch every movement of air. It the tropics cockroaches are a fact of life.

My journal on February 19, 2004 in Ahuas.

Tugboat ants

2/19/04

This morning a dead cockroach lay just inside the back door. Now it has disappeared. A flotilla–a large troop of ants moved it front the porch across the threshold to the spare bedroom. Apparently decided it was going in the wrong direction, they moved it back up and over the threshold. The ants were able to control the downward motion and glide it along until the floor was smooth. Getting around the threshold, they moved the whole cockroach like tugs moving a huge cruise ship in a harbor. The cockroach seemed to float across the floor. Every so often, a new fotilla of tugboats appeared to lift and carry it. The last I saw of the cockroach, it was being floated along the wall of the bathroom before it disappeared in the wall.

If the ants can’t move a cockroach, they take it apart and move it piece by piece leaving only the wings.

Another day I watched the ants move a cockroach to the shower which is enclosed by a four inch smooth box. They were able to lift it straight up that smooth surface, although it fell down a couple of times. Then the ants took it across the top and down the other side before disappearing.

Amazing cooperation and determination.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we people had that kind of determination and most of all, cooperation. We could move the world!

check out: www.lakeafton.wordpress.com

OLD FRIENDS

Old friends may be young or old in age. Old friends may also indicate that you have known them for a long time.
When I was a little kid, my grandfather was a friend and a playmate. He played silly games with me ever changing rules–mine, of course. An elderly neighbor often came to our farm to chat as my dad milked the cows, or to go fishing in our pond. Sometimes he gave me a fish or two on his way home.

I have young friends who see me in a grandmotherly light; a friend, just a few years into his career as a pastor, who calls frequently to discuss our worlds; friends the age of my children. Their lives are much different than mine—full of babies, children, school activities, work. Whenever I see or talk with them I delight in their lives.

I have two high school and two college girlfriends, whom I’ve not seen in many years, but we maintain a friendship through a round robin letter that circulates among the five of us about every six months. The letters have carried us through meeting men, marriage, children, death of another round robin member, death of husbands, and the joy of grandchildren.

Moving with my pastor husband gave me more old friends. From his first pastorate near Kingston, New York, is the friend who cared for my little daughter when I substituted in the local school district. Living on opposite coasts, we have kept track of one another’s daily activities through modern communications. Today she is here with me to see the changing colors in the Hudson Valley. Friends often see the world in the same way. We are like that.

I joy in my old friends, no matter what their age.

JOAN OF ARC: A WARRIOR WHO DEFIED TRADITION

Joan of Arc has been a fascinating subject for many scholars and historians. Born in an age when women like children were seen but not heard, and peasants lived to serve and follow, Joan, a woman and a peasant, was heard, listened to and followed. The fact that she accomplished these feats between the ages of fourteen and sixteen is even more remarkable. What is also astonishing is that many of Joan’s biographers like Shaw and Twain were men who held a more traditional view of women and yet within their works, you can sense not mere admiration but love and hero worship for this amazing girl who broke with all the traditions society had laid down for her and lead a great army to victory and her people to freedom.

Twain after twelve years of research and six attempts finally finished Joan of Arc and published it in 1895 in Harper’s Magazine under the pseudonym Sieur Louise de Conte. This name uses Twains real initials, Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The character Louis de Conte was suppose to be a member of the minor nobility from Joan’s village who followed her from home into battle, and to her trials, keeping a record of her adventures along the way.

Although fictionalized, Twain’s Joan of Arc is acknowledged by scholars to be not only well written but also historically accurate. Twain uses conversations between Joan’s friends to show how popular she was and to illustrate her personality. In fact, historical documents show that Joan had a sense of humor even when facing a trial for her life. She also showed the vulnerability of any teenage girl, crying the first time she was shot by an arrow, or insulted by the enemy. But she was also gentle, compassionate, filled with the conviction of her mission, and stubborn. Twain brings this girl alive before our eyes without distorting history or the truth.

He does employ literary devices throughout the book such as using a fictional character like the giant soldier called Dwarf. Dwarf deserts the army and Joan to go home and tend to his dying family. He returns after their deaths to seek his own death. Joan forgives him, and he stays to fight by her side. Dwarf is Twain’s symbol for France who abandoned Joan to the British only to later reclaim and venerate her.

I first read this book sixteen years ago and have never forgotten it. It is a wonderful and well-written depiction of Joan of Arc’s short life. Twain’s novel is part of the reason I continue to seek out works about her. It is a fitting tribute to a woman worthy of the title hero.

AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER

At the Bottom of the River
At the Bottom of the River is a marvelous collection of ten tales. With lyrical grace, Jamaica Kincaid takes us on a trip through childhood in the Caribbean. This book vibrates with the physical presence of the sun, the sand, the sea, and the mountains of that region.

The stories are about mothers, fathers, and the love with which they bind their children. The tales speak of the differences between men and women and the magic and mystery that is nature itself.

Kincaid’s stories are streams of consciousness with which she draws the audience into a world of movement and color. Her first story Girl is an amusing very short tale of a mother’s instructions to her daughter on doing simple tasks. There are household tasks: how and when to wash clothes, sweep the house, how to set the table for a family dinner, and how to set the table for dinner with an important guest.

There are also social tasks: the type of smiles you give to people you like, the type of smiles you give to people you like completely, the type of smiles you give to people you don’t like, how to walk and dress like a lady, and how to talk to men. Interspersed with these instructions are the mother’s repeated warnings to the daughter not to become “the slut you are so bent on becoming.”

My Mother is a fantastical short story composed of several vignettes. Each vignette contains a bizarre mother and daughter tale always narrated by the daughter and always told with a mixture of fear, reverence, and love .

In one vignette the mother suffocates her angry but repentant child only to restore her to life. After this they are careful to always speak lovingly to each other. In another sketch, mother and daughter change from human to reptilian aquatic creatures, the daughter slithering obediently behind her mother. In several of the these sketches the daughter tries to surpass her mother but is never able to do so. In the last two we see why. “…..we merge and separate, merge and separate; soon we shall enter the final stage of our evolution.” They are becoming the same person.

The final story At the Bottom of the River is a beautiful tale of love and anguish. It is about the beauty and power of nature, the love of a child for her mother, and the ultimate awareness of self.
The author asks, “Is life, then, a violent burst of light, like flint struck sharply in the dark?” If this is so, she must try to exist from one day to another. She then tells us how much she was loved as a child, how much she loved herself, and how much her mother loved her.

But we can’t live protected by our mothers forever. We must grow up and experience life and all the beauty and sorrow it brings.
I have read this book several times and expect to do so again. For me, it is a tour of home, and a reminder of what it meant to be a girl growing up in the Caribbean. For others, it will be an adventure, a glimpse of another life rich in the rhythm and music of a different voice and culture.

Judith Woolcock Colombo: Author of, The Fablesinger & Night Crimes

PAULA.

“Listen, Paula. I am going to tell you a story so that when you wake up you will not feel so lost.” Thus begins Isabel Allende’s brilliant chronicle of love and family. This marvelous book, begun at the bedside of her comatose daughter, is written in the clear musical prose of the author who gave us the remarkable works: House of the Spirits, Eva Luna, and Daughter of Fortune.

Allende wrote this book filled with life and magic to remind her dying daughter of who she is and how much she is loved. The book starts when the family does. “A robust Basque sailor disembarked on the coast of Chile with his mother’s reliquary strung around his neck and his head swimming with plans of greatness.” What follows is a beautifully written history of a family of loving, eccentric and erratic individuals.

The authors’ voice reflects her love and insight into this strong willed family. She parades them through the pages of her manuscript so that Paula may know the people whose blood runs through her veins. We meet Allende’s strong and gentle grandfather Tata, her magical and psychic grandmother, Meme, her outrageous stepfather, her brothers, and her Uncle Salvatore Allende the Chilean President. This is a story of a family scattered to different corners of the world by exile but united by love.

Intertwined with this tale of her bizarre and alluring family, the author pens another. This is the story of a mother’s vigil at the bedside of a dying daughter. In haunting language, Allende describes coming to realize that her 28-year-old daughter will not wake up but will die a victim of porphyria, a rare blood disease. This book moves us as we experience, through the author’s prose, a mother’s anguish and her everlasting love for her child.

Although the subject matter is grim and sorrowful, Allende uses her powerful and mesmerizing prose to soften the grief of a dying child with an alluring story of family and love. We not only grieve Paula’s death, but we celebrate her life along with her family.

As always, I enjoyed reading Allende. Her non-fiction is as alluring and spell binding as her novels. Her women strong and enduring.

Judith Woolcock Colombo: Author of, The Fablesinger & Night Crimes

IN HONOR OF WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH ON IT’S LAST DAY.

I have been sidelined by oral surgery, but I didn’t want Woman’s History Month to pass without acknowledging it in some way.

I have been blessed with many positive female role models throughout my life. As an author and avid reader, it stands to reason that some of my heroes would be fellow writers, or historical figures.

Below are reviews of three of my favorite books. Paula and At the Bottom of The Riva are by two of my favorite authors, Isabel Allende and Jamaica Kincaid and are about strong women. The other is Joan of Arc by Marc Twain.

Joan was the chosen champion of my preteen and early teen years. I had no Xena or Buffy growing up, and Super girl was from another planet. My cultural heroes, although I admired them, were mostly male, except for the old hags or witch women and they were a bit evil. I sort of liked my namesake Judith from the Bible, but she didn’t defeat her enemy by riding into battle but through seduction and deceit. I preferred Joan’s way. She wore chain mail, had a sword, and charged through enemy lines on her horse.

Books, Bargains, and Party Time!

Greetings from Faith Songs!

Linda Bonney Olin here. Yes, I almost feel as if I should introduce myself, after my lengthy absence from Awesome Writers Group. As many of you know, my parents’ health needs take me away from home (and away from my high-speed Internet) for weeks at a time, and that was the case for most of December and part of January. When I got home, my first priority (okay, second—after smooching my husband) was the farm bookkeeping. Besides the usual accounts payable/receivable and payroll, January is prime time for annual business reports, employer reports, tax reports, lender reports, Workers Comp audit reports—you get the idea. I squeezed in writing and submitting a few new hymns and devotions. No time for blogging.

New release: Transformed

When the bookkeeping finally hit a lull between deadlines, I shifted into high gear to get my latest drama book published. I polished the content, cover, and interior design to a high gloss with the help of my wonderful beta readers. The paperback edition of Transformed: 5 Resurrection Dramas rolled onto the cyber-shelves at Amazon and CreateSpace the last week of January, and the Kindle version went up on Amazon shortly afterwards. It offers drama, comedy, music—and best of all, life-changing truth.

Now you’re all invited to a Book Launch Party for Transformed on Saturday, February 22, 2014. Yup—that’s tomorrow! The party is happening online, so you can attend in your nice, warm home, in your jammies if you wish!

But, first!

My Holy Ghostwriter poked me to share some thoughts about the Bible characters in Transformed. I say “characters” because that’s what you call people in a play, but these were real people, even though the premises of the dramas are fictional (at least, I’m pretty sure none of the apostles ever appeared on a TV talk show!). In fact, the five lead characters were among Jesus Christ’s closest family and friends: his mother, Mary, and his brother James; the apostles Simon Peter and John; and his devoted disciple Mary Magdalene.

The five dramas in the book portray how they were transformed by Jesus’ resurrection. But what about the soul-wrenching days that led up to it? What was each of those individuals doing, and thinking, and feeling after Jesus died, before news came that he’d risen from the tomb, alive?

We tend to treat Holy Saturday like a blank page between Good Friday and Easter. That page deserves to be examined more closely before we turn it. That will be the focus of a series of posts at Faith Songs. The first two are already up. Click on the titles to read them:
After the Cross: Simon Peter
After the Cross: Mary Magdalene (includes a sneak preview of diva daughter singing one of the songs from the monologue Mary Magdalene, Transformed)

Book Resources for Lent

And don’t forget my other Lent resources: The Sacrifice Support Group: A Dramatic Comedy for Lent and Giving It Up for Lent: Bible Study, Drama, Discussion. ’Tis the season! Ash Wednesday is March 5, 2014.

Chances are, you’re not one of the few people who shop for church play scripts and Bible study materials for a church group. But my tribe (that’s you!) can pass the message to the people in your church who do buy them—pastors, worship leaders, drama teams, small group leaders, adult Sunday School teachers. Please do whatever you can to help me get the word to those folks. If you’re not a church person yourself, you probably know one or two you can mention it to.

Yes, the post title said “Bargains”

Trumpet fanfare! My Book Launch Party for Transformed will unveil a discount code of 50% on all my Christian drama books and Bible study workbooks. The code will be valid only on the paperback editions, only at CreateSpace.com, and only on February 22-24, 2014.

That means your group will be able to order a script book for every actor (and director and accompanist, if need be) and a workbook for every study participant, all at half price! This opportunity will be coming (and going) very soon, so figure out how many copies you’ll need and get ready to jump on the discount. A study or drama bundle would be a great gift to give your church. Even if it won’t be used until later, there’s no better time to buy than a half-price introductory sale!

Call me Ham & Cheese—I’m on a roll! Maybe I should do used car commercials next!

A few facts to guide your ordering decisions

The number of speaking parts in the Transformed plays varies from 1 to 4. If the cast members of each play can pass their books to cast members of the next play, you could get by with as few as 4 books (6 if you add a copy for a director and an accompanist for the two musicals). If your budget can stretch to a separate book for each speaking part in all five plays without sharing, order an extra 8 (14 total).

There are 7 characters in The Sacrifice Support Group, so 7 books will do the job for that two-act play; 8 if you feel the need for a separate director.

Only you can say how many participants you’ll have for the 5-7 week Giving It Up for Lent study. Figure one workbook per participant, and don’t forget to order a Leader Guide for (you guessed it) the study leader.

Hint: The Giving It Up for Lent books all include the script of The Sacrifice Support Group. For the same price, you might want to order GIUFL workbooks instead of TSSG, and be a jump ahead on having what you need to conduct the full study. Up to you.

Sounds like a lot of books?

Drama scripts and Bible study workbooks do add up. That’s why I decided to give my thrifty fans a chance to get them at a price just a little above my cost. And remember, unlike some drama script services, my independently published books include permission for your church or nonprofit group to put on noncommercial performances without paying per-performance licensing fees in addition to purchasing the scripts.

Okay, tribe. Next step: the Transformed Book Launch Party. Click on that link to go to the event page. Then click the “Join” button to join the event. You can do that ahead of time. Please invite your friends who like Christian dramas. Then visit the event page on February 22 to wish me well, answer trivia questions for giveaways, and get info about the 50% book discounts.

If you haven’t already Liked my Facebook author page, I invite you to do that. If you prefer a bit of personal discussion and humor along with writing-related news, hop over to Facebook and send me a friend request. I’m the only Linda Bonney Olin in town.

Thanks and blessings to all,
Linda

P.S. Here are the CreateSpace links for all four paperback books. Get the 50% discount code and fire when ready!

Transformed: 5 Resurrection Dramas
The Sacrifice Support Group: A Dramatic Comedy for Lent
Giving It Up for Lent~Workbook: Bible Study, Drama, Discussion
Giving It Up for Lent~Leader Guide: Bible Study, Drama, Discussion

Are You Peeking Through the Publishing Window?

High-flying indie authors make news practically daily. Industry gurus exhort writers, practically hourly, to invest major effort and money into launching our own books into the stratosphere of publishing success, whether by independent or traditional methods. We must conduct our writing activity in a serious manner. Be professional. Businesslike. Goal and results oriented.

Shrewd advice. But …

On Saturday, September 14, I set aside my aspirations to soar with the eagles. Instead, I headed to W. B. Ogden Free Library in Walton, New York, to flock with a few of my favorite sparrows.

The Ogden Writers Group grew out of a memoir-writing workshop led by Columbia University professor Leslie Sharpe, so it’s not surprising that quite a few members are older individuals who write memoirs and fictional stories about bygone days, primarily for the benefit of family, friends, and others interested in the times and places they describe.

Do these writers expect to land fat royalty publishing contracts, or want the obligations a contract would entail? Not really. Do they have the means or desire to set themselves up as self-publishing moguls, managing teams of editors, designers, and marketers to turn their books into indie sensations? I doubt it. Do they have big bucks to shovel into the coffers of vanity publishers? Not that I know of.

No, they’re what many in the industry refer to (with disdainful sniffs) as “amateurs” and “hobby writers.” The sparrows of the writing world, I call them. True, some write more polished prose than others. But they all have stories to tell. Poignant stories. Funny stories. Historically, socially, and spiritually significant stories. Should those manuscripts lie in a drawer forever because they weren’t written by people who fit the “professional” mold?

My presentation to the group encouraged those sparrows who are perched on the windowsill—not on the outside looking in, but trapped on the inside looking out wistfully at the eagles, and woodpeckers, and hummingbirds with their published books. I suggested that they (and you?) can get out there and fly, too. The publishing door has been opened wide by self-publishing services like Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon’s ebook publishing division) and CreateSpace (Amazon’s print-on-demand division). Maybe my sparrow friends’ books will never reach the highest heights. But a sparrow-sized flight is still a flight to be proud of.

Are you a sparrow on the windowsill?

A recording of my September 14 talk is posted on the Resources page of my Faith Songs website. From the home page, click on “Resources” and scroll down to Resources for Walton Writers Workshop.

Here are several sparrow flights I’ve helped launch. Please click on the covers and give them a look. ❤

MY CUP OF TEA: A Novel of Conversation, Friendship, and Love by Phyllis Neff Lake

RIVINGTON STREET: A Drama in Three Acts by Frank Di Giovanni

SONGS FOR THE LORD by Linda Bonney Olin

THE SACRIFICE SUPPORT GROUP: Lenten Drama & Discussion by Linda Bonney Olin

This post is a follow-up to a post originally published on September 11, 2013, on http://www.LindaBonneyOlin.com.

 

New Indie Author – Frank Di Giovanni

Frank Di Giovanni, a long-time member of the W. B. Ogden Writers Group in Walton, New York, enthralled an audience at W. B. Ogden Library last night with a dramatic reading from his newly released play, Rivington Street.

The three-act drama follows the conflict between retired businessman Sam Israel and his son, Robert, a pushy lawyer. After the death of his beloved wife, Sam leaves their Florida residence and returns to the old neighborhood in New York City—over Robert’s fierce objections. Sam meets up with Dave, the present owner of Sam’s former clothing store, and can’t help but compare Robert’s attitude to the close, respectful relationship Dave enjoys with his adult son, Max. The fat hits the fire when Robert shows up, armed with papers authorizing him to take Sam “home” by force. Yes, Robert is one of those characters you love to hate. Don’t worry, though. “Salvation,” as Frank calls it, comes by the end of the play.

Missed the event at Ogden Library? Click here to listen to Frank Di Giovanni’s reading of Act Two, Scene One of Rivington Street. (The recording runs about 25 minutes. Please forgive the slight gurgle that was left behind when I filtered out a loud ventilation fan.)

Having heard Frank read his work at writers group meetings, I wasn’t surprised by the authentic characterizations he dressed his dialogue in. As audience members remarked during the question and answer session that followed the reading, both Frank’s writing and his animated reading put us right into the scene. Frank says he’s had no acting experience to account for his theatrical flair. He jokingly suggests it came with his Italian heritage.