Tuesdays with
Story History
We trace back to 2001, a small
group of writers gathering on the second-and-fourth
Tuesday evenings at Barnes & Noble Westside. The
following year, the group came under the casual
leadership of Ben LeRoy, a partner in
Bleak House
Books, a local publishing house.
Ben recalls that, when he started,
the group was five people around the table, something of
a mutual admiration society. It evolved over time, and
with the infusion of new people, into a group that
provides serious critiques graciously delivered because
we hold to an accepted attitude that we are all in this
together -- you help me, I'll help you and both our
writing will become better for it.
Our numbers grew to 42 in January
of 2004, making it difficult for writers to get on the
program as often as many wanted, so we discussed
options. The best, came the consensus, was to split and
form a second group. We did that in March with the two
groups meeting separately for the first time in April.
Our numbers rose to a peak of 54,
but a number of those had gone inactive or had moved and
hadn't asked that they be taken off our lists. In May
2004, we contacted the inactives and asked whether they
wished to remain on. As a consequence, we cut our
numbers to 38, almost all of whom are active writers.
Our numbers, as of January 2005, stand at 46.
In August 2004, we adopted our
current name, Tuesdays with Story, and established an
on-line presence with our own web site. In 2005, we
entered the Wiki world and launched an online novel
writing project where all can add chapters to the novel,
titled
Dreamscape, and edit the work of other writers
in this literary free-for-all.
When we gather to review the work
of our colleagues, we try our best to be gracious,
welcoming to all, enjoy the fellowship of everyone, and
particularly we try to be respectful of others' comments
and critiques, especially when we disagree with those
comments and critiques. We do not attack the person.
We are a diverse group --
novelists, mystery writers, writers of fantasy fiction
for young adults, children's writers, memoir writers,
essayists, article writers, poets . . . ages range from
high school students to retired, a fairly even split of
male and female.
A significant number of our
writers are published -- novels, short stories, poetry
and nonfiction, the latter taking in the sweep of
articles, news stories, feature stories and columns for
journals, magazines and newspapers.
