There was a lot of table talk at November's meeting. Here are the highlights:

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Leland Beaudrot has been nominated to become a member of the SCWW Board of Trustees. In light of this, he asked Marcia Migacz to take over as editor of Printed Matters. Starting with the December meeting, critiques should be e-mailed to her at migaczmarjon@prtcnet.com. She will gratefully welcome any suggestions or submissions.

KUDOS

Kami Kinard had a story published in this month's Lady Bug magazine. Way to go, Kami!

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Inspired and intrigued by the concept of National Novel Writing Month, Leland has taken on the challenge of writing a 50,000 word (175 page) novel in 30 days. He started on November 1 and must be done by midnight on November 30 to be considered a winner in the contest outlined on http://www.NaNoWriMo.org/. Last year out of 25,000 entrants, 3,500 people submitted finished novels by the end of the month. This year, Leland is determined to be one of winners.

CONFERENCE REPORT

John Migacz filled us in about last month's SCWW 14th Annual Writers Conference held at Myrtle Beach. He shared some of the materials provided at the conference, including a book full of seminar notes and some interesting print on demand advertisements. John also spoke about the state wide members' meeting, at which John suggested that the minutes from the quarterly SCWW board meetings be posted on the state website.

OUTSIDE EVENTS

Anyone interested in finding out about the Foothills Writer's Workshop on Feb. 18-19 should send an e-mail to wrightwriter@aol.com.

HAVE YOU PAID YOUR DUES?

Phil and Leland passed out a list of local SCWW members and the dates that their memberships will (or did) expire. If you would like to know your membership status, please check with Phil or Leland.

MEETING TIMES

• Thursday, December 2 - First Thursday Meeting, 6:00 p.m. at The Open Book
• Tuesday, December 21 - Third Tuesday Meeting, 6:00 p.m. at The Open Book (all genres welcome)

Presidential candidates beware! Pat Stewart and her mom, Margaret Webster, have teamed up as a new dynamic duo of disaster. DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT with this pair, or, - God forbid - solicit their support.

In "Voting in 2004," Pat tells us "Since my first vote for president, for Adlai Stevenson in 1956, I have voted for every losing presidential candidate." Forty-eight years of picking losers is a tough record to top, but this year Pat decided to pass the torch on to her mother, who voted an absentee ballot in Missouri.
When Pat helped her mom vote a straight party democratic ticket, she had to work through a problem with the now-infamous hanging chads. "I had to pull off several of those suckers to ensure her (Mom's) vote would count."
And count it did. Once considered a swing state, Missouri went solidly for Bush. Good work, Margaret. You have a lot of your daughter in you. Pat ensured a Republican victory when she cast her ballot here in Greenville last Tuesday. She tells us "With the two of us voting for the loser, there was no way Bush could lose!"

This was a "fun piece" and it worked very well. There was a brief discussion about the mid-western dialect, but, for the most part,we had little critique and lots of laughs.

Jim McFarlane, one of our newest writers, read Death and Remembrance, a sample from his novel. The scene opens at the funeral of Penelope's father. He was a sea merchant who drowned at sea. The setting is in Amsterdam. I liked the descriptions of the landlady and her Dutch name, Lysbet Ryker. This gives the piece an authentic touch. Penelope's descriptions of what she remembered about her father were extremely good touches. The group thought it was too long, however, and needed to be broken up into smaller segments. I liked the images she described: "smells of oak from Danzig," "the Frenchmen always wearing new styles of coats and hats."
A few suggestions from around the table. Cut out a few of the word smell. Use another in its place. Give us a more accurate sense of the time period. On page 2 give us a clue about the young man who took Penelope's hand. Will he show up again? Is he a player in her life?
Another section I liked was on page 3. Lysbet gave the widow advice on how to live now that her husband was gone: "You have three choices. You may forget John, forget that he ever existed, forget the pain he caused by dying. Or you may remember that he died and left you alone and hate him for that. Or you may remember him with love, remember the good times, the happy times." That little speech was a powerful one for me. Jim, I want to read the rest of the story.

In the first two chapters of Kami Kinard's children's story, Mack the Mibster and his Marvelous Marbles, we meet Mack who is obsessed with marbles, his adoring parents and his patient teacher. Mack's marble-oriented eccentricities are well characterized. As a marble player from long ago, I enjoyed the story and thought the subject matter was honestly described. Some of the favorable comments from the group were alliteration in the title, rhythm, and good sentence length. I also thought the closure of Chapter 2 was well phrased. I believe the group will agree with me that this story is well-written, age-appropriate and interesting--even to adults. I encourage Kami to continue with her excellent beginning.
There was controversy about "dead people" and "Eeeeeeewwww." We liked those phrases but they were used twice. I think the second usage was much more effective but was damaged by the prior usage, so I recommend eliminating the first usage of "dead people" and "Eeeeeeewwww".
One critic complained that the sun, moon and earth were not perfect spheres, but are slightly pear-shaped. I think he is too picky concerning a book for third graders, for the non-sphericity is very slight. The Himalayas are a bigger anomaly.

The best essay brings to light life's small foibles and Phil Arnold's "It's a Bummer, Please" sets the bar. Phil's literary flashlight illuminated a little explored trend - couples using movie dialogue in everyday speech. I felt right at home as Phil explained his household clichés and how they are so well entrenched in family dialogue that the line doesn't even need to be completed. Phil rounded up the usual suspects: h is wife, Bo, and Wavy Gravy to create a snapshot of 21st century married dialogue.
The group could relate to Phil's essay and frankly, my dear, it went ahead and made my day. Several different titles were suggested but on the whole, this one had class and could've been a contender.
Screenwriters wrote all those clichés we use in everyday life. Why should we use someone else's clever lines when we can write our own? Fatz has decided to never use another movie clichés in his writing. Life might be a box of chocolates and you might make me an offer I can't refuse, but I won't do it 'cause I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take th is any more and that's the truth even though you can't handle the truth.
That's all Fatz has to say about that. Hasta la vista, baby.

We've enjoyed many readings from Kevin Coyle's novel A Cool Dry Place, but none contained a major plot shift like we heard at the last meeting. Kevin sets up the heavy stuff with three pages of courtroom dialogue between the prosecutor and the defendant. As usual, our group complimented Kevin for his tight dialogue. In fact, there were 37 quotations in the first two pages, and only three speaker attributions, but nobody said it needed more. That shows the command Kevin has with his dialogue. Section 20 confused some of our new people, who got their first exposure to Kevin's unique writing style in which his protagonist is telling the s tory in his head to his dead girlfriend while he sits in the audience at the trial of the man charged with her murder. It does take some getting used to, but Kevin has remained committed to this method, and all the old regulars are comfortable with it now. The big plot shift occurs when the defendant is found innocent, and the enraged protagonist shoots him. The Professor didn't see that coming but will look forward to hearing where we go from here.

Does Der Tubemeister mind reviewing a "chick" story? Not if it's as nicely written and truly poignant as "The Last Waltz" by Carol-Ann Rudy. Set in the author's distant past, yet without the gauzy vagueness or obvious embellishment of most old stories, "The Last Waltz" rings with the clarity of those few memories of exceptionally intense emotion. A school dance, a mysterious Germanic stranger, an evening of awkward pairings transformed into a transcendant merging of man and woman and music and mot ion, and then... nothing. The weight of what could have been still presses down after all these years. Or so the ever-stoic D.T. imagines. And was that a tear in Carol's eye as she read "I have no regret for the young man, only for the dance; because the romance was the waltz."? D.T. couldn't be sure, because he had a momentary blurring.

Bob Strother read his short story, entitled "Rocker Mom," to the group in a languid voice that mirrors his writing style. The story concerns the visitation of the narrator's dead mother, who, as in life, enjoys gently nagging her son from the comfort of her rocking chair. One might expect such a ghostly visit to provoke strong emotions of some sort-either joy or horror-but Bob's narrator, also named Bob, handles it all in stride. Perhaps Bob is just easygoing by nature, or perhaps it was the glass of chardonnay that calmed his nerves.
In either event, the story could do with a better title. For this review er, "Rocker Mom" evoked images of a middle-aged hippie, with her kids in tow, following the Grateful Dead around the country in a VW van. I expected sex and drugs and rock-n-roll, not the sweet reminiscing of the dearly departed. I'm all for ambiguous titles, weird concepts, and surprise endings, but here I was just caught off-guard, a reaction I don't think Bo b had intended.

"Where are you going?"

Thaleia, suitcase in hand, turned back from the front door to step into my study. "My work here is done, don't you think?"

"Not really. There's a whole lot of writing left to do, and I need all the help I can get."

She put down the suitcase and sat on the corner of my desk, facing me in the recliner. "You've got a dictionary and thesaurus right beside you, the whole internet at your fingertips, plus your Writers Workshop friends. What more do you need?"

"You, my personal Muse. The catalyst of my mental meanderings, the shepherdess of my fuzzy-minded thinking, the flint for my steel...."

She laughed, muttered something about "silly putty" and tried to cover it by clearing her throat. "Please, go on."

"It's true, I've gotten a lot accomplished recently, and I'm still on track to finish my novel in November...."

"Congratulations in advance! I have confidence in you."

"... But it's not done yet. And, while I have made an honest effort to get into play writing, I've got a long way to go there."

"But at least you've begun to see what you don't know, and have begun to find the resources to get you there."

"Right. And while I'm not going to be doing Printed Matters any longer, I will be doing reviews now and then, and I've always given you a free hand and the byline in that."

"Reviews--mere literary hors d'oeuvres. A well-fed Muse requires more substantial fare."

"Look, even if I do pass the 50,000 word mark before December, my novel will require a lot of work to get ready for publication. This is just a flash draft, you know."

She brought her hand to her chin and cocked her head. "True."

"And... there might be other projects in the works."

She snapped to attention. "Ooo! Like what?"

"I'm not at liberty to say right now. But don't you want to stick around and find out?"

She pursed her lips as if to prevent her answer's too hasty escape. "You know I love a good mystery.... Okay, I'm in!"

"Good!" I got up from my easy chair and reached for her luggage. "Let me give you a hand with that."

"No! Thanks, I can...." Our fumbling with the suitcase caused it to fall open and disclose its contents: nothing.

"Traveling light?"

She giggled. "Even a Muse needs to know she's needed now and then."

"And needed you are." I handed her a pen and steno pad. "Miss Thaleia, take a memo."

"To?"

"The readers of Printed Matters. From the soon to be former editor." I watched her mouth the words as she wrote. When she got to t-o-r and look up, I continued. "Thank you for your patience, support and kind words over the last four years. Now as the torch is passed to the next hand, I join you in looking forward with anticipation to what lies ahead for this publication. And welcome, please, our new Editor, Marcia Migacz, as she takes the reins fully in hand next month to see this publication boldly into a new year."

"You'll have to help me with spelling."

"You're asking me how to spell!? I thought that's what the dictionary is for."

"It is, smarty pants, but Migacz isn't in there." She stuck out her tongue.

"Okay, M-i-g-a-c-z. Let me know when you're ready."

"Go ahead, I'll listen fast."

"Nearly four years ago, when we went all digital (no trees were injured in the making of this publication) I reflected in this space on two of Greenville's best kept secrets: Reedy Falls Park and the Greenville Chapter of SC Writers Workshop. At that time, I pondered if excess publicity would somehow water down or damage these precious resources. But, in recent months, both have gained much greater exposure, and I, for one, am fully delighted with the outcome. Granted, both will need more attention and maintenance, but they are each treasures too wonderful to keep to ourselves."

"And now, as I step back from the keyboard, I say to you all: Write on! It's fun, it's profitable for some of you." I glanced at the angelic imp seated on my desk, rapidly scribbling on the pad. "And it keeps the Muses occupied and out of trouble."

[I heard that! - Thaleia]

Printed Matters is the newsletter of the Greenville Chapter, SCWW, which meets on the first Thursday and fourth Tuesday 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: Marcia Migazc, Bob Strother, Pat Stewart, Jim McFarlane, John Migacz, Phil Arnold, Steve Heckman and Kevin Coyle.

Copyright 2004 by Leland Beaudrot, Editor. Contributing writers retain all rights to their work.