Catch up on what you missed, or just hear it all over again.
It’s all filed on the media page, under “audio”. Enjoy!
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Next storytelling event: February 9th
Love Hurts.
Anthony and Cleopatra fell into a burning ring of fire. Their agonizing and calamitous love affair changed history. As Valentine’s day approaches, along with the FMHC’s exhibit “Bravo! A Century of Theatre in Fairfield County“, that story is felt again by remembering Katharine Hepburn’s performance of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra–and all the fiery feelings that went along.
Love Hurts. Come hear Tom Lawlor, Max Westhelle, Jeep Halo, Arch Currie, Pete Paatorelli share male-tales. The men outnumber the women in matters of the heart, but they can’t out pace, Shannon Walsh and Maureen Hallock who both had experiences with aphrodisiac love. If you have we stories to tell or a longing to be regaled, join us at the FMHC on February 9th, 2012.
From the HamletHub Westport site.
Plenty of Westporters filled the seats at the Fairfield Museum and History Center (FMHC) for last night’s MouseMuse Productions “I’ve Got a Ticket to Ride” storytelling program. If you weren’t one of them—not to be the bearer of bad news—you missed an electric show.
Six storytellers stood before the rapt audience and shared 10 minutes stories that ranged from a heartbreaking meditation on loss to a thrilling spy story to uproariously funny adventures all of which, in keeping with the theme, included travel. In MouseMuse tradition, after a brief intermission, three volunteers were pulled at random to tell their stories. Last night’s performers enthralled the audience, who collectively oohed and gasped and guffawed their way through the program. Part of the thrill is not knowing where the next story will take you emotionally but knowing that MouseMuse’s polished performers will take you there in style.
FMHC’s exhibits enhanced the event’s theme. Currently running are the Holiday Express Train Show, featuring the handiwork of the Housatonic Model Railroad Club and the Connecticut G-Scalers Club, and the Station to Station exhibit, which includes memorabilia, a model of the Fairfield train station circa 1903 created by Metro North Railroad employ and Housatonic Model Railway Club member John Valakas, and two lenticular photographs of the Southport train station created by Miggs Burroughs. Deep red curtains trimmed with gold fringe, part of FMHC’s Bravo! exhibit celebrating a century of theater in Fairfield County, draped behind the performers, creating an intimate mood but also an awareness of theatrical tradition, history, and our place in them.
The minutiae of our daily lives have changed dramatically over time, but one thing has remained constant: sharing our stories with those whose lives intersect with our own in ways both profound and peripheral. MouseMuse’s foundation and success lie in this intrinsically human need.
“Get involved,” founder Ina Chadwick urged the crowd at the program’s close. “Because you’ll never know your neighbors unless you know their stories.”
So you missed last night’s show, but what’s the good news, you ask? MouseMuse Productions will be back at FMHC in Feb. for another go around. The theme will be “Love Hurts.”
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Westport Writers’ Cafe shares its talent
We had a really great group at the Writers’ Cafe on Wednesday. Rather than having a particular topic this time, we decided to ask people to bring a 2 minute reading of something they;’d written. The idea was partly to get to know each other better, and partly to see what genres we were writing in, and whether there were people writing in similar genres who’d like to pair up and work with each other as editor, mentors, and general encouragers. (OK, that’s not a word, but you know what I mean.)
The results were interesting.
First, we decided that 2 minutes wasn’t quite long enough. And that isn’t because we’re all narcissists who love to hear ourselves read aloud. (That’s just me.) On the other hand, if we’d had a larger group of people reading (we were about 12 people with 9 people brave enough to read) there might not have been time for everyone. We read without explaining what we were reading, when we’d written it, what it was about, and which genre it was in (memoir, fiction, journalism, essay, etc).
We had two writers who were writing memoirs that involved travel, two essays, one journalism piece, two short fiction pieces, and two memoirs.
As it turned out, when it came to bragging time, many people were writing in more than one genre.
Margaret Rumford had a story accepted for the Winter issue of Mused.
Jane Sherman is editing her memoir
Sally Allen is now Westport editor of Hamlet Hub www.hamlethub.com
What she didn’t mention (probably because she didn’t want to pay the dollar…) is that she also has a great book blog on Open Salon: http://open.salon.com/blog/sally_allen
Robert Steven Williams has had another article published at the Good Men Project. Read it here: http://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/money-and-the-moral-compass/
Tricia Tierney sent out two query letters to agents this month regarding her memoir here’s her blog: http://triciatierneyblog.com/
Ina is working on a piece about how she found out that her mother had been married before for a New York publication
Margaret Wagner wrote a guest blog on branding for a foodie blog.
Catherine Onyemelukwe is halfway through writing a book proposal and a memoir.
And I finished my NaNoWriMo horrible draft of a first novel, and came second in the EChook ‘Tis the Season story contest. Find out how to submit your work here: http://echook.com/submissions/.
Finally, we took a vote on where to continue our meetings, and the overwhelming choice was Ina’s house, where her welcome make me, for one, feel like I’m in some famous salon. And the coffee’s good too.
So the next meeting will be on DECEMBER 14 – that’s only two weeks away. Ina’s address is 2 Redcoat Road, Westport. The time is 12.30-2.
In the meantime, keep writing!
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Storytelling on the Green
All aboard! I’ve got a ticket to ride:
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Déjà Vu Contest Winners
Ah, Yes, I Remember it Well
Writers take us to new places in our Deju Vu Contest finale
Is it memory, is it nostalgia, or is it Deju Vu—the feeling that you have been there before?
In a collaborative program between MouseMuse Productions, Writers Artists Collaborative and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, writers recalled their moments of déjà vu, inspired by the prints and paintings of Jack Boul.
On October 10, winners were announced. We thank all of the generous writers who joined in this attempt to unite the arts.
Déjà Vu Writing Competition–2011
Winning Entries
August on the Porch
Priscilla Whitley
Tonsillectomy 1966
Ivy Eisenberg
Cross Over to a Better Figure
Kate Corr
Honored Writers
Works appearing on all of the judge’s lists.
Each one will be considered for publication in various media.
Door Never Opened
Kitty Burns Florey
Blackberries and Kudzu
Ryan Odinak
The Reluctant Witness
Margaret Rumford
Cape Cod
Marcelle Soviero
Batter Up
Robert Steven Williams
Baby Girl Z
Anne Ziff
My Great Grandmother
Sujeet Rajan
The first three winners works will be read by professional actors at an awards ceremony, on Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 4 PM. The festivities on November 30, 2011, are free and open to the public. Wine and Cheese will be served. The writings will published online after November 30, 2011
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A Landmark Night
Our storytelling evening at Landmark Academy in Westport saw 80 audience members and seven storytellers connecting, laughing and sharing. Her are some of Larry Untermeyer’s photos of a fabulous evening:
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Writers’ Cafe Gaining Momentum
Another great Writers’ Cafe yesterday – 15 enthusiastic writers came to share, learn and connect at Ina Chadwick’s house. There was so much bragging that we made $18 (at $1 per brag, that’s a lot of progress being made by people…)
Here are some of the highlights, with links you may find useful if you’d like more information:
WRITING CONTEST DEADLINE EXTENDED
Our writing contest with the Center for Contemporary Printmaking has had its deadline extended to October 10 at midnight due to Hurricane Irene, and because of some apparent confusion about the subject. The prompt is Deja Vu – Have you been here before? Do you wish you’d been here before? Did you only dream this? Did the dream come true? We’re looking for personal memoirs. You may use Jack Boul’s art to inspire you, but you needn’t use his subjects. Here’s the link for submissions
http://www.contemprints.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=146:writing-competition&catid=2:latest&Itemid=4
STORYTELLING NEXT MONDAY
Ina’s company, Mouse Muse Productions, organizes storytelling evenings throughout the year. Our next one is on Monday September 19th, at the Landmark Academy in Westport. The topic: “Adventures in parenting”. Come and hear 8 friends and neighbors tell their stories of parenting joys, disasters and poignant memories. As writers, you’ll be interested in the way in which we help them craft their stories into 8 minute gems. $20 buys you entrance, drinks, food and a chance to connect with others. Email me if you’d like me to hold tickets for you, or walk in.
ECHOOK LAUNCH NEXT TUESDAY AT B&N
Ina and I will be among the eight writers helping to launch Echook’s short story app at Barnes and Noble next Tuesday at 7pm. This is a great networking event for writers, with local authors, writers, publicists and editors. And it’s free! Here’s the link for full details: http://echook.com/sept-20-event/
BRAGGING RIGHTS
Alex McNab has snared Robert Ellis (author of the Lena Gamble police thrillers) as a guest blogger for the October issue of the Fairfield Writer’s blog fairfieldwriter.wordpress.com/
Christine Shaffer’s winning entry for the Fairfield Library’s writing contest has been published in a volume entitled “Around the Table”. I’m nagging the Library to provide copies for purchase and will keep you updated.
Margaret Wagner submitted a mixed media piece to the Westport Arts Center’s current show. (Not accepted, but it’s doing it that counts.) I love crossover creativity!
Penny Pearlman’s 2009 book Pretty Smart, has been chosen as a class textbook for a sociology class in pop culture Suffolk University in Boston, and she’ll be guest lecturing there. She’ll also be a judge in the next Miss Boston contest…you never know where writing will take you. In addition, she will be teaching a class at the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center: Secrets of Successful Interviewing for Writers. http://www.writerscenter.org/, and is helping to organize an authors luncheon with Danny Meyer (Shake Shack etc) to raise money for the Leukemia Society on Nov 2. www.lls.org/ct/starwrite
Robert Steven Williams, had 8 stories published in a comic book which has been nominated for the Oscar of comic books – The Harvey. Way to go!
Jane Sherman is submitting work, and reworking her memoir.
Ryan Devlin has written a pilot for a TV show, and his wife Kara Holden, is currently being paid to write for the screen.
Barbara Stokes has written an article she’d going to submit. Her first ever. Great!
Lisa Calderone is developing a new website: http://mahjonggmemoirs.com as a tribute to her mother Millie, who’s been playing for 70 years. And she’ll be teaching an online class in Literary journalism during the January semester at Fairfield U.
Ivy Eisenberg was a runner up in a contest for America’s Funniest Humor. Personally, I think she should have won – here’s the link so you can judge for yourself. http://humorpress.com/Results/Essays-200812-200901/aa-Winners/Essay-200812-200901-Winners.htm#4
MFA’s – Worth the time and money?
This provoked an interesting conversation. MFA graduate Lisa Calderone, Christine Shaffer and Jane Sherman who had all taken low-residency MFA’s at Fairfield U were in agreement on the main benefits of an MFA:
An MFA produces a sense of community and a thorough education in the craft of writing.
Having academic expectations and deadlines makes people focus on their writing.
You can teach writing with an MFA degree
You develop a network of connections among both students and faculty.
Kara Holden had taken an MPW (Master of Professional writing at USC. This was a full time course, and she agreed that the benefits were great. Among them, in particular, was the quality of teachers and mentors.
Here’s the link to Writers’ Relief, a submissions agency, requested by people yesterday: http://www.writersrelief.com/
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“In My Little Town.” Maybe Yours?
There’s a story at every address. Is it yours?
On October 6 we debut at an amazing facility right down the road on Beach Road in Fairfield. It’s the brand new Fairfield Museum. If you haven’t been there, you’ll be blown away when you do wander through. It’s nothing rinky dink, I swear. Our storytelling is the Awake After Dark program we’ve done so successfully elsewhere. And for this special place, it’s called Stories on the Green. Fairfield was the original town that gave life to Westport, and to all of the other towns around that are called Fairfield County. For reasons that defy my logic for living in New England (with attitude) we don’t have “Greens” like the one that was left in tact in Fairfield. They also have sidewalks.
The Green is where all of the “stories” could be heard during the days before no telephones, cars, etc. You walked on the Green and you met folks you wanted to talk to. Or folks you didn’t want to talk to…but they were there in the wide open public space. You read the Town Crier information posted on a board on the Green, before newspapers. You heard “Hear Ye, Hear Ye,” and you could know who was in the jail for the night— drunk and disorderly. Maybe it was me?
The exhibit that is going up at FMHC on September 24th is all about the development of performance theater after the railroad came barreling up the road from Altoona or even New York and into Fairfield County. It’s called “BRAVO! A Century of Theatre in Fairfield County” The FMHC is actually building sets of the real Westport Country Playhouse, Lucille Lortel Barn and the famed, but now defunct, (we hope not forever) Shakespeare in Stratford CT.
The first play we decided to highlight from the incredible archives going into this museum for in our storytelling series is, “Our Town,” by Thornton Wilder. But we are calling for themes about your little town, even if it’s a big city.
In your neighborhood, your town, there may have been rumors about the people at the end of the block, there are always the kindly old couples who walk by everyday. You may have been the high school hero, or the one who went to reform school. Who knows? As Paul Simon wrote, “In my little town/I grew up believing god shines his light on us all/ as I pledged allegiance to the wall.” Where did you say the pledge of allegiance. We want to know. Give us a buzz or shoot us an email and let’s hear about your town, foreign or next door.
Why you stayed? Why you strayed?
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Adventures In Parenting Blasts Out!
If you haven’t received an announcement about our big adventure in schooling, one where we are holding our event for an administrator to welcome her parents and students back to school, hang on! It’s coming soon. Meanwhile, if you are interested in becoming a storyteller, get in touch with us here.
Gabi and I were both early adapters in the digital world. And, for writers it’s been a blessing and a curse. One of the blessings is how much connection we’ve been able to have with the writers in our local community and other earlier adapters who were not raised in the digital era. It’s frustrating to learn, but rewarding to know how to submit and share your work online. Don’t give up.
One of the best connectors is a truly early adapter to the business of publishing; Westport’s Tessa Smith McGovern was the first person I knew personally to start a digital publishing company. Fortunately for Gabi and myself, we had been honing our craft on the keyboard for a very long time. We’ve both been writing since we can remember. And, being rejected more than we care to remember. We’ve been seeing our names in print online, and on paper, just enough to keep our bylines recognizable to our families. 🙂
When Tessa shared her amazing literary company launch idea with us, we both submitted work to what it now her highly praised collections. The first big push is taking place on September 20th. The selection process is for work is quite arduous. So be proud of anything you get accepted. Tessa’s site is very competitive. Global, for sure.
Come and cheer us all on in September at the launch party. There are all sorts of networking possibilities. Also, guest authors have a chance to write about their favorite stories. Here’s my blog about a story I read many years ago.
http://echook.com/guest-blog-ina-chadwicks-favorite-short-story/
Join our free Writers Artists Cafe on Wednesdays at the Westport Arts Center starting in October. Be in with the “in” and be part of sharing what you learn, what you feel. But don’t forget to try to see some of your work in print. Why? I couldn’t find my favorite short story online and had to take it out of the library. In print. I held onto the book for many weeks. I owe the library half a month’s mortgage. Who else but writers and lovers of words run up overdue fines? Bless the library.
Ina
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Writers Cafe – get connected
Great Writers’ Café last Wednesday with 16 lively writers who showed up in addition to Ina and me. They had plenty to brag about, too. So much so, in fact, that I can’t put everything down here, or you’d never get to the end of the post.
Ina reiterated that the submission forms for the Memoir writing contest, entitled Déjà vu, that we’re running for the Center for contemporary Printmaking is live online this week. Here’s the link:
https://www.contemprints.org/writers/index.php
I saw an interesting article by the people at Writers’ Relief, about the benefits of print vs. ebook publishing. I left my printed copy at home so here’s the link. (The benefit of online publishing!)
http://www.writersrelief.com/blog/2011/08/print-online-digital-publishing/
Ivy Eisenberg has just started a new humorous blog (tag line: Nothing is off limits) about trying to follow a weightwatchers diet. Check it out here:
http://schmeightschmatchers.wordpress.com
We discussed some of the many topics related to creating a writer’s platform. Essentially, a platform is a marketing campaign and the product you’re selling is you.
As a result, we’re wondering whether anyone would be interested in a short workshop which would enable you to get yourself organized on Facebook and/or Twitter. We could also do workshops on how to set up a website and how to start a blog. These workshops would be hands-on. Let us know if you’re interested.
Jane Sherman had attended Adair Heitmann’s presentation on how to create a writer’s platform the night before (Tuesday) at the Darien Library. She found it interesting because it covered so many topics. Our workshop would be complementary in that it would show you not only why you should do it, but how to do it. Here’s the link to Adair’s blog:
http://creativityandwellness.wordpress.com/
If you’d like to contact Jane for more details about the presentation, email me at Gabi@mousemuse.com, and I’ll forward your email to her.
And then the following day, the New York Times ran a couple of articles on the issue of whether people are becoming swamped with social media, and what to do about that. Even Ina and I were intimidated simply by the number of social media sites out there. That’s why we’re sticking to something simpler to start with. Here are the links for those articles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/fashion/tips-for-managing-social-networking-burnout.html?emc=eta1
SO – plenty to think about…and we’ll keep you updated on when and where next month’s Café will be.
If you’d like to take a look at my brand new blog, here’s the link to it:
http://gabicoatsworth.wordpress.com/