Writers' Group

We had our monthly get-together today, with two stories, one from ML and one from RG. Back when I taught at "the other school," I was in a portfolio group with ML and found her eccentric, confusing, and hard to work with. However, her story blew me away. It turns out that she and I have similar macabre influences in our writing. It appeared that I understood her work better than most of the others there. Since it was about (or from the point of view of) an older, uneducated woman who was fiercely protective of (and in denial about) her grandson, who was, at best, a mutilator and killer of animals, I'm not sure what that says about me. One woman in the group, a young married woman with no children, simply could not understand why the grandmother would try to cover up for her grandson and not turn him over to authorities so he could get professional help. This young woman is from another country, and perhaps it's a cultural thing, but I think it's more of a "mother" thing. Especially a mother/grandmother who has had no reason to trust authority figures who so often want to run the lives of the less fortunate.

The other story was by our group leader. It was partially non-fiction, based around the life and career of a once-famous trumpet player in 1935. Although I could admire RG's facility with writing, I absolutely hated the characters. All they did was drink, smoke, fight, and screw each other's partners. Sorry. Not my cuppa. It left me wanting to go outside to breathe fresh air.

Instead of catching up with grading (what I should be doing, obviously), I spent a while yesterday working on a novel about a woman who becomes part of a police force. She's uniquely talented, having the ability not only to observe minutely the details of everything around her, but also the ability to intuit what others are thinking and feeling.

It's cold in here today. In fact, when I got up this morning, it was one degree, with a wind chill of minus 13. The wind has been pretty frisky, too. At least the sky is blue. Small favors.

I need coffee. Dr. S.