May 5, 2016

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Sharon Dorelli, Sharon Buckman, Beverly Stanislawski, Sharon Palmeri, Marilyn Kessler, Gail Galvan, Caren Von See, Donna Eckelbarger, Hardarshan Valia, Amy Brailey, Mary Lu Cowley, Bob Philpot, Neil Bedeker

GUESTS PRESENT:

Stephanas Lynch

OLD BUSINESS:

A vote of approval for the April 21, 2016 meeting minutes was first given by AMY BRAILEY and seconded by HARDARSHAN VALIA.

LITERARY NEWS:

ADAM SEDIA sent word that he will be hosting a release party for his two new books on Friday, May 20 at 6:00 P.M. at the IWC offices in Hammond (5209 Hohman Ave.) There will be food, beverages and live music as well as readings.  Adam will also be selling and autographing his books.

CAREN VON SEE passed around a book she thought the members would enjoy entitled, Woe Is I, written by Patricia O’Conner.  The grammar book is a national bestseller.

GAIL GALVAN stated she is seeking a publisher on her newest book entitled, “Texting.”  Gail also stated she has already started selling her book at $7.00 each. She also passed around cover sample for our new book. She said she would have more examples in the next few weeks.

NEIL BEDEKER stated he had a book signing at the Community Library in Beecher on April 13^th for his book, Dark Hearts, White City.

READINGS:

AMY BRAILEY read two pages from her middle school book, Jon Everett and the Hall of History.  As punishment for falling asleep during his history class, Jon was assigned a trip to the History Museum to learn about George Washington.  Before going to the museum, his grandmother suggested he first go through his grandfather’s trunk in the attic.  Jon suddenly begins to become very interested in his assignment after finding several items in the trunk, especially pertaining to some keys and a half torn letter.

MARY LU COWLEY began with reading four pages of her short story entitled, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.”  After receiving a phone call from her boss asking her to come to the parking lot to witness a drug sale, she immediately left  her desk.  As it turned out the only thing her boss was interested in was her.

MARILYN KESSLER read her very beautiful five stanza poem entitled, “A Mother is Forever.”  The poem, written a number of years prior, told how she hoped that someday she could be as good a mother as her mother was to her.  Her mother later had the poem framed.

CAREN VON SEE read her nine stanza poem entitled, “Bittersweet.” The poem, beginning with the line, “I’m on the road to nowhere,” tells of trying to decide if life is worth living.  The last line ends with, “How the hell I’m gonna get there, beats me.”

GAIL GALVAN read two pages, an excerpt from her book, Texting, telling one of the rather humorous chapters of the book entitled, “Withdrawal is the Worst.” This chapter, instead of dealing with some of the obvious withdrawals, deals with withdrawal from texting after having their phones taken away.

DONNA ECKELBARGER read from her children’s picture book, “The Lonely Inch Worm.”  Wilma inchworm was overwhelmed with all the attention she was getting from her new friends who loved her cooking.  Her old friends were completely stunned as to her new popularity since they felt she was certainly not anything special.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read her four-page short story entitled, “The Richest Man.”  The story tells of Stephen, a pious man, unsuccessfully trying to convert his master to Christianity.  When he has a dream that the richest man in the kingdom would die when the cock crowed three times the master began to believe him.  It turned out the richest man was Stephen. 

BOB PHILPOT re-read four pages of his converted novel,  Strange Friends.  In this part of his novel, now written from the view point of his girlfriend, Zeb enters the diner,  while on his way to meet with his boss where Dora works, and is completely captivated by her.  She realizes this when he picks up his menu and looks at it, upside down.

SHARON DORELLI tells of her experience with hearing “crickets” all night long in this cute one page short story entitled, “Endless Summer Nights.”  After being unable to find them she finally decides to see her doctor about her hearing, who tells her it wasn’t crickets at all – it was tinnitus.

HARDARSHAN VALIA read the first two pages of his short story entitled, “The Eye of a Million Faces.”  It is the story of Jassi Singh searching for the maid servant Putree who witnessed the killing of Jassi’s uncle and three cousins.  The incident happened when Indira Gandhi was killed by two Sikh guards. Jassi’s relatives were amongst thousands of Sikhs who were killed by frenzied mobs in retaliation. In the first two pages Jassi meets a woman who hands over an envelope that contains the narration of the incident as witnessed by Putree.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 P.M.

Respectfully submitted:

SHARON BUCKMAN