SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Bob Philpot, Sharon Buckman, Sharon Palmeri, Hardarshan Valia, Adam Sedia, Sharon Dorelli, Katherine Flotz, Mary Lu Cowley, Helena Qi, Caren Von See, Beverly Stanislawski, Suzy Steuben, Donna Echelbarger, Neil Bedeker, Gail Galvan

OLD BUSINESS:

A vote of approval for the September 1, 2016 minutes was first given by KATHERINE FLOTZ and seconded by HARDARSHAN VALIA.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

KATHERINE FLOTZ stated that we will possibly be having a different performer this year for our Christmas party, the fee is still be worked out.

GAIL GALVAN stated that there was a slight discrepancy in the fee previously mentioned that each member would need to pay for his or her 6 copies of Horizon Spectrum. This discrepancy was due to a calculation error. She apologized for any inconvenience or confusion. About half of the members paid the difference at the meeting.  Sharon Palmeri will e-mail other members with the amount they owe. 

LITERARY NEWS:

HARDARSHAN VALIA mentioned that he was able to recite his poem, “I Remember,” at the Spirit of the Dunes: A Poetry Reading on Saturday, September 10^th.

READINGS:

CAREN VON SEE read three pages of the beginning of her short story, “Brunswick Castle.”  This very intriguing story began when a new bride was taken to her husband’s home in Cambridgeshire, England for their honeymoon.  The “home” was a cavernous castle that she was encouraged to wander through by her husband, even though he was unable to be with her most of the time.

ADAM SEDIA read his beautiful five-stanza poem entitled, “Dahlia.”  The poem compared this lovely aristocratic woman to a beautiful, exotic and rare, dahlia.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read her lovely four stanza, Pantoum poem, entitled “When Love Found Me.”  The poem began with the line, “Because I could not stop for love,” and then added, “Love made a pause for me.”

HELENA QI read her one page memoir entitled, “Good Bye, Big Guy.”  The story told of how the family van, “Big Guy,” had saved the lives of her five passengers several months prior when sliding off an ice-covered road, crashing into an 18-wheeler.

NEIL BEDEKER continued with his novel, Early Retirement.  In this part of his story, Chapter 11, the two FBI men, Mapes and Roseman, were stopped at a Florida Welcome Center as they were still doing surveillance on the school teacher.  Mapes began to chastise Roseman for not keeping his eye on their subject.

HARDARSHAN VALIA read his four-stanza poem entitled, “Two Feathered Dove.”  This delightful poem told of how this “nearly naked, two feathered dove,” compared to the “original of messenger of peace,” from the curse of shedding “One feather for each War.”

DONNA ECKELBARGER read her two page short children’s story entitled, “Don’t Forget Your Library Book.”  The story begins with six-year-old Penny trying to find her library book.  With each item she picks up to look for it she discards under her bed.  With the bed slowly rising from the discards, and her mother yelling at her to hurry for the bus, she finally finds it in her backpack she had been carrying.

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

Respectfully submitted, 

SHARON BUCKMAN

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Bob Philpot, Sharon Buckman, Marilyn Kessler, Sharon Palmeri, Beverly Stanislawski, Dave Wilgus, Jackie Huppenthal, Caren Von See, Suzi Steuban, Katherine Flotz, Hardarshan Valia, Gail Galvan, George Miga, Ruthann Graczyk, Luneil Morrow, Amy Brailey, Helena Qi

GUESTS

James Geimer, Rob Onofrey, Hayley Hardin

 

OLD BUSINESS:

A vote of approval for the August 18, 2016 meeting was first given by DAVE WILGUS and seconded by BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI.

NEW BUSINESS:

SHARON PALMERI made a correction in the price of the December 7 WOH Christmas Party, the correct amount for attending is $23 per member and $28 for non-members. It will once again be held at the Lakes of the Four Seasons Country Club ballroom. She said there will be book sale tables available again this year.

LITERARY NEWS:

KATHY FLOTZ mentioned that she will be will be attending the Hazelcrest Genelogical  Society, Sept. 30^th at 10:00 A.M., to speak about her memoir, Pebble In My Shoe.  She will also be attending the Senior Center in Brentwood for the same purpose.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI stated that she received an Honorable Mention in a Michigan State Poetry contest for her poem, “Perseverance Pays.”

JACKIE HUPPENTHAL mentioned that one of her photographs made the cover of the Encore 2015 for the National Federation of Poetry Societies.

GAIL GALVAN stated she received another rejection for her book, Texting.

READINGS:

CAREN VON SEE wrote a two-page article, “Green Personified,” after entering the WOH prompt to write about something green.  In this delightful article she named all the various shades of green along with a description of what that particular shade was used for.  

AMY BRAILEY continued with one page, Chapter 6, of her novel, Jon Everett and the Hall of History. In this part of her novel Jon has discovered a key hole in the painting of George Washington.  He was wonderfully surprised to also discover that the keys he was carrying in his backpack(the  keys from his grandfather’s trunk)  would fit the keyhole discovered in the picture.

BEVERLY STANISLAWSKI read two of her poems, the first a Mesostic poem  entitled, “Master Musician,” tells about a master musician who hears, “melodies in his soul,” with each line capitalizing one letter in each line to spell out the word MUSICIAN.  The second poem, an acrostic poem entitled, “Perseverance Pays,” telling how endurance and perseverance pays for the goal you are trying to reach.

KATHERINE FLOTZ read her diamond shaped poem entitled, “Serenity.”  This beautiful poem describes, in a diamond shape,” the beauty of birds in flight being in concert with the wind chimes she was listening to.

DAVE WILGUS continued with his novel, A Cross to Bear.  This part of the novel describes how to local policemen and two FBI men came to the house  of Chad and Cindy Henderson to try and discover any evidence that would connect Chad to the cross that was burned on a man’s lawn, causing him a serious injury.

JAMES GEIMER read his free verse poem entitled, “Take a Journey With Me.”  In his poem he tells of how a “shadow becomes a better conversationalist than those friends,” and ends with “you need to borrow my shoes than to buy a new pair.”

ROB ONOFREY read his three page short story entitled, “The Measuring Dog.”  The story tells of how a housewife keeps trying to pacify her husband by always having a drink ready for him each night.  The drink of whisky and 7-Up, is measured each day in a “measuring dog” and keeps needing to be increased each day.

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

Respectfully submitted:

SHARON BUCKMAN