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December 20th 2009

The next meeting will be Jan. 17, 2010 at Bella Caffe from 12:30 to 3PM.

Present: Harvey, Niomi, Scott, John, Deb, Jerry, LuAnne, Mike, Sharon.

TALKING STICK 19

We recently had our Board meeting to discuss the next book. We are ready to send out the Call for Submissions for TS19. We will be paying $100 for second places this year. We will probably be taking electronic submissions this year also.

LuAnne will be helping Jen at Beagle with the workshops this year. The editorial board has been chosen: Sharon, Tarah, Scott, Mike, and Anne. Marilyn and Jerry will be alternates. Scott and Jerry are working on contacting the judges that we hope to get.
Scott reported on the Blank Canvas Gallery that will be opened by PRLAAC. This should be a great place for local artists to display their art. Jerry reported on the June 18 and 19 writers’ event to be put on by Borealis Books in Wadena.

WORKSHOPS PLANNED
We hope to put on at least 2 or 3 workshops this year. The first one will be April 10 with Scott. He plans to do a nuts and bolts of screenwriting workshop during the Red Bridge Film Festival. This will be at Northwoods Bank of PR in the morning. This may also include watching some film clips at Park Theater that afternoon.

MISCELLANEOUS
Sharon will have a photo and poem published in MN Moments in the Jan/Feb issue. The photo is Frosty Field and the poem is Plowed Fields. Both were included in the Lines and Light exhibit that Sharon had with Tarah for several years.

Tarah has been redoing her book Embraced by Darkness. She has broken it into 3 novels, each about one of the main characters. She has been writing about this process in her blog www.tarahlynn.com. She plans to put it back together into one long novel later on. Scott mentioned that it is actually a good idea to have a series of novels or stories that go together when you present the first one to a publisher.

WRITING EVENTS
Jerry is planning to take a short story writing class with Marge Bennett at the Loft soon. The Loft has many excellent writing classes.

Mike has often taken Internet based writing classes.

GOOD BOOKS ON WRITING
Here are some very helpful books on writing.

Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing

Revising Fiction by David Madden

Merriam Webster’s Manual for Writers and Editors

Most of the writers present read poems or stories that they have been working on. We had a great time listening and critiquing.