The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss: Prose Class with Helen Hagemann

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Friday, 29^th  May @ 10.00am in the Flax Room of the Grove Library.
This class will combine “Writing for children” as well as finding rhythm for your prose.  We will be reading the whole book of The Cat in the Hat written by Theodor Seuss Geisel in order to discover the poetic meters of children's literature. Writers will have a choice in writing exercises to try their hand at short verse or prose exercises to engage in prose rhythm. 

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE + TIME (the FAC is closed this week for roof renovations).
The Grove Library: 1 Leake Street, Peppermint Grove (It's actually, cnr Leake St and Stirling Highway, Cottesloe)

The Cat in the Hat was first published in 1957. Three years after its debut, the book had already sold over a million copies, and in 2001 Publishers Weekly listed the book at number nine on its list of best-selling children's books of all time. The book's success led to the creation of Beginner Books, a publishing house centred on producing similar books for young children learning to read. In 1983, Geisel said, "It is the book I'm proudest of because it had something to do with the death of the Dick and Jane primers." The book was adapted into a 1971 animated television special and a 2003 live-action film.

POETIC METERS: Geisel wrote most of his books in anapestic tetrameter, a poetic meter employed by many poets of the English literary canon. This is often suggested as one of the reasons that Geisel's writing was so well received.

Anapestic tetrameter consists of four rhythmic units, anapests, each composed of two weak syllables followed by one strong syllable (the beat); often, the first weak syllable is omitted, or an additional weak syllable is added at the end. An example of this meter can be found in Geisel's "Yertle the Turtle".

    "And today the Great Yertle, that Marvelous he

    Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see."

Theodor Seuss Geisel 1904 –1991) was an American writer and cartoonist. He was most widely known for his children's books, which he wrote and illustrated under the pseudonym Dr. Seuss. He had used other pen names such as Theo LeSieg and Rosetta Stone. Geisel published 46 children's books, often characterized by imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of anapestic meter. His most-celebrated books include the bestselling Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, Fox in Socks, The King's Stilts, Hop on Pop, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton Hears a Who!, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. His works have numerous adaptations, including 11 television specials, four feature films, a Broadway musical and four television series. He won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for Horton Hatches the Egg and again in 1961 for And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.

Read More

Grove Library Venue for 29th May Prose Class with Helen Hagemann

Prose Class with Helen Hagemann for Friday, 29th May to meet at the Grove Library in the Flax room.

Please note:  Class to meet at 10.00am - midday. Coffee or tea afterwards at the Monogram Caffe inside The Grove Library.

Please do not go to the Fremantle Arts Centre this week as the venue will be closed for upgrades.



Grove Library Map:

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/The+Grove+Library/@-31.997446,115.764038,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xdd86132f183d0240

Read More

Ice Station by Matthew Reilly: Prose Class with Helen Hagemann

Prose with Helen Hagemann at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Ice Station by Matthew Reilly, 15^st May @ 1pm. We will be reading an extract from the novel. Writing exercises and discussion will revolve around pace and action. 

Cost:  $20  OOTA  $25  NON-OOTA

Room 3, Upstairs - Fremantle Arts Centre

Plot Summary
After a diving team at Wilkes Ice Station is killed, the station sends out a distress signal. A team of United States Recon Marines led by Shane Schofield, code named Scarecrow, arrives at the station. At the station he finds several French scientists have arrived, and several more come after the Marines' arrival. The French reveal themselves as soldiers and a fight ensues in the station, claiming the lives of Scarecrow's men Hollywood, Legs and Ratman, along with several scientists and most of the French soldiers, while Mother loses her leg, Samurai is badly injured, and two French scientists are captured.   Schofield decides to send a team down to find an object below the ice where the diving team was going. Later, Samurai is found strangled, leaving the only people he trusts to be one of the scientists, Sarah Hensleigh and another soldier named Montana as he was with them at the time of Samurai's death. Hensleigh, Montana and two other Marines, Gant and Santa Cruz, are sent down to where the diving team vanished. While alone, Schofield is shot and killed. He later wakes up, found to have been accidentally resurrected by his attacker, and is in the care of scientist James Renshaw, the believed killer of one of the other scientists at Wilkes. Watching a video of Schofield's death, they see the attacker and discover it to be one of Schofield's men, Snake. The two capture Snake before he is able to kill the wounded Mother.

Matthew John Reilly (2 July 1974) is an Australian action thriller writer. His novels are noted for their fast pace, twisting plots and intense action.

Early life:  Reilly was born on 2 July 1974 in Sydney, the second son of Ray and Denise. He grew up in Willoughby, an affluent suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Reilly graduated from Sydney's St Aloysius' College in Milsons Point, in 1992.[4] Reilly then studied Law at the University of New South Wales[5] between 1993 and 1997, graduating 31st out of 250 students.[6] While at university he was also a contributor to the student law society publication "Poetic Justice".

Career:  Reilly wrote his first book, Contest, at the age of 19 and self-published it in 1996. It was rejected by every major publisher in Australia, leading Reilly to self-publish 1000 copies using a bank loan. Reilly was discovered when Cate Paterson, a commissioning editor from Pan Macmillan found a self-published copy of Contest in a bookstore. Pan Macmillan signed Reilly to a two-book deal. Reilly wrote his second book, Ice Station, while studying at the University of NSW. It was quickly picked up by publishers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. He has since sold over 7 million copies of his books worldwide, in over 20 languages.  Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves was the biggest-selling fiction title in Australia in 2011. Three more of Reilly's books have been the biggest-selling Australian titles of their years of release: Seven Ancient Wonders (2005), The Five Greatest Warriors (2009) and The Tournament (2013).

In 2007, Reilly wrote a half-hour television script titled Literary Superstars. The script was picked up by Darren Star (Sex and the City) and bought by Sony Pictures for the ABC Network. Jenna Elfman signed on to play the lead role. The pilot episode was at the casting stage when the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike began, paralyzing Hollywood. The pilot was placed on indefinite hiatus before ultimately being dropped by the ABC.

Personal life: In 2004 Reilly married his childhood sweetheart, Natalie Freer. Freer attended a nearby high school, Loreto Kirribilli, and also went to the University of New South Wales, where she studied Psychology. Reilly credits Freer with encouraging him to self-publish his first book. In early December 2011, while Reilly was in South Australia on a book tour promoting Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, Natalie, who had suffered from anorexia and depression, committed suicide. Reilly subsequently cancelled his remaining book tours and announced his intention to take a break from online communications for a while.

Reilly owns several movie prop reproductions such as a life-size statue of Han Solo frozen in carbonite from Star Wars, a golden idol from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future. A big fan of Hollywood blockbusters, Reilly hopes to one day direct a movie adapted from one of his own books.

Bibliography

Stand-alone novels

        Contest (1996; republished in 2000)

        Temple (1999)

        The Tournament (2013) set in the year 1546.

        Troll Mountain (2014)

        The Great Zoo of China (November 2014)

Shane Schofield

    Ice Station (1998)

    Area 7 (2001)

    Scarecrow (2003)

    Hell Island (2005)

    Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves (2012), re-titled as Scarecrow Returns in the United States.

Jack West Jr

    Seven Ancient Wonders (2005), retitled as 7 Deadly Wonders in the United States.

    The Six Sacred Stones (2007)

    The Five Greatest Warriors (2009)

Hover Car Racer

    Hover Car Racer (2004)

Published as three mini-books in the United States:

    Crash Course (2005)

    Full Throttle (2006)

    Photo Finish (2007)

References:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Station

Read More

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, Prose Class with Helen Hagemann @ FAC, 1st May

Prose with Helen Hagemann at the Fremantle Arts Centre

Catcher in the Rye by J. D Salinger, 1^st May @ 1pm. We will be reading an extract from the novel. Writing exercises and discussion will revolve around the elements of YA. 

Cost:  $20  OOTA  $25  NON-OOTA

Room 3, Upstairs - Fremantle Arts Centre


The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. A controversial novel originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languag.es. Around 250,000 copies are sold each year with total sales of more than 65 million books.The novel's protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for teenage rebellion. The novel also deals with complex issues of identity, belonging, loss, connection, and alienation.
 The novel was included on Time‍ '​s 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923 and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003, it was listed at #15 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.  The success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny. Salinger became reclusive, publishing new work less frequently. He followed Catcher with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953); a volume containing a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961); and a volume containing two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.

Salinger working on The Catcher in the Rye

Born on January 1, 1919, in New York, J.D. Salinger was a literary giant despite his slim body of work and reclusive lifestyle. His landmark novel, The Catcher in the Rye, set a new course for literature in post-WWII America and vaulted Salinger to the heights of literary fame. In 1953, Salinger moved from New York City and led a secluded life, only publishing limited work before his death in 2010.

    References:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger

Read More

May Newsletter

Dear writers
Our Prose newsletter for May 2015 is now up! We have three classes this month, as well we are introducing your tutors for June 2015 while I'm away in England. They are Laurie Steed and Guy Salvidge. Laurie has been an OOTA member for a few years, and most probably this is the first time he has conducted a class for us at the Fremantle Arts Centre. The new committee at OOTA are introducing new classes, so hopefully there will be more opportunity for our members to run classes. Download our May newsletter by clicking on the Newsletter tab and the drop-down link.
Your stories are here


Happy reading!
Helen

Read More

Our Poetry Tutor Shane McCauley announces the launch of tRICKSTER: a new poetry collection

OOTA Writers Group Inc.

invites you to the launch party of

tRICKSTER by Shane McCauley

Walleah Press (Tasmania)

To be launched by Andrew Lansdown

Saturday, 6 June 2015 @ 2pm

Pavlich Room

Fremantle Arts Centre

Please RSVP by 29 May

shnmccly@gmail.com

SMS- 0432983310

Book sales $ 20 (no credit card facilities)

Drinks, finger foods & a trick or two

** The launch will be concluded with raffle and door prize draws.**

Read More

Launch of Cuttlefish by Sunline Press: New WA journal for writers

Sunline Press invites you to the launch of

Cuttlefish

Gallows Gallery

53 Glyde Street

Mosman Park

Saturday 2nd May 5pm to 7pm

RSVP: rleach@plc.wa.edu.au

before 28th April 2015

Read More

Fifty Shades of Grey: Prose Class at the FAC, 17th April @ 1pm

Prose Workshop for April

Fifty Shades of Grey – 17^th April @ 1pm – Room 3, @ FAC

We will be looking at possibly two extracts from the novel by British author E.L. James. James originally self-published Fifty Shades as an e-book and a print-on-demand, until the publishing rights were acquired by Vintage Books in March 2012. Writing exercises and discussion will revolve around “What Makes Successful Writing”.

Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It is the first installment in the Fifty Shades trilogy that traces the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, and a young business magnate, Christian Grey. It is notable for its explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving bondage/discipline, dominance/submission, and sadism/masochism (BDSM). Originally self-published as an ebook and a print-on-demand, publishing rights were acquired by Vintage Books in March 2012.
The second and third volumes, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, were published in 2012. Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world, including those of the United Kingdom and the United States. The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide and been translated into 52 languages, and set a record in the United Kingdom as the fastest-selling paperback of all time. Critical reception of the book, however, has tended toward the negative, with the quality of its prose generally seen as poor. Universal Pictures and Focus Features produced a film adaptation, which was released on 13 February 2015 and also received generally unfavorable reviews.

Erika Mitchell (born 7 March 1963), better known by her pen name E. L. James, is a British author. She wrote the bestselling erotic romance novels trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed. The combined novels have sold over 70 million copies worldwide, over 35 million copies in the United States and set the record in the United Kingdom as the fastest selling paperback of all time. In 2012, Time magazine named her one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People."



Reference: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Shades_of_Grey

Read More

Our Newsletter for April 2015

Dear writers
Our Prose newsletter for April 2015 is now up! Also some of the stories (although not all uploaded) can be read on the publication page. It was a very interesting exercise that evoked some really good ideas and good writing. Basic writing such as this can often be a springboard to other works, or ideas.
Download our newsletter by clicking on the Newsletter tab and the drop-down link.
Your stories are here

Read More

Writing Animals with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre: Friday 20th March

Writing Animals – 20th March @ 1pm with Helen Hagemann. Class will read two short stories from this collection "Only the Animals" by Ceridwen Dovey. Writing exercises and  discussion will revolve around allegory and fables.  $20 OOTA, $25 NON-OOTA.

Dovey appeared at the Perth Writers Festival (February, 2015)
She will also feature at Adelaide Writers' Week (March, 2015)
Only the Animals won the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award and the Steele Rudd Award (Short Story Collection) at the 2014 Queensland Literary Awards

Only the Animals

Extract

My twin sister and I, like all young elephants in our herd, were raised on a feast of stories about our ancestors, whose souls glowed at us from constellations in the sky. On certain summer evenings, the elders would point out identifying features among the stars: the tip of a trunk, or the triangular ends of an ear spread out in preparation for a charge, the same shape as the continent of Africa. They would tell us the story of one of these hallowed forebears looking down on us. My sister and I liked to reenact what we had heard, living out an ancestor’s great moments on earth and imagining what it might feel like to die and be transmuted into a soul that sparkles forever, wheeling about on an invisible axis.

Description

The souls of ten animals, each killed in a human conflict of the past century or so, tell the story of their deaths in turn. There is the camel killed in colonial Australia and the blue mussel killed in Pearl Harbour; the cat who died in the trenches in World War I and the bear who starved to death during the siege of Sarajevo; the dog who lost his life on the Eastern Front in World War II and the parrot killed during the 2006 bombing of Beirut; the ape who died in Germany during World War I and the Russian tortoise lost in space during the Cold War; the elephant killed in the civil war in Mozambique and the dolphin who chose to die during the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
    Each of the animals also pays homage to a human writer who has written imaginatively about animals during much the same time span, from Henry Lawson to Ted Hughes, from Kafka to J.M. Coetzee, from Colette to Virginia Woolf, from Tolstoy to José Saramago, from Günter Grass to Jack Kerouac, from Tom Stoppard to Julian Barnes. As the soul of the tortoise explains, borrowing the words of the poet Czeslaw Milosz, ‘So little of the total suffering, human or animal, can ever make its way into literature in the end. When it does, we should pay attention, and pay our respects.’
    A tribute both to authors and to animals, this is a book that asks some difficult questions and doesn’t pretend to know the answers. Why do animals sometimes shock us into feeling things we can’t seem to feel for other humans? Why do animals allow authors to say the unsayable? Can we become intimate with an author by understanding his or her symbolic use of animals? Is it still possible to feel something authentic for other living beings caught up in fatal conflict in a time of compassion fatigue? Is a different relationship with animals possible if we no longer make them marginal to our lives and deaths? Can fiction really help us to find meaning, or even morality? And as the soul of the dolphin wonders in her narrative, why do we sometimes treat humans as animals, and sometimes treat animals as humans?
    Only The Animals asks us to find our way back to empathy not only for animals, but for other human beings, and to believe again – just for a moment – in the redemptive power of reading and writing fiction.

Reference:  http://www.ceridwendovey.com/only-the-animals/

 

Ceridwen Dovey was born in South Africa and raised between South Africa and Australia. While studying social anthropology at Harvard as an undergraduate, she made a documentary about South African wine farm workers, Aftertaste. She wrote her first novel, Blood Kin, while living in Cape Town, then returned to the U.S. for graduate studies in social anthropology at New York University.

She now lives with her husband and son in Sydney, Australia.

Read More

Westerly Stories with Helen Hagemann: Friday 6th March @ the Fremantle Arts Centre

Westerly Stories – 6^th March @ 1pm.

We will be looking at two short stories published in your membership copy of Westerly #59.2  (Rosie Barter’s & Rashida Murphy’s). It would be great if you could bring your copy to class. 

Class will include reading of extracts from Not Sweet, No Sweet at all by Rosie Barter & from The Moon Still Speaks by Rashida Murphy.  Writing exercises and discussion will revolve around folk tales, legends and folklore.

Room 3, 1.00pm-3.00pm, Fremantle Arts Centre: OOTA $20.00: Non-OOTA $25

Rosie Barter
Before turning her hand to writing, Rosie Barter was a senior lecturer in graphic design at Curtin University for 24 years. She has been widely published in literary magazines and anthologies.
Her story Not Sweet, Not Sweet at all won 2nd prize in the Lyndall Hadow/Donald Stuart Short story competition 2014.
from the judge's report...
This amazing piece of writing is not steeped in traditional literature at all. In fact it’s avant-garde in the extreme. But it is no less worthy of recognition for all that. It’s beautifully written in a Gothic and disturbing way that both moved and chilled me. The story’s gradual revelation of a really peculiar (and disturbing) madness is delicious and, while my prerequisite ending appears missing, I think I can just see its ghost over there... Piglets as pincushions.”

Rashida Murphy is a writer of short stories, poems and one novella. Her short stories and poetry has been published in literary magazines and anthologies since 1990. Her work explores the relationships between fathers, mothers and daughters and the impact of physical dislocation on those relationships. Murphy holds two Masters degrees, one in English Literature, the other in Creative Writing. Currently she is undertaking a Phd at Edith Cowan University.

Read More