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June 20th 2004

Today we had our June meeting of the Jackpine Writers’ Bloc. The next meeting is scheduled for July 18, Sunday from 1:30 to 4 PM at Beagle Books in Park Rapids.
We had a great meeting today. Present were: Sharon, Tarah, Russ, LuAnne, Jerry, Carol. We had visitors today — Tracy Gulliver from River Voices Writers Group of Chisago City, and Roy C and Cynthia Booth from Hibbing.

TALKING STICK 13:

Last year, for TS12, we received submissions from 50 writers. This year, from 86 writers, we received 250 submissions. 56 of these are stories. Last year we had hardly any stories. Wow. We may have to make a bigger book this year. The Editorial Board is scheduled to meet on Saturday, June 26 to make the decisions on the submissions to be included in TS13.
We are right on time so far. Last year we sent our final draft in to the publishing company right before Labor Day. We hope to send it in in August this year and maybe get the book back in October.

HACKENSACK ARTS FESTIVAL:

We discussed the Hackensack Arts Festival on Saturday, August 28. We are going to get a table and sell books. We also need to get some readers signed up. Volunteers so far: Cindie, Jerry, Sharon, Tarah, Marion, Roy. We need a few more, so please let us know if you are interested.
We also need people to just come and listen and browse. There will be a lot of arts and crafts, lots to see. All of us artists need to support one another.

SECOND SUNDAY:

We have committed to attending Second Sunday at NY Mills Arts Center. We will do readings. Jerry and Sharon and Tarah will attend. We need other people to read from the TS books. They have been trying to get us there for a long time.

JULY 31 WRITING WORKSHOP AND 10 YEAR PARTY:

We hope to have final details on the writing workshop in the next week or so. Linda Henry will be putting on the workshop at the Long Lake Theater. This will be from 1 to 4 PM.
Following the workshop, around 5 PM or so, we will have our 10 year party. Jerry is in charge of planning this. Right now, he is working on the postcards. Tarah designed a card with all the covers from our Talking Stick books. Jerry will be taking this card to the printers this week. Cindie and Sharon have supplied mailing labels.
We suggested that Jerry add the web site address to the postcard as well as mentioning the writing workshop from 1 to 4PM. We discussed putting up some signs also.
Jerry is planning a program that will include Roy and Cynthia Booth and Faith Sullivan. Mark and some of the Long Lake Theater group may be involved. Some of our JWB members can read if they wish. We will have food, wine, soft drinks. We can have music inside. We could have a band outside.
This sounds like a great time!! We will be sending out postcards and e-mails.

TRACY GULLIVER – RIVER VOICES WRITING GROUP:

Tracy’s group has been together for about 3 years. They do critiquing of each others’ work. They will be putting out their first anthology this year. It is always fun visiting with other groups to see how they do things. Nice to meet you, Tracy!!

WEB SITE:

Tarah is the one who designed the JWB website. You can see it at http://www.jackpinewriters.com
Tarah has offered to make small web sites for any of our members who wanted one linked to our website, with some of their work on the site.
We also discussed again that we should put some writing tips on the web site. Florence had suggested this a while ago and it is a great idea. We will do that as soon as we have time.

PHOTO/POEM DISPLAY – SHARON AND TARAH:

Sharon and Tarah had their photos and poems, called Lines and Light, on display at the North Country Museum in Park Rapids from May 25 through June 13, with a reception on June 13. The display has now moved on to the New York Mills Cultural Center in New York Mills. It will be there for 6 weeks. We also have several other places lined up to display them. We have received some great comments.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Sharon said that she had been contacted by another Sharon Harris, who also writes poetry. Our Sharon has put out two books of poetry, Timeless Tracks and Life Savors. The other Sharon, who lives in Canada, has put out a book called Timeless Treasures. Amazing coincidence.
Roy C. Booth said that he has located two other Roy Booths; one of them is a writer also.
We spent some time reading and critiquing each others work. Russ brought some information about multi-syllabic words and mono-syllabic words. The first are softer and the second are harder. You can really use this to your advantage in writing. Roy said that the more guttural-sounding words that come from the back of your throat are harder sounding. He has to really pay attention to that in his playwriting. We mentioned that taking a speech class could be very helpful to a writer. A basic speech text book about oral interpretation would be helpful also.
Great meeting!! It was wonderful visiting with Roy and Cynthia and Tracy.