President Ginny Green called the meeting to order. The meeting agenda and a page entitled Top Ten Favorite Words (Not in the Dictionary) were available for guests and members. The minutes of the August meeting are posted on our website for review and were accepted.

Guests welcomed were: Whitney Root and her dad, Gordon Root, (new to Abilene) and Ian Thompson, (an ACU student) who all came to the meeting because they were at the Book & Music Festival Saturday and picked up AWG information! Other guests were Frank Sayre and Kimmie Door, who came with Millie Sayre.

Financial Report:

$4,145.11      Membership count at end of meeting was 80 (maybe 81), per Barbara.

Brags and Sags:

• Pat Mehaffey reported "A Cup of Comfort has purchased two of her stories; will received payment soon!
• Barbara Rollins reports that she is the featured author in the September issue of Inkwell Newswatch.
• Marvin Johnson reports he has an irregular heartbeat, but he was looking well at the meeting.
• Lyn Sharp had bypass surgery last week and is recuperating at home.
• Ruth Sellers reports she has been asked to do a weekly historical column in the Winters Enterprise. Way to go, Ruth!
• Brandon Davis has been sending inquiries to other newspapers pitching his column that is being printed in the Abilene Reporter News. So far, he has had one rejection, but no other responses.
• Kathryn Lay, former AWG speaker, had extensive cancer surgery and would appreciate our prayers. Her book, Crown Me, was chosen by the Scholastic Book Club and she will have a new picture book published by Pelican Books.
• Gretchen Craig, former AWG speaker, and Nancy Masters will be doing some research together soon.
• Karen Witemeyer will have a story printed at Crosswalk.com in their "Praise Reports. Last weekend she attended the American Christian Fiction Conference in Dallas, met with an editor who asked for a proposal.
• Lynn Davidson has received a free thesaurus just for submitting a story online.
• Nancy Masters reported all the contest novel entries were judged by Mitch Whittington and he has written 4 to 6 pages of critiques on each entry! Those who entered this category should get some great feedback.
• Gladys Hume, a longtime member of AWG, bought a cookbook recently. At 94, she doesn’t cook, but "really just wanted to look at the names every day.
• Kudos from Nancy Masters for the great showing at the book festival last weekend.

October Workshop:

Oct. 21. $35 for program and lunch is a bargain! REMINDER: No regular meeting in October because of the Workshop!

Newsletter Deadline: Send submissions to Barbara Rollins by October 4. November service project: Jan Carrington reminded us of this project for Child Protective Services Christmas gifts. Bring new, unwrapped books, learning toys, games to stimulate creativity and all things related to writing that would be appropriate for children ages 0 to 15 to the November meeting.

Refreshments:

Sue Davis passed our her sign-up sheet needing two more people to volunteer, one for November and another for January.

Program:

Nancy introduced our speaker, Tom Wideman, snake man extraordinaire! He delighted us with his humor and his facts about snakes. After chasing rattlesnakes for 46 years, he is an expert and has worked with National Geographic. His book, "Texas Rattlesnake Tales, sells for $15, and is available on Yahoo and at Amazon.com. Tom’s 66,000-word book was handwritten, and it took him five years to write it! (That’s dedication.)

Tom commented that ¼ of his book is about snakes (must mean the rest is about people). He has been bitten three times and lived to tell the tales. He uses a 24,000 volt mini stun gun to cure himself when bitten by a rattlesnake. The electricity affects the molecules in such a way as to render them harmless in a person’s body. It takes several jolts over a two-hour period to effect the cure. The cure sounds almost as bad as the bite.

Did you know rattlesnakes have 14 fangs? They cannot be defanged. When fangs are cut off, two more drop down in their place and two more "buds begin to develop into the next set. Tom could have gone on talking about his "pet rattlesnakes and his adventures indefinitely, but it was time for refreshments.

The 27 people present at the meeting are invited to write a rattlesnake story for the November meeting. Send them to Nancy and one person will be awarded a silver "rattle keychain designed by Tom. The rules: 1,000 words or less, typed, double spaced, true or fiction.

SOMETHING NEW:

Barbara Rollins has graciously agreed to report book sales and what happens with "Syncopated Summer over the coming months. They are $10 each. She dedicated the book to her parents. She originally got 24 books and has given away 17. Wordwright.biz sold 11 of her books at the book festival last Saturday. Barbara received 20 author’s copies that day. A total of 25 have been sold.

It was suggested that we vote on whether we set up our meeting room in a circle or in rows. The circle style worked great for the August meeting, but the rows seemed to work better for tonight’s program.

Thanks to Barbara Darnall, Pat Mehaffey and Christy Isom for the nice variety of snacks and drinks.

Minutes respectfully submitted by

Sharon Ellison, AWG Secretary