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October Meeting Minutes 2023

Hello Everyone,

Today we held our October meeting.

PRESENT:

Sharon, Ryan, Mike, Jan, Niomi, Marlys, Dawn.

TALKING STICK 32 AND BOOK RELEASE PARTY:

Our book release party for TS32 and the workshop by Sharon Chmielarz went very well on September 16. Thanks to everyone for all their help. The TS books are all mailed out to the published writers who did not attend the book party. Donations are coming in.

Sharon recently got the phone number for The Event Place. This is a big meeting room at the old J&B building south of Park Rapids. They have lots of tables and chairs and a kitchen. She will go check it out when she has time. There would be no windows, no pretty scenery, but it would cost us a lot less than Jack Pines Resort. We have to take a look soon.

BOOKS:

We are done with Richard’s poetry book The Dun Box. We are now working on Cindy Fox’s memoir Black and White. We are also working on Sharon’s fifth poetry book Reverie.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Try Paint Chip Poetry. One of the writers at the book release party told us about this. We found it on Amazon and bought the game. This is great for prompts. You choose one of the paint chip colors (with very intriguing names) and then choose a prompt card. We will be trying this.

PRLAAC MEETING:

Mike attended the October meeting. They discussed Art Leap, the Armory, a Community Ed class, and a trip to New York.

WRITING EVENTS:

Sharon has just taken an 8 week online poetry class. This was with Sarah Ann Winn and called Superstition.

Dawn and Marlys have been doing some poetry slams and story telling slams in Bemidji. They will be doing some reading at Four Pines in Bemidji from Agates, a poetry anthology from League of MN Poets. The scary story slam will be at 7 PM at the Keg & Cork in Bemidji on October 19. Poetry slams are held at Fozzie’s in Bemidji. There is a Story Concert being planned for the spring, not a competition.

Ryan is working on another book, a sequel to his young adult novel. He may try Draft2Digital.

Ryan recently attended a writers’ conference called Strengths for Writers at the event center in the Mall of America. This discusses where your personality fits the best as far as writing.

Mike recently did a talk at a senior high rise regarding his books.

Ryan has a book-selling event coming up at the Arts and Crafts event at the casino in Walker on November 19.

Dawn is working on an Ecology event with her photos and writings.

We took turns reading things that we had been working on. Several of us tried the monthly words. We had such a great time discussing using various words in some of our written pieces. Our group really enjoys talking about words and language and how different words affect a poem or story. We hated to leave and go home. Hope to see you all next time!