- Excerpt from "An Essay on Criticism" by Alexander Pope

If you have been wondering why you never received a ballot for the 2006 SCWW Board of Directors election, it's because only five people were nominated to fill the five open positions on the Board. On December 1, Sandra Johnson announced that Bob Strother, Susan Boyer, Sarah Cureton, Dottie Boatwright, and Terry Roueche each automatically won a seat on the board for the upcoming year. Leland Beaudrot, Barbie Perkins-Cooper, Craig Faris, Frances Pearce and Shari Stauch will all be rotating off the Board at the end of December. The first Board meeting will be held in February, at which time officers and committee chairpersons will be selected.

Please join me in thanking Bob, Susan, and Sarah for taking on the responsibility of representing us at the state level.

John Migacz won a stunning victory over himself in December's election for President of the Greenville Chapter. When asked for comment, the President said, "I won WHAT??"

If you are a paid member and have not already picked up your 2005-2006 Membership Directory, copies will be available at the next few meetings.

"Dollar Dance", Kevin Coyle's second story to be published, is now available for purchase in moonShine review from THRIFT Poetic Arts Press. moonShine review sells for just $5 plus $1.50 shipping. To purchase a copy, make checks payable to THRIFT Press and mail to: THRIFT Press: Book Orders, PO Box 5424, Charlotte, NC 28299 or go to www.thriftpoeticarts.com.

Congratulations again, Kevin!

If you missed the Greenville Chapter's Christmas party, you missed a good one. Genial hosts Bob and Vickie Strother opened their home to a bunch of writers and supplied them with food and alcohol. If that doesn't show faith in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what would.

Bob's home filled with affability as members got to know each other and their families a little better. Phil Yanov brought his baby daughter Kathryn and after one look at the assembled mob, she put herself into a self-induced coma and perched happily on Mom's chest.

It was fun meeting the other members' spouses - often the subject of tales told 'round the table. It proved once again that writers are notorious fabricators as none of the spouses breathed fire, had fangs or arrived with a Medusa-like stare.

The party devolved into an impromptu chapter meeting with two new Board members disseminating information gleaned at the last meeting of the old Board. Suggestions on how to improve statewide relations and improvements to the Conference topped the list.

All in all, a successful party and one not to be missed next year.

The following is taken from a flyer we received about the workshop:

17th ANNUAL WRITERS WORKSHOP sponsored by Foothills Writers Guild
Meeting at Anderson College February 17-18, 2006

Speakers will include:

Juanita Garrison, columnist

Terry Kay, novelist

Shirley Serviss, poet

Majorie Lloyd, editor of IDEALS magazine

Kelly Nickell, Writer's Digest Books managing editor

Jim Rasheed, playwright

Ellis Vidler, author

Early registration ends Monday, February 13. For information about the Foothills Writers Workshop call (864) 225-1751 or (864) 231-6666 or e-mail webbtex@charter.net or wrightwriter@aol.com.

Leave it to Sarah Cureton to come up with something out of the blue. This time it's - would you believe it? - an angel. A naked angel whose moniker, Celeste, is certainly celestially appropriate. Add Ricky to the mix. He's fourteen going on fifty and a natural-born cynic - but he believes in angels. Or maybe just one angel.

In Sarah's three-page reading, we're not told much about what has befallen the two. Only that Celeste has been shot and that the two of them are hiding behind boulders in a city park. Ricky's pretty sure she's going to be all right. She's an angel, right? But his confidence is waning the longer she's unconscious.

The group felt Sarah had used a great narrative voice. It really gave us a feel for Ricky's character. Some felt it was unclear just where Ricky and Celeste were, and suggested enhancing the scene setting. Much debate rose from the lack of blood associated with Celeste's bullet wounds. Part of the group felt more blood was called for - others didn't. Sarah explained that she deliberately meant to be ambiguous about what the lack of blood meant.

I'm for giving Sarah her head and letting her run with this. I loved the delightful juxtaposition of unusual elements in this story: an old fourteen-year-old, a naked angel who has to be naked to "glow and go", violence, and the makings for a very unique relationship. I can hardly wait for the next installment.

The conclusion of Bob Strother's short story "Midnight Clear" was no disappointment. The tension ran high as Sergeant O'Shaughnessy and his men searched a movie theatre for two rampaging gunmen, and for O'Shaughnessy's daughter Janie.

As usual, Bob's craft was exemplary, but the suspense and credibility of the story were diminished by some small but significant details. All theatres have emergency exits, but in the story the girls were trapped with no exit except into the lobby. Bob obviously had a clear picture in his head of the stadium-seating theatre but his lack of description left us confused about the scene. Several people felt that the police chatter would be more stressed and routinely abbreviated - less conversational. Finally, there was some dissatisfaction about the climax of the story; some folks wanted more conflict and unexpected action, and numerous suggestions were made for alternative story lines.

Even with the above criticisms, Bob's story was well-written and enjoyable. Hopefully, Bob's wife Vicki will forgive the group for being uncharacteristically tough on Bob this one time!

The Widow Dunn is Jim McFarlane's second entry into the world of historical fiction, but it is more than a story set in the past for Jim. When the hero's name is Angus McFarlane it's obvious The Widow Dunn is a family history.

Fatz applauds Jim's attempt. With the advent of the web, genealogy has become a hobby for a lot of folks wanting to know their roots, but it's one thing to find a born/died listing and another to be taken into the events that surrounded the lives of those ancestors. Jim might use a little "poetic license" to enhance his story, but if he stays true to the historical era, it can only breathe life into his forbearers and make them live again.

The group found a few problems with the blocking and location of participants. The outside kitchen and porch area confused most folks. The creation date of the song "When the Saints Go Marching In" should be checked and did smack of being an anachronism no matter what the date.

The women in the group were shocked by the thought of "twenty years of childbirth" and the austral debs were appalled by the thought of a yankee courting a southern flower. Several of Jim's "brain" references led to the conclusion that the widow Dunn must have a brain tumor to be associating with a northerner.

Fatz says, hey, Angus is a Scotsman, not a northerner. He's possibly a very far easterner or a way far westerner, but a yankee? Give the man with the burr a break. He's saved the widow Dunn from a fate worse than death, given her coffee, a horse, kindling, a rifle and even oatmeal 'fer crying out loud. Cut the man some slack!

Fatz thinks our society is currently floating around the porcelain bowl and fate is about to hit the handle. One reason is the loss of a connection to our past. Jim's novel can recreate that connection and that's something we all might aspire to.

Fatz tried working on his family's past but couldn't seem to put a noble spin on an Austrian progenitor who, after failing in an anarchic coup, fled Europe one step ahead of the hangman, and an Irish ancestor who was gunned down in a drunken bar brawl in Santa Fe.

Hey Jim. Got any suggestions?

Kevin Coyle brought us the next installment of his short story, "Looking for Elves", on the first Thursday meeting in December. We rejoined Tom and Jeff, two American tourists, in a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland, where they are entertaining an older woman with tales of their misadventures touring the countryside. Sadly for me, I missed the first part of this humorous tale which has Tom and Jeff fending off a midlife crisis by embarking on a trip to Iceland and arriving - unknowingly - in the middle of Gay Pride Week.

Kevin's painting of the bar scene rings true, from the background music interwoven with the story to the plot device he uses to relate the main action points to the reader - using a woman who the characters have absolutely no interest in, in fact have an aversion to, as an eager audience for the tales of their exploits.

The group had what was apparently a second discussion on the reference to the woman in the bar as an old woman, especially the repetition of the phrase old woman. The consensus of the group was that another technique might work better. Several alternatives were discussed, including the possibility of assigning a 'pet name' to the lady, as Kevin had done with other characters in the story. There was also a discussion about specific sections of dialogue that sounded a little too much like narration as opposed to natural conversation.

The net of the critique was that Kevin once again did his job as a writer with skill, absorbing the reader in the scene and leaving us wanting more.

Robin Monroe's middle-school novel Everglades has several levels of conflict -- Nick against his hearing disability and Nick who signs cannot communicate well with Mittie who reads lips -- and a subplot about Seminole elves. Robin was especially concerned about policing the dialog issues with deaf characters but she seems to do a good job. The usage of "he signed" instead of "he said" works well and is a frequent subtle reminder. Italics for his written communication follows naturally.

The action mixed in with the dialog is not just filler but emphasizes the emotion, such as "I said, shaking my head for emphasis." Placing the attribution tag at or near the beginning of a lengthy dialog is preferred so the reader quickly knows who is speaking. I enjoyed several fresh phrases, such as "get back to the world I couldn't fix." Chapters 4 and 5 end with suspense.

However, the thoughts of Nick, the first person past-tense narrator, are presented inconsistently. Robin mixes past-tense action with present-tense thoughts plus occasional thoughts in single quotes. The tag "I thought" is used too often and often presages present tense; by Chapter 4, the reader should be accustomed to the mixture of Nick's thoughts and narration.

The first word of Chapter 4 is "She," which is poor way to start a chapter or to introduce a new character. I would prefer "The new girl" or "A girl I had never seen before." Also, the beginning of a chapter should subtly inform us of where we are and who is present. I have no idea of the location of the first half of Chapter 4.

Other minor issues were a misplaced modifier ("We looked in the fort over by the fallen pine, that she had built..."), variable spelling of Karen/Karin, and keeping straight the ten people mentioned in Chapter 5.

Several decades have passed since I was in middle school, but I believe Robin is developing an interesting story.

Marie Newman read from her novel, in which several friends take a road trip in a pink vintage ambulance to Florida, where they hope to deposit the ashes of their dearly departed gay friend. In this installment, they stop by Cooter's Auto, Chainsaw Repair, and Tattoo Parlor to get the ambulance's air conditioning fixed. Cooter's wife, Venus, runs the tattoo aspect of the hodgepodge business. Venus's services may or may not include "happy endings" - at least that's how some in the group read her flirty exchange with two marines who had driven an awful long way just for tattoos.

Although Marie's characters come dangerously close to stereotypes (this reviewer pointed out that Cooter sounds a lot like another character of the same name from "The Dukes of Hazard" TV series), they are interesting enough at this point for me to let it slide. Hopefully, as the story unfolds, these characters will evolve beyond their boilerplate limitations and really surprise us. All except Edward, of course, who's dead.

Susan Boyer served us up another terrific installment of "Everything is Relative," her fictional account of Thanksgiving dinner with Liz and the Talbot bunch down in Stella Maris: a little island off the Carolina coast. In it, Susan has laced her writing voice - saucy, southern and so authentic it makes you ache - with comic energy. She keeps her wit sharp and employs it subtly. The character, Liz, paints a family portrait that pokes at her family's idiosyncrasies with a gentle 'but-I-love-them-anyway' finger. "Everything is Relative" kept us chuckling and left us wanting more. An impressive piece of writing for a first draft.

It's tough to find anything wrong with Susan's writing. (Our group does its best to find something anyway.) She does an excellent job of capturing the 'spirit' of the huge, family, holiday dinner. One suggestion was to add some more sensory observations: this being a Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps she could work in the smells.

One of our 'history conscious' participants pointed out that referring to the Talbots as Dixiecrats - a shortcut for southern-democrats - may tint (or taint) the family with the political philosophies of the actual Dixiecrat party - something that Susan may or may not have intended.

"Everything is Relative" is an enjoyable, southern-fried short with Aunt Regina's Holiday Congelaed Delight on the side!

A die-hard group of six writers showed up for Tuesday's meeting, despite power outages and only four shopping days left 'till Christmas.

Bob Strother shared the first and last chapters of his book Love Among the Greeks. (Bob will be self-publishing and is almost past the deadline for changes.) The first chapter introduces the grown up hero, Johnny, and explains how "like a leaf caught up in a wintry gust, [he is] transported back forty-one years to 1963..." The final chapter brings us back out of the reminiscence to the older Johnny deciding whether to call his old girlfriend Randy. In the end, he does make a call… to his wife, who tells him, "You're such a romantic."

John Migacz brought a one page flash-fiction work called "George." The narrator pays a visit to his friend George who, as is revealed gradually through the piece, is a resident of Arlington Cemetery.

Kevin Coyle finished up his story "Looking for Elves." It takes place in a bar in Iceland, where the hero Tom has retreated to the restroom to avoid the amorous advances of an older woman whom he has dubbed "Sea Hag." His musings are cut short by the sound of Sea Hag smashing the door open with even more blatant amorous intent, and Tom and his friend Jeff escape into a sunrise which "bathed the city in an unearthly crimson glow, like that from a Viking funeral."

In her story about Thanksgiving in Stella Maris, Susan Boyer asserts that "Everything is Relative." She describes the antics of many of the thirty or so relatives who show up for her mamma's Thanksgiving buffet, from Daddy's cousin Graham, who owes the IRS 1.5 million, to Zeke, who brought his own shotgun and fires it in the backyard "just to show it around." Susan pulls it all together in the end when she realizes that "that crazy quilt of characters ... [were there ] through sickness, health, scandals, and family brawls." She smiles "with new found gratitude for each and every nutcase at the table."

Jim McFarlane continued his novel The Widow Dunn. Angus McFarlane has brought the makings for breakfast to Laura Ann Dunn's house: oatmeal, butter, and sugar, items in short supply in the post-war South. Although Angus is able to compliment Laura Ann nicely during breakfast, he manages to insult her several times at lunch, and we leave her exasperated at the end of the selection.

Sarah Cureton finished up the meeting with an excerpt from her untitled book. We join fourteen-year-old Ricky as he tries to ignore his parents' argument about Ricky's father's gambling habit. After his mother storms out of the room, his father works on Ricky to get him to agree that "he had every right to gamble his hard-earned money away..." When his father leaves, Ricky is relieved to be able to go back to writing in his journal.

• Thursday, January 5 - First Thursday Meeting, 6:00 p.m. at The Open Book
• Tuesday, January 17 - Third Tuesday Meeting, 6:00 p.m. at The Open Book

All genres welcome at both meetings. Suggested limit for reading selections is five double-spaced, typed pages, although longer selections may be possible if time permits.

The Open Book, 110 S Pleasantburg Drive, Greenville, SC

The South Carolina Writers Workshop is a statewide organization made up of 12 or so local chapters and an elected 13-member Board of Directors. Board members volunteer their time and effort, and are responsible for organizing the SCWW Annual Conference and providing communication between the local chapters in person, through The Quill newsletter, and via the SCWW website. They also arrange for several free-to-members seminars each year, and administer the organization's memberships and finances.

This coming year, Greenville will have three enthusiastic members on the Board: Susan Boyer, Sarah Cureton, and Bob Strother. Although their terms do not begin officially until January 1, both Susan and Sarah were able to attend the last board meeting of 2005. Here are some notes from the meeting (paraphrased from Susan's notes - thanks, Susan!):

• The 2006 SCWW Conference:
  • Will be held at Ocean Creek in Myrtle Beach. This is the same location as two years ago.
  • Susan and Sarah told the board that the Greenville chapter felt that the faculty should be weighted more towards agents and editors and less toward authors. They asked for a better mix of the types of work represented, i.e. Science Fiction and other genres. They also stated for the record that agents from well-known agencies would be a better draw.
  • The three Greenville board members are in charge of door prizes and silent auction items for next year's conference. Each chapter will be asked to provide at least one item, and Sarah, Susan, and Bob will have to come up with another thirteen or so. If you have any ideas for them, or if your company might be willing to sponsor a door prize, please let one of them know.
• Sarah volunteered to revamp the SCWWwebsite in an effort to improve SCWW's public face.
• As an organization, we are in a very good financial position - probably the best ever. Susan brought copies of our financial statement in to the Third Tuesday meeting, and they will be available upon request at future meetings (see Marcia.)

One of the most important points made at the meeting was that non-board members are encouraged to take on projects and/or get involved on the statewide level. With a couple of exceptions, you do not have to be a board member to be a committee chair and any participation will improve the group as a whole. There's plenty to do!

Help and support from non-board members is always welcome and eagerly hoped for. Please forward any ideas or questions for the board to Sarah, Bob, or Susan so that they can better represent what the group wants. "SCWW belongs to its members - let's let them hear from us!"

Printed Matters is the newsletter of the Greenville Chapter of South Carolina Writers Workshop.

Thanks to our contributing writers and news reporters:
Bob Strother, Marcia Migacz, John Migacz, Susan Boyer, Jim McFarlane, Kevin Coyle, and Sarah Cureton

Copyright 2006 by Marcia Migacz, Editor. Contributing writers retain all rights to their work.

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