The Master writing class of 2011 cordially invites you to attend the public reading of an excerpt from our memoirs.  We have spent months writing, editing, and revising our work and now we are ready to share it with the public.

On Tuesday July 12th, the River's End Bookstore will be hosting the highly anticipated event.  Programs for the evening are currently in print and the press has been notified for coverage.  Please come and support all of the hard work that each of us has put into our writing.

The event is free and open to the public. 

With the last of my homework near completion, I am forlorn knowing that my writing class is coming to an end.  Only one class remains before our weekly gatherings will subside.  I have become quite fond of my fellow classmates.  We are an eclectic group of people who have come together with a common goal....to write.

The different styles each of us choses to use represents our own unique voice.  Some have opted to write about their love for animals, others for their love of nature, and one even shared his viewpoint on the military.  Three of us bared our souls and told personal stories of tragedy.  As different as each piece was, the group as a whole came together to offer praise, some critiquing, and most of all accepted each others work without judgement.  There's alot to be said for that!

I have learned so much from my fellow "classmates" and our teacher Bob Comenole.  My eye is much keener now and my mind is more in tuned.  I am able to see beyond the words and can now bring the reader directly into the story.  My lessons learned will be incorporated into my own book, which hopefully each of you will be reading soon. 

The next 8 weeks will be dedicated to full time writing and revising.  I will still be meeting with my writing partner on a weekly basis and attending my writer's group monthly so that I can keep myself conntected to the literary world.  As much as I do not want summer to end, I am anxious to see how my book will have evolved come Autumn.  While I do not have a group photo of everyone in the Master Class, I have attached the picture from our first course, which includes most of our current class population and our teacher.  Farewell my friends and I wish each of you good luck in our writing endevours.

With each member of our class taking turns on being critiqued for our work, I served as one of the two writers to take the stage tonight.  To say that I was nervous would be an understatment.  With my work being so controversial I was uneasy even presenting the piece that I chose.  But with a little encouragment from my writing partner, I took the most intense chapter and send my manuscript out for a panel of twelve people to review.  Then I sat with baited breath for five days for the verdict.

The rules of the class are simple.  We state what we like about a piece, what we want to know about the piece, and add suggestions for them.  Right away it was almost unanimous my work was perceived as very well written, with only a few nit picking minor gramatical mistakes.  My colleagues deemed my work as "powerful" and "highly focused".  It was said I did an excellent job of making the reader feel like they were with me in the scenes, without being done in a non pitying way.  The instructor (Bob Comenole) said that this is hard for a writer to do, yet I accomplished it...I was thrilled to say the least! I heard from a few people that they were left wanting to read the entire manuscript.  There is no better compliment than that!!! 

Now my job is to take my feedback and revise my work accordingly before having my individual session with the instructor.  This will be highly anticipating for me.  I wish I could have him comment on my entire book, but I will be limited to just the chapter that the class was privy to tonight.  As soon as I receive the audio transcript from tonight I will add to the notes that I took from class and start my revisions.  I am so excited and can't wait to see how it turns out.