~~~~~~~ The Quill South Carolina Writers Workshop February 2007 ~~~~~~~

SCWW Board Meeting - January 13, 2007

Amy Mercer, Secretary

In attendance were Board members Susan Boyer (Greer) , Hope Clark (Chapin), Kevin Coyle (Greenville), Sarah Cureton (Greenville), Steve Heckman (Greenville), Mary Ann Henry (Charleston), Sandra Johnson (Columbia), Jim McFarlane (Greenville), Amy Mercer (Charleston), Terry Roueche (Rock Hill), Bob Strother (Greenville). Also in attendance were Greenville Chapter members John and Marcia Migacz. Board members Cynthia Dyer (Myrtle Beach) and Kathryn Lovatt (Camden) were absent.

Following Outgoing Board President, Sandra Johnson's, call to order, the following officers were elected:

• President, Steve Heckman
• Vice-President, Susan Boyer
• Secretary, Amy Mercer
• Treasurer, Hope Clark

Following discussion and adoption of the Minutes of the previous meeting, submitted by Linda Shaffer, President Steve Heckman thanked Sandra for her hard work as President. He welcomed the new Board members and reminded all of the ground rules contained in the SCWW By Laws and the need for good order in meetings. He also wants all SCWW members to feel welcome at Board meetings.

Vice-President, Susan Boyer, announced that our survey drew 190 respondents. She will be detailing the results in a series of articles in The Quill.

The following Committee Chairs were elected:

• Quill Editor: Leland Beaudrot
• Chapter Liaison: Bob Strother
• Membership Coordinator: Jim McFarlane
• Advisory Council Liaison: Sandra Johnson
• Anthology Editor: Kevin Coyle
• Anthology Co-editor: Amy Mercer
• Webmaster: Sarah Cureton, assisted by John and Marcia Migacz
• Annual Contests: Amy Mercer
• Publicity: Terry Roueche assisted by Hope Clark, Mary Ann Henry and
• Sandra Johnson
• Conference: Susan Boyer
• Conference Co-Chairs: Mary Ann Henry and Sandra Johnson (will divide responsibilities up between themselves once strengths and interests are determined.)

The Financial Report, delivered by Sarah Cureton, revealed a balance of $30,205 in the bank, following payment of $11,032 to the conference hotel since the last board meeting.

Plans for the upcoming Conference were discussed and will be detailed further in The Quill. Other anticipated expenditures included:

• Anthology $6,000
• Quill $500
• Website $300
• Membership Directory $50
• Annual Contests $2,000

In preparation for the 2007 SC Book Festival, each Chapter is encouraged to sign up for a block of time at the SCWW table. Kevin Coyle is to order 50 more copies of Catfish Stew and Sandra Johnson will handle staffing.

The next Board meeting is tentatively set for Saturday, Feburary 10.

Faculty Wish List Results

by Susan Boyer

Wow! Thanks to everyone who sent in conference faculty votes. I received 103 total votes, and here are the winners:

Invitations have been extended to all of the above. In the novelist category, unfortunately, all four winners have responded with regrets. Billy Collins, likewise, is unable to attend. On a happy note, Thomas Rain Crowe and Robert Morgan have confirmed that they will attend. We're still waiting to hear from the others...I'll keep you posted!

This just in! Right before press time, word came that Joy Harris and Carol Ann Davis are both definitely coming!

Even if your candidate wasn't a winner, you may still find him/her on our faculty. We used the list of suggestions extensively to recruit. Thanks again to everyone who participated.

Survey Says...

by Susan Boyer

One of the reasons I decided to serve on the SCWW board of directors a little over a year ago is that our local chapter felt disconnected from the statewide organization. What does the board do? we would ask each other. The other side of that coin, I soon learned, is that it's difficult for a group of thirteen volunteers that meet four - five times a year to know what the organization as a whole wants and needs from the board.

We knew we needed to do a better job of communicating with our membership. But we also wanted to know what you all thought about a variety of things. As a starting point to better understand this group of creative minds spread out all across the state, and how we could better serve the organization, the board decided in November to survey our membership as a whole-in addition to the conference surveys that only reached the members that attended the conference. And we received an amazing response! One hundred and ninety of you told us what was on your mind. Thank you sincerely, every one of you who completed your survey.

We now have a lot of information, and we want to share it with all of you, so that you, too, can understand the organization to which you belong better, and perhaps understand some of the decisions we as a board make a little better. Because there is so much information, we could never fit it all in one edition of The Quill. So, we'll start at the beginning, and work our way through the survey a little each month.

Question #1 asked how long you've been a member. Our membership forms a nice bell curve. Roughly 21% of those responding have been members for less than 1 year; 51% between 1-5 years; and 23% more than 5 years. (Several people skipped this question, and some noted that their memberships had expired.)

Here's why I think this question is important: It appears that people join, stick around a few years, then leave the organization. We'd like to understand why. Some people may stop writing for personal reasons. But if we're losing members after a few years because we as an organization no longer meet their needs, we need to know that, and understand what we need to do to turn that trend around.

Question #2 asked what chapter you belong to. In some cases, this is more a geographic designation than an actual chapter affiliation. We have a number of members who don't attend local chapter critique group meetings. But, geographically, at least, here's what our organization looks like (those that responded):

Here's why I think this question is important: Notice that our biggest chapter is unaffiliated? We have more members that live in a corner of the state that doesn't have a chapter (or out-of-state) than in any of our chapters. Maybe we need to develop chapters in some of the more remote areas. Maybe we should create an online group for out-of-state members. Maybe you all have other ideas as to how we can best serve this group.

Another thing that jumps out at me is that while we have five chapters serving the greater Columbia area, Charleston and Greenville (at least the geographic areas) have too many members (on paper) to be affectively served by one critique group. Maybe it's time to round up folks interested in starting groups in Greer and Simpsonville, and Summerville and Mt. Pleasant. Judging from some of the survey comment sections, there would be support for this idea. Next month, questions 3 & 4...

Conference Preview

by Susan Boyer

Hello, everyone! My name is Susan, and I'll be your cruise director for this year's conference. Along with my highly skilled co-chairs, Sandra Johnson and Mary Ann Henry, I will be putting together what I hope will be a memorable event for all.

Save the date! The conference this year will be October 26th - 28th. Friday intensive workshops will start in the morning, so if you plan to participate in the morning sessions, you may want to arrive on Thursday night, October 25th.

Evening by the pool I'll have tons of exciting details to share with you in the coming months. The first bit of news is that we're moving this year. Now, I know what some of you are thinking-I read the surveys, remember? Some of you, like me, love Ocean Creek. Others don't care for it at all. I think it's a beautiful, special place, and we've had many wonderful conferences there. But reality is, we've outgrown their conference space. If we stayed at Ocean Creek, sooner or later we'd be in the position of having to turn people away.

So, while the rest of the world was Christmas shopping, I was touring hotels on the coast. I tried...really, really, tried to make a move to Charleston work. I know many of you would like to see us in Charleston. But, again, reality wouldn't budge. The best deal I could find would have meant that most of us would have paid $169 per night-a rate out of many of our members' price range.

I looked at many properties, all up and down the coast, and finally found what I think is a fabulous new home for us. Check it out! Sunset over the pool deck

It's The Hilton at Kingston Plantation in Myrtle Beach, just up the beach from Ocean Creek. They've recently undergone a major renovation, and, unlike our experience with another hotel a while back, it's complete. I've slept in their beds; I've tasted their banquet food; and I've gone over every inch of their conference rooms-all 30,000 square feet of them. I hope you'll all be as excited about this new home for our conference as I am!

The pictures on their website are out-of-date, but still give you a general idea of what the property looks like. I'm sending Leland some newer pictures of the property for The Quill. As you're gazing at the oceanfront pool deck, imagine our island-themed opening night party with the faculty.

Kingston Plantation is huge, and has several hotels and villa communities-much like Ocean Creek, only bigger. The Hilton is only one of their hotels, and those that prefer can stay in villas reminiscent of Ocean Creek. All of our conference activities, however, will be in The Hilton, making it more accessible for anyone who has trouble getting around. To maintain the intimacy we've had at previous conferences, I'm hoping most of us will be together at The Hilton.

You'll have to wait next month to hear about the faculty-Leland won't let me have any more room. But I will tell you this much...nine agents have committed to being with us. All from top agencies.

Talk to you next month!

Susan

The SCWW Literary Journal Competition Opens

by Marcia Migacz

The South Carolina Writers Workshop is pleased to announce the opening of the competition for inclusion in its new-and-improved literary journal. The Petigru Review will feature the best writing of SCWW members in three categories: fiction; nonfiction; and poetry.

Submissions are due by April 30, 2007, so it's already time to get writing. A complete version of the guidelines can be found on the SCWW website at http://www.myscww.org/anthology.htm All authors whose writing is selected for publication in The Petigru Review will receive payment of $5 per piece and a total of two contributor's copies of the issue in which their work appears.

The Petigru Review will also contain black-and-white photographs taken in South Carolina. Members are invited to submit photographs for this purpose, although these will not be a part of the competition and there will be no compensation for them.

Greenville

Bob Strother's story "The Interloper" is currently appearing on-line in Mobius Magazine - The Journal of Social Change. Established in 1989, Mobius strives to publish challenging fiction and poetry that deals with social change as a primary and secondary theme. Bob's story will also be published in the print version of Mobius Magazine when it comes out in June.

John Migacz's new novel, The Dieya Chronicles : Incident on Ravar, is now available for purchase. The science fiction action-adventure tale is the first in the series.

Bob Strother and John Migacz will participate as exhibitors at The South Carolina Book Festival , on February 24-25, at the Convention Center in Columbia. You can find these two SCWW Greenville Chapter representatives at the booth labeled Renegade Books. John will be presenting his newly-published science fiction novel The Dieya Chronicles: Incident on Ravar. Bob's novel, Love Among the Greeks, was released in June of 2006 and is a coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s. Additional information on both novels is available through the authors' websites: http://www.johnmigacz.com/ & http://www.bobstrother.net/

Elysabeth Eldering has been busy. She serves as Mystery Storyline editor for Quill-pen.net Press. Quill-pen.net Press will be publishing six full-length books in 2008 - check their website for guidelines. Elysabeth also won the Echelon Press January 2007 Fast & Frigid Fiction Writing Contest with her short story, "The Tulip Kiss."

Susan Boyer's short story, "Search and Rescue" will be in Relief Journal's winter issue, which comes out in February. The link is http://www.reliefjournal.com/"Relief seeks to bridge the gap between mainstream fiction and cotton-candy Christianity."

Rock Hill

Grace Looper has recently published "Great Grandpa's Hidden Treasure." This is a sequel to an earlier story, "Molasses Making Time."

Kim Blum-Hyclak has had a homeschooling article reprinted in both The Carolina Homeschooler and The Palmetto Pen.

Betty Beamguard's how-to feature on fiction writing, which uses excerpts from Marcia Preston's novel The Butterfly House as examples, will soon appear in The Writer. One of her short stories merited an honorable mention in the Texas Laughing Gull Contest, and she had humorous essays published in the December issues of YC, Sasee, and The Oxford So & So.

Volunteers Needed for State Book Festival

by Marcia Migacz

SCWW has reserved an exhibitor's table at The South Carolina Book Festival, on February 24-25, at the Convention Center in Columbia. http://www.scbookfestival.org/ Volunteers are needed to man the tables on Saturday and Sunday, morning and afternoon shifts. You will be telling people about SCWW, answering questions, and selling anthologies. Please contact Sandra Johnson if you can spare a morning or afternoon that weekend.

P.S. The Book Fair was great last year - plan on spending a whole day there!

Catfish Stew Poets To Read At Pure Poetry

Pure Poetry will once again have its booth at the S.C. Book Festival on February 24-25, 2007 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Pure Poetry is the brainchild of SCWW member and poet Janet Carr Hull, and it is a loosely formed group of poets who read and sell their books and chapbooks at the annual S.C. Book Festival.

All poets published in Catfish Stew IV are invited to read their winning entries at a round-robin reading at the Pure Poetry booth at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 24th. For poets who will be reading, please check in at the booth by 9:30 a.m. Catfish Stew IV will also be available for purchase at the booth. Come and listen to these amazing poets spin their words! For more information, please contact Janet Carr Hull at hullconstruction@islc.net

SC Arts Commission Literary Arts Bulletin

This twice-monthly e-publication provides a coordinated, comprehensive listing of literary events across the state. Each issue provides a list of the next four weeks of literary activities on our calendar, along with a few highlights of other upcoming events. Here's a small sample:

February 5

Southern Writers Series: Josephine Humphreys

Sponsored by Richland County Public Library and USC's Institute for Southern Studies
Monday, February 5, 5:30 p.m. Richland County Public Library, Main Branch, 1431 Assembly Street http://www.myrcpl.com/

February 8

College of Charleston Visiting Writers Series: Dao Strom

Thursday, February 8, 7:30 p.m. Alumni Memorial Hall (Randolph Hall), College of Charleston, Charleston http://www.cofc.edu/~english/

February 9

Kwame Dawes at the Poetry Society of South Carolina

Friday, February 9th, 7:00 p.m. Second Presbyterian Church, 342 Meeting Street, Charleston bardowl2@aol.com

Poets in the Forest: Phebe Davidson

Sponsored by Travelers Rest Arts Mission Friday, February 9, 7:00 p.m. (6:30 p.m. for open mic sign up) Leopard Forest Coffee Company, 26 S. Main Street, Travelers Rest $5.00 cover ($2.00 students) http://www.trartsmission.org/

February 10

The Write Stuff Workshop

Saturday, February 10, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Greenville County Library, Hughes Main Library, Greenville http://www.greenvillelibrary.org/ To get the whole calendar, subscribe to the South Carolina Arts Commission Literary Arts Bulletin, please email twallace@arts.state.sc.us with "Subscribe" in the subject line.

The Poetry Society of South Carolina
2006-2007 Programs

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 See the complete current calendar on their web site: http://www.poetrysocietysc.org/pp/calendar.html

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.

Chris Roerden Seeks Good Examples

Chris Roerden, one of the speakers at the 2006 SCWW and a professional editor for 40+ years, is calling for submissions for a companion volume to Don't Murder Your Mystery that will exemplify specific, good writing techniques from all genres of fiction. (Seems that many reviews of her book noted that its content applies to a wide range of writing, not just mystery.) Up to 110 of the best new examples from published as well as unpublished novels and short stories will be included in the companion volume, with full credit, to be released in 2008. Chris is also holding a contest to come up with the best title for the new book. The winner will receive a professional edit worth $800. Full details are at www.tinyurl.com/yclawc

Writers near Greenville are invited to hear Chris speak at The Open Book, Thur., Feb. 22, 7 pm, about writing that gets published, and at the Morrison Regional Library, Charlotte, NC, Sat. Feb. 24, 10 am-noon. Between April 16 and 26 she would enjoy meeting with any SCWW groups as she drives to and from Miami for the Sleuthfest conference. To arrange a visit, email croerden@aol.com

18th Annual Writers Workshop

Sponsored by Foothills Writers Guild
Anderson University, Anderson, SC
March 9-10, 2007
http://www.foothillswritersguild.org/

Literacy and Community
Making Connections in South Carolina

Friday, February 23, 2007 10:00 am-1:00 pm Richland County Public Library, Bostick Auditorium $25.00 registration fee includes table for sharing information, boxed lunch. Register early for seats are limited! Please register by sending check and your information to:

SC Center for Children's Books and Literacy
c/o SC State Library
PO Box 11469
Columbia SC 29201

Questions: Please call 803-734-8207 or email shulere@gwm.sc.edu
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/ccbl/calendar/wells.htm

The 2007 Janice Holt Giles
Second Annual Short Fiction Prize

The Janice Holt Giles Society and Arts Across Kentucky magazine offer the only fiction prize in honor of one of Kentucky's most prolific and beloved authors. The winner of the Janice Holt Giles Short Fiction Prize will receive $500 and publication in Arts Across Kentucky. Manuscripts must be postmarked by March 1, 2007 and include $10 entry fee. For details, please see their web site: http://www.artsacrossky.com/download/JaniceHoltGiles.pdf

Words Of Love Writing Contest

The Writers' Workshop of Asheville, NC

First Prize: $300 Second Prize: $200 Third Prize: $100 Ten Honorable Mentions
Deadline: Postmarked by March 30, 2007. Entry fee per submission is $20 (or $15 for Workshop members) For more information on workshops and contests, please see their web site: http://www.twwoa.org/

Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition

Authors who have not previously published a full length book (excluding self published and vanity press) are eligible to compete in the First Chapters Writing Competition. For details, see their web site: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976881664

In The Company of Writers

In The Company of Writers (ITCW) is an exciting new and extensive educational program of online opportunities for writers in all genres and at all levels of their writing careers. In a few short weeks our first cycle of live teleseminars/webinars, called Series One-Fiction, will be presented. Check out ITCW's new website http://inthecompanyofwriters.com/