Ginny Greene called the meeting to order and briefly discussed how made-up words become part of our vocabulary. She then read us a list of what she called "unwords," some of which are now actually accepted as "real" words. "Vocabularians" are those people who make up new words which may eventually find their way into our dictionary of common words.

GUESTS:

Debbie Gordon, who enjoys writing poetry, was welcomed, and expressed an interest in joining our group. Another guest was Beverley Carlson, a Realtor, Broker and owner of Stage-It, a home staging business. Beverley is also a member of Toastmasters.

Brags and Sags.

• Sharon Ellison reported a managing editor of Proceedings magazine sent her an edited version of her "Reunion" story, which is scheduled to be printed in the December issue, out soon. Her brief bio, which they asked her to approve, mentions that she is a member of the Abilene Writers Guild!
• Brandon Davis reports his Sag of not writing for the Abilene Reporter News any long due to a variety of reasons. However, a Japanese fan site is looking for new writers and are interested I his work. There will be no pay, but does provide other benefits.
• Karen Witemeyer reports that Bethany House publishers requested a full manuscript of one of her Christian fiction stories, which she happily supplied.
• Gordon Root reports his first book about the history of the first world war will be available soon; then he shared some of his difficulties in reaching an agreement with the publisher concerning the layout of the book's cover, among other things.

Minutes of our previous meeting were accepted as posted on our website.

There was no Treasurer's report.

Business:

Annual Service Project: Some unwrapped Christmas gifts regarding writing and/or reading were brought to the November meeting. Since Jan Carrington's brother is very ill, and since she usually takes care of the donated items for us, others gifts may be delivered to Barbara Rollins' office at the County Courthouse. She will see that they are taken to the Child Protective Services office.

Sue Davis reports January and February snacks are taken care of, but she needs some people to volunteer for March, 2008.

We were all reminded that the January member-only contest topic is "Winter Wonderland," which is due by Jan. 10 and should be 1000 words or less. Watch for specific details in the December Newsletter.

Ginny introduced our program, "Prodigious Poetry, Prose, Preaching and Photos!"

Barbara Rollins gave a historical presentation along with slide show about Charles and John Wesley. Charles, born 300 years ago, was a writer and preacher and wrote approximately 5,000 hymns, many of which are sung in our churches today --- not only in Methodist churches. He lived in his brother's shadow.

John Wesley was the unintentional founder of the Methodist Church. He was rescued from a fire at Epworth as a child. He attended Oxford, where he was a member of a "holiness" group, which eventually became called Methodists, because they had "different methods" of doing things than the Anglican church. Even though Charles was an ordained Anglican/Episcopal priest, he ordained preachers in the Methodist church without ever giving up his position in the Anglican. On average, he wrote 4 to 5 sermons per day as well as 32 volumes explaining Biblical scriptures and passages.

Barbara asked Beverley Carlson to explain why joining Toastmasters would be good for writers. Beverley briefly stated the aim of Toastmasters and reminded us that as writers we need to be ready and able to market our works through speaking engagements, at book signings and possibly even on radio and TV. She mentioned that there are several groups of Toastmasters meeting in Abilene. Hers meets on Wednesday at noon at Southwest United Methodist Church.

Question: In 300 years, who will read your words or sing your songs?

Then, Karen Riley-Bishop took over and began by show us some photos she had taken. She then proceeded to give us all an assignment: write "something" about one of the photos….a paragraph, a poem, a page…the choice was ours, but we had to write something. After only a few minutes, some of us read our "creations" to the group. It was quite interesting to see how differently we all think.

Barbara reminded us of several things:

1. You have time to write
2. Use tools (like photographs) to get creative.
3. It's okay to be different

After expressing our appreciation to Barbara and Karen, the meeting was adjourned so that we could enjoy refreshments and time for conversation.

Respectfully submitted,



Sharon Ellison, Secretary