August 20th 2006

The September meeting will be on September 17, 2006 at Beagle Books in Park Rapids from 1:30 to 4 p.m.

Present today: Sharon, Russ, Marion, LuAnne, Jerry, Tom.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Hackensack, Saturday, Aug. 26 from 10 to 4. Jerry, Sharon and Tarah and Cindie and Roy Booth will be there to sell books and to read. Rosa and Marion will be there for part of the day.
Brainerd Writers Alliance contest, deadline Sept. 8, 2006. www.brainerdwriters.org.
Dust and Fire contest ends October 23, 2006. See their website soon for guidelines. www.bemidjistate.edu/dustandfire/SubmissionGuidelines.html
Faith Sullivan workshop on Saturday September 9, 2006, morning workshop on Creative Nonfiction, noon lunch, afternoon reading and book signing. Email cindiee@hotmail.com.
LouAnn Muhm workshop on poetry on Tuesday evenings in October. October 3, 10, 17, 24 at Park Rapids Library. cindiee@hotmail.com.
Sinclair Lewis Writers’ Conference, Saturday, October 14, 2006, Sauk Center Hight School, Sauk Center, MN. Contact Jim Umhoefer 320-352-2735.

GOLF TOURNAMENT:
The golf tourney was a success. We only had 5 teams but we still did okay. If we do it again next year, we want to start on it early and do it on a Friday or Saturday in June. Marilyn and Tarah did an incredible amount of work. Along with the other prizes, we gave away Talking Stick Volume 10 books.

MICROPHONE:
We would like to check into buying a microphone and speakers for our events. It was so hard to hear at the Landmark that we had to turn off the fans and air conditioners and it got way too hot.

TALKING STICK 15:
We are going to be a bit behind schedule this year due to the sheer volume of submissions going into the book. We like to have the first draft sent to the printers by Labor Day and we anticipate that we will be a couple of weeks behind. We still should be able to have a November book release party as usual.

MISCELLANEOUS:
We mentioned that we might want to have a joint meeting with BWA sometime.
Jerry spoke about the event at Maplelag where he spoke about the creative process and writing.
We decided that we will give away TS10 whenever we get the chance since we have so many of them. It is one of our best volumes and it will give people a good idea of what our books are like.
Jerry also spoke about the process of getting his book of short stories published. We are all learning from his experiences. Good luck, Jerry!!

Some of us read what we are working on and others critiqued. Always a good time and a learning experience.