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July Meeting Minutes 2020

Hello Everyone, today we held our July meeting.

PRESENT: Sharon, Mike, Jan, Marlys, Erin, Dawn.

TALKING STICK 29:

We have final proofs coming next week. Then we’ll order books. We’ll be able to order less than usual because we won’t have a book release party. That will save us some money but we will have to mail out books to all the writers, not just the ones who didn’t come to our usual book party. Writers have been generous about sending us their $3 for postage—and some wonderful folks have sent $6 so they can pay for another writer’s postage. Aren’t writers just great people?

WRITERS’ WORKSHOP:

Candace Simar will be putting on a virtual workshop for us using Zoom. Ryan will be assisting with that. This is being planned for Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020 from 10 AM to 12 noon. We will have flyers going out later this week for that so people can start signing up.

HACKENSACK:

The Book and Art Festival in August was also cancelled. The Northwoods Arts Council is planning to help promote all the writers and their books on their website. We hope to get our Talking Stick 29 mailed out in August so we can promote the book in September.

PRLAAC (HEARTLAND ARTS):

Niomi attended the July meeting and reported that Art Leap is scheduled for Sept. 26 and 27. We thought perhaps we could ask one of those places to sell our books. As we already knew, some of the other events have been cancelled, such as the Storyteller event. Niomi said she will also attend the August Heartland Arts meeting. That one will be held in a park.

WRITERS EVENTS:

Erin and Marlys both attended some of the Northwoods Writers Conference events in Bemidji. That was also virtual this year. They said it worked just fine and seemed successful. Writers were allowed to comment and it was all engaging. They said that some of the speakers now have their videos archived on the Northwoods Writers Conference website.

Mike will be doing a Google Hangouts event himself for a Chanhassen group. This will be on how to get started in writing for magazines.

Mike was a finalist for humor with his third book Crooked Lake Chronicles. Instead of a live event, they had a video of the recorded event online.

Dawn attended a virtual poetry class with LouAnn Muhm, both her Short Shorts I and II.

Sharon is still enjoying her Loft Class, Night Writer, Poems from the Darkness with Sarah Ann Winn.

GOOD BOOKS OR VIDEOS:

Audubon’s Sparrow, A Biography in Poems by Juditha Dowd.

Woman in Closet with Flashlight during Quarantine, a hilarious UTube video.

We had a good day. Many of us read things we have been working on and the rest of us critiqued. Hope to see you all next time.