I knew Tom for a very long time, from when he was first a student in a writing
workshop of mine, young and healthy. He could be very funny. I remember at
some party, after he'd had a few drinks, he said to me, "I've been reading your
writing, Nancy." (There wasn't very much of it at this point!) He said,
"You're good, but why are your stories so damn grim?" It became a joke between
us ("There she is, the Grim One") for, literally, decades. Eric is right; he
was one of the best critiquers I have ever met. Tom was both a sociable person
and an intensely private one. He's the first of our Rochester SF group to die,
and he will be missed. I wish I could attend the wake.
Nancy
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Scoles <[email protected]>
To: r-spec <[email protected]>
Sent: Thu, Feb 9, 2012 5:40 am
Subject: Tom Whittemore
Tom Whittemore passed away in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday. He'd
been sick for a long time, getting sicker, mostly as complications of his
diabetes. We haven't had a message to the group about this; the news has been
passing around since very early yesterday, but I wanted to make sure everyone
in the group heard.
For those who didn't know him, Tom was a founding board member of R-SPEC, and
an old D-309er from way back. A lot of us knew Tom, some of us very well; I
can't count myself in the latter category, but I liked and respected him very
much. When I first met him through R-SPEC, he struck me quickly as a person of
keen insight, and nowhere more so than where story structure is concerned. And
he could be blunt, but was seldom rude. Anyone who's had him read their work
has probably heard him say something like, "that's a really nice scene but it
serves absolutely no purpose there. I think you should cut it." And he'd
usually be right. In our writing group, we started recording our stories for
his benefit (for some time, his vision has been prohibitively poor for long
form reading), and we all found the exercise useful as it forced us to hear the
work in new ways.
Someone will post a note here & on Facebook when we know more about his
memorial service, which will probably be this weekend, possibly at Alex White's
shop on Monroe Avenue ('Boldo's Armory'), near the loop.
--
--
eric scoles | [email protected]
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en.
