Monterey County Herald

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I’ve been in the same writers’ group for nearly 24 years now. Longer than most marriages. Over that time members  have come and gone. Ideally 10 was the magic number of adherents.  In that time three members passed away. One to old age - 94 – our Walter Gourley, a Fulbright scholar. His specialty was Chinese. He did his year in Taiwan. A wonderful clear-headed historian – no longer with us.

    Another brilliant writer and a young one we lost to a drug over dose. A wild guy with a foot, no both feet in another world. The trip there cost him his life and us a superb writer.  Most recently we lost Tommy Burns a realtor by day– actually my favorite writer in the group – sarcastic, profane, dry. He wrote about nothings and molded it into somethings – a bit in the Jerry Seinfeld mode.  His heart and body gave out.

    At the moment we have 6 people. Some are more committed than others – but that’s humanity. One is a cop/teacher/selectman he writes memoir.  We have two lawyers – one is the unofficial head of our tribe. It is in his office we meet monthly each third Sunday. He’s prolific and gives us the most to read. The other lawyer is meticulous in his edits and creates fictional stories about the flip side of humanity. Dark and Poe-like, usually with a kicker at the end.

    One of the pillars of the group has published a three book detective-ish series with St Martins Press. She’s the unofficial Queen. In my mind she’s knows the publishing industry the best. One of the lawyers might disagree – he might think he is. She’s also a superb editor.

    That leaves two of us. The other female in group writes mostly travel stories and is an outstanding editor. And that leaves me. I do this column, and write education, social justice issues (like my former students in prison).

     By-and-large we all are trying to get published by a legitimate publishing company. We have debates about that…bye and large part. Some want to go the self-publishing route. A few just desire to just get their stories edited. 

     We had to develop rules. No poetry, no kids’ stories. Why? Poetry is so personal how does on critique it?  Many in the group appreciate poetry. It’s just that in general it’s not our thing. 

    Membership has been restricted to a max of ten over the years – otherwise there can be too much reading. 50 pages of hard copy or 25 pages via the Internet are the submission limits. Why less on the internet? Because it can get expensive to print.

    We have a month to read submissions and they have to be submitted or delivered by the Wednesday before we meet.  We line edit all submissions. If people have thin skin they have left long ago. If writers want a positive review they can have their mommies or family read it. Critiques are intended to help. Flowery accolades are welcomed, but the goal is to get better and that comes with suggestions.

     People get three missed meetings. A month to read submissions is plenty of time if one is devoted and aiming to get published.  We do not do out loud readings. For us it is the written word which matters. 

    We don’t want or like one-shots. One shots are new members who really just want their manuscript edited and then bail on the group.  We also have a hard time with new poor writers who can’t edit. But that too is a tough call. 

    Some members are better editors than others. Some are better writers than editors, a few are gifted and can do both. And we’ve had some which can do neither. Personalities matter too as like it or not we have to get along.  Short tempers, sensitivities, male female issues, egos, and opinions dance around our monthly editing table. By and large our group has come to terms with all that.

    Anyhooo we are looking for new members. We make them suffer through two of our meetings. We want to see if they can stomach us and our rules. And we have to decide if they can: write, edit, and commit to once a month, and put up with the prickly members in the group like me.  Finally we have a closed session and we give them the axe or they can join. 

     And a good bye to our friend Tom Burns. His articles were published regularly in The Monterey Foolish Times – he wrote about his imaginary black Dachshund - Rex.