We were shocked and saddened to hear our President, Randy Crew, announce that Thursday's meeting would be his last and that we would need to find a new President. Randy graciously declined designation as "President for Life" but will ever be our "President Emeritus" as he has been the only one many of us have known.

Of course, we now are faced with the task of enthroning a new Muse Master. If you wish to make a nomination at the July 10th meeting, please contact the nominee prior to the meeting to secure their approval.

Also be thinking of an appropriate thank-you gift for our now past President for his years of service. How about a lifetime subscription to Printed Matters? Oops! He already has that. :-]

I always enjoy this so much. Thanks for putting it together. Please let your writers know that I read their work and take great pleasure from it.

Peg

We hope you will take the liberty to come out to our next meeting, 6:00 p.m., Thursday, July 10th at The Open Book. Note the special meeting date due to the 4th of July holiday.

Pat Stewart has created dozens of memorable essays in recent years, and hopefully the professor has praised her for that good work, because he can't do it this time. From the cumbersome title to the weak ending, her most recent essay cries out for more editing. In fairness, it should be said that "Julio, Sister Gloria, and a Midwestern Andy Griffith - Three Characters From A Vacation" has promise. The snippet about a prisoner in an orange jump suit being escorted across the street from the jail to buy cigarettes is a good one. So is the bit about Julio the singing dachshund. So, Pat, work on this some more, and bring it up to the high quality levels of your other writings.

Dance of the Water Spider by Cindy Kay has one of the more intriguing titles to be presented at our meetings, and it is probably the first to tackle the subject of abortion. We learned more about the lead character, Dr. Annabel Cramer, as she reacts to the protests in her driveway. The last paragraph Cindy read adds a new dimension to her novel - a possible romantic connection with Sheriff Creel. Suggestions from our group included a reduction in the number of abortions the doctor performed in the past year and moving some of the back-story to later points in the narrative. Also, the introductory passages about Annabel and her daughter might deter some readers impatient to get into the conflict and action of the story. Now that our group has reached that point, we will look forward to hearing more from Cindy on this. She has us hooked.

A Cool Dry Place by Kevin Coyle

Kevin Coyle took us back to A Cool Dry Place, where we found his characters waiting in line for their turn at the blackjack table. Kalash eventually gets a seat at the table and Chris does a little gambling (through Kalash) for the first time in his life. He wins. As the night ends, Chris goes on deck and roars until his throat goes raw - "the Lion had returned."

Everyone thought Kevin's writing style in this section was very good. They enjoyed the setting, with the mix of the old (a riverboat for gambling) and the futuristic (Kalash's disembodied hand crawling up Chris's shoulder). A few people felt that the world Kevin is describing is a little too familiar and would benefit from more of the science fiction / futuristic touches. There was also some discussion about whether Chris was actually taking any chances at all when he "gambled", since it was Kalash's money and Kalash's cards. Someone suggested that if he did some card playing himself, or maybe came up with a single chip off the floor from which he builds some winnings it might be a more dramatic courage builder for him.

"Love Birds and Jerks" by Phil Arnold

Phil Arnold read a short piece about the futility of using Bill and Hilary Clinton's staged lovey-dovey relationship after the Monica Lewinski scandal as a romantic enticement for his wife when he was feeling frisky. (Several of the men in the group could only ask Phil, "What were you thinking?!?") As always, Phil's piece was cleverly written and thoroughly entertaining.

There were a few suggestions for improvements to this piece. One person suggested adding what Hilary is thinking while she's gazing lovingly at Bill, such as "I hope Air Force One crashes." Another suggestion was to expand the next to last paragraph where Phil explains what was wrong with his execution of Lovey-Dovey night. The final suggestion was that Phil bring in his own dog Bo as a parallel to Bill's dog Buddy being his only friend in the family.

Jake has a problem. Actually, a couple of problems: he's an alcoholic and his wife has been raped. Jake's having trouble doing it "one day at a time." His AA mentor and Pinkerton superior, Harold Lasso asks, "Can you do an hour?" We wonder if he can hold out another minute as he plods through a series of tedious detractions like a winded climber shuffling up Everest a half-step at a time.
John Kingsbury confessed his struggle with his story, Trailer Trash. Jake doesn't seem to manifest sufficient emotion for the husband of a woman who has suffered the violence of rape. Perhaps Jake's heart and soul have been spirited away by the parade of beer trucks on Wade Hampton. We need to see more passion in Jake to bring us into his corner, into his world of minute struggles and small victories.

John Migacz can neither run nor hide from "fatherly duty," but in "A Moving Experience" he learns that a mattress can fly: "For a moment it is a magical sight as it speeds along like something out of a movie.... I thought for a moment it would beat him to the storage place!"
John's brief essay is as hilarious in the re-reading as it was upon first hearing. It is a comedy of errors worthy of the Bard, which leads John to muse "It's a shame that knowledge can't be transmitted to your kids from birth. Unfortunately, life's lessons must be learned all over again...." In this essay, we all learn that it's better to meet the bizarre foibles of life with laughter.

At a very early period of my life, I determined never to put a sentence into any newspaper. I have religiously adhered to the resolution through my life, and have great reason to be contented with it. Were I to undertake to answer the calumnies of the newspapers, it would be more than all my own time and that of twenty aids could effect. For while I should be answering one, twenty new ones would be invented. I have thought it better to trust to the justice of my countrymen, that they would judge me by what they see of my conduct on the stage where they have placed me, and what they knew of me before the epoch since which a particular party has supposed it might answer some view of theirs to vilify me in the public eye. Some, I know, will not reflect how apocryphal is the testimony of enemies so palpably betraying the views with which they give it. But this is an injury to which duty requires every one to submit whom the public think proper to call into its councils."

Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1798.

Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government

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 and Marcia Migacz.

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