September Assignment for Plotters Ink- Western or Ethnic

Many of us are familiar with western TV classics like the Lone Ranger and Ponderosa, or the popular books of Louis L'Amour and Larry McMurtry. Most of these entertainments are based on life in the Wild West, before "civilization" arrived and changed everything.

Photo credit: goodsalt.com

The genre label "western" conjures up images of cattle rustling, cowboys and Indians, outlaws, the Pony Express, wagon trains, settlers and their myriad problems, boom towns and gold rushes, and much more. Even today a wild aesthetic thrives in the western third of our continent, especially in Wyoming, Texas, Arizona and rural regions all over the west -  even in parts of California. (One of the most popular modern western writers is C.J. Box, whose adventures as a game warden in Wyoming are top-notch mystery/thrillers.) The western genre is alive and well in the 21st century, and you may find it easy to get into the spirit of the west should you choose this option for the September assignment.

Your other option is to write something with an ethnic theme. Ethnicity is not a genre per se, but shows and books abound in this vein. How many books and movies can you name that are about African-Americans (The Color Purple, the Cotton Club, Ten Years a Slave, Roots)? How about the Jews (Diary of Anne Frank, Fiddler on the Roof, The Pianist), the Irish (Angela's Ashes), the British (Downton Abbey, Sherlock), the Japanese  (ShoGun), the Italians (The Godfather, the Sopranos) the people of India (Slumdog Miilionaire)....Well- you get the picture.  The ethnic possibilities are endless. Pick one ethnic group, do some research, and write a fictional piece that may or not be based on your own family's history. This option does not include Caucasian Americans, who may or may not figure as characters in the Western option.

Please- no steampunk this time!

As always, stories MUST be fictional and fit single-spaced on one side of a page in nothing smaller than an 11 point font.  (This is approximately 500 words.)  If you plan to attend the monthly meeting, please be prepared to read aloud your story, and have at least 10 copies to share with the group members. If you can't attend, but want to write a story for publication on the blog, you can email it the usual way - see instructions on the tab above.

This can be a lot of fun, so we do hope you'll be able to join us on Thursday, September 10 at 2 PM in the library.

Be well and above all, keep writing!