AUGUST 1, 2012

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."

 ~Anton Chekhov~

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Sharon Buckman,  Katherine Flotz, George Miga, Michelle Vargas, Jane Burns, Tom Spencer, Laurie Chase, Kelly Chase, Gail Galvan, Beverly Stanislawski, Julie Perkins, Meggie Tolkland, Sharon Palmeri

OLD BUSINESS:

The minutes for the July 18^th meeting was first approved by TOM SPENCER and seconded by GAIL GALVAN. 

NEW BUSINESS:

SHARON PALMERI introduced the June newsletter for “Magna Cum Murder.”  She stated there would be a forum coming up, before Halloween, from Oct. 26 to Oct. 28, for anyone interested in writing murder mysteries.

LITERARY NEWS:

KATHY FLOTZ stated she and her husband, George, would be giving several more speaking engagements concerning her book,  Pebble In My Shoe.  The first three, in September, would be at several different faith churches in Wisconsin and another at the Del Webb Retirement Community on September 7^th.

GAIL GALVAN stated she seemed to be having a hard time trying to do an E-book on HTML.

JULIE PERKINS stated that she might possibly try doing a revision in original Word Document and then converting it into HTML.

TOM SPENCER announced that as the new President of the Indiana State Poetry Club he will be editing the newsletter.   The price for anyone wanting to purchase a year’s subscription would be $18.00.

READINGS:

SHARON BUCKMAN read a three page memoir concerning her husband.  The memoir, entitled “Old Mac,” told of her husband’s younger years when he was sent to Missouri for the summer to live with an older man named Mac.  He ended up returning for several  more summers, giving credit to this old man  for turning his life around.

KATHERINE FLOTZ continued with her novel, The Journey.  This part of the novel  dwells on the letters of excitement  from Michael  to his family after finding they are living in the United States.  The man who sponsored his family coming to America begins paperwork to sponsor him as well.

GAIL GALVAN wrote (and sang) her newest rendition of “A Change of Hearts: Rappin’ Rabbits Song.”  Her rappin’ song is the song that was composed by the gangster rabbits from Chicago who have big plans to go to the New Jack Rabbit City where the water will supposedly make them “sprout up like Jack and the Beanstalk.”

GEORGE MIGA read the beginning of his newest novel  Ariela – Lioness of God.  The novel begins at the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Northern Germany  with a young girl crawling out of a trench where she was left for dead.  She manages to crawl, unseen, to a shed where a woman named Chaya tries to help her.

MICHELLE VARGAS continued with her novel,  Striving After Wind.  This part of her novel, which takes place near a gun club in Tolleston, Ind., tells of Tabitha meeting Adam Connelly, someone she’d had a crush on years prior, after he followed her into a shed that had been converted into an icehouse. This was the place where she butchered some of the meat for the gun club.”

JANE BURNS continued Chapter 7, “All Acts of Love and Pleasure,” Part ll of her novel, Atalanta.  This part of her novel dwells on Atalanta trying to master shooting with a bow and arrow, part of the initiation to belong to the Cult of Artemis, a sisterhood she found seven years after leaving home.

TOM SPENCER brought his eight stanza poem entitled, “A Noctambulist’s Question.”  The poem relates to the question of our nightly dreams by stating in one stanza, “What use, these apparitions, nocturnal visitors, Un-invited guests, phantoms of the night?

LAURIE CHASE began reading from Chapter 10 of her novel, Badradin.  This part of her novel told of the investigation by the Security Chief of the previous disturbance involving two guards and Dr. Togalaz.  The guards were very unhappy when finding out the scene had been recorded.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read her four stanza poem, “Framed.” Her poem, written in a western theme as requested for a particular contest, tells of a barroom shootout.  The shootout ended with the killing of an unintended victim committed by the man who was the intended victim.

JULIE PERKINS read four pages of the first part of her short story entitled, “One Night Stand.” The story tells of an unfortunate situation a young pregnant woman finds herself in; she cannot come up with the necessary funds to spend the night in a motel.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 P.M.

Respectfully Submitted:

SHARON BUCKMAN

 

Zora Neale Hurston

January 7, 1891 - January 28, 1960

A novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston was the prototypical authority on black culture from the Harlem Renaissance. In this artistic movement of the 1920s black artists moved from traditional dialectical works and imitation of white writers to explore their own culture and affirm pride in their race. Zora Neale Hurston pursued this objective by combining literature with anthropology….  The year 1937 saw the publication of what is considered Hurston's greatest novel Their Eyes Watching God.
Read more at: http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/hurs-zor.htm

Hurston's work slid into obscurity for decades, for a number of cultural and political reasons:

Many readers objected to the representation of African American dialect in Hurston's novels, given the racially charged history of dialect fiction in American literature. Her stylistic choices in terms of dialogue were influenced by her academic experiences. Thinking like a folklorist, Hurston strove to represent speech patterns of the period which she documented through ethnographic research. 

Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zora_Neale_Hurston

“There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God