A mere handful of mortals gathered round the tables Thursday evening for our monthly muse-a-thon. And while no renowned writes stepped in to grace our presence (as was rumored to have happened in the past), we were treated to the palpable presence of Leland's Muse, Thaleia. The impish nymph even volunteered to go forth seeking new devotees to the discipline of the pen. However, according to her post cards from South Beach, she hopped in the car with a group of sorority sisters on the way to Spring break. Leland is hoping she returns soon so they can get on with his new short story, "Peacekeeper."

Quill Editor, Peggy Cwiakala, is looking for articles for our SCWW newsletter. Please submit your news, insights and experiences in Rich Text Format (RTF) to qeditor@bellsouth.net

It'll soon be June so bust out and come to our next meeting, 6:00 p.m., Thursday, June 5th at The Open Book.

John Kingsbury read Chapter Four of his new book Trailer Trash. John admitted being stumped on how to make this work. I was confused by all the characters. I had not heard the first three chapters, so I am responsible for my ignorance. John's summary of what the story will eventually be does intrigue me. Paige, after being raped, is expecting a bi-racial baby. She and her husband Jake will not abort the child and will raise it.

John himself is in the middle of moving and needs to sit back and just get settled in. After that he can get back to Trailer Trash and do his usual good writing. He had one word that needed correcting. In the line, "A candy stripper came in and took Paige's breakfast tray." Candy stripers are the teen agers who volunteer at hospitals. Strippers do another sort of work!

What's a Muse to do? So few readers, so much time. Nevertheless, the night allowed for extensive reading and reviewing of several entertaining offerings.

New member Cindy Kay shared the first chapter of her aptly named Dance of the Water Spider. Having abundant time, we were treated to just over five pages which allowed us to see her leading lady, Dr. Annabel, enveloped in a rising storm of controversy: "Repent to the Lord, you murderess!"

We had been forewarned that Annabel nurtured a dark secret and a sense of guilt over her husband's death: "One question haunted her. Was it her fault? Did Max have to pay for her sins?" And was that sin the one for which she is hounded by pro-life protesters? It remains to be seen as the story unfolds.

Dr. Anabel's apparently caviler reaction to the abortion issue prompted an extended and enlightening debate on the fundamentals of story: conflict and character. Philip Larkin is quoted as saying that a good story has "a beginning, a muddle and an end." We have seen a good beginning and an obvious muddle, but in the end will the reader be satisfied with a character who dances on the surface of controversy like a water spider? That, too, remains to be seen.

Pat Stuart is hunting a Lane Cedar Chest award. She read three possible entries in this contest - "Starving People in Europe," "The Faces on the Wall," and "Mom's Hope Chest." Only the third article related to hope chest like Lane makes. My favorite was The Faces on the Wall because the picture of these European ancestors of Pat's impressed me because if we have hard times they display an attitude that they will survive. Any cute woman can survive the good times, it takes a tough woman to make it through European wars and American Depressions.

Pat's writing, as usual, is excellent. She really knows how to string words together into interesting sentences, paragraphs, and personal essays.

We enjoyed the first segment of Leland Beaudrot's short story "Peacekeeper." The mood was set immediately with an out take from a new Fleetwood Mac song:

Peacekeeper take your time
Wait for the dark of night
Soon all the suns will rise
Don't be afraid to fight
Love is the sweet surprise

Will this be a mystery?...dark of night.....or a love story?...love is the sweet surprise. The first five pages set the tone for both.

We met three characters: Frank, Cheyenne and Bart. Through rich dialogue and excellent detail we glean that Frank is middleaged, lonely and helpful, Cheyenne is mysterious yet light and easy--she also works for the government, and Bart is a big man of few words.

Cheyenne and Bart are moving Cheyenne into the upstairs apartment of Frank's building. They move under the cover of darkness at the ungodly hour of 5:43 AM. Seems mysterious to me. Frank is already up getting coffee and knocking around the kitchen with Lucyfur the enormous puddle of brown tabby. What wonderful description!

Frank makes their acquaintance and helps them move in. He quickly establishes that Cheyenne and Bart are not a couple, The first thing he did when he realizes that a woman is moving in is check her ring finger! and then Cheyenne introduces Bart as her little brother. In spite of a hefty age difference, Frank has Cheyenne coming to dinner for some of his Saturday night chilli.

Cheyenne's government job turns out to be with the IRS, but Frank teases her about being a spy.

Mystery or love? I'm not sure which but I am eager to learn. The story is intriguing and beautifully done.

"Voice is the most important element of style. It's the one component that is unique to the individual author." Oh oh, Mason is reading a book on voice and he's going to share his thoughts on the subject. Finding Your Voice - How to Put Personality in Your Writing by Les Edgerton is the book. Basically Mr. Edgerton says write the way you talk which reflects the way you think. The idea is to give your writing that sense of a single minding thinking while at play. When I was in school learning to write essays in Junior High my teacher said you should write the way you talk and that if you couldn't explain something in writing you don't understand the topic. She didn't worry a whole lot about writing rules per se.

Now I'll be brave and talk about some of the voices we hear in the writers group starting with Gene Fehler. If you talk with Gene what he says reflects how he thinks about his experiences, his values, his attitudes, what we would describe as his personality. When he writes poetry, personal essays, nonfiction, and fiction this voice, this personality, is the same. They are Gene having something to say, as a person, and his saying it while his mind plays with the words.

If you look at the personal essays of Phil Arnold, John Migcuz, and Pat Stewart you see the same thing, a mind playing with words in an interesting way and in the same way they would share those ideas in speech. Their essays are good because their voice reflects the personality of the writer. Among the nonfiction writers, like Sue Renault and Phil Arnold, you see people who write like they talk, whose personality comes through in their writing.

Oddly, most of the fiction writers in our group have a bland voice because they try to emulate other writers or committees of other writers. Instead of writing that has a voice like the way they think, which is pretty clear after talking to them for awhile, they have what Edgerton describes as this bland voice, this voice that doesn't really sound like anyone. This voice of someone trying to write literature.

George Bernard Shaw wrote, "In literature, the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language: the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it." So this Pigg suggests that fiction writers write the way they talk and think rather than emulating some best selling author(s). After all, the world would be a better place if people were true to themselves and pursued their dreams, especially if they pursued their dreams.

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: Pat Stewart, John Kingsbury and Cindy Kay.

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