Catherine Birtwell

Good Morning Fellow Writers and Mentors, I must second the emotions expressed by several of the writers attending the Write To Pitch Conference. I was equal parts thrilled to be facing the prospect of pitching to agents and editors and simultaneously terrified by the idea. I devoured all the pre-event lectures and assignments and nervously took my place in the circle on Day 1 as each of us presented our stories. I have taken many amazing writing classes. Gotham Writers…you guys are superb. Mike Curtis, your lessons are written in my heart and shape every piece of dialogue, and every page I write. Write to Pitch is the quintessential final piece for me, and will be for most I will venture to say, with its wild blend of serious writerly directives and sometimes humorous overweening pride. Scimus Via. it’s true. Avoid the soggy middle of your story with the six act two goal approach. Take it to heart. Many, many thanks to Michael and Jinju for your incredible support and guidance, and your continued messages of love to us all. Last and not least, to my fellow writers, who could fail to fall in love with our group? The level of empathy and support I found with you all meant so much to me. To all aspiring writers struggling to pull your stories together, if you want to get out of the slush pile and in front of top notch agents and editors with your polished, one on one pitch, Write To Pitch is THE event for you. Don’t wait. Go now. Catherine Birtwell

Luminous Objects - Beginning, Scene One, Scene Two.docx

First Assignment Story statement. An abandoned boy, desperate with love for his mother, vows to track her down and reunite with her. Second Assignment Sketch the antagonist. Harlow, a born narcissist and borderline sociopath, wants to do what she wants when she wants and will do anything to achieve her goals including abandoning her young children and her husband in order to run off with a handsome stranger. Third Assignment Create a breakout title. Luminous Objects Tears Of Stone Dream Until The Dream Comes True Fourth Assignment Develop two smart comparables. The Glass Castle meets Where The Crawdads Sing Fifth Assignment Hook Line A sensitive boy tormented by his mother's abandonment yearns to reunite with her but must confront her betrayal when he learns she will never take him back. Sixth Assignment Inner conflict of the protagonist. One scenario in the story wherein it is operational. Because of his mother’s abandonment, Linc feels unlovable and worthless. This wound causes him to drift toward destructive behavior. 1. On the fateful day when he realizes his mother will never come back, Linc palms his Grandmother’s lighter and bikes home from her house to the blue house where he and his family were living before the big split up. Linc grabs a fallen tree branch, enters the deserted house and goes on a rampage, breaks furniture, smashes mirrors and shatters windows, drags all the broken pieces of furniture and dried out tree limbs into the middle of the living room and constructs a huge pyre. From deep in the back of his mother’s closet, he grabs her wedding dress, lights it on fire and throws it on top of the pyre. The fire erupts into a volcano, sends monumental flames leaping skyward as the remaining windows implode. Linc throws one arm over his eyes and feels his way around the perimeter of the room with the other, unbearable heat and smoke enveloping him. Just as he is about to succumb, the jagged edges of a broken window slice through the palm of his outstretched hand and he hurls himself through the opening, hits the ground and rolls, clothing on fire, over and over and over. 2. Scenario for the secondary conflict. A secondary conflict in the novel involves the relationship between Harlow (the antagonist), and Maggie, Harlow’s mother. The conflict between Harlow and Maggie appears early in the novel and continues throughout. In this excerpt, Harlow attempts to guilt Maggie into babysitting for Linc and his sister overnight so that she can spend the night with an attractive stranger she met at the bar where she works: “Cover yourself up,” Maggie says under her breath. They are sitting outside in the striped shade of a pergola. Dark clouds move by high overhead in the summer sky but no breath of wind stirs the weight of the heat below. The smell of overripe lilacs lies heavy on the air. Harlow laughs, throws her head back and shakes out her dark hair. With one hand she lifts it from her neck and stretches the other arm up in a languid, cat-like gesture. She breaks a blossom from an overhanging hydrangea tree and tucks it in her cleavage. “That better?” she says. “Oh, you are too much,” her mother sighs, stirring more ice into her tea with a long-handled spoon. “Can you stand how hot it is and only June?” “I can’t. It’s making me all… I don’t know.” “Well, anyone can see how…” Maggie trails off. “How restless and bored I am?” “Something like that.” “Well they’d be right. I’m so bored I could…well I could just tear off my clothes and run naked.” Maggie snorts. “Well, don’t do that. That would just…” “Just what?" “Attract unwanted attention.” “I knew you were going to say that. But let me just say this. It’s very much wanted attention.” She leans into the back of the white wicker chair and rubs her back against it. Her mother rolls her eyes. “Where the kids gone?” “Probably swimming in the pond. That’s why we came over. None of us could stand the heat at home.” “Windows stuck?” “No screens in yet.” “What? No screens yet?” “Well, you never sent no one to come over and put them in.” “I showed you to do it last year.” “That place is such a dump.” “Says the girl who’s living there scot-free.” “Christ.” “What?” “You never miss an opportunity to rub it in.” Maggie sighs again. “I just wish…oh never mind.” There is silence for a moment. From a long ways away comes the cry of a mourning dove. Harlow pushes her hair away from her forehead. “That sound gives me the heebie jeebies. Sounds like the moaning of lost souls.” Maggie skips a beat. “Speaking of lost souls, hear anything from Jesse lately?” “No, and I don’t expect to.” She leans forward, eyes shining, and lowers her voice. “Mama, I have a date.” Maggie purses her lips and looks away. “Well, you don’t need to look like that about it.” “Anyone I know?” “He’s not from here. He’s from away.” “Where’d you meet him?” “At work.” “Oh great, another drinker.” “He was sitting there staring at me for the longest time. I could see him in the mirror hanging over the bar, and then Ben, the bartender, says something like, ‘Why don’t you take a picture, it’ll last longer.’ So of course I laughed. It was funny and his expression was so, I don’t know, just comical. Oh mama it feels so good to be stared at, admired for a change.” “Who’s the guy?” “He’s a big spender, name of Danner, that’s all I know. Calls for the top shelf brands. And, he invited me out to dinner, actually tonight.” “What about Linc and Wallace?” “I was hoping they could stay here.” Maggie shakes her head. “I got plans of my own tonight.” “Plans? What plans?” “Jack’s coming over.” “Jack! But you see him everyday. I thought you’d enjoy spending time with your grandkids.” “Well, of course normally I'd love to have them.” “That’s what I thought. You’re always saying they’re welcome anytime.” “And usually they are. But just not tonight.” “I already told them they’d be staying.” “Well, you shouldn’t have done that.” “They’ll be disappointed.” “I’m sorry.” “This is Danner’s last night in town for awhile. He’s leaving in the morning.” “What’s he doing here?” “Oh, I don’t know…I was hoping to find out more about him tonight.” “Hmm.” Harlow stands up. “Well, you know what, they’re big enough. They can stay by themselves.” “But Wallace hates it when you leave them alone.” “I guess it doesn’t matter that much to you or you’d change your plans. Jack lives in town. He can come any night. This is my one chance to get to know this guy.” Maggie sighs. “Yes, okay, the two of them can stay here tonight.” “What about Jack?” “He can come another night, just like you said.” “Oh mama, I didn’t mean to make it sound so selfish. I just really thought you’d love to spend time with your grandkids.” “Yes. I said okay.” “Well you don’t have to be such a martyr about it.” Maggie looks at her, wordlessly. Seventh Assignment Sketch out the settings in detail. 1. The beginning of the novel is set in an area of New England where Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island meet in a very small triangle that encompasses many different ecosystems. The people who live there call themselves Swamp Yankees. The following is a passage I wrote for the book describing that area: Arcadia, with its rocky headlands over secluded beaches, its sun-filtered woodlands of beech and oak shot through with traces of Narragansett footpaths opening onto pristine ponds frothing with trout; its clear, spring-fed rivers swirling with the sweetest and purest of waters, appeared to the early settlers as a vision of heaven they had never known back in Scrooby, that boorish and gray-drizzled seaside town happily forsaken and soon forgotten as they boarded the Mayflower, bound for the New World, saints, sinners and sailors all, looking for hope, opportunity and freedom. But what dangers lay hidden amongst the natural beauty and abundance of that place? There were plenty to be sure, for heard were the sounds of wolves howling at dusk answered by the yapping of coyotes at dawn. Glimpses were caught of big cats roaming, solitary in the night, and the screams of the fisher cats woke the sleeping to visions of murder and mayhem. And at the heart of the woodland lurked a swamp, a murky lowland of silt and mud overhung with mossy trees and defended by an army of mosquitoes just waiting for a taste of human blood. 2. The setting moves next to the Rocky Mountains where Linc experiences transformational interactions with nature and his Wilderness School friends. 3. In the third part of the book, Linc hitchhikes out to Hollywood where his father, a renowned wrangler, owns a large ranch where he trains animals for work in films, including cattle, white horses and white tigers. The tigers roam freely about the house. 4. In the final section of the book, the action moves to Key West where Harlow has landed after escaping from her abusive lover and works as a teacher at a Montessori School. Linc finds her there and reconciles with her only to have her abusive lover track her down, and shoot and kill her on the porch of her house. She dies in Linc’s arms. Her spirit, released, visits each of her earthly loves: Wallace, who has just been thrown from her horse, Jesse, now a gaunt shadow, and Maggie, her mother, rocking on her porch in the twilight, to whom she appears as a little girl chasing fireflies, hair ribbons streaming. Maggie calls to her that it’s time to go to sleep and Harlow says she’s afraid of the dark. Maggie says not to worry, she’ll go with her. Harlow lays her head on her mother’s lap as the two close their eyes and the rocker comes to a standstill. Linc moves to New York where he becomes a successful actor. He retains the house in Key West as a kind of homage, never extinguishing the flame of his love for his mother.