MEMBERS PRESENT:
Kathy Flotz, Tom Molnar, George Miga, Sandra Nantais, Jane Burns, Sharon Buckman, Beverly Stanislawski, Ron Trigg, Pam Gonzalez, Liz Wilson, Julie Perkins, Mike Musak, Laurie Chase, Kelly Chase, Sharon Palmeri
NEW BUSINESS:
Sharon Palmeri and Katherine Flotz addressed the members about making a donation to Indiana Writers' Consortium's Power of Poetry Project for children. Since several WOH members are also members of IWC and/or helped with the judging of this children's poetry contest. The vote passed unanimously and a donation of $35. was sent. WOH and IWC are affiliates.
LITERARY NEWS:
The meeting began promptly at 6:30 P.M. Sharon Palmeri asked for any literary news that the members would like to share.
SHARON BUCKMAN responded with a copy of “The Shortbread Writer,” an article sent to her online promoting the Shortbread Stories that are published online. Anyone interested in entering their short story, entries are free and can be sent to support@shortbreadstories.co.uk.
BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI mentioned that Sandra Nantais had entered the Porter County Master Gardeners contest, winning first place for her flower photos and third place for the vegetable photos. Beverly also brought along an anagram for the members to share, it will follow the minutes.
SHARON PALMERI brought in a copy of a book by Donald Barthelme The Dead Father, that she mentioned at the last meeting. Barthelme, who died in 1989, was dubbed “the fragment king” because of his creative use of fragments for emphasis. She also introduced another book, Steve Jobs, that she stated she was enjoying very much. It is Job’s biography, written by Walter Isaacson. In the book it was revealed that Job’s discovered that Mona Simpson, a prominent writer, and author of Anywhere but Here was his sister.
JULIE PERKINS stated that she entered a query letter to queryshark.blogspot.com as suggested at a previous meeting. She also mentioned that anyone wanting to enter a poetry contest could go to Indiana Review. The fee is $20 for three poems.
GAIL GALVAN, who was unable to attend the meeting, sent WOH an e-mail stating that she entered three short stories in winningwriters.com. The contest deadline is March 31st and the entry fee is $15. Per story. She also mentioned that on Friday, March 16th at the First United Methodist Church in Valparaiso (across from the library) at 7pm the church is having a talent night and she will be reciting three poems. She has extended the invitation to members.
READINGS:
KATHY FLOTZ read her poem, “Welcome to the World, Marin.” Her beautiful poem was written after the birth of her granddaughter, ten years prior, and described her as a beautiful work of art.
TOM MOLNAR read the prologue from his book, A Quick Look at Heaven. In his prologue he describes the various types of man’s beliefs, mostly concerning the Western culture. Tom also goes into the speculation of life after death, a subject that brought a lot of response (and humor) from most of the members during the critiquing that followed.
GEORGE MIGA continued with four pages from his book, Medal of Dishonor. In this part of George’s novel he tells of the love story between the mostly conservative McCall and the liberal journalist, Eleanor. One of the love scenes that George read also invoked much humor among the members, in part because he seemed to have a hard time reading it.
SANDRA NANTAIS shared her four page memoir entitled “Gahnouie, Pink Things and Feega.” The short memoir told of her life shortly after graduating from high school and her first independent task of grocery shopping. Sandra also brought along some of the “pink things” her grandmother would purchase at Goldblatts and pass out to her grandchildren, (pink mints.)
JANE BURNS continued with her novel, Atalanta. In this part of her novel she describes the problems Atalanta has in trying to get the High Priest to understand what she is there for. Since her vocabulary is very limited the Priest finally tells her that he is unable to help and tries to send her to the Temple of Apollo.
SHARON BUCKMAN read her two page memoir entitled, “A Special Life.” The memoir concerns her sister-in-law and the selfless life she leads. She continues raising her grandchildren after raising seven children of her own.
BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI shared her four stanza poem entitled, “Do Not Cry about a Broken Heart.” The poem told of the probability that broken hearts will heal and the scars are hardly ever seen.
RON TRIGG continued with his adventures in Africa in Part II of his novel, Moments on an African Landscape. In Part II, entitled A Stranger in the House, Ron tells of being assigned a manservant shortly after his arrival in Kaduna, Nigeria. As much as he tried, Ron was still unable to establish a close relationship with Ben, even after being together for nearly two years.
LIZ WILSON read four pages of her novel, The Grindylow. This part of the novel tells how Kelsey tries to retreat upstairs to her room shortly after removing the curse from Coy. When she is finally granted some privacy she goes into the bathroom of the upstairs apartment and falls in the bathtub, knocking herself unconscious.
JULIE PERKINS shared the first four pages of her novel, The Levee. The novel, taking place in Chicago during 1910, starts out telling of the life of a prostitute and continuing on with a business man who has just been appointed to a Vice Commission by the mayor. The commission is to decide if prostitution should be allowed to remain legal.
LAURIE CHASE continued with her book, Badradin. In this part of the novel, taking place sixteen years later, a medical staff has been assembled to decide if Dr. Togalaz should be allowed to join their staff despite the objection of Major Zon. It was finally decided Togalaz should be accepted.
KELLY CHASE continued with her novel, The Ring. In this part of her novel, Kristine has an affair with Jesse, a rock star, backstage in his dressing room. He later finds out she is only seventeen years old.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 P.M.
Respectfully submitted:
SHARON BUCKMAN
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