We welcomed a new guest, Kevin, to our table last meeting. We hope he will come again and add his talents to our blend. A couple of our regulars could not be with us due to family matters. Judy Root was away due to a family member's illness. We hope all is well and that she will be back with us soon. And our matchless President, Randy Crew, regrettably had to forgo the meeting for a pressing engagement (well, maybe not an engagement... yet).

Show us the fruit of your labor at our next meeting 6:00 p.m., Thursday, September 5th at The Open Book.

Our favorite murder-mystery writer, Faye Tollison, treated us to a short story this time. "Sweet Revenge" was the chilling tale of a woman's mission to kill the man who raped her eight years earlier. High praise came from Gene Fehler when he suggested the story was good enough to be expanded into a 30 minute TV show. There were some suggestions for improvement, however. The group felt it would help if Faye set the stage with more details up front. Also, we needed some sense of how she located the man after all these years; and it seemed the man would have a different reaction than silence when she questioned him about Lakeland College. So, with a few changes, this will be a great story. (Note: Apologies to Randy Crew. He used to be our favorite murder-mystery writer, but he never reads us anything anymore. Hint, hint)

Wouldn't it be great if the rest of us could come to the meetings and make the kind of announcements Gene Fehler does. This month we learned he has a new agent based in New York city, and her first project will be a submission to Simon and Shuster. Gene read us 26 of the four-line poems proposed for Nature's Voices: Who Is Speaking. The unique hook is for children, ages 3-7, to read the poems and figure out what is being described. Then, they can lift a gatefold flap and see the answer in a picture and the title. Very clever, and of course, the poems were mostly excellent. There was a little minor critiquing, and the group suggested a few more topics for Gene to try. It looks like another winner for him.

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

Cam Holzer shared three pages from A Lifetime Love, her first try at fiction. Cam has managed to capture the pain, anxiety and sorrow that result from dealing with untreated bi-polar disorder. When a question arose about the believability of her character, a resounding number of women in the room verified her accuracy. All agreed that clarifying her place and tightening her sense of timing would improve the introduction. While the story initially reads like an essay, it soon changes to scenes and then begins to tug strongly on the reader's emotions. Consensus is that Cam must continue with her fiction. Tell us more about this complex relationship and how it evolves. Bi Polar Disorder, like spousal abuse, seems to be a topic ripe with contradiction. Could be fertile ground for a fiction writer. And, ClaraBelle hereby officially declares Cam Holzer to be a genuine fiction writer.

The two page "Temperature Rising" by Linda Elmore is the tale of an internal journey one woman takes in response to participating in an academic psychology test/experiment--the woman in the story is encouraged to think of things that are likely to increase her body temperature. This was Linda's first time for reading and response at SCWW Greenville. Initial and primary feedback was that this work was clever, sharp, funny, real--and a likely selection for upcoming writing contests. Enjoy the clear and truthful affirmation, Linda!

In writing this story about an experiment, Linda was in fact encouraged to experiment with the use of italics--a feature that may clarify the movement between external reality and internal experience. For a reader to be able to follow the flow and interchange between these two worlds more clearly could bring an already very good work that much more to life.

Congratulations and welcome!!

In "Drug Dealers on the Corners," Pat Stewart crafted a humorous short essay in the course of venting frustrations about pharmaceutical representatives lurking around physician waiting rooms. Editing encouragement included a toning down of descriptions of these particular professionals' wealthy attire at the beginning of this work and overuse of the term "drug dealer" in the middle.

While Pat claimed this writing's primary function as therapeutic, the group recognized publication potential as an editorial piece. One suggested slant was to keep and even develop the use of exaggeration, and send it on to the redneck radio guy on Rock 101.1 ("You know what makes me sick?!...").

Carolyn and I recently exceeded the once supposed world quota of computers: one so old, it practically predates the internet, a borrowed hunk of junk that can find its way to a few web sites, an orange desktop from late in the last millinneium, and this week's new addition, a laptop. Hopefully this new assistant muse, I'll be able to get Printed Matters out on time next month. =]

Thanks for bearing with me.

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, Linda Elmore and Cam Holzer.

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