Writers Guild Wraps Up Another Year

Members of the Point Pleasant Writers Guild ended this year’s word crafting and support when they met recently at the Mason County Library. They shared stories and poems having to do with their assignment, and also for the upcoming Open Mic program. The Open Mic will be held at the Gene Salem Senior Center in Point Pleasant on December 16, beginning at 10:00 a.m. The assignment was to create a story using these three elements: character, setting, and conflict, all of which involve a criminal, a city street, and an epidemic. In “Desperate Times”, Nick’s “family” controlled half the vaccine that was available to protect the citizens of Manhattan’s “Little Italy” from an epidemic. Those who couldn’t pay Nick’s price were doomed. For those who died without heirs, Nick profited from their deaths by looting their homes. In “Jewels and Plagues”, one member wrote about a cat burglar who stole a jewel from a woman, later known as “Patient Zero”. Might she be the next plague victim due to her exposure to the jewel owner? A different kind of epidemic, an epidemic of hysteria, was written about by another member, relating the story of one who was seen as a threat and was set against by a mob who wanted to kill him. In “The Turn-around”, a young boy came to America from Cuba and turned to crime by selling drugs. In realizing his “dream”, he hurt others in the process. While on a trip, his plane crashed in Panama, where he was captured and beaten daily. Once back in the U.S., he served time in prison, became a Christian, was released, and eventually became a college professor. One member read his finished poem, “Blue, the Season”, in which loneliness has given way to love. “Traded Identities” was about a store clerk who witnessed a bank robber hiding his loot in a garbage can for later retrieval. The clerk hid the money in his basement, took the identity of an astronaut who was also a Chaplin, hightailed it to Venus, and actually took on the Chaplin’s personality while away. When he returned to Earth, the clerk made amends with the true Chaplin and turned in the stolen money to the bank. Guild members who will be participating in the Open Mic were timed as they read their stories, poems, essays, and songs so as to keep their time under an hour. It is hoped that members of the audience at Gene Salem’s Senior Center will also wish to participate in the Open Mic, as they have done in past years. Five $10.00 coupons from McDonald’s will be used as door prizes.