February 2014 Issue of The Scribblers Newsletter

Welcome to the February issue of The Scribblers.  In this issue we have new writing prompts, links to some good articles, the next installment of the progressive story "The Letter", which will be finalized in the March newsletter.  Also in this issue is a review by Jamie Baker.

February Writing Prompts

Each month we try to provide prompts for you to use. Pick one or more and write 750 to 1,000 words using the prompt/s as the basis of your story.  Most of all, have fun with it.

1.  Frank was working late again, or trying to.  He was being interrupted by the constant 'ding' of his cell phone notifying him of incoming text messages.  They were from his wife who was trying to hurry him so they could attend a birthday party for a friend. His proposal had to be submitted to his supervisor first thing in the morning.   He'd been having problems with his new supervisor and he knew if that proposal wasn't on Stanley's desk at 8 A.M. he would lose his job.

2.  The boys next door were at it again.  For the third time this month I awoke at 2 in the morning to the sound of music.  Loud music.  Music that rattled my windows.  I wanted to go over there and tell them to turn it down, but the last time I did that all of the tires on my car were slashed.

TED Talks—technology, entertainment and design ideas for the global audience

A review by Jamie Baker

Last year, on NPR  station witf, I began listening to the TED Talks Radio Hour, a kind of news magazine that presents information on a diverse range of topics—arts, education, medicine, business, energy, environment and more. 

  

TED was founded in 1984 by the private non-profit group, Sapling Foundation, “ideas worth spreading”.  Its mission statement, “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately the world…” isn’t a mere fluffy sentiment meant to satisfy board members.  TED conducts global conferences around the world, representing diverse opinions and fields of study.  Past presenters include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladhill, Al Gore, Bill Gates, and many, many others including many Nobel Prize winners. 

By June 2009, TED presentations had 50 million views; by June 2011, 500 million views; by November 2013, over 1 billion.  In January 2014, over 1600 talks became available free on line. Scientists, philosophers, musicians, artists, religious leaders, writers, philanthropists, business executives, entrepreneurs, inventors, present speeches lasting 18 minutes, more or less.   Using the TED app, I’ve downloaded many talks to my smart phone.  The app categorizes the presentations into 100’s of topics, everything from activism and atheism to writing and wunderkind.   The talks are short videos, of very good quality, and by downloading them to my phone, I can enjoy them any time I like, replaying them as often as I like, deleting the less useful, and downloading new talks.  The suggested 18-minute time limit challenges the speaker to make a succinct and effective presentation of her idea. 

Of particular interest to me were the presentation by writers.  I’ve listened to short talks by Amy Tan, Doug Eggers, Elif Shafak, Michael Pollan, Chimamanda Adichi, Elizabeth Gilbert, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Chris Abani.  Recently, I found an internet offering, 12 Essential TED Talks for Writers.  I’m looking forward to viewing it.  

Links to a Couple of Interesting Articles

I received an email newsletter from The Writer Magazine this morning and thought that several articles were very good.  I am including links to those articles.  

The first is called "The da Vinci Disease".  da Vinci rarely ever finished anything because he felt human hands could not create well enough to call anything truly finished.  This applies to writing to as you will see here: http://www.writermag.com/2014/01/28/da-vinci-disease/

The second is called "Facebook: Writer’s foe or beloved friend?" and points out how we can use Facebook to advance our writing abilities and careers. You will find it here: http://www.writermag.com/2014/01/28/facebook-writers-foe-beloved-friend/

 The Letter

a progressive story by the Scribblers members (Continued)

Part 9 Jamie Baker

The woman jerked the custom pickup off Donner Pass Rd and skidded to a stop in the rear lot of the Soda Springs General Store.   The grey Chevy Tahoe was obviously the one she wanted.  It was being shaken from side to side, one or more tires lifting off the ground.  The thing looked like something possessed, and she knew it was, but not by something supernatural.  The local bears had learned to hook the exterior door handles of most cars and trucks.  If the vehicle was unlocked, the bear would open the door and climb in, baited by old gum wrappers, rogue French fries hiding between the seats or the emergency Snickers bars stashed in the glove box.  Unfortunately, if the door swung shut after the bear crawled in and started rooting around, it would then be trapped:  the claws that were so good at popping the exterior door latches were too big to manipulate the smaller, often recessed, interior latches. 

Cassie Vickers, the driver of the pickup, got these calls pretty frequently during tourist season.  The caller was usually a woman, shrieking that there was a grizzly bear in the family van and her stupid, crazy husband was trying to be a hero and get the thing out of the family ride.  Cassie would calmly tell the woman that there were no grizzlies in California but her husband should still stay away from the vehicle.  Then she would call the Department of Fish and Wildlife and a ranger would be dispatched to deal with the bears.  Cassie was a wildlife control agent and rehabilitator, licensed in California and Nevada, but in both states only department rangers could deal with large or dangerous wild life, such as bears, wolves, or raptor birds.

She’d already called the department, but since she’d been only a couple of miles from the general store, certainly much closer than any ranger on duty, she thought she’d stop by, just to make sure the animal wasn’t really a big raccoon or porcupine, something she was licensed to handle.

 

Then she saw the kid.   He was on the side porch of the store, a backpack at his feet, watching the Tahoe rocking and bucking, and she knew from the look on his face that he’d realized it was a trapped bear making all that commotion and he was deciding how he was going to help it get free.  Cassie threw open the door and bolted from the pickup, but before she could yell for him to stop, he strode up to the car, and in motion he jerked the door open and slid under the car.  The bear erupted from the vehicle and loped out of the lot.  A moment later, the kid slithered out from under the other side of the car, stood and watched the bear run off on all fours. 

Cassie met the kid at the open door of the car.  The front seat was ripped to pieces, stuffing everywhere.  The steering wheel was bent, the headliner shredded and the windshield had a long horizontal crack in it.  The door panel on the passenger side looked like it had been mulched.  The kid stepped back when the smell hit him, a stench that was strong and feral, with over tones of rotted meat and urine. 

“God,” the kid said, waving his hand in front of his face, “phew!  What a stinking wreck.”

“Hey, kid, that was exactly the wrong thing to do.  You’re lucky she didn’t go after you.”

“I thought I’d be safe under the car.  That was a she?  God, it was big.  Anyway, it was panicking.  I thought the car’s owner might come out and shoot it.”

They had walked back to where he had left his backpack. 

“Are you hitching?”

“Yeah, I was on my way to Mountain Star Tree Farm.  I read over in Tahoe that there was work there.”

“Come on, I’ll give you a lift.”

Her pickup was a big Dodge Ram with a utility package in the bed that had vented boxes on both sides.    Two miles down the road they passed a Department of Fish and Game truck going in the other direction.  A few minutes later, the truck’s cell phone chirped.  Cassie activated a button on the steering wheel.

“Hey, Vickers Wildlife Control.  How can I help?”

“Hey, Cassie, this is Ranger Rick and you know it.  I just passed you.  What happened to the bear that was in this Tahoe?”

“Bear?”

“Hey, I’m here with the vehicle’s owner, his insurance company needs to know what happened.  What happened to the bear?”

“Some kid let her out.  That’s all I know.  The bear ran off.  I couldn’t tell if it had an ear tag, I was too far away.”

“You know the kid?”

“Nope.”

She listened to Rick Meyers talking to someone in the background, probably the Tahoe’s owner. 

“Witness here says it was a young guy, a hiker, maybe Hispanic.”

“Nope, I didn’t see him.”

“Who’s that traveling with you?”

“This guy?  He’s my new assistant.”

“Any chance he’s Hispanic?”

“This guy?  No, he’s Italian.

“Yeah, well, let him know what he did was illegal.  Tell him to the call the department next time.  We handle bear calls.”

“Hey, it wasn’t my guy.  But if I see this other kid, I’ll let him know.  Later.”  She tapped off the communications button on the steering wheel.

She glanced over at the kid.

“You’re Italian, right?  And looking for a job, right?”

“Sure.  Hey, you’re the boss.”

Part 10 John Matthews

“Hi, Richie, it’s me, Tyler.  I didn’t know if you still had your cell phone, but I thought I’d give you a try.”

“Hey Ty.  Things are great out here.  I got a new job.  Turns out I’m an expert on bear control.  Who knew?”

“So you’re not working at the tree farm?  I was going to ask if they still had any jobs.”

“They sure do.  In fact they could use two people since I didn’t take one of them.”

“That’s what I was hoping. I’ve got a friend who’d like to come along.”

“A girl friend?”

“A girl, but not a girlfriend.  Just a friend.”

“You’d better get here quick.  No job openings last long.”

“We can get there real quick.  Turns out my friend has pretty good transportation.”

“Tree farm work isn’t really girl’s work.  Cutting and loading Christmas trees is what they are doing now.  Can she handle that?”

“I’ll bet she can.  Turns out her mother has been obsessive about seeing that she eats healthily and gets lots of exercise.  We’ll be there tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?  You’d need a jet plane to do that.”

“She can get one.’

“She can get a jet plane and she still wants to work on a tree farm?”

“It’s kind of complicated, but she doesn’t want me to say more over the phone.”

“I hope you aren’t doing anything illegal.”

“That’s one thing I’m not worried about.”

Twenty-four hours later Richie was driving Ty and Malia to the Mountain Star Tree Farm in a Vickers Wildlife Control pickup.  He had picked them up at the airport a half hour ago.  Richie thought he’d seen everything when the sleek little private jet taxied up to his pickup.  But when Ty introduced Richie to the person he stepped off the plane with, Richie thought he was probably on something.

Of course Malia didn’t have access to Air Force One or to her mother’s private plane, but how she got the use of the rental jet was a secret she’d learned.  You don’t live in the White House for five years without picking up some tricks.

“So, Malia,” said Richie.  “Now that the shutdown’s over, is your Dad going to be able to help us a little more?”

“Please, Richie.  Call me Annie.  Ty wasn’t supposed to tell you who I am, but when you saw the jet he had to explain.  Dad is as frustrated as ever.  There are some things he can do but he’s going to wait for his State of the Union speech to announce those.  Meanwhile, I’m trying to do some things on my own.  Ty’s going to help me.  Are you in?”  

   And Finally...

We are always looking for articles and short stories to publish, as well as suggestions for the newsletter.  Please send any ideas, stories, etc. to colleen.  We'd love to see any contributions you'd like to make to The Scribblers.



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