Six Guild members discussed their contributions at the April 2019 Writers Guild meeting in Pearl Buck House International Center, Bucks County, PA.

Using a story of love-remembered and the power-of-hope, John McCabe examined vivid characters and their dimensions of belief and fear of death through a sensitive story. Guild members suggested clearer name attribution to speakers in dialogue exchanges.

Melissa Triol’s latest mystery thriller revealed that her passionate, calculating heroine Eglantine was no match for her sister Prudence in the aftermath of a climactic murder scene. Plotting her cover-up, less-than-accurately named Prudence rivals any modern-day schemer in a promising page-turner.

For his haunting change of pace to the guild session, David Werrett shared two poems. In Footsteps on the Stairs, he weaves an analogy about betrayal in a relationship, using the image of a decaying tree swing. In Drowning, the despair felt is offset by a rescuing spirit, not surprisingly named Angel.

The scene in Joe Vitella’s gang war novel, High Noon: Manhattan Under Siege, portrays two gangsters recalling a recent shoot out, plotting their next move. Some guild members suggested describing a few facial expressions and adding more Spanish phrases to enhance dialogue.

Ron Price addressed his memoir of a 50-year correspondence among nine college fraternity members  (1967 to 2017). In Chapter Two, Price and the remaining group gathered at the funeral of a brother. The author emphasized the importance of their letter exchanges, describing five themes – one for each decade – of their relationships: commitment, accountability, support, respect and love. Some shorter, rather than many longer sentences, was suggested by members to improve clarity.

Archana Kokroo shared what guild members described as a moving, gut-wrenching account of how she fled Kashmir with her family. She described a happy, multi-cultural village that was her happy childhood home. Then, she portrayed the plunge into chaos, violence and religious hatred that exiled all of them. This marked her first time writing about that tragedy, and members urged her to continue this memoir of historic importance.

A new Writers Guild member, James D’Ambrosio, shared this article from Louis Lapham about writing a memoir. The link is here.

Pearl Buck Writers Guild will meet again on Sunday, May 19^th from 1pm to 3pm in the Welcome Center, adjacent to the Gift Shop. Contributors should bring 15 copies of their writing with length limited to four pages. All manuscripts should include name and contact email on the first page.