Ginny Greene called the meeting to order and began by thanking Barbara Darnall for ably leading the meetings the last two months. Nancy Masters reported that Ruth Sellers will be having surgery on Monday, 10/1/07. She and Doug have requested prayer.

GUESTS:

Sally Phillips was present. She writes children's books and teaches in the Headstart program. She also writes music and is looking for an accordion. We welcomed David Dodge as a new members.

Brags and Sags.

• Betty Thomason -- writes for Small Town Texas, a monthly newspaper in Rotan. Recent articles published were "Statue of the Sailor and the Nurse" and "Our Four Guests."
• Karen Witemeyer -- recently attended the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference, where she met some publishers and has recently submitted two proposals in her genre, Christian Historical Romance.
• Sharon Ellison reported having finished another People Profile for her missionary friends in New York on the Bugis of Indonesia, along with two more Indonesian Profiles. Research verified the Bugis were brave and daring people in the 1800s. Accomplished sailors, they became pirates and were feared far and wide. Sailors back home in England would sometimes tell their children, "Be nice or the boogey man will get you!"
• Ginny Greene -- won third place and honorable mention in the Cisco Writers Contest unrhymed poetry competition. ByLine Magazine has asked her for revisions on another story that may be used in the next few months, and she currently has a story published in Cup of Comfort for Dog Lovers, p. 98, entitled "Ditto, Darling"
• Nancy Masters -- showed us her newest book, Jeans, published by Cherry Lake Publishing as part of their "global products" series. These books are geared to fourth through sixth graders. She has just finished her Airplanes manuscript and is working on Salt. These books sell to librarians for $18.95; Nancy can sell them for $12. She also showed us a symbol between paragraphs, which differentiates between facts about a product from a fiction story about the product. The symbol is called a "dingbat"--- (note: I searched symbols in Microsoft Word; although I found many listed under "dingbats," none matched the symbol we saw in Nancy's book!)
• Terry Huff -- hails from Eastland. She won first place in two categories of the Cisco Writer's Contest!
• Karen Greene has produced a brochure about our workshop & luncheon in October and they are available for members to pass them out to friends, co-workers, etc.

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

Treasurer, Gail McMillan, reported that we have $4,298.44, with 92 paid members to date.

Business:

The Book & Music Festival began 9/25/07 with a reception at the Library for Abilene Authors who had a book published during the last year. It continues through Saturday.

Our annual workshop is 10/27/07, featuring Amy Shojai as Guest Speaker. It will be held at Briarstone. Cost: $25 workshop only; $15 lunch only; or both for $35. Registration begins at 8:30 am. The program begins at 9 am followed by the luncheon and awards presentations.

Annual Service Project:

Please bring unwrapped Christmas gifts regarding writing and/or reading to the November meeting. These are given to Child Protective Services to be passed out among the children.

Sue Davis needs people to sign up for refreshment in March and May 2008.

Nancy Masters introduced the first speaker of our "double whammy" program: Gretchen Craig. Gretchen is an AWG success story. After winning first prize in our contest several years ago, she now has written and published two books and is researching her third, The Bargain. Her first book, Always & Forever, recently won the Colorado Writers of Excellence Award. If you didn't get one from Gretchen tonight, look for Ever My Love, the sequel to her first book.

Gretchen is currently researching sociopaths and psychopaths. She began by giving us some definitions:

• Narcissist: someone who is completely self-absorbed and self-involved. (These people do not make good parents.)
• Sociopath: a personality "made" by a dysfunctional environment. (These people have no conscience, no empathy and no remorse.)
• Psychopath: born that way—no one knows why. (These people know what they are doing; they make choices, yet they have no concern for anyone else.)

Interestingly, neither sociopaths nor psychopaths are considered mentally ill. They cannot be rehabilitated in mental institutions or in jails. Not all sociopaths and psychopaths are criminals. Many are CEOs, physicians, attorneys, etc. On the opposite extreme, some sociopaths and psychopaths are homeless bums with grandiose opinions of themselves.

Gretchen provided the following key symptoms for sociopaths and psychopaths (the terms are often used interchangeably):

1. glib, articulate, charming, very bright, persuasive
2. egocentric, grandiose...every psychopath is a malignant narcissist
3. feel no remorse or guilt
4. lack empathy
5. deceitful, manipulative
6. shallow emotions, possessive
7. impulsive...some can plans things; most can not
8. poor behavior control...consequences mean nothing
9. need excitement; risk takers
10. lack of responsibility for anyone or anything
11. usually show early behavior problems

A true sociopath or psychopath exhibits a pervasive pattern of all the above symptoms. Gretchen no doubt made many of us think of people we have known or currently know who fit some or all of these patterns.

Nancy then introduced Julie Williams, the second speaker in our "double whammy" program, who demonstrated how to sell "Confessions" stories based on her article, "How to Write Confession Stories Fast." Julie is from England and has a delightful British accent. She began writing confession two years ago, has sold 18 stories, and has her 19th contract in hand. Some confessions magazines pay 3 cents per word and will prefer stories in the 8,000 to 14,000 word-count range. True Story magazine actually pays 5 cents per word. There are no by lines on confession stories. She sweetly told us that the only thing with her name on it is the check she receives.

Most readers assume confessions stories are 100% true. They do not have to be. They only need to fit the parameters of the magazine and make the readers believe they could be true. There can be 1% fact and 99% fiction if your story is good enough. Truesonline.com has guidelines for writing and submitting stories. There is also a Yahoo group called True Writers, which is full of helpful information.

Julie provided the following suggestions for aspiring confessions writers (which could be applied to almost all types of stories and articles.)

1. Create an eye-catching title (be aware the publisher may change it.)
2. Devise a strong opening
3. Stick to one main problem
4. Make your characters real
5. Don't have a cast of thousands (too many characters confuse readers)
6. Use realistic dialogue
7. Justify the bad decisions
8. Explain the changes
9. Follow the subject matter through
10. Suggest education (use sidebars to give 800 numbers or addresses)
11. Add children to the mix
12. Locate the perfect setting
13. Stay current

We can contact Julie at pjw1304 @ charter.net. Since she will soon be returning to England, we are happy she was able to spend time with us this evening.

After all this food for thought, the meeting was adjourned. Wonderful refreshments were provided with time for conversation with each other as well as with our guest speakers.

Respectfully submitted,



Sharon Ellison, Secretary