MINUTES FOR MAY 18, 2011

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Beverly Stanislawski, Sharon Buckman, Sharon Jesik, George Miga, Neil Bedeker, Pamela Gonzalez,Liz Wilson, Sharon Palmeri, Laurie Chase, Kelly Chase

GUESTS PRESENT:
Donna Douglass

NEWS:

1. NEIL BEDEKER has just returned from Florida where he has been renovating some property he owns there. He stated that while he was there he was interviewed, over the phone, by Emil Franzi. Mr Franzi works for a radio station (Voices of the West) in Tucson, AZ. and was interviewing him in regards to his novel, "The Cassidy Posse."

2. GEORGE MIGA stated he has submitted a short story for the weekly edition of Narrative On Line, WWW.narrative.com. He also brought along a book he suggested we all might enjoy called, "The Writing Circle," by Corinne Demas.

3. PAMELA GONZALEZ told us she had hurt her back a couple of weeks ago and has not been able to work. That is the down side; the good side is she has been able to catch up on her writing. She has been working on her new book as well as entering a Cheerios contest for kids.

4. DONNA DOUGLASS, our newest guest, told us she is a retired history and geography teacher. Before this she worked in time management and at this time she managed to have a book published. She grew up in the Hobart/Merrillville but now lives in Atlanta. She recently came to Hobart to help care for her mother. She stated she is interested in writing fiction.

5. LIZ WILSON also stated she has had back problems recently which has enabled her to do more writing. She also has moved into a new house recently.\

6. BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI has been busy volunteering but found time to submit seven of her Haiku poems (for which she'll probably win seven prizes *smile*.)

7. SHARON BUCKMAN stated she and her husband went camping with friends last week, which gave her little time for writing. She also stated she and her son, Bob, were given tickets to attend the Oprah “Surprise Spectacular” at the United Center. She said it certainly deserved its name, “Spectacular”.

8. SHARON JESIK said that since the weather has been too cold and rainy to garden, she has spent the last two weeks polishing up on her poetry. She plans on attending the meeting at the Hebron Comfort Inn on Friday, May 20th as well as the luncheon at the Lowell Public Library on Sat., the 21st.

9. LAURIE CHASE stated her back is finally doing better. She also was able to do more writing while she was down with her back (this all sounds like a terrible way to get finally get some writing done.) She has also just become a great-aunt.

10. KELLY CHASE said that she hasn't been able to get back to her writing due to her finals at school.

11. SHARON PALMERI stated her recent writing involved an article published in The Times, concerning the Indiana Writers’ Consortium’s PoPP program. She mentioned that since the end of the PoPP program and the judging for the Indiana Arts Commission behind her she should have time to rest. Think again. She is now working with the "Brickiefest" in Hobart, an all class reunion which will be held at the old Brickie Bowl on July 30th. In addition she is working on her own class reunion which is due this year.
Sharon briefly explained what she has been doing for the radio station where she is employed. It involves placing categorizing and uploading music to a server where it is then streamed over the Internet. She showed a book (listing types, decades, etc) of the songs that need to be uploaded. We were all impressed with the amount of work she has put into this.

READINGS:

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read her short story entitled, "The Decision." Her story could have been entered in a flash fiction contest due to its short length; however, it managed to tell a very interesting story of a soldier who had been injured in combat. The soldier, Stefan, had shunned becoming involved with any women due to his scar but finally found it mattered little to a beautiful woman named Maria.

SHARON BUCKMAN read two pages from her short novel, "A Family Murder." In this part of her story her brother's daughter-in-law is about to be arrested for the murder of her husband. This leaves the responsibility for raising his son's two daughters to her brother and his wife.

SHARON JESIK continued with her novel, "Corn Dancer." The Ranger was interviewing Luck, a close friend of the deceased Doty, when a light bulb suddenly exploded over the Ranger's head. This caused the Ranger and another detective to only become more suspicious of Luck. Doty's friends knew that it was probably the ghost of Doty causing all the mischief.

GEORGE MIGA continued reading his revised novel, "Medal of Dishonor." In this part of the story, Cordell's son, Tony Jackson, arrived from Washington after learning of his father's serious injuries received from a gunshot wound after being shot by a purse snatcher. The son could not believe of his father's role in the shooting or the fact that he had previously been shot, as told by the hospital.

NEIL BEDEKER read his short story entitled, "The Strip Mall King." The story starts out with a man named Steve telling a college friend how well his investment of a Strip Mall is doing. The friend, having loaned Steve some money to keep it going, does not quite share his friend's view of the genius ideas he shares. In the end he walks away stating some debts are "not worth trying to collect."

PAMELA GONZALEZ read her story, "The Elves Of Rauthuell." Blaming humans for all of their misfortunes, the elves, listening to an elder, decided to listen to his wisdom and send a messenger to bring back a human they could trust to solve their problem.

LIZ WILSON read her short story, "Hindsight." The story involves a woman named Frannie running away from her husband, Bobbie Lee. Bobby Lee, injured during the Vietnam war, had begged her to stay with him, however, as the story continues she is headed to meet another man named Paul and travels down a dark road with another car in pursuit.

DONNA DOUGLASS read her story entitled, "Turning Point." The story starts with a young college freshman girl making her bed in her dorm when she learns President Kennedy has been shot. Unable to believe what has happened she runs outside to hear the bell tower bells ringing at the Valparaiso University. The somber sound of the bells and the dean's secretary make her finally realize the sad truth and she had to come to terms with the death of our president as well as witnessing the murder or Lee Harvey Oswald on TV.

LAURIE CHASE continued with her novel, "Fast Forward." Kelly, the housewife who had been transported 500 yrs. into the future and onto a ship, finally begins to accept her situation and realizes that her situation could have been worse. She could have ended up on a ship with people that were not so kind and begins to make friends with a strange person named Katzy.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 P.M.


Respectfully submitted:
Sharon Buckman

Members at the May 4 meeting . Laurie not shown (sorry Laurie) and Palmeri is behind the camera)

MINUTES FOR MAY 4, 2011

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Pamela Gonzalez, Sharon Buckman, Sharon Jesik, Jane Burns, Beverly Stanislawski, Judy Whitcomb, George Miga, Sandra Nantais, Kelly Chase, Laurie Chase, Tom Spencer, Jackie Huppenthal, Sharon Palmeri

GUESTS PRESENT:

Lisa Gineris

NEWS:

1. JACKIE HUPPENTHAL stated she has been busy with her writing and is suffering from poison ivy for the second time this year. She and her son just acted in a movie short for Columbia College. She stated it was a great experience and a lot of fun.

2. BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI said she has been feeling a lot better and has gotten back to her writing.

3. SHARON BUCKMAN stated on June 17th she will be attending Oprah's Surprise Spectacular along with her son, Robert. She has been doing a lot of gardening and not much writing in the past two weeks.

4. GEORGE MIGA has been working on finishing his novel, "Medal of Dishonor."

5. SANDY NANTAIS has been busy with her photography and writing, she is working on genealogy at the moment.

6. KELLY CHASE stated she participated in the WW II ROTC Color Guard at Buckley this past weekend.

7. LAURIE CHASE has been having problems with her sciatic nerve for which she has been taking various medications. Laurie and Kelly are also starting piano lessons. She also told a not so funny story of her parents insurance company mixing the names on her mother's claim - the insurance company put her mother's name as the deceased instead of her fathers.

8. LISA GINERIS our new guest, stated she has taken several of Sharon Palmeri's writing classes and is presently working on a memoir.

9. PAMELA GONZALEZ has been redoing a story she started some time back. She also stated her daughter was just married this past weekend (from which she is still recovering). She also read a letter she received from our last guest, Robert Durling. He stated that do to a hearing problem he will probably not attend any more meetings but said he enjoyed being at the one he did attend.

10. TOM SPENCER reminded us of the May 20th open microphone meeting at the Hebron Comfort Inn, (1 65 and Rt. 2) at 6:00 P.M., a meeting of the State Poetry Society on May 21st at the Lowell Public Library, as well as a luncheon will be served at 12:00 noon, $l2.00 per person, at the library. When asked what he has been doing for himself he stated that he was doing spring cleaning and writing.

11. SHARON JESIK stated she has been working on her novel, "Corn Dancer" and has presently completed 85 pages.

12. JANE BURNS has been editing and revising her novel, "Atalanta." She has completed 40 pages and is now on part 2.

13. JUDY WHITCOMB has finished grading papers for her class at MSU and has started two children's stories.

14. SHARON PALMERI just returned from Indianapolis where she participated in judging for the Indiana Arts Commission. Sharon stated that thirty grants will be awarded out of the ninety participants. The awards will be posted on the IAC’s website in July. She also told of a funny (not for her) happening at the Indiana Government Center when she forgot to remove a small pair of children's scissors from her purse.

READINGS:

SHARON BUCKMAN continued with reading her novel, "A Family Murder." In this part of the story she told of trials of her nephew's two stepchildren. The stepson, Daniel, was sentenced to 22 yrs. and the stepdaughter, Christina, was sentenced to 5 yrs. in prison.

SHARON JESIK continued with her novel, "Corn Dancer." The detective continued with his investigation of the murder of their friend, Doty. Since the murdered victim's closest friend, Luck, inherited almost all of her possessions he was the natural suspect. He convinced the detective that he and Doty were not romantically involved since he was gay.

JANE BURNS surprised everyone when she continued her novel, "Atalanta." She told of the bear, Ursula, being murdered by several men and then taking the young girl that had been raised by the bear with them.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read a type of essay she had recently written entitled, "Apple Seeds." The story concerned the type of character everyone sought and how best to teach your children how to find true character. Several members thought it would be a good story for Guideposts magazine.

JUDY WHITCOMB read one of her recent children's stories entitled, "I Want a Puppy, I Really Want a Puppy." The story involves a young boy trying to persuade his parents to let him have a puppy and eventually succeeding. She is planning on submitting it to a publisher soon.

GEORGE MIGA continued reading from his novel, "Medal of Dishonor." In this part of the story, the gun, that had been turned on Cordell, had jammed and was then wrestled away from the shooter by Cordell. In the process Cordell was shot but still had enough strength left to kill the shooter before being taken to the hospital.

SANDRA NANTAIS read her short story, "Pickles, Pretzels, and Prancing," a story concerning her memories of her grandmother as she was always rushing in and out of the house during backyard family gatherings and bringing pretzels, cola, and a relish dish complete with pickels and green olives.

KELLY CHASE continued with her novel, "The Ring." The ring is a magical one and Kristine felt she should not keep using the ring to accomplish getting anything she wanted. This soon changed when her parents were refusing to let her wear the new clothes she had just bought for a concert.

LAURIE CHASE continued reading a few pages from her novel, "Fast Forward," a story that involved a young housewife being transported 500 yrs. into the future and placed on a space ship. In this part of the story she decided she would need to do some "cleaning" if she was to be there for awhile.

LISA GINERIS, our newest guest, read a memoir, as being told by her grandmother, entitled, "Elsie Mae -A Life Recycled. The story told of her grandmother's heartache after losing two of her children and was followed up with the reading of a letter, written by her grandfather to her grandmother.

TOM SPENCER brought his seven stanza poem entitled, "The Superlatives of Nature." The poem dealt with man's desire for destruction of the earth by breaking the rules of nature.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 P.M.

JACKIE HUPPENTHAL read her poem about phobias and gave examples of different ways it could be printed out to give a more effective picture of the uncomfortable feelings phobias invoke.

Respectfully submitted:
Sharon Buckman