October 17th 2010

Today we had such a fun meeting. The next meeting will be held on Sunday, November 21, 2010, at Bella Caffe in Park Rapids MN from 12:30 to 3PM.

PRESENT:

Tarah, Niomi, Deb, Cindy, Elizabeth, LuAnne, Sharon. We had all women today!

WRITERS EVENTS:

The Billy Collins event in Bemidji was fabulous. He had a poetry workshop called Poetry Maneuvers in the morning followed by a book signing. Tarah and Sharon attended both. Sharon has some good notes from the poetry workshop if anyone is interested in reading through them. Then he had a reading in the evening. There were over 400 people present. No one would believe that a poet could hold that many people so spellbound. You absolutely could have heard a pin drop, in between his poems, as the audience waited breathlessly for his next words. He is a great speaker, very humorous, very entertaining. This was followed by a reception also. It was a great day of events, enjoyed by all who attended. There are also some recordings on UTube with Billy doing readings.

We know Jerry attended the Sinclair Lewis event and another event at the Loft. He will have to report on those at the next meeting.

In July, Deb attended a writer’s retreat for one week in an old farmhouse on Madeline Island in Wisconsin. This was put on by Mary Carroll Moore. The workshops involved how to put together a novel, discussions about the setting, the emotions, the characters, the story/outline. There were also writing exercises. We hope to get more details on this event later.

In September, our Talking Stick 19 Book Party was a great success. We had between 50 and 60 people and had a great time. Vern had us all laughing with this reading of The Organist. Great story!

In October, Tarah attended an event at Zandbrov book store in Fargo. It was with Chris Guillebeau who has written a book about the art of nonconforming. He has been doing a tour of every state in the United States and many foreign countries.

In October, the Lake Region writers had a meeting and a day of workshops. Tarah, Marilyn, Niomi, Cindy, Jerry, Scott and Elizabeth attended. Some of the attendees wished the workshops could have been at various writing levels, like beginner, medium, and advanced.

BOOKS:

Marion’s poetry book is at the printers and will be back in 4 or 5 weeks.

Richard wants us to do a third book.

We are working on Tarah’s fantasy novel now also.

COMING EVENTS:

Deb will be teaching the NANOWRIMO class in Pine River starting in October and going through November. You can reach Deb at cordria@hotmail.com.

NEW WEBSITE:

Tarah has put up a new website, www.htf.com. This site is a place where people who have self published books can have them advertised free of charge.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Check out Doug Ohman’s website at www.pioneerphotography.com. He is a photographer who has done workshops in Park Rapids. He has some great photo books on churches, barns, etc.

Check out www.braveheartwomen.com and www.deviantart.com.

What a great meeting! Hope to see you all next time.