Shortly after joining this group seven years ago, something different happened at one of the meetings. Before the readings began, Russ Burns got out a small stack of books. They were bound, soft-cover books about 1/2 inch thick. I could see the title was Horizons. Russ handed out two copies each to several people in the room. I learned that Horizons was the name of the SCWW Anthology. These members of our group were getting two free copies of the book because their work had been selected to appear in it.

I was really jazzed by this discovery. The following year, I made one submission in each category: fiction, essay, and poetry. I had spent many, many hours tweaking them, trying to get them perfect. When I sealed up the submission envelope, I had such butterflies in my stomach. Getting in Horizons was a big deal for me.

Several months later, the anthology competition winners were listed in an issue of The Quill. What a thrill it was when I saw my name in all three categories. I got out a yellow magic marker and hi-lighted my name and the titles of my work. I was so proud, but that was nothing compared to when I got my two copies of the book.

The following year, I set a new goal for myself. Not only did I want to place in all three categories, I wanted to do it with three pieces each having the same title, My Son The Poet. Each was completely different from the others, but they all worked with that title.

Two Greenville chapter members coordinated the anthology competition that year, so I made inquiries after the judging was completed. Two of my My Son The Poet made the cut; one other was on the bubble. The bubble referred to a gray area of titles that would go in the book only if the budget permitted. If the printer costs ran too high, the answer was eliminating some pages.

Either the money numbers worked out, or my phone call laments about wanting all three to place paid off. My Son The Poet was printed in all three categories of the 1996 Horizons. That year, I really had something special to give as Christmas presents. From then on, submitting to the anthology competition was a minor obsession with me. I couldn't imagine not entering.

Now I have six Horizons lined up together on my bookshelf, and it's time to go after number seven. It's also time for every member to go after the challenge of the SCWW anthology competition. Make a vow to start or add to that row of Horizons on the bookshelf. Get several extra copies to show the grandkids someday.

Note: Your anthology submission won't be considered if your dues are not paid up. Check out the label on the next Quill. It will clearly show your expiration month. Also check out the complete rules for the anthology competition in this Quill. A few things have changed.

Robin Monroe received Best Children's Story honor at Florida Christian Writers Conference.

Nancy Parker's article A Few Grand Old Hotels Ago appeared in the February issue of Greenville Magazine, and she wrote the Community Showcase piece on Safe Harbor in the March issue.

Paradise Delayed, an Easter allegory by Leland Beaudrot, appeared in the April issue of The ARP magazine.

Faye Tollison has an article on self-editing in The Quill.

Carig Faris, Board member from Rock Hill, is preparing flyers to promote SCWW throughout the state. "These flyers should make the chapter meetings easier to locate and increase our enrollment," said Tom Curtis, SCWW Chapter Liaison. Our job is to find appropriate places to post these to welcome local writers and poets to our Workshop meetings.

Once again, door prizes will be needed for the Myrtle Beach conference in October. To spread the expense, each chapter is asked to provide one prize at over $200, one between $100 and $200, and three or more less than $100. As you know, the door prizes add a lot of fun and excitement to the conference. Let's start beating the bushes for items of interest to writers.

The SC Arts Commission, in the process of creating a new long-range plan, is conducting a series of forums in which the public may voice issues, ideas and concerns that will present opportunities and challenges in the next decade. You can participate by attending meetings around the state or responding to the questions by email.

John Kingsbury began a new novel, Dying With Amanda. The story promises to be a winner with much of John's personality coming through. We felt the beginning sentence should be one that came later: "The women in Harmony said Emily died because we didn't love her enough." The group felt John gave us good details, but it was too much too soon. The story proceeds to one of Amanda, the girl in town dying of leukemia. That is her claim to fame and John needs to keep focused on Amanda's story. Make the time setting earlier than the Gulf War. It felt more like world War II era.

Phil Arnold came without Elvis. But what a story! Searching for the North Pole, Judy, the elf, and Santa share a few laughs and drinks. Phil took us down a road of sexual fantasy using his own unique style. It was funny and well-written, maybe Forum would be a place to submit it.

Time Travel, by Carol Jellen, was a poetic essay. The group agreed it was a serious piece and didn't need to rhyme. Try making it free verse. Break down the lines into shorter segments. It has a wonderful sentiment. Work on the structure.

Sue Renault wrote her two versions of a poem as she walked after work, just before the meeting. Writing verse as she walks a mile seems to be a good way for Sue to focus. Her question was: "Which was better?" The group liked the first version better. Alpha Female, as usual bucked the crowd. I preferred the version where she ended "I will run like the wind," instead of "I will write a poem." Maybe because I have more chance of running like the wind instead of writing a poem!

Leland Beaudrot is back in the woods behind the Governor's School for the Arts again with Fairy Play. His character is Dexter, the shy teenager who's looking for THE girl. The two who trail him both fail in "his adolescent image of perfection." I especially liked his line:"If only he could add the two together and divide by three he might come up with something. Unfortunately, he wasn't good at math." Chrysanthemum shows up and to Dexter she is like a forest nymph. Is he setting us up for the Garden of Eden story when Chrys throws an apple at him? To be continued...

In A Woman in Between, Debby Cohan raises the most interesting idea, would she like to have a sex slave bringing home the bacon. Well, I'm some pretty nice bacon and--but, I ain't going there because my computer is underage.
Debby has some really interesting imagery. The idea of a fan chasing itself into infinity is remarkable. The introduction of the mother character is interesting. Just a quick poll, is the mother disapproving or jealous of the daughter's conduct? After all, if a boy has to compete with his father on the baseball diamond, why not have a daughter compete with her mother at the sexual Olympics.

Sue Renault read a really nice poem that had a yellow flower in it. Actually, she read two poems she claimed she whipped out in an hour or so. Yeah, right, its pretty clear these poems reflect a lifetime of living and some experience with reading and writing poetry, so this I did it in a hour is as likely to fly with me as we are likely to see flying Piggs.
When it was time, fingers touched keyboard and the transcript of this lovely poem was made. Now the transcription of Sue's poem might have taken an hour. You know, I love typing on a keyboard because I have a bit of a problem holding a pen. Sue's poem is really nice, but it could be improved if Sue gave the yellow flower to, oh let's say, a really nice, handsome, Prince Charming Type Pigg.

Speaking of Prince Charming types, Dick Taylor read a really nifty chapter from his book, Unlikely Angel. Sure there were plenty of things said about changes that were needed and most of the suggestions made sense, but so what? He's got a nice story going. Agents say send me five pages of work and I'll tell you if you can write. I've seen five pages of Dick's work and he can write.
Richard is in our group to learn. He's doing a training novel, something to learn on, before he goes back to the story he needs to write, his novel about Vietnam. While agents insist no one will ever write a good book about Vietnam, they also said that about Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) units. If you construct your story in a craftsman like manner it will find publication.

But whatever you do, don't reject anything written by Pat Stewart. This month she wrote an article on dealing with rejection. Rejection comes early when you're a Pigg. After all, Mom had twelve in my litter and only feeding spaces for eight. It makes one wonder why triplets don't handle rejection better than the rest of us.
Pat makes a good point, one has to learn to reject the opinions of people who's standing to accept or reject is suspect if not invalid. As writers we cannot think being rejected by editors like the ones who put Nicholas Sparks, Danielle Steele, and Janet Daily on the market is somehow relevant to the value of our work. After all, these editors actually like the work of writers like Nicholas Sparks, Danielle Steele, and Janet Daily. They probably like reruns on the Soap Opera Channel. So what exactly is their opinion worth?

Did you know that God created golf playing alligators? Oh yes He did. I know this because I saw such an animal in a wonderfully written book by Andi Buckless. Andi uses these wonderful "test driving adulthood" characters in her work. These characters are the age of her audience and they test drive what it would be like to be a gown-up. In this book Andi gives her young listener the opportunity to pretend he or she is a teacher, a grown-up in charge of a student who just happens to be an alligator, but please note, this alligator is a grandfather. See, the kid bosses the boss. Neat.
Now does this alligator have someone to teach him his game, someone to mentor his swing, someone teach him how to write? Oh, yes he most certainly does. He has a little boy as his mentor and coach and teacher. This is, after all, a future PGA star, not some duffer from the swamp.

Isn't writers group fun! Every meeting is a family reunion without the stress. A delightful picnic. It's fun to hear from Randy that he sold ten books at the Foothills Writers Conference and from Jim Poindexter that agents are interested in his writers. And to laugh with Pat, our all-time electoral loser; let's make sure she doesn't vote for Gene Fehler for poet laureate of South Carolina.

It's fun to talk about writing and words with kindred spirits. It's fun to be challenged: just what could we say to help our co-writer's prose gallop with grace? What small word can we substitute to make a poem shine like a dime? What words of encouragement can we give a new writer whose lumpy dough can, we're sure, take shape with persistent kneading and nurture?

And how bout a spirited discussion of reject letters, just for fun? Debby Cohan thinks we should collaborate on a book of our reject bests. Phil says we have to include his all-time favorite, the manuscript returned with two huge letters drawn unequivocally over the text, big and bold as could be: NO. John K's favorite was the note he received, "We don't accept from the mentally ill." Another favorite was, "May his hands be consumed in a shredding machine if he ever goes near a typewriter again." Ouch!

Writers group offers a chance to test our wits: will they laugh as Judy the Elf looks for the North Pole? You bet they will, Phil. Will they find the setting whimsical and the characters engaging? You got it right, Leland. Will the words formed in my heart find their way to another? Yes, Carol, they will. Will they understand just how mean Harmony could be? You left no doubt, John.

It's a chance to share achievements. Congratulations Faye. We look forward to reading your article in The Quill. Well done, John. Wish we, too, could announce that we've finished our manuscript. Big fat Kudos to Leland for making such modern people of us all. Imagine, our very own e-newsletter! I wonder if we're the first SCWW to make this wonderful adventure into cyberspace. And happy anniversary to all of us. Someone speculated that we are at or near our tenth year of meetings. Russ? Gene? Is this right? If so, Debby C and I will put a celebration event together. Anyone know the date of Greenville's first meeting?

Sue Renault {;-)

Printed Matters is the newsletter of the Greenville Chapter, SCWW, which meets on the first Thursday of each month at 6:00 p.m. at The Open Book, 110 S Pleasantburg Drive, Greenville, SC.

Thanks to our contributing writers & news reporters: Phil Arnold, Nancy Parker, Faye Tollison, Tom Curtis, Pat Stewart, John Kingsbury, and Sue Renault.

Copyright 2001 by Leland Beaudrot, Editor. Contributing writers retain all rights to their work.