TS26 book release party!

Hello Everyone,

Thanks so much to all of you who attended our Short Shorts workshop with Marge Barrett and our book release party for Talking Stick Volume 26, Fine Lines. Both events were held at Blueberry Pines Golf Club between Menahga and Park Rapids. We had a great day with authors arriving from far and wide. We even had one person from Tennessee.

We started the day with the three hour workshop with Marge. She taught us how to shorten our writing, how to make an emotional impact in very few words. Nouns and verbs are so important. Cut the adjectives and adverbs. A Short Short might end abruptly with a punch. Everyone got to practice writing short pieces during the workshop.

Then, after lunch, the book party began. We announced the winners and honorable mention of each genre and asked them to come up and read. If the winners were not present, either Marge or one of our JWB members read the story or poem. After that, we asked anyone else in the book to come up and read. We spent a lovely afternoon listening to stories and poems. Some were very funny; some were very sad; most touched our hearts deeply.

After the book party, many of us moved into the bar area to sit back and relax and converse. We had a great day full of good conversation, greeting old friends and making new ones. We all agree that the book and the release party are a huge amount of work—but well worth it.

Thanks to all who submitted to our book and all who attended today. Thanks to all who donated to our group. We hope to keep on publishing the Talking Stick books!

Sharon