It’s Been a Year

Posted on March 21, 2014
by Catherine Brennan

As usual, Cookie, Tiger, and I did the Bike MS Tour de Farms ride – June 22, 2019

And I’m still fundraising, but we’ll get to that later.

The fact that it’s taken me this long to blog about the ride this year is a testament to how wacky the last few months have been. There were times I wasn’t completely sure I was going to ride. We had some health issues in the family starting around February, so training was a greater challenge than it sometimes is. And then there was…

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

Okay, that’s been going on for a while no matter what the Big Oil Companies want to you to believe. I refer you to Bill McKibben’s scary book Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

I know there are people in way worse shape than our family, but here’s how it hit us: This past May was the wettest in Chicago’s recorded history.

So there wasn’t much decent riding weather, which interfered with our training regimens.

The weather also meant that our yard (where the drainage has never been terrific) has pretty much been a wetland all spring and summer.

There’s been a lovely moat all around the deck

So in addition to trying to finish the novel I started in 2016, and dealing with the aforementioned health issues, we also had to find a solution to the standing water before the disease-bearing mosquitoes decided to make our yard their refuge.

(Talk to me later if you want to hear the horror stories about the neighbor who decided that somehow we caused the drainage issues and was threatening to sue us.)

Anyhoo. Just when I thought events could hardly increase my tension level, my beloved bicycle—the one I was planning to ride at the event—fell off the back of a bike trailer as we were on our way to a training ride. Poor Skippy.

R.I.P. Skippy

She was mortally injured and now has become an organ parts donor at Working Bikes Cooperative

I was inconsolable, but BK dragged me out immediately after the incident and bought me a new bike. And in more good news, it looks like insurance will cover the loss.

I’m calling her Summit after the late legendary University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach, Pat Summitt.

Summitt

Summitt is also an aspirational name. I’m hoping that it will encourage me to do better on ascents.

Summit did me proud on the ride. We went 35 miles! Not as good as a couple of years ago, when we were riding 50, but Cookie, Tiger, and I all had stuff going on this spring, so we opted to do 35.

Tiger and Cookie raised funds like champs, but I’m afraid I fell down on the job this year. 2019 is the first time in several years that I might not achieve Gold Spokes status.

So if my tale of woe has awakened pity in your breast and you’re wondering how to allot your charitable giving this year, I could sure use the boost. I’m still eligible to join the Gold Spokes until about August 20. Here’s a link to my fundraising page

If that doesn’t work for some reason, please let me know.

Thanks again to Cookie, Tiger, BK, Rocky, the Raupp family, my cousins Steve, Cecelia & Brian, Mickey, Kevin, Ann, Emmi, Kurt, Randy, the White family, Katherine L, and the Musto family. Your generosity is so much appreciated!

In case you’re interested, here are a few more pictures from the ride:

Beth_Pre EileenPre CB_Pre2

EileenBeth_Post BethCB_Post2

BethEileenAfter NoPixPls

Catherine Brennan

Catherine published a novel and short story back in the 1990s. Life intervened, and she didn’t write for a while. But then she started writing again in 2010 for National Novel Writing Month, and has continued to write in November and throughout the year. She has stories in two Journey anthologies, Drops of Midnight and Other Worlds. She is currently either revising her latest NaNoWriMo novel from 2012, working on short fiction, or posting on her blog, CB’s Mojo.

March Story Wall Experience – Jez

Posted on March 16, 2014
by Jez Layman

I greatly appreciated the input of those who participated in my story wall at the March Journey meeting. I had brought forward a YA science fiction novel that I am in the process of editing, hoping to focus on one chapter/element in particular which has given me significant issues in previous drafts.

I had gone into the exercise with little preparation, other than having known my story inside out from multiple drafts. I began by describing the world in which my story is set, then gave a description of four characters. I then gave a synopsis of the novel as a whole, then went into specifics on the first three chapters, leading up to the area where I was having difficulty. My biggest stumbling block was figuring out a way to get the two main characters into the same place and situation, but still feel natural. The group gave me excellent feedback on the novel and characters and provided me with a few different options for how to change the problem chapter.

My advice for members looking to participate in story walls in the future is to go into it with a good synopsis and know beforehand what your biggest issues are so that the group can better focus on them. I would say that one should not over-prepare or bog the listeners down with too many details, as these could distract from the actual issue. I brought up additional plot points and arcs as necessary in response to questions, but I think what made the exercise work for my particular group was that I needed new ideas and I allowed the group freedom to explore ideas without worrying how they may or may not affect other parts of my novel—that’s for me to work on after the story wall. I think it also helps to have a small, but dedicated group. Too large of a group and the participants can get off-topic or hung up on specific things, too small and there are less ideas to be pitched.

Overall, I think this was a very good exercise for me and my novel (especially at this stage in editing) because it allowed me to receive feedback from other writers on my novel as a whole (with some much-appreciated validation!), but it also allowed me to talk out some issues and receive new ideas on how to approach them. I think the best part for me, however, was receiving questions from the group, which made me focus on certain points, figure out things to explain better in the story, or to simply better explain my premise to the group.

Again, I am very thankful to my group and really appreciated the time they put in trying to help me work through this chapter. Your ideas were great and I can’t wait to play around with them and see which one ends up clicking into the story.

Jez Layman

Jez is a native Chicagoan who graduated from Trinity Christian College and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Library and Information Science. She has had many of her short stories and poems published, but is currently focusing on her novels. In 2011, she took 1st Place in the OPUS fiction contest with her short story “The Damsel.” She writes primarily science fiction for young adults and adults. She has been a member of The Journey since 2011.