While most of us were scrambling to find a hot meal and a warm place to sleep during the ice storm power outages, a trio of our newest members, Kevin Coyle and John & Marcia Migacz, braved the dark streets and non working traffic lights to attend a meeting that didn't come together. That's dedication! Phil Arnold reported that his 8 day outage allowed him to use up his Y2K stash of Sterno. We were sustained by candles, a cell phone and a laptop. Hmmm... wonder if a TV would run on 80 D cells?

Phil Arnold, contributing editor to Elvis International, has three articles in the latest issue. Sterno fumes must stimulate his muse. John Kingsbury is slogging through the toughest job in writing: enduring the avalanche of rejection letters until the seeds of his art find fertile soil. Hang in there! Nancy Parker will be teaching a workshop on "Having a Good Critique Group" at the upcoming Florida Christian Writers Conference. Hope we're a good example.

The Greenville News recently featured an article on the Writers Guild of America, "the labor union for writers in the motion picture, broadcast, cable and new technologies industries." Their website, http://www.wga.org/, offers a host of tools for writers, including a registry for your intellectual property.

If you haven't gotten your ballot in the mail by the time you read this, you'd better put some fast stamps on the letter. The deadline is December 30.

Gail Blanton, member on extended leave, announces the release of her new book of monologues on December 20. It is titled "Eve's Daughters" and is published by Lillenas Publishing Co.

Those of you who remember and enjoyed Gilda Radner on "Saturday Night Live might enjoy going to http://www.lillenasdrama.com/ and checking out the monologue there by Gail entitled "Hosanne Hosanna Hannah".

Peggy Cwiakala, SCWW Board member and editor of The Quill, has launched a new venture as a service to writers: Inkslinger Tours. She will be offering research tours, retreats, workshops and writing contests. A portion of the profits will be donated to literacy efforts. For more information and details on current contests, see her web site http://www.inkslingertours.com/ or drop her an e-mail at peggyc@inkslingertours.com

Should old acquaintance be forgot? Never! And neither should you forget out next meeting, 6:00 p.m., Thursday, January 2nd at The Open Book. It should be a sobering experience following your new year revels.

John Migacz entertained us with the domestic god's guide to doing laundry. Sorting? John's got that nailed: the careful clothes, the hot water clothes, and the who-cares remainder. Loading? He's got that, too: force 'em in, ram 'em down, push hard three times. Soap? If one powder is good, a dozen should be better. Flooding? Put on your hip waders and wash that soap right out of your floor. John's final homemaker hint? Take it all to the laundra-mat. Use all the machines. Rush like crazy. Beat the wife home. Greet her with a relaxed smile. Laundry? Nothing to it. John's amusing essay was well received. We offered a few ideas for a little tightening here and a little editing there, but by and large, we'd place this with the lights and the brights.

John Kingsbury creates a good scene -- the brewery, the dry cleaners, the hookers -- and then introduces wonderful dialog: "How much to diddle my boyfriend?" He includes Johnny Preston's reflections on peace with honor then hurls us around corners with the mad Amanda at the wheel. (And he leaves us lurching over a patch of ice!) Except for the fact that most of us wouldn't sit through four Shirley Temple movies once, let alone twice, we found little to complain about. Conversation is quick and witty and our characters quirky and intriguing. We'll hold on for the rest of the ride.

Leland Beaudrot read the next installment from his mystery / romance short story entitled Trail Mix. This section explored the growing relationship between the narrator of the story and his hiking companion, Lauren. The group enjoyed some of the cute, clever lines such as "A hard man is good to find." A general feeling was that some hint of the conflict to come should probably be introduced much earlier in the story even if nothing actually happens until later. Also, the female character is hard to read and acts in a contradictory manner, while the male character seems only motivated by lust. It is possible that some more depth and clarification of motives would be helpful. All in all, an entertaining story so far.

Kevin Coyle shared Chapter 7 from his novel A Cool Dry Place. The main character, Christopher Darnell, remembered a conversation with Floyd, his boss in the Luna café where he worked before he came to Earth. Everyone enjoyed the well-written dialogue and the off-the-wall nature of the conversation, but felt that there needed to be some physical action or stage direction mixed in with the dialogue. Maybe he should bring some of the current events of the story (i.e.: the trial) into the flashback so we don't lose touch with the story? It was mentioned that both characters spoke in the same style. It might be more effective to have long and rambling speeches versus short and crisp for the two characters.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all writers of good cheer.

Sue Renault read a really witty writer's test, the three, two, one test of for writers group participation. This nonfiction article is aimed at the SCWW Quill. Using a simple scoring system you can determine if you are a "Golden Groupster," a "Congenial Contributor" or an "Okay Attendee."
For a top score you have to submit to Horizons, the SCWW Anthology. Having been rejected by the Anthology twice I suspect I am not a Golden Groupster. Still, all groups need an Okay Attendee from time to time.

Phil Arnold read his Fantasy CD Liner Notes based upon the work of the Fab Four, a Beatles tribute band. I read Phil's liner notes twice and find it hard to believe I cannot buy this CD at Best Buys. After all, if the writing is good the album should be fab. And it seems reasonable that the Beatles would "relax over the Christmas Holidays by taking a standard holiday tune and rework it in a style that mimicked one of their earlier hits." Still, John Lennon claimed at one time the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, so I might be wrong. I suppose the Fab Four collection of Christmas music Phil assembled is as rocking as the gospel stylings of Elvis Presley.

It must be considered good luck when a reviewer's assignment is to cover two of the strongest writers in our group. Gene Fehler and Russ Burns are so talented their work never needs any serious critiquing. Russ shared with us a few pages of his latest project, the history of the Laurens Rotary. He starts off with a brief taste of national and local history in 1923, the year of the group's founding. One sample section of the book was the Laurens Glass Works and the succession of company officers who were all prominent in the Rotary. Next was a discussion on the Great Depression and its effect on the businesses in Laurens. As usual, we all just listened to Russ and enjoyed the educational journey.

Gene read us a touching story called "When The Leaves Are Gone." He was able to weave three poems into the fabric of a story about a widow who used falling leaves to fill the void left by her recently deceased dog. To no one's surprise, Gene admitted he had no idea where the story was going when he started. The image of leaves landing on his back porch was his inspiration, and then his muse took over. Sample critiquing by members of our group Included: "Great" - Sue Renault, "Outstanding" - Russ Burns, "I loved the way you handled metaphor throughout" - Nancy Parker. What more can the Professor say?

While bathing, Antinous was seen by Minerva, who was so enamoured of his beauty that, all armed as she happened to be, she descended from Olympus to woo him; but, unluckily displaying her shield, with the head of Medusa on it, she had the unhappiness to see the beautiful mortal turn to stone from catching a glimpse of it. She straightway ascended to ask Jove to restore him; but before this could be done a Sculptor and a Critic passed that way and espied him.

"This is a very bad Apollo," said the Sculptor: "the chest is too narrow, and one arm is at least a half-inch shorter than the other. The attitude is unnatural, and I may say impossible. Ah! my friend, you should see my statue of Antinous."

"In my judgment, the figure," said the Critic, "is tolerably good, though rather Etrurian, but the expression of the face is decidedly Tuscan, and therefore false to nature. By the way, have you read my work on 'The Fallaciousness of the Aspectual in Art'?"

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, Marcia Migacz, John Kingsbury and Phil Arnold.

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