In Leland's absence, John Migacz recruited our review crew and supplied the news. Thanks!
The group discussed the name change of our Anthology, Horizons, and the contest to rename it. Randy asked the Greenville chapter to submit items for the Anthology so we will be well represented this year.

If you pick up a copy of the March 4th issue of MetroBEAT (available free at numerous locations around the upstate, including The Open Book) and peruse the winners of their second annual fiction contest, you might see a familiar story with an unfamiliar byline. It's not plagerism, just self preservation on the part of the author. ;-D

Mid-90's PowerMac 6110CD system: computer, printer & modem. A bit wimpy for the Web, but dandy for word processing and e-mail. It has a good track record, the first story I wrote on it was published. Was a couple of grand, it can all be yours for $100. Contact Leland.

March like a lion into our next meeting, 6:00 p.m., Thursday, March 6th at The Open Book. We'll be as gentle as a lamb in our critiques (maybe).

Phil Arnold read a piece titled Observations Through the Smoke of a Burning Flag. No Elvis, but still wonderful writing. The group cut lots of stuff, however, so the piece would qualify for the SCWW Anthology one thousand word limit for essays. Phil had some interesting information about days designated for American flag flying. As a sailor I still celebrate Navy Day which is celebrated on Teddy Roosevelt's birthday. As Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt sent an American fleet to attack the Spanish naval forces in Manila Bay. This was the first war order of the Spanish American War. What is noteworthy is Roosevelt issued these orders before a formal declaration of war and at that time he had no way to recall the fleet. Teddy figured we should have an war even if Congress failed to declare one. Maybe that is why Navy Day on Teddy Roosevelt's Birthday has fallen out of favor.

South 700 East is another brilliant Steve Heckman short story. All the story needs is the mention of the names of the characters who are so well drawn they need to be known as more than a woman and a man. One Lindsay thought and one reference to Jake in a line of dialogue will do. Those plus a reference to Salt Lake City always being a lake driven fog bank in the winter and this is anthology grade writing. Still those Mongrel hordes peek around the edges of the pages of every Steve Heckman story. Do Mongrel hordes wear pantyhose? Or do they wear ties? Clearly they work for companies like Enron and WorldCom so I am sure they wear ties, even the women.

If Sue Renault doesn't get something published in the Quill soon, it won't be her fault. For the second meeting in a row, Sue produced the kind of 'helpful how-to' material the newsletter asks the SCWW members to submit. However, Sue may have a bigger target for her "Writing Basics: Don't send your manuscript into the world without them." Her ten-point maintenance check challenges writers to see if their work contains the basic ingredients for success. Our group found little to critique, except Gene Fehler thought point #2 was weaker than the rest, and he suggested perhaps moving the various details into other points on the lest. There was also a discussion about possibly replacing some of the brand names in point #7 with strong, specific nouns.

Kevin Coyle made it a challenge for us to have a sense of 'place' in his latest excerpts from A Cool Dry Place. In the span of five pages, we jumped from a cowboy bar to a courtroom to a ferry in New York Harbor; and there were different characters in each scene. As Kevin explained, it makes more sense when read in total, rather than short bits once a month. In spite of the possibility for reader confusion, the group liked his work and had little to critique. John opined that he enjoyed the future world Kevin painted. Sue praised technical aspects of the writing and its good flow. Randy was fond of the sentence: "Given my parents' obsession with taking precautions, I sometimes wonder how I was ever conceived." Our group is glad Kevin conceived A Cool Dry Place.

Hole #4: 525 yards, Par 5. Who but Gene Fehler could get away with a poem title like that? As it happens, "Hole #4" is where Gene's 21 poem piece, Coming Together, a 9 Handicapper's Quest, takes an unsettling turn, as unanswered allegations of child abuse against one of the foursome are revealed. That dark theme winds through the poems, trying to spoil a near-perfect round of golf. But then, how do you spoil poetry with images like a putter that "hangs from sweat-soaked hands like a dead garter snake" or a "labyrinthian path to where the Minotaur waits, a path with more dangers than Christian's Valley of Despair, jutted and pockmarked with crazy hopes?" This series may be a tough sell (not exactly Golf Digest stuff), but it makes a good read.

Gene's dissonant pairing of golf with child abuse led us right to John Kingsbury, who presented us with some dissonance of his own; a query letter describing a book we are all familiar with, Dying With Amanda, but portraying a different book altogether. The book the query letter pitches is a religious/inspirational coming-of-age novel with no sex. The Dying With Amanda we all know is neither religious nor sexless. John says he rewrote it and took out the good stuff. The word count went from 75,000 to 65,000 (do the math). Der Tubemeister is sure John can pull off this transformation, but it will take more than cutting out 10,000 prurient words. The book's whole irreverent, us-against-the-world attitude that we have loved so well is inappropriate for this new market. John needs to make adjustments to every paragraph, every sentence. For a man of John's talent and writing discipline, a piece of cake.

In the Author's mind there bubbles up every now and then the material for a story. For me it invariably begins with mental pictures. This ferment leads to nothing unless it is accompanied with the longing for a Form: verse or prose, short story, novel, play or what not. When these two things click you have the Author's impulse complete. It is now a thing inside him pawing to get out. He longs to see that bubbling stuff pouring that Form as the housewife longs to see the new jam pouring into the clean jam jar. This nags him all day long and gets in the way of his work and his sleep and his meals. It's like being in love.

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: John Migacz, John Kingsbury, Phil Arnold and Steve Heckman.

Copyright 2003 by Leland Beaudrot, Editor. Contributing writers retain all rights to their work.