Writers Who Read: The School for Good Mothers - Jessamine Chan

January's meeting--IN PERSON in the Industrial Mine Room at the Superior Community Center, 1500 Coalton Road, Superior, CO, & ONLINE (see link when you register)--is The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chen (USA, 2022) on The SECOND Sunday of January, starting at 2:30 pm (for 2 hours). Facilities information here.

ADDITIONAL REQUIRED READING: TBD

AND BRING YOUR FAVORITE SENTENCE!

In this, her first novel, Jessamine Chan takes a page from the Margaret Atwood dystopian playbook and imagines a world in which parenting school is mandatory for certain mothers. Chan extrapolates the burgeoning Nanny State out to its bleakly logical conclusion as Frida gets stuck in the legal system. It only takes one bad day...

We are Writers Who Read. We use Literary Forensics to dissect a recent novel (published within the past 18 months) with the goal of uncovering how the author has utilized their skills for effect. Storytelling is an art, but it's not a mystery. Every writer must address the following:

• Structure, Timeline, Pacing, Suspense, Omission
• Point of View, including Voice, Character, Place
• Language, Tense, Imagery, Metaphor, Symbols
• Motivation: Making a story pop - generating a thrill
• Why this story? And why now? Industry considerations

We ask that all attendees read the entire book in advance of the meeting, and come bearing their discoveries of how the author has addressed each of the five points above.

What is Literary Forensics? Find out here: https://www.garyalanmcbride.com/literary-forensics/