The hot
August meeting of the Hill Country Women of Words was held in the air-cooled
downstairs meeting room of Chase Bank.
We did a
writers exercise. The topic was – What were you afraid of when you were a
child? We wrote some wonderful, funny, hard pieces and everybody read.
Lynn Harris has misplaced two notebooks she
took to work and we are praying for their safe return. Until they turn up, Lynn read to us from her story about
Margo, who moves to Alabama and finds two children on the
beach. She paints a picture of them (Margo is an artist) and when the
children’s grandmother sees the painting on the side of the road, she accuses
Margo of kidnapping the children. More excitement to follow!
Linda Christensen was there, but didn’t have
anything to read. She will be in Mazula next week.
Judith Rost was also at the meeting, but she
didn’t have anything to read, either.
Andrea Culpepper brought a piece called “The
Cortisone Cannon” which she plans to post on her blog. Cortisone shots can be
really painful. Don’t listen to them when they say “You’ll feel a little
pinch.” Ask them “a little pinch from what – an alligator?” Andrea also read
another piece she plans as a blog post: “16 Critical Bits of Advice for Your
Daughter (and maybe sons!) at the Military Academies and other Colleges.” Good advice
for any teenager leaving home, if they just listen . . .
Sheila Kale brought us a print-out of “An
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction” from a book she is reading. This is in
response to a discussion we had at our last TWiG meeting about what is the
definition of creative nonfiction? In a nutshell, creative nonfiction is
“factually accurate prose about real people and events in a compelling, vivid,
dramatic manner.” That helps to clear it up.
Sally Clark brought the query letter for her children’s
picture book Snooping Stanley and the Twelve
Gifts of Christmas
for her submission to Pelican Publishing. Pelican had some different guidelines
for their submission process and I wanted everyone to see how much publishers
guidelines can differ.
Barbara Loyd was not at the meeting. She sent
word that:
“We (Paul and Barbara Loyd) signed papers on our summer
home in Cloudcroft, NM (population 715) on July 31st. The address is 610 Corona Avenue, you can look it up on Google if
you wish. We will change decor slowly. We head back to Fredericksburg in October. We await a P.O. Box
because of no mail delivery to homes in the village of Cloudcroft. We feel blessed to have found
this COOL summer home.”
We are
certainly going to miss Barbara until she returns!
Hugs to
all,
