Saturday, May 21, 2011

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

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