Thanks, connie.

And (while I'm feeling bold) here is a companion piece, about Ainsley's sister.

"Abbey's Purse"

It's a black canvas tote bag, so basic as to be invisible. Mostly, it has her niece's stuff in it -- a stuffed rabbit sticky and purple with grape juice residue, baggies of pretzels and raisins, a stray juice box, barrettes, baby wipes and a pair of toddler-sized underpants. A separate compartment holds all that is Abbey's -- a dogeared Douglas Adams paperback, cherry chapstick, $17.63 in change and small bills, an expired student ID, keys (also sticky). The tape of her songs lives in her inside jacket pocket, waiting for the right moment to be shared with the world.

Thank you so much for the reaction to the drabble. It just...happened. And it is as poignant and frightening to me as it is exciting.

Lyra, yours are very evocative, and I want to know moremoremore, now!

Kristin, yours is wonderful, even if I didn't know the background. I love this:

two three-ring binders, bulging with theft and midnight oil

beyond reason, but I think that this

a gold-lettered plaque, covered in dust and accolades

Would both scan better and leave the reveal for the end if you swap the nouns:

"covered in accolades and dust" since the accolades came first, and have been covered by an accumulation of dust. Just my take. Effective, either way.

This one ended up being more than 100 words. I just couldn't pare it down without doing harm to it (in my mind.) That said, an offering on the current challenge:

What Dreams May Come

It was, sadly, his last one left. He thought about what had gone into the making of it as he held it in his hands, fragile and amorphous. The strands that made up the mass were gossamer fine, shining like white gold but with the tensile strength of hardened steel. Fathomless black holes revolved around the gemstone center, green sparks striking off it’s surface. Deep in the heart of the emerald, slept a kernel of hope. All that was required to complete this project was the fires of creation. He had crafted this one with great reluctance, but it would be a necessity if things were to continue as they must . “Sleep well, Daniel,” he whispered and tucked the dream back under his voluminous cloak for safety.

I'm in the process of starting a new critique group--we're trying to figure out the logistics of when to meet and so on. And while I'm already in one writers group, this is the first time I've gotten in on the ground floor and had a major voice in determining how something like this works. We'll probably end up doing a lot of our critiquing online just because of scheduling and because 2 out of 4 of us have small children, but we'll try to meet when we can.

To me, the obvious ground rules are as follows:

1. We want to encourage each other to keep writing, so therefore we'll make sure to point out the positive in each other's work.

2. We also want to help each other improve and ultimately become published, so we'll be honest and constructive, not pretending something is just fine when it needs work.

Anyone got any best and worst critique group experiences or advice on what does and doesn't work?

More good drabbles!

Connie and erika, those were great.

Kristin, I love yours -- and it has your sense of poetry, which is just beautiful.

Lyra, those are fantastic -- the contrast is great. I'd like to meet them both. One thing I've always wondered -- how do you pronounce Ainsley?

Sail, that's lovely -- I want to read it again.

Anyone got any best and worst critique group experiences or advice on what does and doesn't work?

Personally, I think it helps if the person who is being critiqued asks specifically what they're looking for -- does the dialogue work here, for instance, or do you believe in this villain's motivation? Overall critique, aside from other pointing out stuff they love, can be difficult because I've found it leads to people wanting to you to edit/rewrite your work the way they see it -- they want more action! more romance! more description! a different subplot! which can be confusing, especially if it's all contradictory. But that could be just me. And I don't know how you legislate that, unless you make it clear that each person submitting should let everyone know they're looking for input on Element X.

Amy's points are all good. I've been lucky in my groups, but they all seem to devolve after a point in time. The last one just fizzled, and I can't seem to work up a good enough head of steam to start looking for another one, or to try and start one. Plus, I've never had a group devoted to long fiction. The ones I've been part of couldn't handle episodic stuff. They seemed to need poems or short pieces, fiction or non-, that the discussion of could be completed in a single meeting.

Sail! I love that. It needs a whole story around it, right now, please. Get on it, okay?

In my classes I stressed the fact that we were there to help the writer write their work, and so comments based on how WE would approach the story or even if we liked the subject matter were not helpful. It doesn't help a writer to know that you hate stories with ghosts in them, since they obviously don't, and your job is not to tell them to take the ghosts out.

I would advise readers to make notes AS THEY READ of any specific questions ("Is that woman her Aunt?") and of any moments where they were confused or bored and to let the writer know exactly where those were and why. I used to ask that reader not only talk about what isn't working but make suggestions on things the writer might do--this helps not only the writer, but it helps limber up the "what if" muscles for the reader's own work. When comments come up--look for consesus--if one person hates the character of the brother, that may be a personal quirk--if everyone hates him, it's something for the writer to look at.

I also didn't allow the writer to explain. The work needs to speak for itself and I was firm that it was a given that all the choices the writer made were for a good reason and since the writer already knew those reasons, enumerating them didn't help the writer learn anything new. Thsi is very difficult for some folks, but it leads to more fruitful discussion.

Ours is less a critique group than it is a working writers, "tell us what you need to know about what you've just chosen to read to us tonight" feedback group. One thing I'd make damned sure of in advance, if possible, is that everyone in the group can, in fact, write.

We had a dear sweet man come to two of our groups, and he was one of the worst writers I've ever come across. Ask Betsy. She was there. His stuff was so awful, you couldn't meet his eye; one of our group members actually thought this stuff was supposed to be satire.

Plus, I've never had a group devoted to long fiction.

Are they all romance writers, Susan? I would love to be a group devoted to one genre -- tin my current group everyone is writing novels, but they're all over the map, genre-wise, and some of them don't ever read romance, so...not so helpful.

Bev, I was in a group very briefly that included people writing, essentially, greeting card verse. It was tough for me, because while that can be fun, it's tough to switch gears from ways to say "I'm sorry your cat died" to the opening scene of a murder mystery.