Welcome to our first Calissippian, Cam Holzer. Cam added several thoughtful comments to our critique session. And welcome to our first Georgia Indian, Bibek Mohanty, whose travel journal to the family homeland provided both chuckles and information. Y'all come back.
How nice to be family as we reflect upon the loss of our friend Jim Poindexter. Thank you, Leland, for your comforting words. Randy will send flowers. See him to make a contribution toward the costs.
Nancy Parker reported that she and Robin had a good time at their inspirational writers' conference in Florida. Robin made some good contacts for the possible reprinting of some of her books. Both Robin and Nancy were on the faculty and all workshops went well.
We missed John K and wish him well at his new job. Leland made bird sounds. Gene's More Tales from Baseball's Golden Age should be out in mid April.

South Carolina Writers Workshop now has a new URL for our state web site: http://www.scwriters.com/. These pages offer news and information about our organization. An item worth noting here is the deadline for entries in the annual anthology. Submissions must be postmarked by April 30, 2002.

Spring has sprung! But don't be an April Fool and miss our meeting on Thursday the 4th.

Gabrielle Johansen read chapter 5 of Portals and we complimented her prose: "It wasn't a knowing like knowing the capital of Montana or the names of the planets. It was knowing like knowing that death will come...." We admired her ability to build tension as Jeremy determines to find Sarah Rose McDonnough and finds himself on the other side of the light curtain in a mysterious land. We enjoyed her attention to mood and mists and glowing lights. We liked her ending.
We were on a roll until we reminded to watch end punctuation and to give us a little more surprise when Jeremy enters Never-Never land. Wouldn't you know, we just can't get through the routine without the tiniest little suggestions for improvement. But that's what writing friends are for. Nice job, Gabrielle.

A newcomer to our group, Bibek V. Mohanty shared passages from a book he is working on about his summer vacation in India. Bibek has a unique perspective as an American son of Indian parents with extensive family still residing in India. His excerpts were a mix of personal experiences, the history of India and famous quotes about his mother country. The book, in its final form will include photographs of Bibek's journey.
Overall the piece was well-received. Some felt that the numerous quotes were distracting. Others felt that the quotes lent credibility to the scope of the work. All agreed that Bibek has captured a strong, funny voice that will keep the interest of a wide audience. If he weeds out some of the generalizations and replaces them with his own images, he will have a book that could be a sensation!

Our own, Gene Fehler brought five new poems to the table. This time around we were regaled with two charming memory poems, one through the eyes of an old woman and one from a young boy's point of view. Gene also wrote about the pain of watching a loved one die. Then he entertained us with a quirky poem about telephone numbers written in bathroom stalls and rounded out his offerings with a little bit of philosophizing on the "what-ifs" of life.
Although there was a bit of identity confusion on the speakers of some of the poems, we all enjoyed them. The synecdoche of the "gold frames" in "The Walker and the Smiles" was very clever, as was the oxymoron of "snail quick" from the same poem. The favorite poem for the evening was "Sunday Drives to Aunt Amelia's", which illustrated the imagination of a young boy with humor and great characterization. We will never cease to be amazed at Gene's lovely poems. He makes the writing seem effortless while packing a wealth of experience into his verse.

Sue Renault read two chapters from her latest endeavor, Elecphonse, which is clearly a twenty first century children's book. From Sue's creative descriptive style the reader has a clear image and real feel for the villain of the story, Dr. Dank, who also appears to be the strongest character thus far.
In the end, when all is said and done and Dr. Dank's devious plot ends in blunder, perhaps he himself can remain at large allowing him to make his way into book #2 bringing more of his comical vocabulary and fumbling actions.
Heroes come and go, but everyone enjoys seeing the bad guy get his lumps. Very innovated stuff Sue. Keep it rolling.

When a nationally-distributed magazine starts giving you writing assignments, you have moved beyond the status of occasional contributor. You are a staffer. You are a professional. You are Phil Arnold. Phil, no stranger to the selling game, is now selling back issues of Elvis International, via an article titled "Elvis Almanac." He summarizes several past issues that have copies available, and pulls out interesting excerpts to whet interest. What Elvisophile could resist this reference to a 1996 article by fan Kitten Spehar?
"In turn, I was rewarded with scarves and kisses, until one evening in February of 1974... You'll have to read the Spring, 1996 issue to find out what happened, and fortunately there are fair supplies of back copies available."
OK, Phil, you have Der Tubemeister hooked. Where does he send the check?

John Kingsbury continues to amaze with Dying With Amanda, his novel about young love. D.T. puts check marks next to passages he likes, but he quit halfway through this reading, because there were so many checks they were becoming superfluous. John takes a simple teenage conversation about favorite and most-hated teachers, and breathes life, humor, irony, poignancy, and social commentary into it all at the same time. And he packs them all into the simplest of lines:
"Amanda, who is the teacher you hate the most?"
"It's a sin to hate someone." Amanda took a drink of water and pursed her lips. "Harriet Johnstone."
Or how about, "The kids around here go out every Saturday night and sow their wild oats. Then on Sunday morning they are in church praying for a crop failure."
Amanda is a character the group is really pulling for. She's spunky, funny, and courageous, and we're going to hate to see her go.

If you've spent at least one day at a writers' conference, you've already heard that before submitting a query letter or article, you should (a) read the writers' guidelines and (b) study the magazine. What I've found helpful is to put those two steps together.

1. I take my article idea and look for articles in back issues that are of similar kind (i.e., testimony, personal experience, how-to, and so on).
With the writers' guidelines as a template, I then analyze how the article followed the guidelines.

EXAMPLE:
I wanted to write the testimony of Loree Jon Jones, who lived in my town, and thought Decision might be the place for it. According to the Decision guidelines, a testimony piece should "describe your life before you became a Christian, how you made a commitment to Jesus Christ, and how God is changing your life today."
With this outline in mind, I then read the testimony accounts in two back issues, and considered how each one handled the required parts (a) before Christ, (b) coming to Christ, (c) since Christ. Then I applied what I had seen in those articles to Loree Jon's story and shaped her testimony into those 3 building blocks.

EXAMPLE:
I wanted to tell the story of Dr. David Parsons and his visit to Vietnam on a medical missions team. The first market I decided to research was Physician, the Focus on the Family magazine. Physician didn't offer any writers' guidelines, so I had only the back issues to go on.
I looked through three issues, concentrating on the personal experience articles. They all seemed to revolve around a doctor's coming to a new spiritual understanding because of some personal episode related in some way to his practice of medicine. I also noticed a trend in the magazine with stories involving medical missions, and hoped that the editor still wanted that kind of story.
In response to my query letter, the editor asked me to submit the article, and it was accepted.

2. As I study the articles in back issues, I ask myself:
Which articles are done by people whose names are not on the masthead and/or by regular columnists? These are the articles open to freelancers.
Is it written in 1st person? 3rd person ? Q & A?
What is the "take away" of the article? How is the article organized to build a case for the take away? I note subheads, if any.
Does the article use anecdotes? Is there one main anecdote which the article is centered on, or are several anecdotes used, each to illustrate a different point?
With testimonies and personal experiences, do they open with a "grabber" from the "present" and then fill in the background, or do they unfold chronologically?
Does it use little scenes with dialogue and setting?
Does it quote experts and/or reference research information?
How does it target the magazine's audience? (choice of vocabulary, anecdotes and illustrations, slant of topic)
If possible, I look at more than one back issue. That way I can compare similarities and differences in how articles are handled. The points that are consistent in every issue are probably the things important to emulate!

3. I go to writers' conferences. In workshops and in conversations with editors I've picked up small but valuable tidbits about what their current needs are and any recent editorial changes. That's how I found out that Decision wanted but rarely received testimonies of people who may have grown up knowing the Lord--something I wouldn't have seen in past issues or known from the guidelines. My own personal testimony fit the bill, and was published in May 2000.
At that same conference Robin Monroe pitched an idea to the editor from Guideposts. In a five-minute conversation he helped her develop the slant on the story that would work for him, and her article was eventually accepted.

I've seen that end time drag into a long misery for many a folks. Dying is a right scary for sure, but getting old and feeble and helpless with death sneaking 'round you all the time and being in no blasted hurry to ease your torment, well, that would be pure hell on earth. But, you know, my mama always said them days'll go a bit easier if you just ain't by yourself. If you got your close kin by your side.

I don't want nobody to remember me the way I looked in a casket. I want 'em to remember me the way I was alive. It ain't right that a man should live so many years and then just be remembered fer the way he looked dead, fer he died in an instant, and he lived a right long time. I just want someone, don't care who, to read the Twenty-third Psalm over me.... but just in case my time's getting near, I want you to see that everything's simple, just the way I told you.

Learn to grow in patience, wisdom, and compassion, for the day may come when you will need these virtues from others. I suppose to us all there comes the decline of the last days, that miserable time when the strong are reduced to the weak -- when our bodies betray us, our strengths deny us, and when nature seems not a mother but a mortal enemy. Yet during these days, there is a greater wisdom, a tenacious determination...and there is a rainbow always dancing beyond the next hill. But its gold is the generous compassion of those who remain strong and caring. This I have learned, and it bears remembering.

Do not grieve sorely for me, for I have no fear of death or dying, and I shall never be grieved again. A sweet voice beckons me from beyond, and anxiously I heed its call.

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: Sue Renault, Gabrielle Johansen, Carol Jellen, Steve Heckman, Nancy Parker and Jim Poindexter (with special thanks to his widow, Candy, for sharing his words with us).

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