NG: This month please meet my friends in the Lexicon Writing Group. The Lexicons are an eclectic group of writers: two paranormal mystery writers, a memoirist, and a whimsical thriller novelist. My husband, David, joined the group first, and I followed soon after. We’ve been with the Lexicons for about a decade. Here are the Lexicons to tell you more.

NOTE: Comments and questions welcome!

   Meet Peggy McFarland

When and why did you join the Lexicons? In 2008, I answered a Craig’s List ad. Two women started a short story group that was supposed to be a short-term group. They dropped out even before the end goal. Two of us who had answered their ad wanted to continue the group, and we also placed a Craig’s List ad and soon found two more members. The other “founding” member named us The Minutemen Writers. Over time, we found more people to join, some stayed, some moved along. Eventually, we became four members, and then renamed ourselves The Lexicons, so I think we all just rejoined our own group. 😊

Tell us about your current writing project: I am (still) working on my first novel, a buddy mystery involving a bartender named Bernie who believes she needs nobody’s help, thank you much, and a peculiar woman who stumbles into the bar claiming her name is Jane Doe. Jane shows up the same day unidentified female remains are found a few towns over. This live and in-person Jane Doe claims she takes on the personality traits of Jane Doe victims until they are identified, and eerily acts like a former bar regular, one who Bernie not only banned for life, but thought good riddance. As Bernie’s life unravels—she’s mowed down by a drunk driver, is fired from her job, and finds herself homeless, all within a day, she finds Jane is the only one available to help. But Jane wants something in return—help identify the Jane Doe infesting her. As the unlikely allies work together to learn what happened, Bernie draws eerie parallels between her life and the life of the missing regular. The person who killed her customer might want Bernie dead, too. If she ends up in a pile of unidentified bones, will anyone even notice? Working Title is Bar None, and if I ever finish the “final” edits on this one, I will work on making this premise into a series.

Who are your favorite authors? Stephen King has been my favorite ever since high school, and continues to make me stop life and sit and READ when he releases a new novel. More recent authors that I can’t get enough of their work (in no particular order) include Andy Weir, Fredrik Backman, Ruth Ware, Jim Butcher, Malcolm Gladwell, Pierce Brown, Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym), Joe King, Mishka Shubaly, Jen Sincero, Jonathan Tropper, and, and… so many!

How does this writing group influence your writing? I can’t imagine writing without the support and feedback of a writing group. I learn just as much from the critiques I receive as I do by critiquing others. It is refreshing to learn how the same sentence, no matter how carefully crafted and honed, will be interpreted three different ways by three other people. At the end of each session, we have a “free for all” where more often than not, we end up brainstorming. Whether my work or another member’s, I learn so much from the process as well as how to think from different points of view. For me specifically, my writing group recognized a character I’d created in a short story, and told me she should carry a novel. Without their insight and help, I wouldn’t have attempted 90,000 words (+/- a couple more thousand).

What’s your favorite writing group memory? I’m not sure I can pin anything to one specific moment, but an overall feeling I can describe. Our group was growing, and we were up to eight members, though most weren’t consistent attendees or contributors. The coffee shop closed, we moved the group to Burlington, and the members who weren’t interested fell away. We ended up becoming a four-member group: Steve Gordon (we still miss him), along with Nancy and David Gardner, and myself. Suddenly, we all flourished. Our writing improved, our enthusiasm hit a high, and we learned how to truly support each other. For the first time, we had total trust with each other to share our creations.

The next best moment was our first meeting with new member Alyson. We had lost our friend and founding member Steve and were reluctant to “fill the hole” his absence created, though we knew three members wasn’t enough for any of our writing to thrive. We discovered Alyson and asked her to submit a sample of her writing. We liked her style, though how would she be with the whole critiquing process? She blew us away. She got our humor, she saw the writing with a fresh perspective, she enthusiastically cheered us on and could get to the nitty gritty. After our first meeting with Alyson, I was so happy. We’d honored Steve, and we had a complete group again.

What’s one surprising fact about yourself? I’m not sure if this question expects a writing-related answer or non-writing random fact.

Writing-related fact: I never wrote a story in my life, outside of grade school assignments, until 2007. I watched The Secret as had almost the whole Oprah fanverse. The next morning, I had a complete short story idea. I’ve been writing ever since.

Random fact: A three pack of paper towels lasted me four years, because I learned how to use rags. That impressed a group of networkers. Now that I’m vegan, I use a heck of a lot more paper towels, since draining tofu involves absorbent materials. Save the animals, hurt the trees… I’ll figure this out someday.

Where can readers go to taste of your writing? Many of the short stories I wrote were posted at on-line venues rather than in print. Many of them are no longer live sites, though I believe this old one is still kicking around (won honorable mention in a “These Vampires Don’t Sparkle” contest at Silverthough Online): http://www.silverthought.com/mcfarland01.html

Best New England Crime Stories (anthologies). I have short stories in Snowbound, Red Dawn, Blood Moon, and Dead Calm. All are available via Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=best+new+england+crime+stories&crid=JQIAPFPYGOPE&sprefix=best+new+england%2Caps%2C482&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_16

I have had stories published in Shroud Magazine, The Absent Willow Review Anthology, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader “Flush Fiction”; all may or may not require a patient search to find. Otherwise, maybe my Mom’s book shelves? 😊

   Meet Alyson Miller 

When and why did you join the Lexicons? I joined, in 2020, because I heard Peggy reading excerpts from her work in progress at a NH Writers Night Out function and wanted to know what she knew. For instance, I had never heard of filter words or em dashes. When she announced an opening in the Lexicons, I was the first person to apply for it. They whipped me into shape pretty fast!

Tell us about your current writing project: I’m writing a memoir set during the 1980’s in the American South and am very close to finishing my first draft—although in the time it’s taken me to get this far, all of the other Lexicons finished one book and started another! I’m insanely slow.

Who are your favorite authors? In my younger days I often latched onto classic authors and read everything they wrote before moving to the next one—Faulkner, Tolstoy, Hawthorne, Austin, Trollope, the Brontë sisters, Poe, Alexandre Dumas, père, Vonnegut, Arthur Conan Doyle, etc. Then I took a seminar at Emory University with contemporary author Elizabeth “Betsy” Dewberry, and reading her work revolutionized my voice. Nowadays, I mostly read nonfiction science books. My favorite authors are Sharon Moalem, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Neil Shubin, Carl Zimmer, Sean B. Carroll, and Ben Goldfarb.

How does this writing group influence your writing? I trust them wholeheartedly. When they tell me that something is not working (“your TIMELINE is driving me crazy!” “… But what’s the point?” “Past perfect, past perfect, past tense, past perfect… ugh.”), it’s not. I take a deep breath and rewrite the section, and it’s always better than my original. I never would have written some of my favorite passages if the Lexicons hadn’t pushed me to do it.

What’s your favorite writing group memory? Choosing a favorite memory is difficult because we are very open and genuinely support each other through the good times (a publishing contract!), the bad times (someone wrote a book with the same title as one of our works in progress), and the writing process (arguing like siblings over the gender of a firefly or the placement of a comma, prepositional phrase, or hyphen). If I had to choose a favorite memory, it would be when I first learned that the meeting leadership rotated according to a “czar schedule” kept in a notebook. As the newest member of a well-established group, I was very nervous and serious at first, but David’s jokes about his frustration at relinquishing the czar duties—and our often defaulting to his leadership because he “lost” the notebook—were so funny and affectionate that I relaxed and lightened up quickly 

What’s one surprising fact about yourself? I’m obsessed with beavers. I often go to a nearby creek at night to watch them through my night-vision binoculars. During the day, I spend long periods of time staring at humps of sedge in the water trying to determine if they are territorial scent mounds or if they’re random eroded humps of sedge. I know every beaver “lunch counter” and lodge and am ridiculously, priggishly possessive of my beavers—Big Daddy, Kit Harrington, Bubbles, Mystery, Michelangelo, Captain, Piggy, and Slappy.

Where can readers go to get a taste of your writing? An article I wrote about teaching controversial topics in high school science classes is in the December/Winter 2021 issue of American Educator, the journal for the American Federation of Teachers, at https://www.aft.org/ae. As I publish, I’ll provide links on Twitter, @Malyson52.

Meet David Gardner

When and why did you join the Lexicons? Ten or so years ago. I joined because I’m a strong believer in writing groups—I belong to two. Each member has something special to contribute, and the get-togethers are fun. Everyone is polite but says what they think. Two of the four members submit every two weeks, with an hour devoted to critiquing each submission. The submitters distribute their work a week or so ahead, which gives the others time to read and mark up the pages. Some writing groups have members read their submissions cold, which doesn’t work for me because I don’t have enough time to think and because my mind wanders, particularly if the author reads too fast.

Tell us about your current writing project: I’m halfway through the sequel to The Last Speaker of Skalwegian (Encircle Publications, Sept. 2021). I’m planning a trilogy. I’ve taken a few pages of notes for the third book. I’m an outliner, which means I always have fifty or more pages of notes before I begin writing. Some people are ‘pantsers,’ which means they just sit down and write by the seat of their pants. Each method has its strength and weaknesses. Plotters have to be careful not to make their characters behave according to the plot and not their true nature. Pantsers often get halfway through a book, don’t know where it’s going, and give up.

Who are your favorite authors? Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry, Vladimir Nabokov, Gustave Flaubert, and especially my wife, Nancy. I’m partial to any novel that makes me laugh. I steer clear of extreme violence, children in danger, anything over 400 pages, and poor craftmanship.

How does this writing group influence your writing? They catch a distressing number of errors. They also let me know in no uncertain terms what’s working and what’s not. Their insights are invaluable. In addition to suggestions for changes, they tell me when something is working. Both types of feedback are invaluable.

What’s your favorite writing group memory? It’s hard to single out one memory because there are so many wonderful ones. At the most recent meeting, however, I was given terrific feedback about a secondary character in my current novel and was encouraged to give her a larger role. On the non-writing side, there are times when we get to laughing so hard we almost topple over. It’s a bonding experience.

What’s one surprising fact about yourself? Nothing’s surprising about me. I’ve led a very dull life. Except maybe for that time I rushed into a burning orphanage and stumbled out with seven wailing waifs on my back, blinded by the smoke and fighting off a pair of tigers along the way. Does that count?

Where can readers go to get a taste of your writing?

My website: https://davidgardnerauthor.com

My publisher’s website: https://encirclepub.com/

Or you can purchase through the links below. Should you purchase one of my novels, I highly recommend that you buy two in case you misplace the first one.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/164599239X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-last-speaker-of-skalwegian-david-gardner/1139609341