Randy Crew invited one and all to hear his son, Phillip, play original "folksy rock/bluegrass" at Nacho Mamma's in Spartenburg. Randy, who recently penned a lyric worthy of Nashville's notice, reported the gig went well and resulted in an invite to come out and play again, testimony to a talented family.
Phil Arnold, our chronicler of all things Elvis suffered a temporary setback. His article for the upcoming 25th anniversary issue of Elvis International will be delayed until the December/January issue to make way for a burst of new (actually, old) Elvis images recently released for publication. But Phil won't be wasting time waiting as he prepares another project detailed in a review below.

Our next meeting will be a truly august occasion, 6:00 p.m., Thursday, August 1st at The Open Book.

The Professor feels fortunate to do the reviews on two works characterized by Randy Crew as "so good, the group has to be picky to find something to critique." Chapter Nine of John Kingsbury's novel, Dying With Amanda, was alternately funny, touching and hair-raising. Amanda shows us a new side of her personality as she tries to get hookers to diddle her boyfriend. Then she gets wild and takes Johnny on a race through the country at speeds up to 160 miles per hour. The best critique suggestions were to eliminate some of the duplications (giggling, hooker pulling her butt off the wall, etc) and to give us dialogue instead a narrative summary of the word dance by a couple falling in love. The professor loves this chapter but can't shake the notion that a fourteen year-old girl just doesn't fit with all the action. Wouldn't the story work as well if 30 MPH were chopped off all the speeds mentioned.

Steve Heckman treated us to a much shorter piece of fiction. He breaks the rules and uses only 3 quotes and 95% narrative in "Des Moines," a powerful and haunting tale of a man's uncomfortable experience in a bar. Sitting next to a pretty, but worn, female customer, he says the first thing that pops into his head. She gives him a dirty look and moves away to a corner table. We then share the jumble of thoughts going through the man's head, which Steve tops with a great ending. Our critiquing covered silly things like whether it should be 'pocketbook' or 'purse'. It was suggested that the first sentence needed a more concrete image, but most of the folks thought there was plenty of info in the first two lines to give a good sense of place. Someone said the story was so good it needed to be expanded. The Professor liked it just the way it was.

Phil Arnold has returned to his dream, the marketing of Big E and The Santa Man. His product is a script featuring Elvis Presley (Big E) and Santa Claus (The Santa Man) versus, if I remember correctly, Scrooge who is equipped with the best science fiction, if not science itself, has to offer. In his query letter, Phil refers to nine Elvis songs being featured in his work and Phil's reference to the re-mix of "A Little Conversation" and Elvis tunes featured in Lilo and Stitch is good marketing. Here's wishing Phil the best with his query letter.

Leland Beaudrot read the next section of his short story, Amused. I among others at the table was amused when the story lapsed into a Daniel Bond, ala Walter Mitty, segment. Leland broke his dialogue into paragraphs instead of trying to embed his dialogue into paragraphs of narrative. This increased the readability of his work. This story is worth revising and it is my hope that Leland does the revision work on this story.

Carolyn Rice is relatively new to our group, but her writing shows that she's done this before. Her reading, "The Elephant Tree: A Memoir", is filled with the kinds of images and word choices that only someone who's written and thought about writing for a long time could produce. Der Tubemeister loved "great gusts of doggie breath" and "wrinkled rivulets" of rain. Some critiquers were put off by words like "lambent" and "plashy" and "gouts", but DT thinks if you can't use them in a reflective, literate piece like this, where can you use 'em? On the other hand, Carolyn, you need to find a more unified theme for this memoir. Is it about the tree, or about the dog? It can be both, but there should be more connection between the two. Find the dog under the tree at the beginning and lean against the tree instead of the house at the end, and you're halfway there.

I know you will miss your Grandpoppy like all of us will. He was a good man who always lived with honor and integrity. These are two qualities which are actually a part of each other. These are the qualities that separate men from beasts. If a man has these qualities, the lack of any other qualities is excusable; but the lack of these two qualities is inexcusable. If we pattern ourselves after men like Grandpoppy, we may not be rich or famous, but we will be successful. Success is not measured in terms of fame or riches; but in terms of love, respect and usefulness to others. I hope that when it comes my time to go, that you can write your children about me as I am writing you about my Father.

[From a letter by Thomas Dendy, dated October 31, 1968, to his then thirteen year old son. Thomas Dendy ended his sojourn here the morning of Friday, July 19, 2002. All who knew him would affirm that he lived the qualities and richly fulfilled the hope he expressed here.]

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: Phil Arnold, John Kingsbury and Steve Heckman.

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