Taipei Writers Group Critique Meet

9-6-16

I was invited to go to Critique Meet from Taipei Writers’ Group (432 members) this Sun. Sept. 11th. At 5:00pm. 402 people were invited, 5 are going, and 6, including me, maybe. My poem post from three days ago has had no views yet. One person (who replied that she is leaving Taiwan in a week) responded to my sharing of the 32nd Congress of Poets invitation I posted a week ago, I person liked “Taichung Rag-Picker” I posted Aug. 27th. “In February 2017, for the very first time, the TWG will be at the Taipei International Book Exhibition. TWG members are very excited to be participating in this 25th anniversary of the event. Come and find us in the International Section” it says on their Website. I’m hesitant to go because my impression is that they are uppity bourgeois ex-pats; not my kind. Leona was funny; stick with the group in Kaohsiung, she said. I do feel warmer towards them, especially since I corresponded with Malcolm and Kaya before I visited last week; I know no one from TWG, and no one is interested in going to the pro-independence 32nd Annual Congress of Poets. With 402 members, I wonder why. Only a few independent writers like me post there; the rest are ads for books TWG published or writing memes.

Taiwan Writers Facebook page, with 604 members, where my 7 posts, with no likes, is 90% of the posts, is an enigma. Why are there many members and no readers


9-7-16
Leona bought my HSR round-trip ticket to Taipei (1260NT-$39.37) this Sunday. It leaves Taichung at 3:04pm and arrives in Taipei at 4:13pm. The Critique Meet of Taipei Writers Workshop begins at 5:00pm. The train back leaves Taipei at 9:56pm and returns to Taichung at 10:47pm, in time to catch the local train back home. I don’t know how long the meeting will be (the Kaohsiung Writing Potluck was three hours) but I will probably have time after the meeting to have dinner (perhaps with people there) or march around Taipei for a while. I changed my status from “maybe” to “going” but no one has welcomed me.

I wrote a private IM and public message on the Critique Meet Facebook page to the organizer, Patrick Whalen, whom I friended when joining the group a month ago, asking if there anything he wanted to tell me. He hasn’t responded yet but another person who confirmed going, Jenny Green, acknowledged my message and welcomed me. The other members who have confirmed they are going are Emily Brooks, Jeremy Bee, and Lacey Lengel Phelps. I sent Facebook friend requests to them. 

To promote my book Forgotten People of Taiwan, I posted the story “The Spy from Catchfools, China” on the Taipei Writers Group Facebook page along with the attractive photo of the Ami native and a link to the book page from Outskirts Press. The Facebook page guidelines permits anyone to promote their book once a month but the clowns in the clique skirt the rules by posting unnecessary calls for viewers to edit their blurbs or covers that they post, anyway. The TWG ignored my writing before they met me and there’s no reason why they will stop ignoring my work, but my fairy tale puts anything in their collection to shame for its relevance and bite, not to mention style and skill. Since their group has no friendship or relevance for me, I can only slap their faces in their clique shit and get a cheap thrill. But the first comment on my post was a dufus trolling, “What kind of shit is this?” I hope it draws more attention; nothing like a stupid remark to get pedestrians to turn their heads. My posting it to Kaohsiung Writing Workshop and my own Facebook are for my friends to read and enjoy. I won’t post it to 32^nd World Congress of Poets page because they wouldn’t understand, though they might agree and enjoy it if they did.

A month ago, after my first experience with the Taipei Writers Group, I had every intention of getting the knack of Dropbox writing critique, and submitting my writing for scrutiny and advice. The aloofness I felt from some of the Critique Meet participants didn't deter me. By mid-week, I decided not to go back ever; the situation would not be temporary. I asked Pat and Jenny to help show me how to use the Dropbox and then lost interest when there was no response. I learned how to add a piece I wrote but no one critiqued it. I read two pieces from my cohorts and even printed out one to comment on freehand because I didn't know how to add the little blue comment boxes on the right margin and I was afraid to delete others' material. I purchased a pre-ordered Adult Fairy Tales compiled from the group and self-published and, when released Sept. 30, read the first three stories on my Kindle. I didn't go to the book launch party that day because Taipei is two hours away door-to-door, $41, and no one personally invited me. 

I did get something out of the TWG experience to bring away with me. I introduced the Kaohsiung Writing Workshop to the format TWG used, though there is no inclination to copy it with a Dropbox; read aloud and on the spot critique are fine. I wrote a poem about the experience and posted it everywhere but TWG's Facebook page to not insult them, as the poem is an indictment, but the biggest point driven home is book cover art and robust promotion are the only ways to get noticed outside of a clique, and once a clique is formed, it's closed. I promoted my short story book to the TWG page with a nice photo and a link to a fairy tale I wrote, but the only comment I got was "What is this shit?" It went over KWW's heads, too.