Andi Buckless has brought forth a new volume in human history: Connor Iain Buckless, 7 lbs., 6 oz., born January 7, 2002. Baby and family are doing well, though this is also a sad time. Andi had recently shared with us her children's story about a little girl's visit to a grandmother with cancer. This story was inspired by her mother-in-law, who lost her battle with cancer two days before the baby was born.

Congratulations to Barbara Elkins on her election to the SCWW board of directors. Way to go, Barb. It's wonderful to continue our long tradition of Greenville representation on the board. Yea, Gene Fehler. This time a pretty poem in Bible Advocate...another in Ellery Queen magazine... More Tales of Baseball's Golden Age and something to look forward to: Simon and Schuster will be doing Gene's goblin poems in a 'gatefold' book. The good news is that they'll do a first printing of 35,000 copies! The bad news is that we have to wait until 2004! Gabrielle Johansen has had a poem accepted for web publication by Mentress Moon. She reminds us to visit The Critical Poet. Welcome, Sue Cook. We're glad you came. Good luck with your contest piece. Hmmmm...who was that strange man in the stable?

And a special thanks to Sue Renault who volunteered to host the "herd" around her living room coffee table for our weather delayed January meeting. The coffee and sweet rolls were a real treat. - Ed.

Palmetto Book Alliance and the SC State Library are sponsoring a free 1 day workshop for writers on Friday, February 22 at the State Library in Columbia. The classes include:

• The Art of the Short Story
• Travel Writing
• Poetry
• How to Write a Novel & Get it Published
• The Process of Publishing
• A Writer's Tool Kit

The classes start at 9:30 and go until 2:00. Anyone can register for 2 classes and be put on a waiting list for a 3rd. For more information contact Lucinda Kress at 803-734-8647.

The SC Book Festival will play host to more than 60 authors, scores of booksellers and vendors, and thousands of avid readers on February 23 & 24 at the SC State Fairgrounds. Admission is free, parking is $1 per car. For more information contact The South Carolina Humanities Council at 803-691-4100.

Ah February! A month for hearts & flowers, romance and writing. Come out to our next meeting February 7! You might pick up a love poem or two in time for Valentine's day.

"Face Value" by Carol Jellen was an interesting piece. I reread this personal essay several times because I liked the ideas. The idea of a tourist strapped into a camera harness exploring God's creation seemed so much like a thing from my past. Carol's insight into the human condition is so intriguing, but her writing would be better if she weren't so timid about including God in her personal essay. For example, what does God think about the human concern with "face value" or a person exploring God's creation while strapped into a camera harness and consulting his Timex or Rolex for an accurate estimate of the correct time?

I love those shoes Robin Monroe features in her book Ralph & Louie. After writers group I rushed home and lined up all of my shoes. Not one of them had anything to say. Well, nothing I could use in a story, although a down in the heel pair of wingtips did ask for coffee money. I have got to find out where Robin gets those shoes. Which is a back handed way of saying how come I can't come up with good story ideas like Brenda and Glenda the adventuresome shoes?

"How I Designed My Own Private Seminar" by Susan S. Renault was inspiring. I went home and set fire to my office and then went to Office Depot for supplies. A good office cleaning is always a good start to getting organized. When I got home the Fire Marshall was already putting together a paper trail showing how the fire was set.
Watching how office mates organize their work is a great idea, except this guy I office with is a real pig if you know what I mean. Each person on Sue's faculty had their own style and method of organization and it was obvious that years of experimentation lead each to the style that best fit their personality and needs. For example, I am not going to leave any paper trails in the future.

An untitled short story by Leland "Bedauex" was a good read. It's the beginnings of a short story in which a minister as in preacher becomes the love interest of a pretty woman he meets on an airplane. The lady invites the incognita pastor to supper. He sputters like a Studebaker on a hill, but I once owned a Studebaker Golden Eagle with a supercharged Ford 289 power plant -- top speed 160 mph. This car revved over hills like this preacher should when a pretty woman hits on him. Lets get real here. For some reason this preacher goes to the gym to prepare for his date and has a most unusual vision of a young nymph eating a ripe apricot. This guy has it bad. Best put in a call to Randy Crew on this one, he's ready to start dating.

If Gene doesn't make Poet Laureate, we can always nominate Phil Arnold. He read his annual poem, and it was Phil's usual clever fare. In "The Bulldog And The Burger King", he recounted, in rhyming verse, a visit to Amsterdam, where he partook of everything that cosmopolitan city had to offer, from Monet to "Mary Jane". Fortunately for Phil, Amsterdam was so international that when the inevitable munchies struck, there was a nearby Burger King. Phil got the rhymes pretty well, but there was an extra syllable here and there.

Faye Tollison read another excerpt from her new novel, Nothing But The Truth, and it was convincing and suspenseful. Anna, on a mysterious delivery mission in the bad part of town, has car trouble and blunders into the grasp of an undercover cop who's about to score a drug bust. The reader senses the danger as the drug deal unfolds, but Anna (Der Tubemeister suspects she is a blonde) has no clue as to what's going on until the cop spells it out for her later. If she's going to solve a mystery, Anna is going to need to be smarter than that, Faye.

Gene Fehler tells us the touching story of a young boy's grief following the death of Gramps. The youngster draws strength from the peacemaker Gramps who comes to his dreams. He is inspired by Gramps' unfulfilled mission to connect with strangers. The story is sad and tender, but we know Gramps' legacy will glow in the heart of his grandson. "Nice mood and pace," we say. "Great dream scene. Good craft." But then we add (you just can't count on us to be all nice all the time), "The narrative voice needs work: are we in the head of a child or a man? A philosopher or an orphaned child?" We advise: "Crank up the emotion."

John Kingsbury not only preaches "Show, Don't Tell," he shows us. In chapter four of Dying with Amanda, Johnny bundles into his Eddie Bauer parka and strikes off for Christmas pageant practice at church. We readers stay warm inside his head, enjoying memories of Bible games with Dad and acting on impulse to spit on the front of the local jewelry store. Still snuggled in Johnny's adolescent psyche, we suffer as Johnny is diminished by Mrs. Struthers and stripped of his pageant lines. Our suffering is bearable because Amanda is our friend. Nice work, John.

Gabrielle Johansen read chapter three from her work in progress, Portals. Using good dialogue, she introduced two vagrants bartering clothes for alcohol and began to paint a realistic, believable picture of day-to-day street survival. Clearly, alcoholism has been Joseph Robbins' downfall. But, Frank Carter seems to represent everyman. He first appears dressed as a "street cowboy" with his boots and duster. Then, later, I thought of him as a war veteran. Whether intended or not, Gabrielle, has captured my preconceived notions of street people and gently nudged them. For me, her meticulous use of detail is very appealing but overuse of the pronoun he left a slight feel of newspaper reporting as opposed to fiction. Others at our meeting pointed out the need to edit some of the "telling" sentences. Overall, these seem like minor suggestions to a work that has good reader appeal. I look forward to more of Gabrielle's writing and am curious as to how she will join the real and the surreal through the portal.

* A critic is a man created to praise greater men than himself but he is never able to find them. - R. Le Galienne

Pat Stewart regaled us with a charming story about her husband, Jack Stewart. She wrote the story within the narrative frame work of telling it to her young grandson, hence Jack was called "Gandpa Jack". What followed was a fact-filled tale about his experiences at the model airplane championship held in Detroit in 1951. He became known as the "hottest" flier at the show because a handkerchief in his pocket caught on fire. While the story was very informative and had a nice peppering of personal anecdotes among the nuts and bolts of what happened at the contest, the delivery was very journalistic. Many felt that Pat should do a rewrite, keeping her primary intended audience in mind. The story could have read more like a bedtime tale and less like a newspaper article. It was also suggested that the fire in the pocket incident be revealed towards the end of the story rather than in the second paragraph. Nonetheless it was a fascinating bit of history made all the more real by the personal involvement of the author.

"The Promise" by Susan Cook was a short story about a woman moving to Greenville, S.C. after many years of living in Ohio. The protagonist, Claire, moves into a condo in the heart of the city's downtown. Almost immediately she starts hearing horses in the middle of the night and yet cannot find a stable to explain the source of the noises. Unfortunately the reading time did not allow us to hear the whole story. In the beginning of the story we are told the whys and wheres of Claire's situation. Another member pointed out that this exposition could be given in the form of the phone conversation Claire has with her mother, which would make finding out the particulars about Claire more natural. The author did explain that the condo turns out to have once been a stable where some horses died in a fire. It was expostulated that the story might be a little longer in order to draw out the suspense more. There was also some debate over Claire rushing out of the condo in the middle of the night when she first hears the odd noises. It was pointed out that most women would not go out alone in the night for fear of what could happen. The author said she was trying to convey how startling and disorienting the noises were to Claire. But Claire couldn't have been too confused or she wouldn't have had the presence of mind to put on shoes and a coat over her nightgown before rushing into the street. The story was conceived for a local contest which required it to be set in the Carolinas. The author did meet the required criteria and has started a quaint and intriguing modern day ghost story.

A recent unsolicited e-pistle brought a treasure trove of new contacts in the writing world. We welcome to our readership Jill Branson Hammergren, Co-Editor of Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America newsletter The Scarlet Letter, Charles Blackburn Editor of North Carolina Writers' Network Web Calendar, Kenn Francart, Editor of the Mid South Writers Association newsletter, and Lucinda Kress, Coordinator for the Palmetto Book Alliance.
We have already begun the process of sharing information such as the one day workshop and SC Book Fair. The splash of color in this month's Printed Matters was inspired by the MSWA Newsletter. In addition, these partners in poetry and prose have web sites offering more resources. Welcome to the NETborhood! An unsolicited e-mail has become a "net" gain.

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 and news reporters: Nancy Parker, Sue Renault, John Kingsbury, Steve Heckman, Linda Elmore and Gabrielle Johansen.

Copyright 2002 by Leland Beaudrot, Editor. Contributing writers retain all rights to their work.