Welcome guests

• Terry and Anna - Sharon Ellison
• Karen and Tommy Clintch - Carolyn Dycus
• Peggy Martin
• Mary Richards - Clyde, renewing member

Nominating committee report

(Sue Davis, chair; Carolyn Dycus, and David Dodge)

• President -- Barbara Darnall
• Executive vice president -- Bill Neal
• Program Vice President -- Nancy Robinson Masters
• Secretary -- Sharon Ellison
• Ginny to take Jim Johnson's place as Board Member
• Sue Davis to serve as Board Member again

Brags and sags:

• Brandon Davis submitted a short story and synopsis to website, a Japanese animation fan site. He also handed a short story around at work, and they all liked it. Has been missing meetings because he's going in to work at 8 at night.
• Barbara Darnall -- Her church has a Jerusalem marketplace theme for Vacation Church School, and Barbara, having seen the scripts furnished with the curriculum, will write and direct short dramas.
• Pat Capps Mehaffey -- moved to Weatherford in September, picked up a newspaper freeby, saw a Weatherford College contest, sent an entry and it won. On May 3, there will be an all day celebration honoring winners in various categories. Her second brag was having received a contract from the Upper Room who will publish her meditation in the March-April 2009 edition. They invited her to send other submissions.
• Bill Neal -- Gayla and Bill went to West Texas Historical Association meeting where he won the best book of the year award for Getting Away With Murder. It has special meaning for him since it's named the Rupert Richardson History Award.
• Karen Clinch, a new member, said a friend read a story she'd written and asked why she'd not had it published. After looking at websites of Christian publishers, Karen submitted it, and 6 hours later had a contract. Now, 8 months later, she's just received it. The children's story in booklet form is Peek-a-boo Moon. She has another coming out in August.
• Carolyn Dycus got to meet Karen on the phone and encourage her to come.
• Bill Neal pointed out that, as explained in his article in the April newsletter, WTHS and Texas Folklore Society put out hardbound books with a number of nonfiction pieces, and are a market. Dues are something like $25 and $20 a year.
• Ruth Sellers -- Doug and she are members of Runnels County Historical Commission, wrote until last month articles for the Winters Enterprise, but quit when they wouldn't raise her salary.
• Jo Cox reported Jan Carrington's brother got esophageal cancer which grew to the size of a toilet paper roll, doctors gave him 5 months to live, 8 months later, he's in treatment in Oklahoma, hasn't missed work except treatment, on his tractor, playing with cows, hoping for total recovery.

Monthly Members contest winners

April theme "Music Makes the World Go 'round"

Unrhymed Poetry
Sue Davis - "The Guitar"
Carolyn Dycus - "Prayer in Song: A Taize Worship Service" -- Honorable Mention
Barbara Darnall - "Morning Hymn" -- Second place
Sharon Ellison - "World Without Music"
Jim Wilson - "Sinphony"
Martha Nawrocki - "Simple Jingles" -- 1st place
Judy Callarman - "To Hear the Words" -- 3rd place
Barbara Darnall - "Damage Control"
Jim Wilson - "Musically Declined"

Inspiration Katherine Kelly - "Music Makes the World Go Round: From the Cradle to the Grave" -- 2nd place
Sharon Ellison - "Music Makes the World Go Round"
Jim Johnson - "The Dream of Two Bears"
Carolyn Dycus - "Prayer in Song: A Taize Worship Service" - Honorable Mention
Ruth Sellers - "Music Moves My World" - Honorable Mention
Barbara Sandusky - "Musical Stages of Life" - 3rd Place
Karen Witemeyer - "The Melody of Heaven" - 1st Place

16 entries by 12 different members

There were no entries in the children's category.

Refreshments

Karen Greene Barbara Sandusky, Ruth Sellers Rita Rasco

Pat Parker - How To Make Your Writing Fizzle And Not Sizzle.

Pat talked to us about thinking maps. Retired from teaching, Pat had to decide whether to be funeral director's wife or teacher for ever or lose her mind. She was teaching something called thinking maps.

If you would like to be trained in thinking maps, you can go to training at Region 14. For the public there's a small fee.

8 basic thinking maps.

1. Defining in context -- Circle Map SH -- find the picture that starts with that sound, try to write the word. Defining things in context. Used for brainstorming information, put subject in the middle, around put 6 or 7 things about the subject, outside the circle, frame of reference, what influenced you, what made you do these things?
2. Describing qualities -- bubble map In a science class, or creating a character, what did this guy do? What do I need to know? Then pick out what to write about. Short sentences, words, descriptions. Use different colors —- one to start with, another to reassess a few days later.
3. Comparing and contrasting -- double bubble map -- compare characters, two timeframes, two towns, two cities, two books, fractions, science, colors in the art classroom, historical events bubbles can be sticky notes. It doesn't have to be written. Have a big sack full of stuff for kindergarten that start with "sh"
4. Classifying -- tree map Classifying looks like a genealogy chart. Social studies, getting to more modern part of history. Very brain oriented. Get a sequence of stuff, get a repetition of stuff. They become familiar, comfortable to the kids.
5. Part/Whole -- Brace Map -- great for science, math, when breaking down a whole, telling the parts of something. Used to describe something factual and actual
6. Sequencing - Flow map -- what comes next, what comes next, what comes next. Use to summarize.
7. Cause-effect -- multi-flow map - in the middle is the event. To the left is what goes into it, what caused it; on the right is the results.
8. Seeing analogies - Bridge Map -- think of other words. Blank is to blank and such is to such. Relating factor: ____ Play with a ten-word analogy with words missing. Stretch your brain. Good for math when teaching fractions.

• Circle map for point of view and essay. In reading, defining context and perspective
• Bubble map, descriptive writing, characterization
• Double bubble -- similar, separate, comparison, essay writing, comparison
• Tree map -- persuasive writing, essay writing, getting the main idea and the detail
• Brace map -- technical writing, exact parts down.
• Narrative writing -- flow map, what happens first, next, next. (Using different sheets, sort the sheets.) Friendly to work with.
• Multi-flow map -- prediction, cause and effect. If we do this, this is the murder scene this happens.
  
  

  LINDA KIRKPATRICK --

  Linda started by introducing her guests, Jean Prescott from South Taylor County and Peggy Taylor from Camp Wood, Texas, founding guru of the cowboy fiesta in Camp Wood.
  
  This is national cowboy poetry week, founded by Margo who runs cowboypoetry.com, a good website to visit
  
  Lots of people look at the word cowboy and think of the stereotype, but it's not gender-specific now.
  
  Linda grew up on a remote ranch.
  
  Traditional cowboy poetry is ideally perfect rhyme and perfect rhythm. Some are writing free verse.
  
  Linda teaches "Cowboy poetry 101," a workshop for children, and bumped it up for us. She's been writing 11 or 12 years. It's taken her throughout the west, and she has won some things with it.
  
  Cowboy poetry started in late 1800's, cowboys were young, and some had some education. If they wanted to learn something, they had to memorize it. On trail drives spent time reciting Shakespeare, classic poems, would play guitars, start telling stories, but if they put rhyme and meter to the stories they could tell them over and over, and with the guitars, put together.
  
  As tools Linda uses rhyming dictionary, thesaurus, dictionary. Uses a computer. Write the words you love. Write them down, you never know when you might use them later.
  
  Wrote poem on a feed sack, going to Austin to be part of Buffalo Soldiers Day, researched her life, was going to just tell it, read the poem about Cathy Williams from the back of a feed sack on the capital stairs. Williams served two years before they found out she was a woman.
  
  Cowboy poetry tends to be longer than 4 or 5 stanzas. If you come to a stanza you can read the poem without, toss it. It doesn't need to be there. It makes the work a lot better.
  
  Listen to what others say about their own work and about yours. We have to have the feedback from the people out there listening to us. Some people don't know the terms used, need introductions, but keep the intro very short. Work as hard on the intro as the poem itself.
  
  Use your resources. Do you have to be a cowboy or from a ranching way of life? No. But if you don't know what you're writing about, find out about it.
  
  You can't do it overnight. If you're going to be dedicated, spend all the time necessary to write and to get it to the point of performing it.
  
  Linda says, "We publish poetry at cowboypoetry.com. Margo will do a good critique.
  
  She spoke of Buck Ramsey's Grass a book in rhyme. He wanted a dime novel. Got to researching, decided to write one. A descendant of chapbooks, small books poets would put their poems in and sell them. Linda does her own chapbooks, 2 a year, January and June, her first on the last Indian raid possibly in Texas, in the canyon where she grew up.
  
  Janice Coggins publishes cowboy work. Sometimes it's hard to find publishers. There's nothing wrong with self-publishing or POD, but they're going to just use what you give them, so give it to them in good shape. Take your brochures and cards.
  
  Tips about how to get into cowboy poetry include:
  • Word of mouth networking.
  • Performing. Memorize. Dress. Whether your crowd is 1 or 100, give the same performance.
  • Be comfortable, stance is important.
  Linda performed some of her poetry, then her friend Jean Prescott sang a poem of Linda's Jean had set to music.
  
  We adjourned for refreshments and buying books and tapes.
  
  Respectfully submitted,
  
  
  
  Barbara B. Rollins for Sharon Ellison, secretary