Another Sunday.
And . . . at last . . . our annual summer fiction edition. This is our eighth summer fiction edition.
First up, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
Darrell Issa got a truest.
As did a man in the anti-Mitt Romney commericals.
Our Iraq editorial.
Ava and C.I. came in with two possibilities. They could cover Sigorney Weaver's Political Animals or they could cover MTV's WakeBrothers. What was that last one? The show starts this week. We said go with this one and they can grab Sigorney's show next week if they want. They said if they did reality TV there was no way for them to do a creative piece. That's fine. I (Jim) read the e-mails. I know how much hunger there is from readers for Ava and C.I. to cover more reality shows. They hate reality TV and you're lucky if you get one from them a year. I knew if they didn't grab this one before it aired, they wouldn't grab it next week. So, readers, you're welcome.
This kicks off the summer edition. This is our scary tale. Somethings worked, somethings didn't. Leaders on this piece were Marcia, Wally, Stan and Cedric. But everyone worked on it and Ava and C.I. took out obvious transitions to make it more spooky.
Ty and Betty led on this one. Betty was firm that poetry had to be a part of this edition. At least once we've had none. So we worked on seven poems and got two that were worth sharing.
Dona wanted a detective piece. This went through four drafts. The third draft ended with a police shoot out and Heath Parker was killed. Ava, C.I. and Ann felt it was too obvious and that the dialogue needed some more punch so they worked on a fourth draft themselves and that was the one that everyone agreed worked.
This was part of a play. We did six brief scenes for a play. We hated it. The more we worked with it, the more we hated it. Elaine wisely said that this section was worth saving and we made it its only little short story.
Jess, Cedric and Wally wanted something to be silly. And they came up with "iSad." Which they found very funny. I wasn't so sure. C.I. and Ava backed them and said all of Leroy's remarks should be "i___"s and they went with that.
We had no title for this. In the end, I said "Omega Planet"? And I was thinking of the film Omega Man. Not that the two are related. This is our second poem to make the edition.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
Of the failed pieces, one was dashed off quickly and may run next week. But that's what we came up with and thank you to Kat, Isaiah, Wally and Betty's kids who busted their butts on the illustrations. This is certainly our best illustrated edition ever.
For those late to the party, let's recap.
The June 26, 2005 edition was our first summer read. Those who worked on that edition were:
Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava of The Third Estate Sunday Review;
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man;
Kat of Kat's Korner;
and C.I. of The Common Ills
You can also be sure Dallas worked on it as well. The short story content was:
A Fractured Life (the Wally Lamb style book) K-Boy Tries To Get Back Home (a horrific parable) The Gleeful Boy (the Sue Miller type read) Summer poetry: "Filling the Well" Peek (the summer page turner) Kooky Cokie Roberts offers up advice
and rounding out that summer read edition:
Five Books, Five Minutes, Editorial: Mainstream Press Do Your Homework on the pre-invasion bombings and TV Review OC: The arm pit of body wash operettas
The June 4, 2006 edition was our second summer read. Working on that edition (along with Dallas) were:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim;
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review;
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills);
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;
Mike of Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz;
and Wally of The Daily Jot.
The fiction offered:
Song of the War Hawks Super Laura?
Once upon a time there were plenty of Baby Dumbasses
Sherman's Story
From a diary found in the Mayflower Hotel
The ones we never know
TV: TESR Investigates
June 24, 2007 was our third edition. Along with Dallas, the following helped:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
and Wally of The Daily Jot
And we produced:
TV: Hidden Yawns
Base Is Hell
The Tired Tryst
The Asbury Park Murder
Creation Theory
Samantha Power Between Her Knees
Cut The Fat! Newt Takes It Off!
June 22, 2008 was our fourth edition and along with Dallas, the following worked on it:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
and Marcia SICKOFITRDLZ.
And our summer reads included:
TV: Breaking what?
New York Times, Early Edition
Clouds
The non-whistle blower
Bee-bees and cockle bugs
Circling
June 21, 2009 was our summer read last year, worked on by Dallas and:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz,
Ann who's filling in for Ruth at Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ
and Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends.
And our efforts were:
TV: Fiction
The curse
Hey there! Marilyn Monroe is using Twitter.
Clooney's Dark Secrets
Summer reads
The Dumb Ass Hour every Saturday morning
The wedding day
The house
The literary ranter
In summer 2011, the following worked on the July 17th edition:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And we came up with:
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statment of the week II
- A note to our readers
- Editorial: Projection and distraction
- TV: Visible to the naked eye?
- Movement Mama aka Moving On Up preface
- Words
- Aunt Tess
- North Korea's secret weapon
- Summer
- ETAN on West Papua
- The Libyan War
- Highlights
So this is the 8th summer. Hopefully, there's something in there you'll enjoy. We'll see you next week.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.