October Meeting Minutes 2017

Hi Everyone, thanks for attending the October meeting.

PRESENT:

Sharon, Dawn, Jan, Marlys, Mike, Erin, Tenlee, Niomi, Crystal, Mary. Welcome Crystal and Tenlee.

BOOKS:

Jan’s book is all done. We are working on Doug’s book now, a memoir of his life’s travels and we are close to done. Next is Louise’s memoir. In December, we will send out a call for submissions for Talking Stick 27.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Thanks to Ryan and Tarah and everyone else who helped, the Reading Room is now done. We gave away the furniture and the books. If we can ever find a permanent home for it, we can set it up again somewhere but it was a whole lot of work moving that heavy furniture twice every year. We did appreciate the nice comments we got on it and we know people enjoyed it.

WRITING EVENTS:

Dawn told us about her storyteller events at Farm by the Lake in Bagley MN. She will have 2 in January, 2 in February, and 2 in March. She has some top-notch storytellers lined up. There will be a free 3-hour writing workshop on March 25.

Mike has more reading and book sales events coming up for his new book Down at the Dock and his earlier award winning book Firewood Happens.

Nov 18—Norwood Young America Community Ed Craft Fair

Nov 25—Book World, Park Rapids from 11-2

Dec 2—Book World, Bemidji from 11-2

Dec 10—Utepils Brewery, 225 Thomas Ave, MPLS from 1-6

Erin is teaching poetry workshops the first Thursday of the month in the conference room at Lueken’s south in Bemidji MN from 10-1. The cost is $60 ($10/meeting). Please email Erin if you are interested emarsh1974@gmail.com. She will send the information on the book they are using for the current class and the current assignment.

First City Read events in Bemidji:

Our Place in History, Nov. 11, Anthony Swann featured at the Beltrami County History 2 PM.

Our Physical Selves, Dec. 13, Erin Marsh featured at Anytime Fitness, Wednesday evening at 7 PM.

Each of those events is followed by a short open mic (2-3 minutes max per person). To sign up for either event’s open mic, contact Marsh Muirhead at mgmuirhead@midco.net.

PRLAAC MEETING:

Niomi attended the October meeting. She and Mike will take turns attending when they can. We are always very impressed with all their energy and their ideas for the Arts in our area. Niomi spoke of the Great American storyteller program that has been put on for the last two years. They need more storytellers and more people to help.

MIDWEST INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION:

We need to be thinking about what books to send in this year.

We took turns reading and critiquing the readers. It was a very good meeting. We hope to see you all next time.