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September 17th 2006

We had a dismal, damp day for our meeting today, September 17, 2006. We had 12 persons in attendance and had a great meeting. The next meeting will be held on Sunday, October 15, 2006, from 1:30 to 4 pm at Beagle Books in Park Rapids, MN.

Present today: Sharon, Tarah, LuAnne, Nancy, Edy, Jerry, Jodi, Marion, Sandi, Tom, Russ and John.

HACKENSACK:
The celebration at Hackensack was excellent this year. We gave away two boxes of Talking Stick 10, since we have so many of those left. Louise was nice enough to stand at the top of the stairs and tell people that we were giving away books. We had people standing in line, flocking to see us. We sold nearly all the books we brought. That was a great marketing tool and we will try it again sometime. We could give away one more box of #10 as well as a box of #11 and #3 and still have over 100 left of each one of those. Jerry, Sharon, Marion and Rosa and Marilyn helped sell books and Tarah’s photographs. Tarah wanted to be there, but had a conflict with plane schedules.

FAITH SULLIVAN WORKSHOP:
We had a great turnout for Faith’s workshop, lunch, and book signing on September 9th at the Red Bridge Inn. She had some excellent writing exercises for us.

OUR FUTURE WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS:
We are mostly done now with our 2006 workshops and events. We have two things left: Poetry with LouAnn Muhm on Tuesdays in October and then our book release party in November. We are hoping for Saturday, Nov. 18, but the book is taking longer this year–we may end up in early December.

OTHER EVENTS:
Don’t forget the Sinclair Lewis workshop with Faith Sullivan as speaker. This is October 14 in Sauk Center. Part of it will be on Marketing your Book.
Brainerd Writers’ Alliance will hold a workshop on Saturday Nov. 4. Any of us who sent in submissions to their recent contest and paid the fee will also have a one year membership and can go to the workshop.

BOOK SIGNING:
Tom Stetzler had a successful book signing recently for his new book Lost Fisherman’s Bridge. Congrats, Tom.

TALKING STICK 15:
The book is basically done now. The final printout is being done right now. One more quick look through and we will hopefully get it mailed out this week. We are still discussing the cover with our printer.

MISCELLANEOUS:
LuAnne White reported that Headwaters Center for Lifelong Learning has lost its funding for next year. We are sorry to hear that and hope that they can come up with other funding, perhaps from a grant.
Jerry suggested that we should someday do something with Brainerd Writers’ Alliance, perhaps a joint meeting or reading or something.
Jerry also again mentioned his 20×20 idea. We would be following the 30×30 event in Grand Rapids MN. This is an event where 30 works of art are matched up with 30 writers. The writers must write a one page story or poem to go with it. We would like to do it in Park Rapids at the museum, using both paintings and photographs and possibly other art forms.
Sharon suggested that we give a copy of TS15 to each of the three judges this year. Jerry agreed and said that we should also do that for last year, sending those three judges a copy of TS14.

Thanks to everyone who attended!! What a great meeting. Quite a few people read and received helpful comments. We had two new people and ten regulars. We need a bigger room! Welcome to Edy and Jodi. We hope to see you again.