Workshop and book party TS31 Sept 17 2022

Hello Everyone, we are finally all catching our breath after the wonderful day we had on Saturday Sept. 17, 2022. We had not had an in-person book release party since 2019 and we had really missed seeing all of you writers.

Check out the gorgeous Jack Pines Resort

It was a beautiful late summer day in north central Minnesota. Jack Pines Resort (formerly Smoky Hills Resort) west of Park Rapids was the location for our event. This is a beautiful resort with lovely cabins, many trees, and little babbling waterfalls throughout the grounds. Several of our writers were able to stay overnight at the resort and enjoyed it immensely.

We began our day by driving in through thick fog, some of us nearly hitting deer on the way. Our local JWB members arrived early to get all our books hauled in, check the sound system, and make sure everything was ready to go. We had over 20 attendees for the workshop called Scene, the Building Block of Story. Candace Simar was the instructor and, as usual, put on an excellent workshop with several handouts and time to practice some writing. The workshop lasted from 9 AM to 12 Noon.

Then from 12 to 1 PM, we had an excellent lunch of soup and sandwich, catered by Jack Pines Resort. Our writers took some time to buy books and visit with each other. Besides our Talking Stick books, we had several other booksellers: Mike Lein, Ryan Neely, Erin Marsh, Niomi Phillips, Marsh Muirhead, Candace Simar, Sharon Chmielarz. We also had Emily Enger from Bemidji who brought information on her Book Marketing business.

At 1 PM, we began the book release party for Talking Stick 31. Sharon Harris spoke for a few minutes regarding the group’s history, how our books are produced each year, etc. Sharon Chmielarz, this year’s poetry judge, spoke and introduced the first and second place winners of the poetry submissions. The winners came up to read their poems and to accept their checks. Then the honorable mention poets were mentioned.

Following this, Mike Lein came up to introduce the creative nonfiction winners and honorable mention and hand out the prizes. He also told everyone about his books for sale and he told us about something we are thinking of doing for the next Talking Stick book. We are going to add one more genre and have two lists of words that writers could use to write a poem or short story.

Then Ryan Neely came up to introduce the fiction winners and honorable mention and hand out prizes and also to tell us about his books for sale. Then Ryan asked all the other writers in the book to take turns coming up to read their submissions if they wished. Sharon Chmielarz finished the readings with one of her hilarious poems.

Following this, Sharon Harris came up again to thank everyone for attending, thank Jack Pines Resort, thank writers for their donations, thank all the work of the JWB people for working on the book and for helping during the event, etc. Then the meeting ended and 18 of us drove to Park Rapids to have supper at the Good Life. We spent more time visiting and talking about words and writing and enjoying each other’s company. We all hated to say goodbye and head for home but we took with us such good energy from spending the day with a group of writers.

What a splendid day. It was foggy and overcast to start with and later the sun came out. Thanks again to all of you and thanks for your interest in our Talking Stick books. You will see the next call for submissions in December 2022. Hope to hear from you!