MAY 18, 2017

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Bob Philpot, Sharon Buckman, David Wilgus, Beverly Stanislawski, Kathy Flotz, Sharon Palmeri, Carol Young, Amy Brailey, Haley Hardin, Rebecca Juergens, Rachael Thomas, Caren Von See, Mike Musak, Diane Stratton, Helena Qi

OLD BUSINESS:

A vote of approval for the May 4, 2017 minutes was first given by CAREN VON SEE and seconded by AMY BRAILEY.

NEW BUSINESS:

CAROL YOUNG, introduced herself to the members.  She stated she was a retired nurse, 17 yrs. in long term care, living in Louisville, Ky.  She is presently writing a book with her sister, Caren Von See, entitled Murder of an Imaginary Man.

SHARON PALMERI told of her experience when she attended a workshop for Magna Cum Murder in Muncie, IN after being asked about it.  She also stated she would like the members to start thinking about what they would like for entertainment at our Christmas Banquet in December, and to e-mail her with any suggestions.

LITERARY NEWS:

DAVE WILGUS brought copies of his recently published book, Cub Fans Dream Comes True.  He stated it was published through Create Space and that the Kindle version would soon be out.  He also stated that he has three speaking engagements, June 17^th in Plymouth, In., June 24^th in Valparaiso, In. and August 19^th in Michigan City, IN.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI stated that present, or past, members of Poetry for Society of Indiana were invited to submit two poems for their 75^th anniversary.  She also stated they must be a member since 2016 and that the deadline was May 31.

BOB PHILPOT stated that the members might be interested in turning to Writeway online for help with their writing.  He felt it was even better than Scrivener.

MIKE MUSAK was asked to re-introduce himself since some of the new members had not met him.  He stated that he is presently working on a novel.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM:

Members were asked  at the last meeting to write a short story concerning a picture of an old farmhouse with surrounding buildings, etc. that they were shown. The picture was posted at the end of the May 4 minutes.  The responding stories are as follows:

AMY BRAILEY read, “A Twice Told Tale.” The story began with telling of the two ladies seen walking up the farmhouse lane.  One of the ladies, Leah, spends most of the story searching for the other, Janie.  The end of the story reveals that they are both ghosts, coming back to visit their old homeplace.

BOB PHILPOT read “The House of Thaumaturge.”  The house of Thaumaturge was supposedly given this name by Abrahamson Stidolph, the man who painted the picture.  It was told that the picture had to be completed by the early evening of the Full Red  Moon.  After many rumors spread concerning this picture it was revealed that the original picture had no women walking up the lane but later included four figures, people who wanted to go visit their departed love ones decided to join the ghost figures.

CAREN VON SEE read “This Old House.” The story begins with two older ladies, Deidre and Mary, walking up the lane to the old farmhouse.  After entering the house they notice all the changes that had been made since they were last there and then decide to sit in the kitchen and have tea.  The story then reveals the Dunlap family entering the same house, deciding they would like to purchase it. They then begin to smell the aroma of sweet tea and shortbread cookies.

RACHEL THOMAS read, “The Return Home.”  This story begins with an older man and young woman walking down the dusty lane to the farmhouse.  He notices the bruised eye and matted hair of the woman and suddenly remembers how she and this house looked years before, before he kidnapped her and had taken her away from it.

KATHERINE FLOTZ read her short story entitled, “Germany.”  This story took place in 1943 Germany and began with visitors coming in to check on the old lady who was living alone there.  As they were leaving they hid when noticing a military truck pulling into the lane.  When the two men pounded on the door, saying Heil Hitler when it opened, and asking if a Jewish girl lived there they were told no.  After looking all around the house they finally left, forgetting to look in the chicken coop.

SHARON BUCKMAN read “The Day After Tomorrow.”  This short story told of a young boy hiding in the chicken coop waiting for his friends to come back and get him.  After hiding for quite a long time, and robbing the old ladies living in the farmhouse of small bits of food, he finally decides he can no longer wait.  He will wait two more days in the dirty old chicken coop before jumping on a train to California.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read a short story entitled,  “V and X.”  The story begins with a young boy at a five and dime, watching a salesman demonstrate how he could put a small mouse through its paces.  The boy rushed home showing his mother the small mouse he purchased.  When the mouse could perform no tricks he realized he had been scammed.  His mother comforted him by telling him to invite his friends over after school for milk and cookies.

 

READINGS:

MIKE MUSAK read his one stanza poem entitled, “The Key.”  The poem advises people to practice the lesson of learning to have faith in each other, learning to love and doing what’s right.

HELENA QI read her short story, “Vigilance in Soliltude.”  Her story began with her driving down Ridge Rd. at 6 AM  and not realizing in her solitude that she had failed to turn on her turn lights when changing lanes.  After being pulled over by a police car she realized what she had done and later related it to a story she remembered years before.

REBECCA JUERGENS brought several different designs for the members to see and vote on.   The designs were for the cover of her new novel.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:05 P.M.

Respectfully submitted:

SHARON BUCKMAN

MAY 4, 2017

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Bob Philpot, Sharon Buckman, Marilyn Kessler, Beverly Stanislawski, Sharon Palmeri, Katherine Flotz, George Miga, Caren Von See, Hardarshan Valia, Rachael Thomas

OLD BUSINESS:

A vote of approval for the April 20, 2017 minutes was first given by BOB PHILPOT and seconded by CAREN VON SEE.

NEW BUSINESS: 

SHARON PALMERI mentioned lecture/discussions coming at future meetings. These may include screenwriting, storytelling, [as well as the previously discussed topics of memoirs, world building, historical writing, research, and computer instruction for writers.]  

LITERARY NEWS:

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI stated she had taken several prizes in an Oklahoma Poetry Contest.  She won first prize for her poem, “Per Chance,” two third place prizes for “Lonely Suitors,” and “Biloxi Belle,” and first Honorable Mention for “Winter’s Surprises.”

BOB PHILPOT mentioned to the members that he had found a computer program, Scrivener, which he felt was a great help in writing his book.  The cost of $40 included a 90 page tutorial and 360 page manual as well as a DVD.

HARDARSHAN VALIA attended an Indigan Storytellor Workshop on April 29^th and told members how much he had enjoyed it and felt it was very informative.  The meeting was  from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.  He also attended a Gary Poetry Project meeting in South Bend at I.U.  Anyone interested in attending future meetings can go online at www.calumetresidency.com  for further information.  The Toastmasters Club, whose mission is to create an enduring, supportive community for the purpose of story telling was also mentioned by Hardarshan.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM:

SHARON PALMERI opened the program with a tip. She suggested that it would may be helpful to the members if they kept a small tablet with them at meetings to take notes as people critiqued their work. The notes taken may be helpful as they do their re-writing, as well as with their own future editing. 

Topics:

1. Dialogue:

Sharon also passed out three brochures entitled, “Punctuating Dialogue, How to Punctuate Dialogue Correctly,” “Quotation Marks,” and Commas: Quick Rules.” 

2. Overdoing Dialects in Writing: 

A handout titled “Translating Southern United States to English,” was dispersed to members.  Each member was asked to read the various words and following sentences describing them – this produced a lot of laughter from the members.  The point is that too much dialect may be comical or even tiresome to the reader. 

3. Point of View Exercise:

Each member received a picture of an old farmhouse with barn, fence, and road. Sharon asked members to look at the picture and pick a point of view in which to write a short story. This could be the point of view of someone in the home, outside of the home, a neighbor, or even from the point of view of the fence or road leading to the home.  She asked for the stories to be brought to the next meeting and read during the “Educational Program” segment at the next meeting. (The photo dispersed  is at the end of these meeting minutes.)

 READINGS:

CAREN VON SEE read two poems.  The first poem, “Finding You First,” written by Michael Jackson Brumley, Jr., was a beautiful one stanza poem describing what life could have been like if “I  found you first.”  The second poem, “The Tale of a Honest Fisherman,”  a six-stanza poem written from a prompt, tells of a fisherman who suddenly realizes he was never meant to be a fisherman.

RACHEL THOMAS first read a short story with the title, “Written by Rachel A. Thomas (and the morphemes).”  The story describes a downward decent of twenty six unique morphemes down a glissade, the smooth ride produced a peaceful effect.  The story ended with Rachel as she woke up and placed her hands on the keyboard to type her story, the one she had just dreamed.  Rachel also read two pages of the first chapter of her new novel, Sapphira’s Marriage.  The novel begins with a young girl trying to find a hiding place as she runs down streets and alleys, terrified they will find her.

KATHERINE FLOTZ read her one page true short story entitled, “Sacred Treasure.”  The story told of the church bell that was dedicated in 1925 in the church of St. Martin in Gakowa, Yugoslavia.  At the end of the war in 1944 the church was blown up but the bell survived where it was purchased by a farmer who later found the perfect home for it, Orom, Hungary.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read her one page short story entitled, “Lake Holiday.”  The story tells of all the beauty and happiness surrounding the lake at Lakes of the Four Seasons, beginning with a fisherman as he releases his catch to a youngster as he builds his sand castle.  The story ends with the sun, “finally surrendering the sky, the sun left to plan another strategic pass over its secret looking glass, tomorrow.”

The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 P.M.

Respectfully submitted:

SHARON BUCKMAN

                                             Photo for Point-of-View Exercise

APRIL 20, 2017

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Sharon Buckman, Bob Philpot, Katherine Flotz, Beverly Stanislawski, Sharon Palmeri, Caren Von See, Diane Stratton, Hardarshan Valia, George Miga, Amy Brailey, Rebecca Juergens, Luneil Morrow

OLD BUSINESS:

A vote of approval for the April 6, 2017 minutes was first given by HARDARSHAN VALIA and was seconded by CAREN VON SEE.

NEW BUSINESS:

BOB PHILPOT, in response to SHARON PALMERI’S request for information pertaining to writing or publishing, brought several books and CD.’s pertaining to both subjects.  The first book was Writer’s in Wonderland, by Kathryn Camp. The second and third were part of the Great Courses Series were “Building Great Sentences,” and “How to Publish Your Book.” He also brought an issue of Writers Digest magazine.

SHARON PALMERI passed out several illustrations from a column called “Poetic Asides,” all three written by Robert Lee Brewer.  The first was “Seven Revision Filters for Poets,” the second, “Poetic Form: Madrigal,” and the third, “Poetic Form: Interlocking Rubaiyat.” These articles were taken from past issues of Writers Digest magazine and were shared in honor of National Poetry Month.

TRIBUTE TO FAMOUS POETS:

SHARON PALMERI asked the members if they had brought any poems written by their favorite poets.  CAREN VON SEE responded with two of her favorite poems.  , “Lines Written in Early Spring,” by William Wordsworth, 1770-1850, and “Eleqy on the Death of a Mad Dog,” by Oliver Goldsmith 1728-774.

LUNIEL MORROW read one of her favorite poems, “Flirtation,” written by Rita Dove, 1912-2002.

DIANE STRATTON read a poem entitled “My Kingdom,” written by Louisa May Alcott.  This was the only poem she had ever written and it was written by her when she was 13 yrs. old.

HARDARSHAN VALIA brought several articles for Poetry Month as well as two poems, “Your Feet” written by Nobel Prize winner, Pablo Neruda,  and an Indian Poet named Neeraj who wrote an untitled the poem in Hindi, which Valia Translated into English for us.

READINGS:

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read four of her poems.  The first, “I Finally Had a Thought,” a two-stanza poem that explained why her poetry thoughts were taken away.  The second, “Backward Poet,” a four-stanza poem that tells how she can now write “inverse.” The third, “The Chosen Word,” explaining how “a poet feels when he or she chooses the right word for a poem.”  The forth, “Just the Sound of it,” a poem that explains Onomatopoeia.

CAREN VON SEE read her two-page memoir entitled, “Memories.”  The story begins with memories of her father, explaining of his love of colors and images as he painted on canvas.  As the story continues she finds that most of her family members motivated to creativity, something she feels she must have inherited, especially in writing.

REBECCA JUERGENS read the last two pages of her novel, In Angelic Arms.  In her search for Evan she finally discovers Evan was the angel sent to her so that, “My soul moved within my body, and I was completely overtaken with emotion. Every feeling filled my being, joy, peace, grace, mercy, love – so much love.

AMY BRAILEY read her three-page short story entitled, “A Grave Situation.”  The story begins with Thomas loving to hang around old graveyards, “to enjoy the peace and quiet.”  When he is invited to visit the Antietam National Battlefield with his Aunt, he finds a new interest in history, especially when visiting the battlefield at night.

SHARON PALMERI brought her ten-stanza poem entitled, “The Dream.”  The poem was written by Sharon when she was 16 years old. The poem tells of a dream she had that terrified so much that “I wanted to scream, to shout out loud, but could not utter a single sound!”  The dream showed her the future of the earth being doomed in the year 2002. She admitted that she was a little nervous that year and glad when it ended.  

The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 P.M.

Respectfully submitted:

SHARON BUCKMAN