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January 18th 2009

We held our meeting today at Bella Caffe. Our next meeting will be held on Sunday February 15, 2009, at Bella Caffe in Park Rapids MN from 12:30 to 3PM.

Present today: Sharon, Vern, Mike, John, Scott, Judy

TALKING STICK 18
The call for submissions for the next book was sent out in early January. We are already receiving submissions. The only change is that we will only be giving out 1 free book this year instead of 2. This will help our group save some money but allow us to keep on putting out the books. There is a March 1, 2009 deadline. See our website for the rest of the details: www.jackpinewriters.com.

WRITING EVENTS 2009
We handed out a tentative schedule. We will hold our Editorial Board meeting Mid-March. June 28, Sunday, will be our Fair Havens Benefit Golf Tournament to raise money for the group. August 22, Saturday, will be the Hackensack Book and Art Festival that we always attend to sell books. September 26, 2009, Saturday, is the tentative date for our Book Release party for TS18. We may have a workshop that day. We may have one other workshop in the wings. Otherwise, we are planning a simple year with just the basics. 2010 may see another 20×20. 2011 may see a writers’ retreat.

COMING EVENTS
We are sending out a call for readers and musicians for open-mic performances at the coffee house at the Terrapin Station in Nevis MN on Saturday, January 24, 2009 from 5 to 7 PM. Tell your friends and join us!!

At our February meeting, Scott plans to bring his laptop so he can show us some of the latest computer programs for writing screenplays or novels and organizing chapters, keeping track of your characters, etc. Some of the programs are: Yeah Write, My Novel, Movie Magic, etc. Some of these are free programs.

Bloomington Art Center, Writers’ Festival and Book Fair, 6th Annual Celebration of the Literary Arts will be held on Saturday March 21, 2009 from 9:30AM to 4:30PM at the Bloomington Center for the Arts on 1800 West Old Shakopee Road, Bloomington MN. Join them for a day with writers, publishers, editors and readers. Keynote speaker is William Kent Krueger. There will be various 1 hour workshops to choose from. For more information, please contact Kate Pettit at lpettit@gowebway.com or 952-835-5227. You must sign up no later than March 19, 2009.

There is also a Science Fiction/movie convention in March or April that we don’t have any information on yet.

In June, there is the writers’ conference in Bemidji. We will have more information on that later.

SUCCESSES:
Sharon had a poem accepted by Dust & Fire for their next issue. So did Niomi and Judy.

Many of the attendees read what they were working on and the rest of us critiqued them. All in all, a very good meeting with warmer weather. It was good to see everyone since we had to cancel the December meeting.

See you next time!