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Volume: 17.11 • The South Carolina Writers Workshop Newsletter • November 2006

NEWS

Fiction

• 1st Place: Wilma W. Reitz, "Confession"
• Honorable Mention: Johnny R. Beavers, "Tales from a Homecoming Parade"

Nonfiction

• 1st Place: Genie Smith Bernstein, "Southern Hospitality"
• Honorable Mention: Wilma W. Reitz, "The Rating System"

Play

• 1st place: Bill Wellborn, "The Code"
• Honorable Mention: Grace Looper, "The Psychic"

Poetry

• 1st Place: Marion Harvey Carroll, "Flux"
• Honorable Mention: Karen Peluso, "Dance Class"

The 2006 SCWW anthology Catfish Stew, Volume IV has gone to print! You can see it now at Amazon.com

Remember that SCWW will also be selling copies of Catfish Stew, Vol. IV at the October conference for $12, a substantial savings over the $16.99 plus shipping and handling price at Amazon.com. You will also be able to buy it from our website for $12 plus shipping.

Those SCWW writers who are featured in the 2006 anthology will receive two (2) free copies of Catfish Stew, Volume IV. In addition, all who attend the 2006 SCWW Writers Conference in October will receive one (1) free copy.

This year the anthology will be marketed on Amazon.com and elsewhere. This will result in a wider audience for our writers and that's always a good thing.

We congratulate those authors who are featured in the anthology this year. We believe the writing therein ranks with the best you will find anywhere.

What's happening in your local chapter? Who's getting published? Who has the most impressive portfolio of rejection letters? Are there local events for writers in your area? Does your local chapter have its own newsletter or web page? Please submit you news to quilleditor@bellsouth.net

Meets 2nd Tuesday at Eden Gardens on Silver Bluff Road, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Contact: Charles Reeve cpreeve@bellsouth.net

Charles Reeve's story, "Incident on a Foggy Night," won 1st place in a recent Byline magazine short story contest. His story, "Near Farmington," won honorable mention in the same contest.

Meets 2nd & 4th Sunday at the Merritt Building Parlor of Anderson College from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. Contact: Jo Buckner (864) 261-7739.

Meets 3rd Wednesday at Books-a-Million, West Ashley, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Contact: Jason A. Zwiker (843) 573-9291.

Meets 1st & 3rd Wednesday at Lexington County Public Library, Cayce-West Columbia Branch, 1500 Augusta Road, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Contact: Steve Vassey vasseyws@hotmail.com

Meets 1st & 3rd Monday at Richland County Public Library, 1431 Assembly Street, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Contact: Larry Hamilton docham@earthlink.net

Meets 2nd Tuesday at St. Eugene Hospital dining room 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Contact: Kati Paul (843) 774–4561.

Meets 1st Thursday & 3rd Tuesday at The Open Book, 110 South Pleasantburg Drive, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. Contact: John Migacz migaczmarjon@prtcnet.com

At the conference SCWW Business meeting, President Sandra Johnson announced that an election for new board members will not be necessary because the number of nominees matches the number of available board seats. Thanks to the board members who are leaving the board at the end of the year, and congratulations to our new board members: Hope Clark, Kevin Coyle, Steve Heckman, and Jim McFarlane.

This year's conference was held at Ocean Creek Resort in Myrtle Beach on October 20-22. It was well received by all attendees. In a few weeks, planning will begin on the 2007 conference. If you have comments, requests, or suggestions for next year, you're encouraged to contact one of the Board members or bring your ideas to one of the Greenville meetings.

Greenville Chapter member Steve Heckman won "Best of Issue for Fiction" in the SCWW 2007 Anthology, Catfish Stew. Steve's entry, "War on Terror," was judged by three successful, published authors against at least forty other pieces. Steve was present to receive his award at the SCWW Conference in Myrtle Beach, where he also had the opportunity to read the winning story to about 200 conference attendees. Congratulations to Steve, and to all the other members who were published in Catfish Stew.

Kevin Coyle has had two more successes with his short stories this month.
"Looking for Elves," will appear in the premiere issue of The Literary Bone, to be released next summer. More information may be obtained at www.theliterarybone.blogspot.com.
The other short story to be published this month is "Canadian Ballet." It appears on-line at: johnnyamerica.net. It may also appear in their print edition (issue four is filled, while issue five is still up for grabs).
As Kevin himself so succinctly put it, "Yippee!"

The following e-mail was sent to Leland Beaudrot on October 11:

"Hello! Just a note to let you know that your web site is SCIway's "South Carolina Web Site of the Day." You can see your home page featured link here: SCIway.net.
Thanks for providing this great SC resource, and thanks for linking to SCIway. We really appreciate it, and it is a pleasure to be able to link to your site in return.

Kind regards,

Cedric
SCIway.net - "South Carolina's Frontdoor"

The statewide membership meets the last day of every conference. Here are the highlights from this year's meeting:

• With 350 members, SCWW is one of the largest writers groups in the state. There are three other areas in SC that might be starting new chapters.
• A new interactive website will be open November 1^st. The website address will be the same – scwriters.com.
• Catfish Stew is available this year from Amazon.com.
• The three workshops this year in Greenville, Columbia & Charleston were a big success.
• The Quill will be late this month due to computer bugs.
• SCWW is continuing to grow and be a large part of the Southern writing community thanks to our hard-working membership.

Meets 3rd Thursday at Books-A-Million, 275-1 Harbison Blvd. (in the center of the store), 6:30 p.m. Contact: Charlotte Blackstone charstonblack@bellsouth.net

Lexington 1st Chapter Writers meets in the Lexington Library at 5440 Augusta Road every other Tuesday, 6:00 - 8:00. Contact: Lynn Stidom lstidom@aol.com

Meets Thursdays at 4:00 p.m., workshop poetry on 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month, prose on 2nd and 4th. Contact: Cynthia Hodell Dyer 843-347-3040 chodelldyer@aol.com

Meets 2nd & 4th Tuesdays,7:00-9:00 p.m, at Winthrop University's Dacus Library or Durango Bagel. Contact: Luis Rodriguez l_rodriguezx3@yahoo.com or Kim Blum-Hyclak rhyclak@comporium.net

Meets 2nd & 4th Monday at the Richland County Library, Sandhills Branch, 1 Summit Parkway, Columbia, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Contact Sonia Hayes Pleasant sonia_hayes@msn.com

Meets 4th Tuesday at Spartanburg Westside Library, 525 Oak Grove Road, 7:00 p.m. Contact: Roger Meadows rdm730@aol.com

OPPORTUNITIES

From: Harriette Austin
To: Dottie Boatwright
Date: Saturday, October 28, 2006 7:40 PM
Subject: Thank you!

Dear Dottie:

I can't believe it has been a week since we were at your conference! It was a wonderful experience. Everything went so well and I thought your roster of speakers excellent. I was sorry I couldn't attend every session! Unfortunately, my ankles from the driving and standing left me no choice but to go and rest. I really wanted to attend the dinner theater, but it was not to be. Like Ted Tally, I, too, am a product of the Yale Drama School, and it was an unexpected delight to be able to speak with him for a little while about people we both know.

We are in the process of putting together our program for 2007 and I hope we are able to gather a group of presenters as outstanding as yours. The Kathie Yoneda and Ted Tally panel was excellent. A wonderful mixture of information and anecdote that everyone will remember. I wish I had them for our conference! Thank you so much for a great conference and for making me feel so welcome. God willing, I look forward to seeing you again next year.

Gratefully yours,

Harriette

Got news from your local chapter? Got a helpful writers web site to share? Got a caution about a bogus publishing opportunity or contest? Let's network our knowledge to build a better newsletter.

Deadline for submissions is the 21st of each month. Please send submissions to quilleditor@bellsouth.net either in the body of an e-mail or as an attached file in MS Word (DOC), Rich Text (RTF) or plain text (TXT) format. Articles accepted for publication will appear in The Quill and archived on the web. Writers retain all rights to their works.

Submissions may also be made on floppy disk and mailed to:

Leland Beaudrot
1 Cleveland St Ste 110
Greenville SC 29601-3646

Write on!

Leland Beaudrot, Editor
The Quill

Hub City is proud to announce a full slate of literary programming for the fall 2006 on Monday nights in The Showroom, at 149 South Daniel Morgan Avenue. Our reading series has something for everyone: authors who tour nationally, homegrown creative writers and even monthly poetry slams. All of our events are held on Mondays. The headliners for our fall series are novelist Elizabeth Cox (Sept. 11, 7:30 pm), short-story master George Singleton (Oct. 9, 7:30 pm), Asheville memoirist Sebastian Matthews (Nov. 13, 7:30 pm) and novelist/poet Ron Rash (Dec. 11, 7:30 pm). Slam Poet Moody Black hosts the Word-of-Mouth Open Mic on Sept. 25, Oct. 30 and Nov. 27, all at 8 pm. And Express-o-nite returns with the SPOETS on Oct. 16; Hub City poetry prize winner Travis Galloway and writer-in-residence Emily Smith on Nov. 6; and Converse College creative writing students on Dec. 4 (7:30 pm all).

An Evening with Emory Thomas

The Friends of the Richland County Public Library welcome Emory Thomas, Civil War scholar and author of Robert E. Lee A Biography, The Confederate Nation and Bold Dragoon: The Life of J.E.B. Stuart, for a book discussion and signing at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 1 at the Main Library, 1431 Assembly St. This free program for adults is cosponsored by the USC Institute for Southern Studies. Questions? Call 929-3475.

PSHAW! George Bernard Shaw at Ninety for ages 12 and up

Join RCPL Literary Resident Howard Burnham for Shaw's sesquicentennial birthday celebration at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 5 in the Bostick Auditorium of the Main Library, 1431 Assembly St. Questions? Call 929-3457.

All regular monthly programs, except as noted, are held at Second Presbyterian Church, 342 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC, at 7 p.m. They are free and open to the public. A book signing and reception follow the program. Contact: Linda@LindaAnnasFerguson.com

November 10, 2006 - Richard Garcia
Richard Garcia's next volume of poetry, The Persistence of Objects, will be published by BOA Editions in October, 2006. He is also the author of The Flying Garcias, Rancho Notorious, and Chickenhead, a forthcoming chapbook of prose poems. He has been poet-in-residence at The Long Beach Museum of Art, the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, and the Gibbes Museum of Art. Among his numerous awards are the Pushcart Prize and a fellowship from the NEA.

December 8, 2006 - Holiday Party & Reading
Location TBA

January 12, 2007 - Open Mic: Elle Davis, Emcee
City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau Street, Charleston, SC 29401
Elle Davis is a freelance editor and writer. She is the curator and co-producer for Monday Night Blues, the longest running weekly literary event in the Lowcountry. She has read for Piccolo Spoleto's Sundown Poetry Series and other venues and is currently working on her first novel.

February 9, 2007 - Kwame Dawes
Kwame Dawes is the author of twelve collections of poetry. His most recent collections are Impossible Flying (Peepal Tree, 2006) and Wisteria (Red Hen, 2006). He is the founder and director of the SC Poetry Initiative and the executive director of the University of South Carolina Arts Institute. Dawes is also a faculty member of Cave Canem and the Louise Frye Liberal Arts Professor in the College of Liberal Arts and is the Distinguished Poet-in-Residence at the University of South Carolina.

March 9, 2007 - Ray McManus and Susan Meyers
Ray McManus's book of poetry, Driving through the country before you are born, is the 2007 winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize sponsored by the SC Poetry Initiative. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals throughout the US and Canada. He actively teaches creative writing throughout South Carolina. He was the winner of the Academy of American Poets award at USC (1997), the James Dickey award in poetry (2000), and the 2002 South Carolina Academy of Authors Poetry Fellowship.
Susan Meyers is the 2006 winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize, sponsored by the SC Poetry Initiative, for her book Keep and Give Away. Her chapbook Lessons in Leaving was selected by Brendan Galvin for the 1998 Persephone Press Book Award. A long time writing instructor, she holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She is the current president of the Poetry Society of South Carolina.

April 13, 2007 - Katherine Smith
Katherine Smith is the author of Argument by Design, winner of the Washington Writers Publishing House poetry award. She is presently a professor of literature and writing at Montgomery College, MD, and a poetry editor for the Potomac Review.
The Lost Letters of Artemisia Genteleschi, a collaborative work with painter Judy Jashinsky on the life of Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi, appeared on exhibit in 2001 at the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC.

May 11, 2007 Annual Forum - Gil Allen, Commentator
Gil Allen is a professor of English at Furman University and also the co-founder and co-editor of Ninety-Six Press. His collections of poems are In Everything, Second Chances, Commandments at Eleven, and Driving to Distraction. He was the 2002-03 recipient of the SCAC Literary Arts Fellowship and co-editor of A Millennial Sampler of South Carolina Poetry in 2005.

SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 2007
10 a.m. till noon
Publishing Seminar: "Submitting to Poetry Journals"
Ray McManus, instructor
Biographical information: see March 9 program
(Location in Charleston TBA)
Contact info TBA
$10 for PSSC members, $15 for others
(Ray McManus's bio is listed for the March 9 program.)

Closing Date December 1, 2006

The Footlight Players Prize: Two tickets to any performance at the Footlight Players. Offered for a dramatic poem. Open only to residents of South Carolina. Sponsored by The Footlight Players.

The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Society Prize: $500. Offered for a poem of any style or nature. Open to members of The Poetry Society only. Sponsored by The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Foundation.

The John Edward Johnson Prize: $50. Offered for a poem of any style or nature on a religious theme or subject. Not to exceed thirty-two lines. Open to anyone. Sponsored by Thomas L. Johnson.

The Lyric Poem Prize: $50. Offered for the best lyric poem. Open to anyone. Sponsored by Jane L. Tyler, M.D.

The Marjorie E. Peale Prize: $100. Offered for a poem of any style which draws on the landscape, history, or spirit of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Open to anyone. Sponsored by Marjory E. Peale.

The Pegasus Prize: $50. Offered for a poem of any style or nature. Not to exceed thirty-two lines. Open to anyone. Sponsored by Tish Lynn.

The Post and Courier Prize: $200. Offered for a poem relating to the history, traditions, legends, or folklore of the South. Sponsored by The Post and Courier Foundation.

The Constance Pultz Prize: $50. This award, in honor of Contance Pultz, is offered for a poem of any style or nature. Open to anyone. Sponsored by Friends of Constance Pultz.

The Kinloch Rivers Memorial Prize: $50. Offered for a poem of any style or nature. Open to anyone. Sponsored by Constance Kello Berardinis.

The Archibald Rutledge Prize: $100. This award, honoring the late Poet Laureate of South Carolina, is offered for a poem of any style or nature descriptive of the Palmetto State. Open to anyone. Sponsored by Courtland M. Koonts, in memory of Dr. J. Calvin Koonts; and Donald T. Rutledge.

Entries should be mailed during the month of November. Prizes will be awarded at the February 2007 meeting of The Poetry Society or mailed to those not in attendance.

Closing Date March 1, 2007

The John H. Bennett, Jr., Prize: $100. Offered for a poem dealing with Charleston. Open to anyone. Sponsor: Mary Holman Pinckney.

The Jeanne Crandall Broulik Memorial Prize: $50. Offered for a poem relating to the sea or ships. Open to members of The Poetry Society only. Sponsor: Frank Broulik.

The John Robert Doyle, Jr. Prize: $50. Designed to commemorate the long and able service of Professor Doyle to The Poetry Society. Offered for a poem of any style or nature. Open to members of The Poetry Society only. Sponsor: D. Oliver Bowman.

The Forum Prize: $50. Designed to honor the Writers' Group of The Poetry Society. Offered for a poem of any style or nature. Open to members of The Poetry Society only. The Spring Forum critic will choose the finalists, and the winning poem will be selected by audience vote at the annual Spring Forum. Sponsor: The Poetry Society of South Carolina.

The Humorous Verse Prize: $50. Offered for a humorous poem. Open to members of The Poetry Society only. Sponsor: Jane L. Tyler, M.D.

The Peter Pan Prize: $50. Offered for a poem written by an adult for children ages 3 to 12. Open to members of The Poetry Society only. Sponsor: Trudy and Paul Evans.

The Beatrice Ravenel Prize: $50. Offered for a poem in metrical form on a theme of universal interest, preferably with a Southern setting. Open to anyone.

The Patricia and Emmett Robinson Prize: $200. Offered for a poem dealing with some aspect of theatre. Open to anyone. Sponsors: Jennet Robinson Alterman and Alex Tew.

The William Gilmore Simms Prize: $50. Offered for a poem of any style or nature. Open to anyone. Sponsor: David Aiken.

Entries should be mailed during the month of February. Prizes will be awarded at the Annual Forum in mid-May 2007, or mailed to those not in attendance.

Student Prize Competition

Closing Date February 28, 2007

The Skylark Prize: $100. Offered in memory of Mr. John Bennett for a poem written by a student of any school in South Carolina, grades 9-12. Not to exceed 32 lines. Each entry must be accompanied by a statement of enrollment signed by the principal. Publication in a school magazine does not render a poem ineligible. Sponsor: Martha Bennett Stiles.

Note: An entry fee of $5 for each poem is required for non-members. Please make checks payable to The Poetry Society of South Carolina.

Antlion Press is currently accepting story submissions for a new collection about life in the Southern United States. Stories must reflect the best of what the South is all about, a place where good people still know how to extend kindness and courtesy to strangers, a place where the Southern landscape remains alive in the mind's eye, where little things...things of the heart, still matter.

To get more information and complete submission guidelines, please go to: www.antlionpress.com

Friday small press reception at Firehouse Books:

Writers, readers, Lowcountry authors, and small press representatives will attend this free-to-the public reception, to enjoy and explore the changes in the literary marketplace, and the value of small press books.

Saturday Manuscript Critiques at the Cuthbert House Inn:

Writers meet in private with a small press representative for a manuscript critique geared towards publishing book-length work; $35. Manuscript submission deadline is November 10, 2006, Call 843-379-6607 or visit http://www.eatgoodbread.com/iodine.html for details.

FEATURES

While the annual Conference is the place to go to get your Muse on, National Novel Writers Month (aka NaNoWriMo) is an excellent excuse to put life on hold and get down to writing that novel, in one month. Thousands of NaNo novelist can't be wrong (a little crazy, maybe), this self-inflicted torture is great fun and may even yeild the raw material for a best seller, or at least a ring binder on your shelf you can point to and say "That's my first novel."

The basic ground rules are simple: November 1 you start a brand new novel from scratch, for the rest of the month you crank out about 1667 words per day and wind up on the 30th with a 50,000 word novel (or the semblance of an encyclopedia run through a blender). That may seem like a lot of writing in a little time, but even if you could only scrape up one extra hour a day, that comes to less than 30 words a minute.

MUSINGS

Still shaking the twilight of sleep, I shuffled into my study to crank the laptop. The spinning wheel indicated that e-mail might be a while in coming. I walked into the kitchen to start the coffee, then outside to fetch the paper. Perusing the front page, I walked back into the study and almost tripped on my Muse, sitting in my favorite chair with my laptop, her feet stretched out before her on a file box.

"I thought you were going to the conference."

She shrugged. "So did I."

"So...." I pulled out the desk chair for myself. "What brings you back?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

I took a sip of caffeine to waken my wit for the coming confrontation. "Let me guess, you wore out your welcome?"

Thaleia's acid glance indicated the veracity of my assumption.

"Okay, out with it," I said. "Time to give an accounting of yourself."

"Here." She thrust the laptop at me. "This will give you her side of the story."

The e-mail window held this e-pistle from one of my workshop collegues:

Leland,

I'd like to thank you for lending me your sweet little Muse, but that would be far beyond any fiction I've written to date. My house has been nothing but chaos since she breezed in saying you weren't earning your keep as a writer and that she wanted to partner with someone who has the ambition to really get published. Okay, I'll admit I'm a sucker for flattery. And it did seem that writing might be easier with a full time Muse around the house. But little did I know....

At first, it all seemed like innocent fun. Thaleia and Colleen were always about twittering like middle schoolers, braiding each other's hair and giving each other makeovers. But, like a good mom, I learned when they got too quiet it was time to investigate.

My first clue that their adventures were getting a bit far afield came when I found that my white Persian had acquired blond highlights. When I confronted the girls with the altered feline, they looked at me with wide-eyed innocence. Their hands bore no traces of stain, so the carried the day with their story that Miss Kitty was entering her "golden years." Ha! I was a sucker, and they had me licked.

After that, the mayhem ensued in earnest. Do you know what happens when you try to pop three bags of microwave popcorn at once? Fortunately there seems to be no permanent damage to the appliance, but when the door blew open it gave me quite a fright. And did you know that a bar of bath soap in the blender does not yield bubble bath? Again, no permanent damage, but my last smoothy tasted of lavender.

All this (and SO much more) I might have endured as Thaleia and Colleen were looking forward to their weekend at the beach. But when Colleen was absent from work and my protagonist had to do her own detective work without the aid of her guardian spirit I had to draw the line. Though Thaleia protested her eviction, I think she really wanted to get back. She even told me how she could travel as an e-mail attachment. I hope this works. If you don't see her by now, check to see if she got stuck in your spam filter.

See ya' at the workshop!

"My, my, young lady. You really outdid yourself and did yourself out of a beach vacation."

"See one beach, you've seen them all." She pulled her feet up and hugged her legs. "Did you miss me?"

Though I tried to hide my grin behind my coffee cup, she caught the welcome in my eyes. There was no hiding it. "Actually, I've been thinking about starting another novel, the story of a young man who inherits a little tin statue and the impish Muse it represents...."

The Quill is the newsletter of the South Carolina Writers Workshop.

Copyright 2006 by Leland Beaudrot, Editor. Contributing writers retain all rights to their work.