Abilene Writers Guild Meeting Minutes
May 24, 2007
Center for Contemporary Arts
President Ginny Greene opened the meeting.
The Guild is celebrating its 38th birthday. A charter member, Shirley Strawn, was present and told us a little about how the first meeting was held in Juanita Zachary's home with 12 people present.
Visitors: Bill Masters, James Mallow, Jay Hayhurst, Ann Wilder and six others who came with our speaker for the evening. Karen Greene was re-introduced as our new Publicity Chairperson.
Ann Wilder is a Clinical Social Worker, writer and poet, who invited us to programs at the Library concerning poetry and visual art on Friday and Saturday. She put this program together on quite short notice. We think she should join AWG!
Brags and Sags
- Nancy Masters and Maurice Mallow touted their new book, Devoted to Writing, $10, 70 devotionals for writers. Books will be available for purchase at the June meeting. There are comments from Max Lucado and two-time Spur award winner, Dusty Richards.
- Richard Pickett sent out a broadway-style musical last week to about 2 dozen theaters.
- Karen Witemeyer is a finalist in a national romance writers contest with a historical romance. Winner to be announced in July.
- Sharon Ellison has been asked once again to write another "people group profile" by her missionary friend in NY. This one will be on the Aceh people of southwest Indonesia. Their capital city was wiped out during the tsunami in December 2004.
- Barbara Rollins will be signing her book, Syncopated Summer, at Hastings on May 26 from 2 to 4.
- Ginny Greene reminded us of the anthology, Silver Boomers. They have had several submissions but need more. Check out Silverboomers.com for more information
Nancy Masters made a motion that Minutes from our previous meeting be posted on the website and approved as posted. Approved by all.
Financial report – No report since Gail is in Weatherford taking care of her daughter, Tonya, who is improving from her stroke and may be back to work in 6 to 8 weeks. We do have 90 members.
Sue Davis passed around a refreshment sheet for volunteers. A greeters sheet was also passed around.
Stewart reported that as part of the grant application he will be completing, he would like a list of books AWG members have published or even hope to publish during the coming year.
Monthly Members Only Contest
Karen Witemeyer reported on our Monthly Members Only Contest, Theme: Soldiers. There were 8 entries from Sally Jadlow, Sue Davis, Brandon Davis, Barbara Rollins, Ginny Greene and Jan Carrington.
Winners were:
- Sue Davis – Two Soldiers and Memories Never Known 1st place
- Brandon Davis – Across A Creek In Europe 2nd place
- Barbara Rollins - A Soldier's Salvation 3rd place
Judge Terri Woliver gave good feedback on each entry. Coming from a background in a military family, this Theme was right up her alley.
The theme for the last monthly members-only contest is "hot dogs." Karen Witemeyer gave us some incentive with a very clever little poem about hot dogs!
We were reminded that our new year begins in June, so dues will be due. Other reminders were about our annual contest (entries are due in July) and that we will begin our Super Contest, which will be the top winners from the members-only monthly contests. Top winner will receive a prize during the annual workshop.
The nominating committee (Jan Carrington and Mary Ann Smith) proposed the following new officers:
- Barbara Darnall, Executive Vice President
- Gail McMillan, Treasurer
- John Matthews, Director
- Rita Rasco, Director
- Stewart Caffey, Alternate
There were no nominations from the floor. Motion was made and seconded that nominations cease. All positions were approved to serve two-year terms, beginning June 2007.
Nancy Masters discussed membership fees of $25 for individuals and $35 per family per year. Best deal in town, especially if you enter and win even one members-only monthly contest!
Nancy then introduced Maurice Mallow, who in turn introduced our guest speak, Tracy Pitcox, who hails from Brady, Texas. He began working at the radio station when he was 15 years old. His mother had to drive him to and from work at KNEL, where he has worked for 21 years, putting Brady on the map in the country/western music genre.
He was chosen to host the Hillbilly Hits show. The following are among his other awards and recognitions:
- Wylie Award 2002– Texas Popular Country Music Award
- Disc Jockey of year in Region 4 in 2005.
- Terry Award, 2002, humanitarian for Texas County Music
- Texas Radio DJ of the year in 2000
- Citizen of the year in Brady in 1990
B- oard Member, Texas Country Music Hall of Fame
- Golden Rule award from Lake Worth High School, Ft. Worth, special needs class. They invite him every year to DJ their spring prom
Tennessee – Tennessee Ambassador of Good Will, 2004, presented by the Governor.
Texas Highways, June 2007 issue, p. 56-57, story about Tracy and the Country Western Museum, 7 years old, Brady.
Highlights of the program by Tracy Pitcox:
Tracy manages Ferlon Husky in Wisconsin. Once in Green Bay, he saw on a telephone "phone line to heaven; talk to God for $10,000." At an Enrique's Restaurant phone in Texas, he saw: "Phone call to heaven, 25¢." You see, it's a local call in Texas.
He loves to communicate with people. He attended Angelo State University and worked briefly at a radio station there. He has conducted weekly interviews with artists over the phone and in person when in Nashville and has cultivated personal relationships with each of them. When Bill Mack gave Tracy a copy of his autobiography, Tracy realized he had 20 years worth of taped interviews in boxes. He approached Branch Smith Printing in Ft. Worth. They thought it would be interesting to get some of the interviews together in book format. His book has 82 interviews, published verbatim.
2500 copies were released in March and he has sold 857 to date. His comment was: "It's (writing a book) is a lot different from being on the radio!" He let the entertainers tell their story. "Nobody's going to buy the book because of something I've written."
He smiled as he commented that spelling errors are there forever and next time he will spend more time correcting the little mistakes. He mentioned Leona Williams, who was married to Merl Haggard at one time. He drops names like Loretta Lynn as if she were the girl next door. In fact, Loretta Lynn wrote liner notes on the back of the new book. He is very proud of that.
Frankie Miller and Curtis Potter were special guests who came with Tracy tonight. Their interviews are in the book.
He was instrumental in starting the Heart of County Music Museum in Brady. 850 members raised $50,000 to build the 7 years ago. About 75 artists have donated things from their career to the museum.
He founded Heart of Texas Country in San Marcos to make sure there are CDs of Texans singing their own music. They now distribute music worldwide to outlets that carry CDs and markets them through his website.
Questions from AWG:
Who was your favorite person to interview and who was most difficult?
Favorite:
- Loretta Lynn, whom he met in Branson. He has been no only in her home, but in her bedroom---strictly on a tour! He even saw her Jacuzzi tub. At first he was a little nervous around her because she is "larger than life."
- Dolly Parton is another of his favorite people. He described her as being down to earth. He grew up listening to her music, seeing her on movies, etc., so the interview was a little intimidating at first; but she put him at ease. "She was just as country as I am."
Difficult:
Chubby Checker was hard to interview. He talked a lot and was impressed with himself. Said he decided to become an entertainer after seeing Ernest Tubb when he was 4 years old.
Interesting:
Tammy Faye Baker. Had her book, read it, sent her a note, her husband called and offered a radio interview. He did it, not sure he would air it since it was during the scandal. But it was a good interview and he was glad he did it. She was very nice. Her favorite song is "Welcome to My World."
Do you let people see what you write about them before publication?
He stated since the interviews were conducted for radio, they knew they were going to be used on radio. The interviews were transcribed just as they were spoken, including grammatical errors, which Tracy felt was only fair to them.
How do you plan an interview?
Sometimes he plans the questions, but it depends on his own depth of knowledge about the individual. If he doesn't know them well, he finds the internet is a valuable resource. Most of the time one question leads into another from their discussion.
Did you need additional permission?
"I don't know if I did or not. I haven't been sued yet." Knows at least 60 really well. No written releases. Has sent a copy of the book to every person featured. 3 or 4 are now selling them at their shows. Joe Paul Nichols is carrying them and selling them on his show as well.
Are you big in this country?
"No. Nobody knows who I am," he said with his easy smile. More people knew him years ago. Now program are no longer local.
He brought along some cookbooks from the Heart of Texas Museum. A ladies' organization compiled them for the museum. Some stars who have recipes in the book are: Brenda Lee, Mickey Gilley, and Mel Tillis; there are also local recipes in the book.
When interviewing a big name star on the radio, if they something not flattering, politically incorrect, do you have to be careful? "No, these people are trained. They know what to say. They're very bright people. It's a business."
The price of his book: $14.95 retail. The cookbook sells for $10.
Cookbook $10
Frankie Miller brought along his guitar and sang "That's the Way It Was in '51" – for those folks around in 51, it brought fond memories. For the other, he said it would be a bit of a history lesson.
Curtis Potter than sang "Mansion On The Hill," made famous by Hank Williams.
After the songs, the meeting was adjourned for refreshments.
Respectfully submitted and co-authored by,
Sharon Ellison, Secretary, and Barbara Rollins
(Between us, we hope to get it all!)