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January Writers’ Meeting

Today we held our January meeting. The next meeting will be on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014 from 12:30 to 3 PM at Bella Caffe in Park Rapids MN.

PRESENT: Mike, Jan, Elisa, Sonja, Sharon, Jerry

TALKING STICK 23: Our call for submissions is out now and we are receiving submissions. Deadline is March 1, 2014. Our electronic submission form is up on our website www.jackpinewriters.com. You can also send your submissions in by regular mail–address is at the end of this email. Please read and follow the submission guidelines on the website. Be sure to get yours in!

Talking Stick 22 is now for sale in Book World in Bemidji as well as on Amazon.com. Sharon also has some in stock that can be purchased from her at her email below.

JERRY MEVISSEN NEW BOOK: Jerry is having a book release party for his book of short stories, Good Shepherd. The book party will be held this coming Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014, at Blueberry Pines Golf Club (located between Park Rapids and Menahga on Highway 71) from 1 to 3 PM. Join Jerry for readings from his book. This book consists of 12 short stories about the 12 residents of an assisted living home called Good Shepherd. The book is for sale on Amazon.com as well as on Jerry’s website www.jerrymevissen.com. Take a look! Jerry has two other published books: Nimrod Chronicles and Broken Hart. There will also be a book release party in the Twin Cities area late in February 2014.

Other scheduled readings:

Tuesday Feb. 4 at 1 o’clock, Jerry has a radio interview in Bemidji at KBXE with Heidi Holtan.
Saturday Feb. 8, 5-7 PM History Museum in Perham.
Thursday Feb. 20, Jerry’s home, by invitation only, Todd Wadena group.
Wed. Feb. 26, 6-9 PM The Loft in MPLS, the southern Book Release Party.
Dates to be determined for events at Wadena Depot, Staples, perhaps Bemidji.

WRITING EVENTS: The MN Northwoods Writers’ Conference will be held in Bemidji in late June 2014 again. For more details, go to: http://northwoodswriters.org/the-conference/schedule/.

Bloomington 2014 Writers Festival and Book Fair on Saturday March 22, from 9:30 AM to 5 PM. An inspiring day of with Writers, Publishers, Editors and Readers. For more information, contact Kate Pettit at lpettit@gowebway.com or 952-835-5227.

WRITING CLASSES: For classes at the Loft, go to www.loft.org and click on Classes. Sharon will be starting a new online poetry class with LouAnn Muhm next week. The Loft has great classes. A sample of what is coming up at the Loft: Saturday, Feb. 15 from 10 AM to 12:30 PM, a free class on The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing. Saturday, Feb. 22 from 10 AM to 4 PM, the Winter Poem: Inside and Out. $105.

CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS: Go to http://lakeregionwriters.net/call-for-manuscripts/ for current places to submit your writing.

MISC: Mike got a story published in the Star Tribune about his cabin. This ran last Friday in the Outdoors Weekend section. Here is the link. http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/240617621.html

Elisa recently put on some artistic/creativity events in local towns. They included creativity exercises and then discussion of social media and using it to promote your work.

Elisa has music videos which will soon be on Prairie Public TV. The first of the music videos/mini-documentaries, made from Elisa’s original historical song portraits, is premiering on Jan. 27, 2014. This one is about Dorothy Moulter, Minnesota’s Root Beer Lady. For more information: http://www2.prairiepublic.org/television/local-productions?post=34660

It was mentioned that perhaps someday the JWB and Lake Region Writers could do something up in our area somewhat like the Bloomington Art Fair. Perhaps also the Brainerd Writers Alliance. We will discuss this more in the future.

We are working on Niomi’s book. Several other JWB members have expressed interest in putting together a book.

Several of the writers read what they have been working on and the rest of us critiqued. We had a fun and inspiring meeting today. Hope to see you next time!