OUT WITH THE EXPECTATION MARK

SOURCE: The Oatmeal

Today, I gave up the semicolon. I went through my manuscript systematically removing the tadpoles crowned with balls.


This resolution lasted a lot less time than my New Year's ones did. The trouble is: I LOVE SEMICOLONS <3


I cling to my copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss, the way the religious cleave to their holy books or, more accurately, the way my daughter handles her ASOS catalogue ;)


Semicolons: I know George Orwell didn't need them and that Virginia Woolfe was addicted but it is this quote in The Medusa and the Snail, by Lewis Thomas, that makes my heart smile:


The semicolon tells you that there is still some question about the preceding full sentence; something needs to be added [...] The period [or full stop] tells you that that is that; if you didn't get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with the semicolon there you get the pleasant feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.


The semicolon is the expectation mark ;)


I am reading through my manuscript checking I can't substitute and or but or an ordinary comma in the place of every semicolon. *yawn


If you can't and or but it, and a comma doesn't make enough sense, go-for-your-life and stick your semicolon exactly where you wanted it ;)


Growing up, I loved Marathon chocolate bars; they are called Snickers now. 


It was the howling of a lone wolf; it was coming from the edge of the forest.


I'm listening to everything by Camera Obscura, and Glasvegas, that Youtube can play for me; I'm writing my Scottish MG story for the Kelpies Prize/Competition.


ARE YOU PLANNING TO ENTER A WRITING COMPETITION, THIS YEAR?

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY - DRAWN tripping over more than cloaks

A fabulous photograph by Joseph Devon

This week's 6 has been put together with indecent haste. I've been bouncing backwards and forwards to and from the hospital. So far, the news on my Mum's heart condition has been variable but, all things considered, good. *fingers crossed.


In case you haven't read any of the SIX SENTENCE tasters, this is what DRAWN is all about: 


DRAWN


Darrah has been charged with finding and rescuing the Regal's heir. The evidence suggests he was taken by a band of Sarkisians who feed directly from the living. Darrah fights her cultural prejudice and instinctive fears when The Sarkisian Council send Fauld Hale to work alongside her to rescue the boy and maintain the fragile peace between their peoples.


This week I have been struggling to keep my section down to only six sentences. ;)


SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY:

Hurrying, she stumbled over his long grey cloak. Even beyond the camp's flickering firelight, Darrah felt hot, small and exposed. The shivers still shook her, blood and bone. “Wait, Hale.”

Hale froze – his back rigid – but he didn’t turn. 

"Why didn't you didn't kill him?"

HAVE YOU EVER WORN ANYTHING THAT WENT FROM THE PERFECT THING TO SOMETHING YOU WISH YOU'D NEVER BEEN SEEN IN?

SIR SAYS THE 3 WRITES AND 10 WRONGS OF SHORT STORIES

I'M SURE ONE OF THESE COULD CREATE HAVOC
 IN A NOVEL BASED IN SCOTLAND

Our second piece of homework isn't due in until next week, this is a good thing because it is both thin and short at the moment a long way from fully rounded and complete.

The reasons why I haven't got too far are family based and I need to put some effort into making sure I meet the deadline - not because I have to, or I'd be in detention if the homework was late ;) I just want to keep with the programme.

SIR SAYS WRITE:

1. A profound and intriging statement to hook the reader
2. Introduce conflict - internal or external - right at the start
3. Disclose the emotions the MC is feeling but remember that individuals express their emotions differently

SIR SAYS CREATE CHARACTERS NOT STEREOTYPES:

• looks
• traits
• talents
• ambition
• secret
• weakness
• possession in their pocket

PROFOUND THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

ACTIONS SHOW CHARACTER - WHEN CREATING A CHARACTER THEY CAN LOOK, SAY AND PRETEND TO BE ONE WAY BUT, BY WHAT THEY DO, YOU CAN SHOW THE TRUTH OF A CHARACTER.

We discussed the advice provided in the short story guidelines provided by Take A Break magazine:

COMMON PLOTS TO AVOID:

• the MC is revelead to be a cat, dog, fox etc
• the victim of a rip off tradesman or raging motorist turns out to be the new boss/ emergency dentist / VAT inspector
• the police officer (male or female) turns out to be a strippagram/singing messenger
• the MC discovers his/her partner has a same sex secret lover
• when the evidence point to them playing-away-from-home, the mysterious behaviour of the MC's partner turns out to be because they are organising a secret party etc
• the MC who sees ghosts is actually a ghost him/herself
• the shifty antiques dealer who thinks they have duped an elderly victim finds out she/he has been manufacturing them and making a fortune
• anything about twins
• the nervous MC worried about their first day turns out to be the teacher, worried about the wedding service turns out to be the vicar etc
• anything to do with bumping off relatives for their inheritance or related to "Wills"

I've been thinking about Scotland recently, two ideas I've been mulling over - for MG novels - are set there. The location is an essential element in the story so I've been skating around tropes and stereotypes.

SHOULD A FANTASY STORY BASED IN SCOTLAND AVOID BAGPIPES, LOCHS AND HAGGIS ON THE HILLSIDE?

Camera Obscura - I LOVE MY JEAN

I'll be celebrating Burns' Night, not with Haggis (1,149 calories, you know ;) not with whiskey (I've signed up to100 days without alcohol :) I'm celebrating with family and the words of the poet.


Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve. ~ Robert Burns


After dealing, last week, with the sudden death of my daughter's friend, my Mum's minor heart attack on Monday and her current stay in hospital is a kind of relief. There is joy in having time.


"Here is a test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't."~ Robert Burns


Jean

Of a' the airts the wind can blaw,
I dearly like the west,
For there the bonie lassie lives,
The lassie I lo've best:
There's wild woods grow, and rivers row,
And mony a hill between;
But day and night my fancy's flight
Is ever wi' my Jean.

I see her in the dewy flowers,
I see her sweet and fair:
I hear her in the tunefu' birds,
I hear her charm the air:
There's not a bonie flower that springs
By fountain, shaw, or green,
There's not a bonie bird that sings,

But minds me o' my Jean.

I HAVE BEEN WRITING BUT NOT AS MUCH AS I'D LIKE TO GET DONE. HOW GOOD ARE YOU AT BALANCING COMMITMENTS?  

SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY - DRAWN - almost funny

For now, I've put Hale back in his box. I'm concentrating on telling the story from Darrah's POV. 


This week's 6 follows on from the one two weeks ago. 


In case you haven't read any of the SIX SENTENCE tasters this is what DRAWN is all about: 


DRAWN


Darrah has been charged with finding and rescuing the Regal's heir. The evidence suggests he was taken by a band of Sarkisians who feed directly from the living. Darrah fights her cultural prejudice and instinctive fears when The Sarkisian Council send Fauld Hale to work alongside her to rescue the boy and maintain the fragile peace between their peoples.


SIX SENTENCE SUNDAY:

Outside the wind still hurried the snow, but Darrah couldn’t summon the energy to do anything but lean against the tree trunk where Hale had lifted her. She noticed her fuzzy lapses in concentration while he dragged smaller branches from the other side of the canopy and swept the powdery dust and brown needles together. He made a great homekeeper. The giggle she tried to hide with her hand turned into uncontrollable laughter. Hale looked at her but then he laid and stacked the branches more quickly. Darrah's stomach hurt and the tears turned cold but she couldn’t stop laughing: that was Hale’s secret, he was too house-proud.  

I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day. Looking for an unusual mid-week city break, I almost booked a three day trip to Bratislava (like Pennsylvania, it is a great name ;) . 

DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING SPECIAL YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO?

SIR SAYS 2 - BE CHALLENGINGLY CREATIVE

WRITING CREATIVELY WITH THE V&A
Will it be realistic or surreal and dreamlike? 

Will it be set in the real world? 

Or will it be a piece of 'speculative fiction': fantasy, sci-fi, 

ghost story or supernatural horror? 

Whose point of view are you writing it from:

• one of the characters
• several characters in turn
• an impersonal narrator who knows everything?

The first piece of homework, for the Creative Writing course was to produce a complete short story, with well rounded characters. A conversation between two characters, which may or may not be set in a café.


 I handed it in but forgot to email a copy too. 


This is the start of the first piece of homework I've written for a long while ;)

THE OLD CAFÉ

Rain soaked visitors combined with the carefully controlled temperature until the shopping arcade reached humid sub-tropical. As the smell of hot socks and damp coats rose, the shoppers wilted. After a day of window-shopping and with bags full of guilt, the younger women raced their buggies back to their cars: it was time for the school run and they were determined to be first out of the car park. Kevin destroyed the evidence of his little customers as he wiped the window clean of their sticky fingerprints. Circling his arm, he waved the lot of them good bye.

The security alarm bleeped as soon as Kevin had planted his bum on the seat of the ceramic chair in the smallest office, outback. He hurried from the rear of the shop. Hiking up his trousers, he patted his pockets looking for his sanitising spray. One look at the Velcro shoes and swollen ankles, Kevin figured this visitor wouldn’t be staying long. “Can I help?”

“Yes, please,” the elderly lady said. She glanced around, a little distracted. “Could you tell me where I should sit?”

Wrong again. Kevin hurried forward. He’d been so sure this one would take one look around and head back out. “Right. Seat. Wherever.” Expensive coat, diamond earrings, she’d definitely be offended if he sanitised his hand. But the microbes and the imaginary dirt felt sticky. Sweaty. Kevin put his hands in his pockets and turned the small bottle over and over, out of sight. 
The small figure coughed.
With patience and boredom balanced evenly, Kevin started when he nearly stepped on her. She hadn't moved, and that cough hadn't been to clear her throat. He didn't have much experience of dealing with Grannies but even he could spot the moment when waves of bristling unhappiness began to emanate from her. Heat warmed his cheeks. “What?”

THIS WEEK I LEARNED:

• about clouds - and they weren't in the sky. It came in useful for saving the plan for the next piece of homework
• about the National Association of Writers in Education website - nawe.co.uk
• the 6 Tips on How to Win Short Story Competitions - written by Debbie Taylor, at Mslexia
• Creative Writing at the Victoria and Albert Museum

SIR SAYS:
To consider the MC's critical flaw and how it influences the story
Remember to give weight to both internal and external conflicts
To use longer length short stories to experiment with non-linear construction
To write in 1st person

There are very few books
published in 2nd person.
I used this novel to help me
experiment with writing in 2nd person.

Homework for weeks 2 and 3 write a short story including three characters and to balance internal and external conflict. 


I'm going to write 1st person but I've spent a lot of time wondering how a 2nd person story might work.




The weather forecast that announced black ice was likely in the early hours of the morning wasn't the worst thing you'd ever heard. A sudden drop in temperature after a long spell of rain isn't the worst kind of weather. Dangerous road conditions? You don't have a car, so it doesn't apply to you. Besides, you weren't planning to go out. 


SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT? WHAT DO YOU THINK, IS 2ND PERSON GOING TO BE THE NEW PRESENT TENSE?

TUESDAY'S MG TEASER - ALI SPARKES' UNLEASHED

If your child lives on a diet of conspiracy and heart-stopping
adventure, this is the book to feed their imagination.
Ali Sparkes' writing has been described as
brilliantly inventive and outstanding.

I love to read around the Tuesday’s Teasers hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.


If you want to play along:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share two (2) sentences from that page.

When you select a sentence, try to make sure the Teaser doesn't stray into Spoiler territory.


If you share the title everyone can track the book down, when the section you have posted has drawn them in and has them desperate to read a whole lot more :D


A small boy and a smaller girl ran past the fountain,  giggling.They glanced over at Lisa as they went, their pale thin faces dappled with death-light and a smell of ... hum ...yep, that would be cholera.


This started out as the next on my Upper MG TBR pile, but Unleashed: A Life and Death Job, by Ali Sparkes, is proving to be more riveting than food and, for someone whose New Year's healthy eating regime equals very little eating, that is saying a lot. 




I NEED TO READ YA OR ADULT NEXT, DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE TIME TRAVEL BOOK? 

SIX SENTENCES - DRAWN: INSIDE HALE'S HEAD

HALE HAS A POINT OF VIEW? NO. IMAGINE THE RE-WRITE.


Six sentences, from the paranormal side.


I've been writing DRAWN from Darrah's POV. At the earliest stage, I decided this was her story and I was going to write it purely from her perspective. Then this morning, as I woke, I saw what happened during the minutes Hale found her unconscious with hypothermia and had to work to revive her.


DRAWN


Darrah has been charged with finding and rescuing the Regal's heir. The evidence suggests he was taken by a band of Sarkisians who feed directly from the living. Darrah fights her cultural prejudice and instinctive fears when The Sarkisian Council send Fauld Hale to work alongside her to rescue the boy and maintain the fragile peace between their peoples.


This is my life or death SUNDAY 6:

 Even with his acute hearing finding her hadn't been easy, her weak heart barely whimpered in the gale. Ice crystals glittered, her skin more grey than blue. Too late. Hale pulled the glove from stiff fingers and uncurled her hand around his cheek. He tried to force a dele with her. His strength seeped outward but, this way, the process was too slow.


I love language, sometimes the perfect word already exists and all I need to do is to hit translate. This time, I owe the perfect word to Norwegian.

 to share - a dele  

Correct pronounciation? No idea. I'm going with deal.
A deal comes with multi-layered expectations: to share, distribute, administer but with the expectation that there has been a negotiation and sense of compromise. Forcing a deal must come with consequences.
When it comes to commenting, I'm always happy to read one that help me improve my work.


GENRE, LITERARY OR MAINSTREAM FICTION ,AFTER YOUR CURRENT WIP, WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO WRITE NEXT?

TEACHER SAYS 1

All of us, the part-time, gotta-fit-this-in-somewhere, students were gathering in the entrance hall; shiny, statement colours and new that was us and the building. 


Doing my version of waiting patiently, I sat twirling my college identity swipe card on the lanyard. 


I've checked the springiness of the fastening since so I don't understand how the card sprang off and shot across the vast, and near silent space. 


I was wearing black and white so I didn't mind, I find that red is a great accent colour. ;)


They had me registered for the other course on the other day.


My tutor asked me if I really wanted to be there. 


Despite my fantastic start and the fact that I've only been waiting since September I said yes quite quietly.

SIR SAYS:

• Describe sensationally ;) using them all
• In linear constructs, include staging posts to add the insight no one else would have thought of
• Describe emotions - how she feels about the door is more important than what the door looks like.

HAVE YOU MANAGED TO EMBARRASS YOURSELF RECENTLY?

TUESDAY'S TEASER and the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

The planting of Heartwood Forest has begun
For the Were whose home has been
encroached upon in the urban sprawl, eventually
there will be more space to run free.

I’m reading two books, it’s a split personality thing ;)

Tuesday’s Teaser asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share two (2) sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

If you decide to play along, it's a good idea to share the book’s title so everyone can find it in the nearest book shop, somewhere that gets a name check later on or down at the local library, when the section you have posted has drawn them in and has them desperate to read a whole lot more :D

BOOK 1

I loved the hook that reads:

Sometimes love happens when you least expect it.

The opening contains the cringing moment when a person declares undying love to a best friend only to see their eyes widen in shock -  and not just before puckering up for a kiss. This is followed by public humiliation and finally the hot kind of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. And all that's before Chapter 2.

pg 2 line 10

“But we’re mates, Rom…”

BOOK 2

The single line which could be the sub-heading is: The price of glory

That’s such a layered sentence. I’m anticipating that the price of glory will not be all-things-full-of-joy.

Chapter 1 starts with the frail, faithful old advisor painting us a portrait of the unlovable Lord whom he obviously adores. It ends with a desperate act that should have been a murder and the ultimate sacrifice but it doesn’t pan out that way.

pg 2 line 10:

King of a smoking rock in the great salt sea, yet a king nonetheless.

Book 1 - It Started with a Kiss by Miranda Dickinson

Book 2 – A CLASH OF KINGS by George R.R. Martin

I’m entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, because this is a competition that's FREE and because I read about it on Erica and Christy's Blog. ;)

Ages ago, I decided to write more bite and earlier revelations into EGWARE. The process has been feeling more like recycling that a revision.

It’s odd how much more manipulation there is when Jess is an Education Student on her first Teaching Practice in the school where Ric is a Senior starting his final year.

If you decide you want to enter this competition the submissions start on 23^rd January.

You need your whole package ready to go at the same time:

• a 300-word pitch with a matching description
• a 3,000-5,000 word excerpt
• and the fully completed manuscript

I think the fact that the competition winner is announced on my birthday is potentially significant ;)

ARE YOU READING SOMETHING THAT IS KEEPING YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT?

A DEATH OR SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR MY SUNDAY 6

red 6 by holeymoon on flickr

When I'm not writing MG I slide over to the paranormal side.


DRAWN


Darrah has been charged with finding and rescuing the Regal's heir. The evidence suggests he was taken by a band of Sarkisians who feed directly from the living. Darrah fights her cultural prejudice and instinctive fears when The Sarkisian Council send Fauld Hale to work alongside her to rescue the boy and maintain the fragile peace between their peoples.

Darrah doesn't trust Hale, he has too many secrets and too much power. It's almost as if he knows what she is thinking... or worse. 


This is my life or death SUNDAY 6:

Inside the brilliant golden glow that emanated from the Sarkisian, Darrah was consumed by pain that burned from her heart to her fingertips and toes. Clenched fists dug into her back as, with his arms wrapped around her, Hale held her close. She could also feel Hale's rising need and that reaction from her frosty companion confused her. She stared into his dark eyes. Once the connection was made, it was the determination she saw there that held her. "What do you want?" 


Comments are always welcome :)

Every lunchtime I spend a twenty minutes Writing Recklessly. I'm using the prompts set by Sally Quiller from her 100k in 100 days Challenge. I'm enjoying writing something different everyday.


WHAT ARE YOU ENJOYING ABOUT WRITING?

SO WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY?

FILLING IN THE BLANKS
Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something,
loves something and has lost something.
H. Jackson Brown Jr

100k IN 100 DAYS


THESE ARE OPENINGS ONLY - I'M NOT ABOUT TORTURE BY TORMENT ;)     


04/01/12 PROMPT 5 


It's unbelievably hard but I love you anyway by Boyzone (a song that is sooo not me:) I multiplied by  Unfaithful by Rihanna (a song that is much closer to my musical homeland;) It's a two song literary mash-up ;)


You dress to amaze, impress and so much more. You do it for you, I get that - but it feels like you do it for me too (that's foolish, I know.) When we are walking out there my pride expands until it fills my world - until you fill my world. 
Why's it then when you smooth the fabric - when you check the way it clings - I end up thinking the things you wear aren't for either of us? Is the someone inside you (the part of you you never share with me) never happy? Is it insecurity?


05/01/12  PROMPT 1


character: holiday maker
setting:  the tropics
conflict: can't find a child


"He can't have gone far. Calm down."
"Calm down?" I screech as I turn around. The market place is nearly empty and I can't see Sonny anywhere. There are so many roads. I turn around again. My hands are useful. I shade my eyes so I can see, and twist my fringe around my fingers until my head hurts and I feel less sick. In one direction the low sun blinds me and I panic again.
"Anna, stop turning!" Ben says, "I can't think."
I hold my breath and meet his dark eyes. There's no hope only black depths and wide white edges under his creased forehead. "Oh, God! You ARE worried."


AS FOR THE WIP I'VE WRITTEN 4,00 WORDS IN 5 DAYS.


While expanding my journal, I've rediscovered the adjective slapping (slappin') - meaning big/good/fast. I've got it written next to mint (meaning way-badly good) which my Minnow uses alarmingly-often;)


HAVE YOU GOT A FAVOURITE NEW WORD?

JUST WRITE

WELCOME TO MY WORLD :D
Maass Prompts, My Reckless Journal and the WIP

When Sally Quiller set a challenge she made it big: 100K in 100 days. Over on her blog, Quiller's Place -View From The Shed she outlined her vision. It didn't matter what you wrote but it did matter that you wrote regularly.


2012 is different 


This is day three, I have added 2, 700 words to my wip.


Every morning, I get a text full of inspirational prompts.


As one of my challenges for 2012 is to write regularly and recklessly, every day ;) I have created new ideas or written freely in response to one of the writing prompts. 


I have made my lunch time the time to write wild. 


Today, I spent ten minutes writing in response to Prompt 3.


3
The new buds push the old
leaves from the bough.
We drop our youth behind us
like a boy
Throwing away his toffee-wrappers.
We never see the flower,
But only the fruit in the flower;
never the fruit,
But only the rot in the fruit.
We look for marriage bed
In the baby's cradle, 
we look for 
the grave in the bed:
not living,
But rising dead.
(From Rising Five by Norman Nicholson)


New blood. 
No Last in, First out: blow. 
I am fresh. 
Now is here. 


Let youth slide in and all the way by 
they were days of insecurity dressed in spots. 
I won't bring that boy with me. 
What would I do with him, now I'm the man?


I tear through packages to find brief pleasures but it ain't toffee wrappers I throw behind me. 
No trip-trap tapping here, I'm a dull fun fan.
What I take is tasty. 
Consumption is the juice that fuels but I ain't going to pay. 


I don't need relationship rot: that has freshness like irradiated preservatives and a paint on shine. 
But, I see marriage: different needs together playing the genetic lottery. When I'm ringing, I'll hold what's mine and reach for more. I want Little Me with reassurances, I won't wait to look for my shade in his eye or watch his nose as he grows. What is this living thing?


Living is fighting. 
Slow or hard, life is fighting death.


IS 2012 SHAPING UP TO BE ANY DIFFERENT?


Half by accident, I am keeping a writing journal. 
Some entries are words, some are phrases or complete sentence but others are longer responses to Quiller's writing prompts.


Tomorrow, I start my writing course. 


I'm having fun and drinking water - but they are from a different set of resolutions ;)


HOW DO YOU HOPE 2012 WILL BE DIFFERENT?

FOUR RULES AND WRITING RESOLUTIONS

The book is called Opportunity
and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Can you hear your resolutions cracking?

I’m not a huge fan of making New Year’s resolutions but this is because I’m such an expert at breaking them.

This is going to be a different kind of year, one where I keep my resolutions.

Too many times, I've painted ambitious sweeping strokes of resolutions that were, theoretically, great. Wild and abstract, they were too easy to ignore. 

My great plan, the one that should ensure I keep this year's resolutions, is to acknowledge the ones I have made. Share. I’m going to add accountability.

I have personal goals which I've made smart:

• specific
• measurable
• attainable
• relevant
• time specific

 Then I made writing goals.

THE WRITING RESOLUTIONS (hosted by the Four Rules of Number ;)

+  ADD NEW KNOWLEDGE AND A NEW CIRCLE OF WRITERS INTO MY LIFE

Enrol and take a writing class and take an open mind and a learning attitude along with me

-   TAKE OUT SPECIFIC PROCRASTINATION

Normally, I start each writing session by reading and commenting my way through interesting blogs and articles. From now on, I’m going to write first. I will reward myself with timed breaks where I'll get to enjoy and to be inspired by all the amazing sites I read and the Blogs I follow.

x  MULTIPLY = RAISING THE WORD COUNT

Have you seen Sally Quiller’s 100K in 100 days? She has created an inspiring challenge to keep you busy and laying down enough words to build a novel. I’m aiming to keep pace, for MG that would be two books outlined and drafted in full.

÷  SHARE THE INSIGHTS I DISCOVER ON MY COURSE

The Intermediate level course in Creative Writing I have enrolled in is a very exciting opportunity. Part-time, this course will fit in well with the rest of my commitments. From now on, Thursday’s Posts will be TEACHER SAYS ;)

We will open the book. It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ~ Edith Lovejoy Pierce

So say we all  ;)

HOW IS YOUR NEW FIRST CHAPTER GOING?