This morning was very windy and cold. I went to Lakeland College for the Great Lakes Writers Festival. Jane, Ann, Sy and Sue from the Sheboygan County Writers club were also there. It was a nice time. At 11:00AM the two presenters Sebastian Matthews and Marilyn Taylor read some of their work to the entire group. Quite impressive.

Then, the writers club group all car pooled over to the Log Cabin for lunch and some visiting. At 2:00PM Sebastian and Marilyn did workshops for all who wished to attend. This is entirely free. Jane and I went to Marilyn's poetry workshop. She focused on word choice and diction. We got a nice web site for a thesaurus and did a few exercises that were fun. I like little exercises - we sometimes do them at club too. She had us write a poem using six of about 12 words that she had us list and also we "filled in the blanks" on two poems already published with some words blanked out that we got to fill in. That was fun too.

I will DO one here so you can see what we did. This was one that we had to choose words to involve the emotions. The original poem was Washing Sheets in July by a Jane Gentry. I do not have the words that SHE had in the blanks so you will have to put up with mine. I will put MY words in caps. My half of the room had to be kind of negative. The other side of the room had to be positive.

Against the white garage,
hollyhocks SPAR.
The sheets, wet, adhesive
as I hang them, smell
of SULPHER and MANURE SCENTED air.
Flags of order in the WANNING sun,
How they CONVULSE in the ANGRY breeze!
Watching them TWISTING on the line,
I STRUGGLE with and old LOST DREAM.

It is amazing how many diverse ideas can come out of a group.

Anyway, it was lots of fun.

I will also share the Cadfael Book of Days intry for today.

November 2nd. It is only that the step from perfectly ordinary things into the miraculous seems to me so small, almost accidental, that I wonder why it astonishes you at all, or why you trouble to reason about it. If it were reasonable it could not be miraculous, could it?

Ellis Peters

Have a great day tomorrow. I have tons to do.

Love

Mary