Stories Critiqued on Porch

By definition, there was a meeting of the Screen Porch Literary Guild Enterprise Organization the other day, when four writers met on the porch to discuss stories. Andy Mozina had a brilliant story featuring several exotic sex acts, but it was really a story about being out of work in Milwaukee; Lisa Lenzo's lively story was about her recurring (somewhat autobiographical) character Annie trying to dump the wrong man and finish a novel by way of dream manipulation; yours truly forced upon her friends the first 40 pages of her 250-page novel, "The Good Person," but unfortunately the advice/critique was not definitive. Lisa provided most of the dinner, including homemade tamales she bought from a guy on her bus and a cherry pie from Crane's Pie Pantry. Andy brought wine, which is always welcome on the screen porch, though the temperature was rapidly dropping, I insisted we sit on the porch. We adjourned to the dining room table indoors to critique the last two stories. I kept the leftover tamales, pie, and wine but handed out assorted tomatoes, squash and eggplant to departing guests.