As of May 22, 2007, Phil Arnold has had more than 100,000 hits on his elvisblog website. Phil has posted 183 articles, all relating to Elvis or those close to him. It's amazing that Phil is able to come up with new topics week after week. Impressive.

Elysabeth Eldering didn't win the Echelon Press monthly Fast Fiction contest — she went one better. The publisher picked up her story "Butterfly Halves" and it's available as a downloadable ebook.

You can purchase Elysabeth's stories ("The Tulip Kiss" is also available) at www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/ElysabethElderingeBooks.htm.

Kevin recently stated that his immediate goal in his writing career was to have all of his available stories published somewhere. Last month, Kevin crossed that goal off his list.

"Private Burning" was accepted by the Noneuclidean Café — "A journal of unexpected meetings...Noneuclidean Café is an online literary quarterly, founded in 2005. [Their] mission is to publish articles on personal growth from the perspectives of a wide range of change modalities, including the intersection of personal growth and social change; and to publish artistic works--in particular poetry and short fiction, but [they] are open to works of all sorts."

The Writer's Post Journal will be publishing his story "Happy Ending". "The Writers Post Journal is a Pittsburgh-based small literary magazine. It is one of very few like it out there. The WPJ offers a wide variety each issue. From short stories, to non-fiction, poetry, and outstanding art."

Both stories should come out this summer.

Bob Strother's short story "Kokopeli Dreams" has been accepted for inclusion in Talking River, a literary journal published by Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. The journal is a national publication, featuring creative work by some of this country's best contemporary writers. Date of publication is yet to be determined.

Hard copy brochures for the 2007 SCWW Writers Conference were mailed on Thursday, June 7, directly from the printer in Charlotte to everyone who has requested one, and to members who receive The Quill via the U.S. Postal Service. If you have not received yours by the time you are reading the July Printed Matters, it may have gone into the postal black hole. Please contact Katie Griggs at Planning the Globe for a replacement. She can be reached at (800) 997-7345 or (843) 971-6034, Monday - Friday, between 9 am and 5 pm, or via email at kgriggs@planningtheglobe.com.

If you have not previously requested a brochure, but have decided that you would like one, please contact Katie.

Members — The 2007 SCWW Writers Conference in October is approaching. The dedicated members who are organizing the conference could use some ideas and a little help from the rest of us.

The first need is simply for ideas — who should Kathryn Lovatt contact about becoming a sponsor? She is seeking sponsors at all levels, from the $1000 and above "benefactor" to the $50 to $75 "corporate member". The generosity of both businesses and individuals who donate will be acknowledged through SCWW publications, on the website and at the annual conference. If you have any suggestions, please send a note to either Kathryn (kathrynlovatt@hotmail.com) or John Migacz (migaczmarjon@prtcnet.com).

The second request is for a little help putting together an item for the silent auction — a basket filled with books and magazines, journals or writing paraphernalia, a PC or printer donated by a business, or a week (during the off-season) at a vacation home are all possibilities — as long as it has some value to a writer. Each chapter has been asked to provide at least one basket. Could you help us with ideas or items? Thanks!

Phil Arnold came across this while combing the web for Elvis trivia. It helps to explain how you can read the same page ten times and still miss some of the errors in it! Thanks, Phil.

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?

Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

For the other 45% of you:
If you can read this, you have a strange mind too. Can you read this? Only 55 people out of 100 can. I couldn't believe that I could actually understand what I was reading. The phenomenal power of the human mind, according to a research at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be in the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole. Amazing, huh?

That's what the American military had when they built three air defense facilities off the Atlantic coast in the late 1950s-early 1960s. According to Russ Haddad's essay, "Defender At Sea", these offshore radar platforms (called "Texas Towers" because they resembled oil drilling rigs) were designed to bolster the country's air defense network. They were also designed to withstand hurricanes and nor'easters — which is where problems were encountered.

Russ takes us through the background of the planning and construction process, and provides a detailed description of the platforms' nomenclatures and internal operations. He then describes the collapse of TT-4 (Old Shaky) that followed in the wake of Hurricane Donna in 1961, and the numerous subsequent evacuations of the remaining two towers. As a result of these problems, the last tower was decommissioned in 1963.

The group felt that the essay, while informative, was too heavy on terminology and too light on Russ's personal experiences while stationed on one of the towers. It was suggested that Russ use the tragic collapse of TT-4 as the beginning "hook" for the story. It was also noted that the technical descriptions of the towers didn't actually provide the reader with a clear image of the facilities. Other, more minor comments involved some confusing technological and logistical details, and the chronology of some of the story elements.

In many ways, the essay brought to mind the techno-thriller work promulgated by Tom Clancy and Larry Bond — a high goal to shoot for, but certainly a noble one.

Elysabeth Eldering's story, "Stranded," was a piece she wrote for a contest in Writer's Weekly magazine. It was a 24-hour contest to write, edit, and send in a 1100-word piece on the theme of a small voice over a short wave radio.

Hal and Sherri used their CB radio to get help after they lost their car to a highjacker. They heard a child's cry for help, saying he was stranded. They tried to get another CBer to help, but had no luck.

After they were rescued they found an old newspaper story telling of a child's dying after being stranded for five days. That story was dated June 5, 1940.

It was a really good piece, with a surprise ending. One suggestion from the table was to omit the carjacking and just focus on the radio story. Since the 24 hours were past, she couldn't do this!

A couple phrases on page 1 got comments:

"the gun settled...temple." That needs a better word.

And how do you describe gravel as "feeling familiar"?

Overall, I'd have to say it was a great piece and I admire Elysabeth for tackling this type of challenge.

Having a knack for creative mischievous yarns, Bob Strother drops another surprise on us with an astronaut, whose life seems troubled by domestic conflicts, strapped into a command module set for liftoff. His mind is clouded with the recent unexpected ambush and seduction at a motel by his ex-wife's younger voluptuous sister, Samantha.

A wake-up call last Sunday from Renee, his ex-wife, suggested they get together for a few hours at a motel with her sister also attending. A note left with the desk clerk by Renee, indicated that she would be later than planned due to some delay with her career acting shoot in Orlando. To his surprise her sister arrived alone to avail herself with his apparent vulnerability, which he reluctantly succumbed to and regretted afterwards.

The group had several comments and questions about the story, one pressing for more conflict with relevance to the astronaut Cody's own agitated thoughts. As his spacecraft left the earth and raced into the darkness of space, he kept his eyes closed tightly. What was he thinking? Good job Bob, because we're still wondering about it. How did you accomplish that within a mere three pages?

David Burnsworth read another scene from his mystery novel Palmetto Heat. Private investigator Trent drives from Charleston to Myrtle Beach because Jim, an old Army buddy, telephoned that he had some information on Trent's investigation.

Every scene has several functions. In a mystery novel, one of the most important is to advance the plot. Revealing information but deliberately declining to establish its importance is a time-honored trick of the mystery novelist. I think Jim's information about manifests is critical to the plot but "what exactly was Jim trying to say before he became incoherent?" The listeners had a variety of complaints about this scene—Jim didn't sound drunk, why did Jim call Trent, Jim's information was too vague. In other words, the scene didn't work. If at first you don't succeed, then it's still a first draft.

Several descriptions in the first paragraph didn't work for me, especially "humidity covers the city like a down sleeping bag." References to air-conditioning on full blast and drenched in sweat are true but ordinary. However, I liked "the clouds have absorbed all the moisture they could hold and dumped it back over the city." At least, David's trying.

On to a pet peeve of mine. On page one, eleven sentences in a row begin with Trent, he, Jim, Trent, Trent, he, he, Jim, Trent, Jim, and he. I predict David will next make the mistake of diversifying sentences by starting them with "ing" or "as" phrases. I didn't clear this hurdle in my writing until I realized that things may happen around the characters without the characters having to explicitly notice or do them, as long as they could have. For example, instead of "Trent turned into the parking garage and pulled the GT into a spot in the corner. He hated door dings." try "The car entered a parking garage and instinctively sought a corner spot, safe from door-dinging neighbors."

Other little craft errors hidden in this scene are many "was "ing" verbs, a couple of wrong POVs, and a "began." Hey, if writing novels were easy, we'd all be published by now.

Pat Stewart took us through the looking glass to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, in her essay, "Alice in Wonderland." While helping to rebuild homes with a group from her church, Pat met a woman named, believe it or not, Alicein Wonderland, and discovered that they share a love of the book To Kill A Mockingbird. Alicein runs a restaurant called the Mockingbird Café, where all the sandwiches are named after characters in the book. Unlike Alicein's sandwiches, the book To Kill A Mockingbird is frequently challenged by those who wish to ban it from library shelves. But Pat loves the book and finds a different meaning in its message each time she reads it.

Criticisms of Pat's essay were small and few. Some thought the name in the title should be "Alicein," and others wanted Pat to mention how unusual a name "Alicein" is when she first introduces it. It seemed like some of the details in the essay weren't really relevant to the story, like the actual menu from the café, or the fact that someone gave Alicein a check for $100. And it was suggested that the last page was "a little preachy" and not really needed for the story.

Once again Pat has taken an ordinary slice of life and turned it into an enjoyable yarn.

Jim McFarlane's historical fiction about the tensions between the English and the Dutch in the colony of New Netherland in (as the chapter title states) the year of 1655 continues with a second novel. Through characters defined in the first work, Jim describes a tough and unfair world. The reading picks up as Dutch soldiers arrest two men for raising an English flag in a predominantly English village located on Long Island.

Lady Moody, a town elder, keeps the situation at bay and the prisoners from getting themselves killed because of their naive mouths. By using the "dignity that emanated from her person," she requested that the soldiers take the captives away "before additional trouble ensues." The soldiers grant her request. Dialogue then begins between Lady Moody and Penelope, a woman crippled by a blow to the head and shoulder, and later with Penelope and Maria, the wife of Johan van Beeck. Beeck was under the guardianship of the Director-General who did not approve of the marriage.

Jim McFarlane would get a lot of credit just for choosing such a challenging setting and for bringing interesting characters to life. However, his writing is such that it allows the reader to get a vivid sense of the times and shows that every period has its difficulties.

The Thursday group did suggest some minor changes, though. On page fourteen in the first paragraph, specific groups listed were cited and capitalized except one, "political firebrands." It was felt that this should be removed from the list or changed. Also, because the crippling injuries that Lady Penelope received and the circumstances surrounding them were described in the first novel, some explanation of them as well as other details reintroduced from the first work would bring the reader up to speed. Some in the group felt that second volumes should stand on their own. Otherwise, great job Jim, and kudos for the challenge you undertook!

John brought a flash piece to the meeting. He stated all he has time to write now are one-page stories. Everything short. Since most of the short stories have been about Vietnam, this untitled piece was a different side of John.

Some suggestions to make the story a bit stronger were to take out a few of the ands from compounds sentences and make the sentences shorter and simpler. A couple of places needed rewording and some words to be eliminated and John has a nice clean piece.

From this story, I believe John is a bit of a romantic at heart. Keep up the good work.

Indefinable? Emotional response? Is it any wonder that SC Parrothead doesn't get poetry? A sharp stick in the eye will get an emotional response, is definable and can sometimes be poetic — but it ain't poetry. In the empty caverns of Parrothead's head, poetry has always sounded like the adults in the "Peanuts" cartoon — muted mumbling trombones.

But James Raff's poetry on the other hand... hmmm... clever use of images that evoked an emotional response... hmmm. Perhaps Parrothead just hasn't read good poetry.

James read three of his poems and the table had little to say to the Emrys Foundation's latest poetry winner. In "Poem," make it more general and for her sisters, not about them. In "The Giant," the reader needed to be familiar with Beethoven's ninth to feel the full impact.

The third poem, "Old Graveyard," caused furrowed brows and a furor of head scratching around the table. The imagery was odd and evidently the poem didn't get across the "emotional response" that James wanted (unless it was the head scratching.) There was confusion about the timeline, which bloody field, and the fist to bloody nose image.

Oh, well. As the 70's poet laureate Meatloaf so eloquently phrased it, "two out of three ain't bad." SC Parrothead hopes that James will return to launch more reverberating echoes into the shadowy caverns of the Parrothead.

Bob Strother returned to his novel Burning Time. It's a Saturday in mid-October and Louise, Henry, and See-Boy are playing stick ball in the back yard. They run to the front and find a brand-new, shiny, black truck with Schmidt's Meat Market in red and gold letters on the doors. Louise's grandfather, William, tells her and Henry to get up in the cab while See-Boy climbs into the truck bed. This being 1906 and it being William's first time driving a motorized vehicle, Fannie, Mary Alice, and Jesse sit with their tea "and said not another word until they heard a returning blast from the truck's horn and watched thier loved ones chug safely to a stop at the curb."

Russ Haddad brought in the first half of a rewrite of his essay "Air Defenders At Sea". "Originally designed to withstand hurricanes and Atlantic nor'easter storms, the 'Texas Towers' were constructed off of the northeast seaboard of the U.S. to bolster the air defense network." In 1961, Russ received orders to report to TT-2 (Texas Tower 2,) and he spent an anxious tour weathering hurricanes and nor'easters, "listening to those awful sounds of twisting, creaking, shuddering metal below [him]." It didn't help that in January of 1961, TT-4 collapsed in a storm that followed hurricane "Donna", killing the 14 military and 14 civilian members of the skeleton crew that had been left behind.

John Migacz flashed by with a short piece called "The Village". From the point of view of a squad of army grunts, John describes holding rifles on the pajama-clad inhabitants of a small village while Squad Two searches the villagers' hooches. "One infant's cries grew louder and more strident, rasping our already strained nerves." Finally, the mother starts to feed the infant. "'Chow down, kid,' commented Haisley and the clearing filled with laughter and relief."

Steve Stewart continued with his novel Unto the Least of These. After being with Ann Agnew when she heard that her fiance had drowned, Stephen gallops down to the Exchange's wharf to find his father. During his inquiries, he has to tell the company workers and slaves not to call him Stevie... "it's Master Taylor" now. He finds his father, Samuel, and is disgusted by his father's lack of compassion towards the families of the men who died. "They need to hear from the company what actually happened...not second or third hand hearsay." Stephen says that he will contact the families and arrange for a memorial service. Samuel dismisses the whole tragedy, berates Stephen for getting his dress clothes dirty, and then preaches to him about the duties of a Christian businessman.

Kevin Coyle's The Saga of Snorri the Priest was next. Snorri, Steinraud the Strong, and Thorodd the Tribute-Trader have gone to speak to Illugi about the new alliance with the Skraelings. Snorri, with some help from Illugi's wife, convices Illugi to pay half of the weregild owed the Skraelings for the death of their warrior. But when Illugi hears about the Skraelings' demand that he and his followers vacate the island, he stubbornly claims the right to decide the issue by hÛlmganga, or duel. When Snorri goes back to see Pequawus, he brings Illugi with him. Pequawus accepts the settlement for the dead warrior, and then inquires about the evacuation of their burial ground. Snorri tells her, "The chieftain of the people of Vestrey has invoked his right under our law to settle that question by a duel."

Phil Arnold read his 182^nd and 183^rd(!) elvisblog articles. "Elvis and Waylon Jennings" explored the connections between the two musicians. Jennings was born in Texas in 1937 and got a job as a radio disc jockey while still a teenager. Jennings was impressed by Elvis' first single, and had a chance to meet Elvis when he did a show in Lubbock, Texas, in 1955. They met a few more times through the years, and even performed a few of each others' songs. A quote from Waylon: "Elvis may have been the most beautiful man in the world. His face was carved like a stone, chiseled out of rock, he was just that good looking."

"Elvis Commentary Mini-Nuggets # 5" contained more gems. After the release of Elvis' hit movie, Jailhouse Rock, Levi Strauss & Co. introduced a line of black denim pants called Elvis Presley Jeans which made previously unheard-of profits for Levi Strauss. Of Elvis' last six movies, only Speedway had a soundtrack album, and all it could muster [on the charts] was #82. And early this year, a member of a neo-Goth band named The Horrors grabbed a two-foot tall porcelain bust of Elvis while performing on-stage. Then he smashed it into a hundred pieces on the dance floor. The management immediately escorted The Horrors off the stage and shut down the concert. As Phil says, "Good for them."

Elysabeth Eldering's story, "The Cellar", was inspired by yet another competition, this one with a "Fast and Foreign" theme. Marie, the narrator, is on a tour with her writing group, currently in a grand chateau in France. Marie knows that she has been in that chateau before, and that 250 years ago she had to make a difficult decision down in the wine cellar. In the present, the leader of the group of three writers calls a "Word War," a writing challenge that lasts ten minutes, right in the middle of the chateau tour. Throughout the word war, Marie is hearing whispering ghosts, and writes all that she hears. At the end of the word war, they continue with the tour into the great dining hall, which Marie remembers clearly from two centuries earlier.

Bringing up the rear was David Burnsworth, reading from his novel, Palmetto Heat. Private Eye John Trent attends a party for the elite of Charleston at the Kiawah Island Resort. He was invited by the Mayor of Charleston, who wanted to get an update directly from Trent instead of through Morris. Trent asks about security firms that the Mayor's office is working with, and finds that Morris handled that. Later at the party, Trent runs into Lieutenant York and they exchange insults. Trent comes out ahead. The same night on the Isle of Palms, "the shooter" goes to an elevated house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. A figure invites him in, and tells him that he has another job for him. "No killing this time though. A little diversion to ensure the Custom's Investigation does not uncover our plans."

The next meetings of the Greenville Chapter of SCWW are as follows:

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

Last month we started out by giving you a preview of the classes offered first thing Saturday morning at the conference. Oh my gosh! We skipped an entire day!! Let's take it from the top...

If you'd like to come in Thursday evening, in order to be there first thing Friday morning, here are the intensive workshops you'll get to choose from:

Session 1: Friday, 8:45 — Noon (3 hours, with a fifteen minute break with refreshments)

1. Developing Series Characters and Keeping Them Fresh (Patricia Sprinkle)
2. With a Little Help From My Friends: Character Growth and Plot Development (David B. Coe)
3. Ten Ways to Kill Your Writing: The Psychology of Writer's Block (Carla Damron)
4. Brainstorming: Punch Up Your Manuscript — Creative Thinking as a Team Event, When You're the Only One in the Room (McNair Wilson)
5. Editing and Refining Your Novel (Jim Gilbert)
6. Defining a Publication Strategy (Robert Cumming)
7. Tension in Poetry (Cathy Smith Bowers)
8. New Forms of Poetry (Richard Garcia)
9. Beating the Odds: Getting Your Novel Published in a Tight Market (Karin Gillespie)
10. Websites & Blogging: Internet Promotion and Marketing (Marshall Turner)

This is a great opportunity to get some quality time with professionals in specific areas, but several are already close to filling up! Grab your spot soon... More next month...

Susan and Sarah

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

Thanks to our contributing writers and news reporters:
Bob Strother, Pat Stewart, Russ Haddad, Jim McFarlane, Marcia Migacz,
David Burnsworth, Elysabeth Eldering, and John Migacz

Copyright 2007 by Marcia Migacz, Editor. Contributing writers retain all rights to their work.

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