President Ginny Greene opened the meeting by reminding us that our new year has begun. Our theme this year is Indescribable Scribes of the Abilene Writers Guild. She continued by welcoming the good crowd even though we had lots of rain in Abilene and the surrounding area. Welcomed were Gordon I. Root from Trent (who joined AWG this evening), Harold Biddle, Debra Vasquez (a former member), Terri Huff from Eastland (who is in Abilene a couple times a week), Susan Turner from Rochester, and Bill and Gayla Neal. The folks from Haskell, Eastland, Breckenridge, Winters and Eastland braved high water to attend this meeting!

Brags and Sags.

• Sharon Ellison – Has been doing people profiles for missionary friend in NY. The third one, Minangkabau People in Indonesia, was just finished, and her next profile will be on the Javanese people.
• Ginny Greene – Has a poem printed in Byline Magazine, "Reading, in the May issue, page 14. "It looks really good in print. She was paid $10.
• Betty Thomason – Has had stories printed in five different issues of Good Old Days magazine, another will be out this month, and she has another story ready to mail. The magazine sent her a copy of an anthology in which they had printed one of her stories.
• Barbara Rollins finished a book of meditations based on the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes.
• Harold Biddle started attending meetings because he had a story from his father, written as speaking to his father, self-published. He wants to get to know a few people and get some critique. He will gladly show you a copy of A Prayer.
• Mary Ann Smith, has gotten three items together for the July 31 deadline in AWG Annual Contest. Good job, Mary Ann!
• Gordon I. Root – Newest member, quit working about a year ago to write full time. Didn’t know what would happen, but his first manuscript was completed in the wintertime and he got a contract from PublishAmerica in March. He is still waiting on the typeset version, 145,000 words, history of the eastern front in the first World War.
• Ann Wilder’s son, Daniel-age 9), had a poem accepted in the San Antonio Poets magazine. Ann had one accepted for the website for the San Antonio Poets. Putting together a 15 page minichap; she read at Monks Coffee Shop last Thursday night during open mic night, which happens each Thursday from nine to 11:30 pm. Six people read last week.
• Bill Neal – attended the Western Writers of America award ceremony, where he was one of three finalists for the Spur award for best nonfiction western book, "Getting Away With Murder on the Texas Frontier.
• Nancy Robinson Masters – has Devoted to Writing available tonight; cost is $10. Released April 23, just over 1000 copies have been sold. Her co-author, Maurice Mallow, lives in Brady.
• Cisco Writers Club – Nancy reported that Terri Huff is at our meeting tonight because she attended the CWC’s meetings where Nancy was guest speaker. 17 signed up for the sessions with Nancy, which were done on three different dates. Nancy hopes this will help AWG gain some new members. The Cisco Writers Club has a contest going on the same time as ours, so she encouraged us all to enter both.
• Nancy also reported that Gwen Choate was one of the top five finalists in the Writer’s League of Texas.
• Jim Johnson is trying to get his second book to different publisher; a Yahoo friend has a contact with a fledgling publishing company, dropped Jim’s name as potential first contract. Jim emailed the manuscript to him after having spent 6 or 7 months working with a professional editor to get it to that point. Jim hopes to have his second book out by 2008.
• Marvin Johnson – he and Pat have had medical attention to their hearts, and are now swimming 20 laps a day in the Anson swimming pool.
• Nancy Masters reports that Hartley King is happy to have been hired as an art teacher for a middle school in Abilene ISD and is excited about her new job.

There was no financial report tonight as our most able treasurer, Gail McMillan, is still spending time taking care of her daughter in Weatherford and driving back and forth. We are all happy to learn her daughter is improving steadily.

New Business –

The new Board was seated in June; the annual planning meeting is Thursday, July 5. Board members will bring food and work until everything is planned for the coming year.

Sue Davis issued a plea for people to sign up to provide refreshments once a year, or she just may volunteer YOU!

Stewart needs a list of books any AWG members are planning to publish through May next year, in order to include this information on Grant proposals.

Karen Witemeyer announced the winners of the June contest, Hot Dogs. There were six good, fun entries:

Ginny Greene: Gourmet Dinner for 8
Jan Carrington: Whiskers – first place
Ruth Sellers: Hot Dog! Let’s Celebrate
Sue Davis: Hot Dog!! – second place
Sharon Ellison: Winnie’s Adventure - third place
Ann Wilder – Hot, Haute, Hawt, Hot Dogs

Our judge was Cindi Rhode, an elementary teacher and proud mother of one of Abilene’s National Merit Scholars.

Nancy Masters encouraged us to get our contest entries in. The odds of winning are great. We need 200 entries to cover our expenses. BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE RULES. Then she encouraged us to pay our dues because we need to pay rent, etc.

Barbara Darnall will be our honoree tomorrow night here at Center for reception then at Paramount, where she will receive an art award representing AWG in Cultural Affairs.

Nancy Masters began the program by telling us, "Everybody’s the program tonight. She reported that in a recent meeting with Baptist General Convention of Texas, it appears that her devotional book will take her a long way. It all started in AWG. When she joined AWG, the membership was 15, 9 members were present at her first meeting and met in homes of member. She worked three part time jobs and a full time job—but wanted to be a writer! She said that over the years she made lots of mistakes, but always learned enough through AWG to keep her writing moving.

Bill Neal, who wrote Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier, which is in its second printing by Texas Tech Press, will present our August program. Watch for the July program to be announced in the newsletter and the Abilene Reporter News, thanks to Karen!

After pairing up, we were given copies of entries from last year’s annual contest that were not returnable to their owners (for various reasons). We were asked to read over the entry quickly, see what the judges comments were and answer the question: Why did these entries lose?

1. Children’s story. Writer used language inconsistent with story. The story was set up well, then didn’t deliver a satisfactory conclusion. Writer didn’t wrap up his many good points.
2. Writer used too many I’s while trying to tell about being inspired through experiences. Story wanders from here to Georgia, not consistent in the type of writing. Exceeded the word count. Could be done better in half the number of words. Didn’t follow guidelines.
3. The thesis was hard to figure out; seemed to be saying defense attorneys are using the language of the law in a mischievous manner and that courts are trying to construe lethal injection as cruel and unusual. However, the examples were disjointed. Too many typos. The writer assumes we know what his opinion is in the opinion piece.
4. Sweet, but doesn’t paint a picture. Never got anything visual out of it. The writer wrote three poems that totaled 50 lines, but paid only one fee. The poem didn’t flow and the writer didn’t follow the rules.
5. Premise good, needed more research. Synopsis clinically correct but plain, not compelling. Books are bought by publishers based on a strong synopsis. The writer had a natural ability to spin a story, but repeatedly used words too often.
6. Historical fiction, -- unable to read through all in the time allowed. Synopsis reads like two different books. Judge suggested that the writer read dialogue aloud to make it more natural. Too many grammatical errors. So much packed in, couldn’t keep up with it, too much going on. Need to concentrate on slowing down and making it more cohesive. Change POV.
7. Article of general interest. Two main problems. Hard to tell if author was male or female, then it was hard to figure out what he was talking about. It seemed to be about midlife crisis – page 2 – but seemed to sometimes be talking to men, sometimes women with the men. Used pink paperclip.
8. Didn’t follow the rules. Title was at top and bottom. Seemed to be one long, complete metaphor. The guy bought a wife, she killed herself, then he killed his father with the same knife.
9. Synopsis – writer’s name was on the synopsis. Should be only on coversheet. First few lines seem like western; at the end, there’s drug cartel. The judge cited terrible punctuation in paragraphs, run-on sentences and the need for commas.
10. Probably for kids. 2 characters are probably middle school age, one can drive a truck; at the end, a duck can smile and talk. Not realistic. No cohesiveness in characters, dialogue not consistent with little kids. No plot, too much word repetition, clichés overused. Stiff or useless dialogue.
11. Funny little story, village in Mass, Coldbrain. Good story, kind of humorous. Talked about going to a foreign country---New Jersey. Judge had problem with massive amounts of wasted space between paragraphs and too many hyphens.
12. Short story for children. Word count (1804) too high. Didn’t follow the rules. Seemed to be written above the age level. Reads like something for young people in middle school. Wordy, lengthy, sweet story about swan and turkey, turkey is supposed to preside over TG ceremonies. Starts with a commentary.
13. Rhymed poetry, 3, beautiful thoughts expressing nature. Some poetry judges might have overlooked the major flaw. Most are sticklers for sticking with rhyme, don’t start with iambic pentameter then switch meters. The writer’s name was at the bottom of the page --- again, FOLLOW THE RULES.
14. Not about anything, sentences are great, but there’s no focus, it doesn’t make up to anything. The judge suggested a title change.
15. Novel. The judge liked the story but described the synopsis as rather boring. Also, the title has nothing to do with the gist of the story.
16. The judge changed the title. The writing was unorganized. Didn’t capitalize a trademark name. Kewpie. The judge said the story should end on page three and that the information on page four was a good topic for another story.
17. This has a technical-sounding title, but the only thing technical in it when someone pushed the remote control. All corrections in about first 2 pages. Writer should have shut up before the last paragraph. He was reluctant to talk about technology. Maybe not reluctant, ignorant. And the writers used gray paper.

The meeting was adjourned after an enjoyable learning experience. Delicious snacks were provided by Rita Rasco, Mary Ann Smith and Barbara Rollins, and many good discussions were held among members and guests.

Respectfully submitted,



Sharon Ellison
(in cooperation with Barbara Rollins)