Abilene Writers Guild Meeting Minutes
November 17, 2005
Center for Contemporary Arts Building
A regular guild meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Vice President Jan Carrington. Guests were welcomed and introduced -- Sharon Ellison's husband Sterling, and Shirley Strawn's husband Frank. This meeting was held the third Thursday because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but the turkey dinner buffet and program was not held this year.
Brags and Sags
Lynn Davidson is happy with the cover for his new book Frio Man which will be released in six to eight weeks by Publish America. His Sag is that his first book A Final Place got good reviews, but not a lot of sales. He found that several people bought one book and passed it among their friends.
Jim Johnson's article on publishing was printed in Big Country Writers.
Marvin and Pat Johnson are celebrating 57 years of wedded bliss. Marvin's article on his WWII experience was published in the Abilene Reporter-News.
Brandon Davis bought a guitar last week as a next step of his song-writing interest.
John Matthews book The Railroad was published by the Scholastic series.
Nancy Robinson Masters' book Extraordinary Patriots has become an explosion of success. It's been nominated for two awards already. She was also one of the authors featured at the Books A Million grand opening at the new mall store last Sunday.
Nancy also had a Brag for the Guild - many of the contest judges are complimenting the excellent entries of this year.
Sharon Ellison's blurb about meeting George Jones in Nashville was published in the newspaper.
Jan Carrington found that her Honorable Mention in the Writers Digest contest was rated 34th out of 100 Honorable Mentions.
The group of writers which includes Jo Helen Cox, Diane Lyell, Jan Carrington and Ginny Greene received an acceptance for a story they submitted to Hopscotch magazine. That sounds like a Brag, but the Sag is that the publishing date wouldn't be until August 2012.
Stewart Caffey edited the testimony by Susan Price, "Love Made New."
Announcements
Sue Davis reports that only two more servers are needed to fill out the refreshments crews clear through May 2006. This does not include the refreshments needed for the Day Meeting scheduled for January 28. The sign-up sheet was passed around. Since Sue is now on the Board of Directors, a new Refreshments Chair is needed.
No Guild meeting is held in December.
Gifts were collected at this meeting for our annual service project. They are distributed to the children of the CPS caseloads and include creative and educational items, and cash. Some of the gifts brought this year are a calligraphy set, books, color markers, blocks, tablets, Etch-A-Sketch.
Snacks were served at intermission. In keeping with the season, they included apple cider and corn chips.
Program
Nancy Masters gave a program about the most popular stories this year: Historical stories of the Civil War and the Colonial period including the Revolutionary War. She advised history writers to produce now, because by next year the popular demand will likely have a new emphasis. Her program included a list of Colonial Careers that most of us could only guess at. Nobody these days has ever been an ananuensis or a blue stocking, a peruker, pettifogger, or pumbum, and you just can't find a good rattlewatch or a snobscat anymore.
Respectfully submitted:
Ginny Greene, substituting for
Secretary Karen Witemeyer