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November Meeting Minutes 2020

Hello Everyone,

Today we held our November meeting.

PRESENT:

Sharon, Ryan, Mike, Dawn, Marlys, Erin, Jan, Mary.

TALKING STICK 30:

We are starting to look at the Call for Submissions for the next Talking Stick. Because this is the thirtieth volume, we wanted to do something a little different this time. We will be accepting slightly longer fiction and creative nonfiction pieces. We like to have this out by at least the end of December. Still no idea, of course, if we can have a book release party in 2021 or not. We hope we can.

MISCELLANEOUS WRITING ITEMS:

Marlys is doing NANOWRIMO. This is always a fun challenge.

Erin has been doing some online writing classes.

Mike has been selling his books at Book World.

Mike will get us some news about the PRLAAC meetings. They are doing virtual meetings now.

Mike is working on his next book of stories.

Northwoods writers’ conference has been having online readings.

Sharon is really feeling the need for an online poetry class but has no time right now.

Ryan described his writing process to us. He is using a stream of consciousness method. He told us about Brain.FM. This is a form of music that helps you focus while writing. It helps you get into the zone.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Lately we have been sending out a list of words each month. If our writers want to try it, they can use this as a writing prompt and write a poem or very short story using it. This has been a fun challenge and it brings up some word combinations that are very surprising—things a writer would not have thought of otherwise. Sharon and Mary tried it this time.

We are grateful when we can meet in person and listen to each other read—even with masks. We are just so happy to see each other and have a good discussion—about anything. Earlier this year, when Bella Caffe was closed for a couple months, we had two virtual meetings. If we have to do that again, we will, but it is sure nice to see each other in person.

We decided that we can certainly understand how people can suffer from COVID Fatigue. This has been a long year with struggling with the pandemic. We feel like we were so careful at first, before it even spread to our area, and now that it is all around us, everyone is just so tired of staying home, being cautious, wiping and cleaning, wearing masks and gloves, steering clear of other people. We are afraid that we still have a long way to go. Thank goodness we are writers and if we have to stay home, we can still write!

Hope to see you all next time. We may skip the December meeting as it is close to Xmas but we will consider having it if enough people are interested in attending.