JULY 21, 2016

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Sharon Palmeri, Beverly Stanislawski, Sharon Buckman, Bob Philpot, Sharon Dorelli, Caren Von See, Carl Cabanas, Adam Sedia, Amy Brailey, Neil Bedeker

GUESTS PRESENT:

Virginia Williams

OLD BUSINESS:

A vote of approval for the July 7, 2016 minutes was first given by BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI and seconded by SHARON PALMERI.

NEW BUSINESS:

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI brought a brochure for each member pertaining to the Fall Rendezvous Poetry Contest.  The brochure, running through July 1st to September 1^st, gave all the rules and regulations necessary to win.

CAREN VON SEE and CARL CABANAS each decided that they would tell the members, each at various meetings,  as to what they considered the most interesting and helpful articles written in the “Writer’s Digest.”

LITERARY NEWS:

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI stated she had received Honorable Mention for the Ekphrastic poem she had entered in the Oklahoma poetry contest.  She also received 1^st place Honorable Mention for “A Night to Remember.”

READINGS:

ADAM SEDIA read his three-stanza poem entitled, “Blood Moon.”  The poem tries to decipher the three faces he manages to see while moon watching one evening.   After trying to decide which face, “a shriek of fear,” a “wrathful shout,” or a “scornful sneer,” he concludes that it might be all three.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read her four stanza, somewhat sinister poem, entitled “Pregnant Nights.”  The poem began with “pregnant nights are evil filled,” and continued with various evils that seem to persist during these nights.

NEIL BEDEKER read four pages from his novel, An Early Retirement.  In this part, Chapter 9, he tells of the conversation between two FBI agents as they are driving through Atlanta.  The agents, new partners, are irritating each other as one agent keeps insisting on an answer as to how their suspect, Rick Grossman, managed to elude the other agent in Philadelphia.

AMY BRAILEY continued reading two pages from her novel, Jon Everett and the Hall of History.  Jon is irritated after arising one weekend morning and remembering he must continue with his homework at the library doing research on George Washington.  He becomes more irritated when he begins to argue with the librarian that they have the wrong portrait of him and he wants his $5 admission fee back.

SHARON DORELLI read her one page story, including a four stanza poem, entitled, “Anniversary of a Suicide.”  The story tells of the suicide of a 40 yr. old man on New Year ’s Day.  The poem asks the question, possibly from his mate, as to why he decided to do this.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:25 P.M.

Respectfully submitted:

SHARON BUCKMAN

JULY 7, 2016

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Sharon Palmeri, Beverly Stanislawski, Katherine Flotz, Sharon Buckman, George Miga, Marilyn Kessler, Sharon Dorelli, Mike Musak,  Caren Von See, Hardarshan Valia, Jackie Huppenthal, Gail Galvan, Isleen Moore, David Moore, David Wilgus, Helena Qi, Bob Philpot, Adam Sedia, 

GUESTS PRESENT:

Carl Cabanas

 OLD BUSINESS:

A vote of approval for the June 16, 2016 minutes was first given by DAVE WILGUS and seconded by MARILYN KESSLER and GEORGE MIGA.

NEW BUSINESS:

SHARON PALMERI presented several leaflets to the members as she talked on several subjects.  She began with “How to Punctuate Dialogue Correctly” and how to avoid obvious mistakes.  Sharon then moved on to how to write effective dialogue, and pitfalls to avoid. She also discussed appropriate dialogue for your character and shared a three-dimensional character chart for the members to fill out as they are establishing characters for their writing.  Sharon finished the discussion by discussing the appropriate word count for novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories.

LITERARY NEWS:

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI  read a very delightful and creative piece that SHARON PALMERI shared with the group. ARTHUR WILKERSON, a former member and writing student of Sharon Palmeri, wrote the piece a few years ago as a response to an assignment on summarizing a chapter in class on writing dialogue. 

CAREN VON SEE stated her newest novel, Murder of the Imaginary Man, is now with an editor.

READINGS:

DAVID MOORE began reading the first chapter of his untitled book.  This chapter, entitled “Repairing the Engine,” began with finding a boiler, covered in rust with “bolts held in place by the corrosion that covered them and the plate holding back the heat.” After several mishaps, including falling into a pile of junk, he was finally able to finish the project successfully.

CAREN VON SEE read the beginning of a new novel, 1740 Parakeet Island, taken from a prompt on the Write-on Hoosiers Facebook group page.  The story told of a couple traveling throughout the Pacific/Caribbean islands and finally landing on Parakeet Island.  After staying on the island for several days and encountering a “swarm of evil parakeets,” they also encountered an old man who lived on the island alone and who looked like Robinson Crusoe.

ADAM SEDIA read his three-stanza poem entitled, “Apophis.”  Adam explained that the name Apophis has three meanings.  The first, and the one that relates to this poem, is a Greek rendering of the Egyptian demon Ipep, who takes the form of a giant snake.  The first stanza of this poem tells of a demon-snake, enemy of light, coiled “to snatch him a bite” of the morning sun as it passes by.

SHARON PALMERI read her beautiful and questionably sensuous poem entitled, “Night Sea,” which she had written several years prior.  The poem reveals the beauty of the sea at night as it glistens and “caresses the shore-luring away soft Virgin Sand.”

HELENA QI read her one page short story, which began with a short poem, entitled, “My Memory.”  The poem and the story relates to her loss of a very sharp memory as she ages.  She wonders, could this possibly be related to the dreadful Alzheimer’s disease?  To her relief the other symptoms have never appeared.

DAVE WILGUS read four pages of his novel, A Cross to Bear.  In this part of his novel, Chad and his wife Cindy are returning home from a sort of “second honeymoon” to find that their house has been broken into.  After calling the police, they receive visitors from the FBI as well.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read her six stanza humorous poem entitled, “Grandma’s Secret Weapon.”  This poem tells the story of a grandmother who is making soup to help cure her kids of croup.  The soup contains garlic spices, boiled until very hot.  When German soldiers came to her home and insisted on having some she gave them each a bowl.  After dropping their guns she marched them down to the city hall.

HARDARSHAN VALIA read his five stanza poem , which pays homage to the victims of the Orlando tragedy, entitled “Heart Beats.”  The poem tells of the beauty of love which was never meant to be painted “with the brush of a gun barrel, nor etched with the edge of a knife’s blade.”  This poem has been submitted for publication.

MIKE MUSAK read four pages of Chapter 1 of his novel, The Earth Report.  The beginning of this novel tells of a planet named Altora and of an urgent meeting which included the elders of Altora.  The meeting was about the disturbing studies they were finding of the planet Earth, especially the explosions using atomic power, set off intentionally as acts of aggression.

SHARON DORELLI read her short, one page story entitled, “Waiting for Peter Pan.”  This enduring story told of going to the movie theater with her Mom and Dad to see Peter Pan.  After seeing the movie she would slip quietly each night out of bed to wait by her window for him to show up, checking for any signs of fairy dust on the window pane.

MARILYN KESSLER read her three-page poem “Freckles.”  This lovely poem told of the freckles across the nose of her son and “when he smiles they light up his face, and the whole wide world is a happier place.”

SHARON BUCKMAN read three pages of her sequel, Beyond the Canopy.  In this part of the story, Harold feels he has betrayed his father, as he leads the police to the part of the river where he is certain his father has thrown in the body of Tom, his father’s friend.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 P.M.

Respectfully submitted:   

SHARON BUCKMAN