"There is then creative reading as well as creative writing."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I would like everyone to consider if you would like to have a meeting on a spring Saturday morning, outside on my deck, underneath large oak trees (and hopefully a beautiful warm sky). Do you think we could function as well in daylight as we do after dark? Is a closed room necessary for our creative brain cells to work?

What I have in mind would happen between 9AM and noon, with bagels, doughnuts, coffee and juice served by my bride at 10:30. If you think it might be interesting to try something a little different, would you prefer to have it on the first Saturday in May in lieu of the regular first Thursday meeting? Would you rather have it later in the month in lieu of the third Tuesday meeting? Or possibly another Saturday in between.

Our Christmas party at Leland & Carolyn's house was a nice event, something special for our group, and I think a Saturday morning writers' brunch could be, too. Please give it some thought and come to the April meeting prepared to discuss it and make some plans.

Phil Arnold

The South Carolina Writers Workshop will publish an anthology of the best works of its members for 2005. The anthology will feature writings in four categories: short fiction, plays, essays, and poetry.

Winners in the anthology competition may have a maximum of three works published, regardless of category. The length requirements for each category are listed below and may not be exceeded:

	Short fiction - 1,750 words
	Plays - One act, less than 20 minutes
	Essays - 1,000 words
	Poetry - 40 lines

Submissions must be postmarked by April 30, 2005. Please refer to the official Anthology Guidelines web page at http://www.scwriters.com/anthology_guidelines.htm for details about price, format, media, and where to send your submissions.

The newly restarted Spartanburg SCWW Chapter had its first meeting on Tuesday, February 22 at the Spartanburg Westside Library, with nine people attending. The next Spartanburg meeting will be on April 26 at 7:00 PM. The Westside Library is located at 525 Oak Grove Road just north of Reidville Road in Spartanburg. For directions or information, contact Roger Meadows at RDM730@aol.com.

Long-time member Pat Stewart received a notice from AARP indicating that they were forwarding one of her submissions to the Library of Congress. Cool!

New member Carol Isler entered the Hub City Writers Project, a contest "for excellence in creative writing among Spartanburg County adults." She won first prize in personal essay for her piece entitled, "A Vague Recollection of a Conversation." Her prize was a full, $500 scholarship to the Wildacres Writers Workshop, a week-long creative writing summer school in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

When I hear the word "Blog" I think of the following headlines:

	"BLOG A HOAX - SAY U.S. SCIENTISTS"
	"SOVIET BLOG THREATENS PEACE"
	"BLOG ATTACKS - NY CITY EATEN"
	"THE BLOG - COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU"

It turns out that blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a section in some internet websites where people can post information or opinions on everything from knitting patterns to target shooting. The latest estimates say there are two million blogs on the internet.

Two million blogs. And none about Elvis.

How this treasonous calamity happened only future scholars might glean, but now is not the time to wonder - now is the time for action. When Elvis and the word action come together, only one name rises to the fore - Phil Arnold.

That's right folks, Phil of All Things Elvis has taken on the massive chore of starting an Elvis blog. (Now that I see the words "Elvis" and "Blog" together on the page, the Captain's reminded of Elvis in his later years, but I digress...)

Phil is preparing to write a blog a week concerning the King. This is indeed a labor of love and knowledge and no one has better credentials than POATE (that's Phil of All Things Elvis…)

POATE has kicked off his weblog with Elvis facts and info ranging from jukebox rankings to refrigerator magnets. POATE shared his first few blogs with the group who felt that they were well written in good journalistic style. The articles elicited comments like "good read for fans" and "holds interest well."

Only minor flaws could be found in POATE's blogs. The Captain is certain the reason for POATE's perfection is that the great Elvis Blog in the sky, holding a pen in one hand and a fried peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich in the other, is guiding POATE. Be sure to visit Elvisblog at http://elvisblog.myblogsite.com/blog and read all about it.

The King is dead. Long live the King.

Not unlike the current movie, a series of unfortunate events have occurred at Stone Elementary in Kami Kinard's latest chapter of Mack the Mibster and his Marvelous Marbles.

A marble falls in the hall. School principal, Mr. Moore, falls, quite spectacularly, on the marble. Embarrassed and humiliated, he declares a prohibition on marbles at school. "Impossible," gasps one stunned student.

Kami has constructed a wonderfully appropriate dilemma for her target audience. Even better, the quality of her writing and, in particular, her use of imagery and humor, make the story entertaining for adults as well. This reviewer particularly enjoyed Mr. Monroe's 'arms flapping', the students 'craning like chicks under hens', and Mrs. Beale's inability to quell her amusement at the principal's misfortune.

During the critique, reviewers found scant fault with the story as written. Minor suggestions included moving Mr. Monroe's 'fall time' closer to the eight o'clock bell, and changing the word 'fool' used to describe how he perceived himself afterwards. The longest discussion was on whether or not the witnesses would really wait to see if Mr. Monroe was uninjured before dissolving into fits of laughter.

Could this truly be the end of freedom? Red sort of doubts it, but he can't wait to see how Mack tackles, and ultimately resolves this cat's eye calamity.

Howard Lewis read the first two chapters of his novel, Kenneth. Kenneth is "working a job I hated and living with a woman I loved." He watches TV and old movies to avoid going to sleep on Sunday evening to avoid the prospect of going back to work on Monday.

The story changed viewpoint from first person to third person in the second chapter. This was intentional. This was Annie's chapter, which repeated the same information from Kenneth's chapter. The whole first page was good, but Howard could reduce the next few pages by 50% since we are getting the point about how much Kenneth hates his job.

Another suggestion was to rearrange the second sentence describing Annie.

Give us more insight about why Kenneth seems to be annoyed with Annie. I liked the details of what an insomniac would watch on TV. I'm one who zones out by 10PM. I also liked the phrase on page three where Annie told when she could realize the weekend was over: "Every Sunday night when the stop watch on 60 Minutes hit an hour."

This is one depressed engineer. His "blues" began on Sunday morning and lasted till next Friday night. I hope he gets help soon. How about a new job, or a new career entirely? How long can Annie stay in this relationship?

These are questions I hope Howard answers for me.

Newcomer Crystal Pitrois worked up her courage and shared the opening pages of her unnamed novel. Turns out, she had nothing to be nervous about - the group was restricted to praise and nit-picking because they couldn't find much in this fascinating opener to criticize.

The first scene in Crystal's book (working title: The Hedonist) describes a meeting between a relatively new follower in the Church of the Hedonist and his Leader. The two men wear porcelain masks because "Hedonists must not submit themselves to be judged on outward appearances, even by their Leader." The follower asks for forgiveness because he has committed murder. The Leader states that there will be no reprieve unless the follower consents to be executed before the Church. "Tonight you will die."

Suggestions were made on the purely mechanical level: Crystal should indent new paragraphs and add attributions in her dialogue to make it easier to follow. There was a general suggestion to have characters move and then speak, as in "The follower cleared his throat. 'Yes.'" instead of "'Yes.' The follower cleared his throat."

Finally, Crystal explained to us that the masks in the story were a metaphor for the social masks that we all wear. The response from one group member was that "we're all just a bunch of rednecks, so we didn't get it." Well, Pollyanna may not have picked up on the hidden social meaning, but she found it to be a well-written, intriguing, and totally involving first chapter. You can relax now, Crystal.

Not wanting to come to the meeting empty-handed, Steve Heckman wrote a thoroughly entertaining, though slightly disturbing, essay called "The Database." Apparently Steve keeps a database of ideas which may someday be useful for his writing. His database includes names, quotes, oxymorons, random thoughts and miscellaneous items. Steve shared quite a number of his database entries with us, driving home the main point of his essay: "What's in your notes is probably more revealing than your polished work."

Der Tubemeister knows something about the past -- the Mongolian past. But the 17th Century Netherlands, the Reformation, the English Civil War? I don't think so. Jim McFarlane, on the other hand, has done his research on European history (or has a better memory of what he learned in the tenth grade than DT), and weaves it into a novel and weaves the novel into a family history. And has the guts to write in the POV of a woman, no less. It's an ambitious undertaking, and Jim has made a good beginning. Penelope, left fatherless by a Baltic shipwreck, is living with the family of Rev. Prince, an English Puritan Minister living in Amsterdam. Prince's hopes of returning to England seem dashed by civil war just started there. Matthew, his grandson, has his own plans to leave, as a ship's carpenter. Ah yes, Matthew, he of the calloused hands and pure heart, and soon to own, we suspect, the heart of Penelope. But we're getting ahead, for both are shy, and living in an oppressive moral culture. But both have dreams, and New Amsterdam awaits across the sea. Are you hooked? DT is, and lines like "Her Mother said that Englishness was difficult to expunge from the soul" and "I refuse to settle for any man I can marry on this street for a five shilling dowry" have him waiting for the next installment.

John Migacz's novel "A Second Chance" is like an old friend we get to spend time with once or twice a month. Even if we miss a meeting and a little chunk of the plot, it's just great to pick up the story again. There is always a new twist or development to make it interesting. Surely, John did not have all this planned out when he started to write the tale about Jolly, but his muse has taken them both to some interesting places.

The writing is so good that most of the group critique was of the nit-picking variety: Roscoe looking at his shoe too many times, Jolly nodding too many times, Aunt Selma looking like the evil witch in "The Wizard of Oz," and so on. A short discussion revealed most of the group accepted the seeming honesty of Roscoe, the bookie. We assume this character will be a big part of future installments, as will ugly Aunt Selma. Bring on the next twists.

The third version of "Burning Time" by Bob Strother came back to the table again this month. Bob made some changes, and the group consensus seemed to be that the piece was better this time around. We were also united in thinking that Bob had mastered the pace and the tone of the piece. Because it read so well, suggestions for improvement focused on the smaller details.

The biggest hurdle for most readers seemed to be determining the age of the narrator. Other suggestions were to tighten up some of the descriptions by "showing, not telling." Show us how "Momma was highly agitated." Show us what "painful-looking" looks like. We know you can do it because we all liked the "deflated balloon" cat and the "tiny dancer" in the sink.

Was it "third time's a charm" for "Burning Time" this month? Almost. It needs a little more tweaking, but it is almost there. I think we are ready to see the next chapter next month!

Pat Stewart entertained us with an article she submitted to The Wall Street Journal. The feature of the article was a bottle of Château Gilette, Crème de Tété purchased by Pat and her husband in 1975. This 1945 vintage French wine had a lot of history captured within its bottle. The grapes saw Germany's occupation of France and the wine itself saw France's liberation. Pat and Jack sheltered the bottle for 30 years waiting for the occasion of its opening, their fiftieth wedding anniversary. When the bottle was opened there was a plethora of relatives in attendance to help share it.

The club enjoyed the article almost as much as the party enjoyed the wine. The only suggestion made was to shorten the list of revelers who attended the celebration by listing numbers and the locations where the participants originated. Everyone was captivated when the story started with the history of the wine and several members, including myself, remarked that they had never considered wine in regards to the history it represents. After the explanation of why the wine was selected, the article was humanized by a mistake we have all made at one time or another, breaking the cork. It was then brought further into everyday by the solution, sifting the wine through a coffee filter. Although the wine had not made the feared transformation, the people at the party's reaction listed toward the end of the article added more humor than even vinegar would have.

This article took a sixty year old bottle of French wine and brought it into everyone's everyday. I will never look at a vintage bottle of wine without considering history again. Excellent job.

The number of attendees was still modest, but the energy and insight were especially high at Tuesday's meeting.

Bob Strother's novel, Love Among the Greeks continued with a description of Johnny's spring break experience at Daytona. We caught a short glimpse of Randy's friend Rivers only once during Johnny's week of sun, sand, surf and partying. The excerpt culminated on Thursday night with a full-scale toga party at the Desert Isle Motel.

Jim McFarlane gave us a summary of the high spots of the first half of his novel, Penelope As Good As Dead. Jim is leading us on an interesting and sometimes shocking journey through the fifteenth century Old and New Worlds.

John Migacz shared an essay named "A Literary Masterpiece" which he intends to submit to the Catfish Stew Anthology competition. John describes how he came to understand his aversion to the literary fiction genre as he listened to a Pulitzer Prize-winning literary author speak at a writers convention. In the end, he realizes that "for years my rejection of literature was not due to the work itself, just the countless explanations and constant annoying analyses."

Thanks to Phil Arnold for passing along this cute tidbit.

The Spelling Chequer:

Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar writ
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

Printed Matters is the newsletter of the Greenville Chapter, SCWW, which meets on the first Thursday and third 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:
John Migacz, Bob Strother, Pat Stewart, Marcia Migacz,
Steve Heckman, Phil Arnold, Kami Kinard, and Howard Lewis

Copyright 2005 by Marcia Migacz, Editor. Contributing writers retain all rights to their work.