The Wannabe’s Journal

For

June 2011

The Big Announcement:

I realize that last month’s meeting was held on June 17^th. While my family and I were basking in the heat and refreshing waters of the swimming pool of the house were rented in Hilton Head, some of your fellow members didn’t miss the opportunity to meet and share their stories and accomplishments at Panera that Friday morning last month. For me that meeting was a defining moment. It meant that our group which had originally formed as a result of a common interest in writing and storytelling had a life of its own. The meeting and its two hours of sharing were cause for celebration.

Speaking of celebration we have great news for the group. I had begun to work on the logistics last month but could not finalize the arrangements until last week.

For the last three years we have been meeting at various places near UD and the McGinnis Center, the site of where the Wannabe’s first meet in the fall of 2008. We have held the majority of our meetings near UD since many of us take class from the LLI program at UD. Up until recently, Panera has provided space for our monthly meetings at no cost and even provided us with the ability to have a free cup of coffee. They informed me in May that the Community Room which we had been using was going to be renovated for dining space and we could no longer reserve a private meeting space. It would have to be a first come, first serve basis. Since then I have giving thought to where we could meet…a place that would encourage participation and learning and a place that was easy to get to from most parts of the city. That is when I thought of the idea of going back to our roots.

As most of you know the LLI classes that are part of the University of Dayton’s Osher Program at the University of Dayton are now going to be conducted at 1600 Paterson Blvd (NCR’s former World Headquarters) I inquired about the possibility of our group of writers using part of the facility for our monthly meetings and eventually expanded our offerings as a group to serve the needs of many of our new writers and story tellers. Thanks to the generosity and cooperation of Ms. Julie Mitchell, the Assistant Dean for Special Programs and Continuing Education for the University, we are now going to be able to have our meetings at the River Campus. The facility is close to Panera. Parking will also be easier. They have a number of classrooms, conference rooms and a spacious cafeteria where we could hold our members. The move to have our meeting at the River Campus is very positive.

Our next meeting on July 22^nd will be held at the River Campus. We will have coffee available to those who will suffer the caffeine withdrawal, from not going to Panera that morning. I hope you all will agree that this move will enhance the contribution that the Wannabe’s can make to its members and the ever expanding community of writers and artists.

Now for summary of what transpired last month at the June meeting. William F was kind enough to take great notes about what everyone talked about:

Date of the Meeting: June 17th

Present: Don Hart, Ginger Evers, Don Peacock, Mary Lou, Tricia Calvert, Neona Eloy and William Forman.

Current Activities:

1. Don Hart - talked about the Memoir class with Judy Wheeley (UD Class). He is working on a book of his short stories (20), and read Rocking Chair surgery - and talked about a barefoot race as a kid (with calloused feet)

2. Ginger Evers - had letter to Editor in USA Today re the space shuttle. She is working on stories for her grandson - "Where's my Bear?"

3. Don Peacock - Talked about "legacy letters - Mom had saved all letters from his Dad during the war (WW2)

4. Bill Foreman - shared a few tidbits from Scott Boyd's book: Write & Sell EBooks... such as ISBN Codes (13 digit number - based on home address of author) - cost is 125.00 for ONE or get ten for 270.00) Author talks about wide variety of E-pub issues. - researching key words for use in subtitle and how to research most used words, importance of backing-up your work - and saving on flash drive, etc.

5. Mary Lou talked about things with her memoir about Slovak Roots and Candles.

6. Dan Edward (Channel 2 News) stopped in and shared this advice: "Write who you are" And think: "What does reader want to know" Economize on words (his radio background)

7. Tricia shared how things were coming with her memoir/book - almost done - about "recovery" and explained the title "Real Wood"

8. Neona shared some of her great poems. They rhyme, but are not "sing-song’s" She also talked about a family blog (family only access). Some of her poems related to the abuse kids she had worked with for 30+ years.

SUPERMOM

I never really learned to play

Marbles, hopscotch, street stick ball

The game I played was "runaway",

Hangout in the nearest mall

Cops don't like kids at the mall

Can't say I blame them, stole a lot

Outran them even though I'm small

Fast, though, most of them were not

Mom’s be home with her new "friend"

"Uncle" Harry, John or Joe

They'd start drinking until when

She’d make it clear that I must go

"Get yore fat ass out ‘a here,

An' don't come back again tonight!"

Was usually what my mom would say

When she wanted me out of sight

In freezing rain I've shook 'n shivered

Perched beneath the busted stairs

While frozen flowing tears co-mingled

With broken heart and childish fears

Lots of kids hang out in malls

Malls have been a friend to me

They're kinda' like a super mom

They feed and house and let you be

-Neona Eloy-

9. After Don Hart shared a limerick (about Clinton) that was posted on various sites, Neona said she would like equal time next time to do one on Sarah Palin.

10. Rosie H sent me the following posting for the Journal last month but because of my vacation I was not able to post the information in a timely fashion.

The Brandon Haskins Memorial Art Scholarship has been established at Sinclair in honor of a young artist who was cut short in his effort to make an impact on our world. Contact Rosie for additional information on how you can participate.

Even though I did not attend the meeting I will provide you with a few comments on my reading activities during the last few months. Vacations are a wonderful place to read a new book or finish one that you started when the snow was still flying. Here are a couple that I finished recently and that I would recommend:

The Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, author of the best seller “Seabiscuit”. The Unbroken is a story of a famous Olympic runner who became a prisoner of war during WW II. This is a great book about human courage and spirit.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is a unique book. Cleverly written with the voice of a dog, the novel provides the reader with the full spectrum of emotions and insights of human nature and maturity.

Hissy Fit by Mary Kay Andrews. Good summer reading for light hearted humor and southern charm. I have recommended this book to my bride and sister-in-law because of its story about a young interior designer’s quest to decorate a southern mansion in less than six months. The book was a bargain on Amazon for $ 1.99. Found the special offer on Zite, the new electronic magazine on my bride’s IPad. You will now pay $ 12.95 on Amazon for the same eBook now.

I will provide you all with a summary of the week long AWW in Yellow Springs which starts this coming week in the next issue of the Journal. If any of you want to provide me with a summary of your summer adventures from a literary sense, please email me your text and I will include in the next issue.

Hope to see you all at our next meeting on July 22^nd at our new meeting location at UD’s River Campus. I will provide you maps and directions in my next Wannabe’s meeting notification. Have a great weekend.

Picture of the Month

Our recent Meeting May 20th

Wannabe’s Journal

For

May, 2011

During our last meeting on May 20^th I had a moment of enlightenment. I know you are asking yourself…what was so profound. Well…I guess I was struck by the fact that our group continues to grow both in numbers but also in scope and quality. The original group only had about a dozen people who had a interest in satisfying the creative talents that had been awaken by the classes we took at UD and Sinclair. Many of the group’s members have published pictures, novels, poems and other forms of creative writing. There have even been book marks and small prayer cards been created and shared by the group. It is not strange to find someone you know at a writer’s conference or workshop.

A lot has transpired since that day when we make the decision to start this group. Many of you now have web/blog sites, use Facebook and even use Twitter for social networking. In some ways we were ahead of the curve in not being intimated by the digital age where self publishing has become fashionable and is no longer labeled by instructors as vanity publishing.

I was especially proud to hear the members who attended our last meeting request that we have a meeting more often than what we have been doing since January. We will also try to have a more structured format in that we will have time to write while together, provide feedback to members who submit a sample of their recent poems and short stories and discuss current trends and books that other members might be interested in.

Panera has informed me that they can no longer reserve the community room for our meetings. We will have to meet as a group in the general area while they reconfigure the

Wannabe’s Updates:

News from the Meeting on the 20th

Judy W. Recently retired from the Dayton Public School system she has found her literary roots. She has publish a short memoir (350 words) in a literary magazine entitled: Sun Magazine (http://www.thesunmagazine.org/) for $ 32 per yr. She is currently writing her personal memoir and has engaged Dr. Eric Maisel author of “Mastering Creative Anxiety”. She is also participating in his summer writing experience workshop in Paris this year. God are we jealous or what?

She believes very strongly in keeping a personal journal and recommended a number of blog sites: Seriously Sixty at BlogSpot and Blood Red Pencil (Blog site for writers). She is an instructor for the LLI Program at the Osher Institute at the University of Dayton. She recently taught a class in writing a personal memoir.

Bill F. Recently attended the Mad Anthony Writers Workshop in April. While he enjoyed the seminar a great deal he felt as though he had hit the “mother lode” of literary assistance when he receive a personal critique of his children’s book by our very own Nancy Pinard. She has already proven her contributions to the literary business by publishing and teaching at UD and other venues. Hearing Bill speak of his session reviewing his book which he has read parts of to our group brought back memories of our classes and workshop seminars. She proved once again her credentials as a great instructor and fellow writer.

Annette J. She recently finished taking a creative writing class in Dayton. She was encouraged to attend our meeting by Trish C who was unable to attend. Annette is working on writing a memoir but has also written a number of limerick style poems in the past. She has taken up the passion for writing since she recently retired and started to take classes.

Martha: Wants to write a start about the younger generation as seen through the eyes of their grandparents. She shared with us a very personal story of a young couple who are in their early teens and the challenges that they face as they mature. The fact that they want to live a life just like their grandparents who have been married for nearly 50 years they have no idea that there is no secret formula that can be read in a book on how to achieve this goal. It seems strange that we put so much emphasis on college as the golden ring to success in life. Education in reality does not stop at graduation it only begins. That will be true for the rest of their life.

One of the interesting discussions centered on the timing of newborns in families sometimes follow the death of a grandparent or older member of the family. In some cultures they believe there is a connection between the two happenings. Food for thought?

Don P: He has a new email address. I will not publish it in this newsletter but if you want it I will have him send it to you. Don continues to be busy writing stories for writing contest at Dayton Daily News and Writers Digest. He announced that his lovely bride Rose is working on her memoir.

Don recommended a Writer’s Workshop:

Beginning Creative Writing

This course focuses on learning and developing the elements of goof writing that are required for publication. The course explains the writing process in detail that must be employed when creating fiction for a book or a short story. It also explains how to analyze your story concept and implement the appropriate steps to produce a query letter to submit to potential publishers, in a timely fashion and without much stress. It deals with writing tasks such as: a story synopsis, character descriptions, cover letters, cover letters and an author's bio, all of which go into a submission packet or book proposal. The course also looks at the publishing industry and examines how editors judge submissions. No previous writing experience is necessary; however, knowledge of Basic English grammar is required. There will be a half-hour lunch break.

336915-A Sat 9a.m. - 3 p.m. June 11

Fee: $45/ resident; $55/non-resident

Instructor: Tony Lupia

Advanced Creative Writing

This course helps the writer edit, revise and fine-tune the story line and characters to make the story more enjoyable. It assists the writer in producing a sample chapter and a detailed outline. It also helps with the final preparation and formatting of a manuscript, so that it is ready to submit to a potential Publisher. The course explains the typical publishing contract, the publication laws and how literary agents work. The seminar also deals with the process of selling your writing skills and a book or short story that you hope to have published. It takes a critical look at what each writer can do to improve his or her work. Attendees should have completed the Beginning Creative Writing seminar or have equivalent knowledge.

There will be a half-hour lunch break.

336916-A Sat 9a.m. - 3 p.m. July 23

Fee: $45/ resident; $55/non-resident

Instructor: Tony Lupia

Courses at: Rosewood Kettering Arts Center

2655 Olson Drive

Kettering, Ohio 937 296-0294

Here is a copy of a story about Don’s sailing adventures:

Not Mighty Yar

The two sailboats were on a beat, heeled to almost 45 degrees in a fairly stiff breeze as each of the two skippers worked hard to get an advantage over the other. They were intent on the course and locked in on it, when suddenly Harry, the skipper of one of the boats, looked over at the other skipper and loudly yelled "I'm leeward. Don't keep coming down on me. I have the right of way. If you don't stop it we are going before the race committee."

"What do you mean you have right of way?" George, the second skipper, retorted even louder. "You overtook me from astern and have to maintain your proper course. Stop coming up into me or we will take this to the race committee."

Then without a second thought Harry reached over and shoved George, not holding anything back. They started to argue right there, each bringing up some rule that he thought applied and that might give him some sort of advantage. All the while they pushed and shoved and tried to hit each other with their antenna. Giant insects? No, just two radio control sailboat racers with each one knowing with absolute certainty that he was in the right.

If this were big boat racing, the two would be yelling across the gunwales of their boats and would then continue down the course, but with radio control sailing they were standing

on shore within arms length of each other.

During the ensuing argument neither skipper paid sufficient attention to his boat and thus lost ground to the leader who had been only three lengths ahead of them. Due to their face to face argument and their obvious inattention to the racing they were now about ten lengths back. While being so intent on each other they had lost sight of their positions and their subsequent losses to the leader. In fact they had actually dropped back to fourth and fifth place as two other boats got past them, while giving the two a wide berth to avoid any entanglement with their boats.

It went this way all around the course with more pushing, shoving and arguing and loss of position. Finally after all of the boats had crossed the finish line, they circled back to the dock, and pulled out of the water for the lunch break. At this point the two combatants started to discuss their lunch as if nothing had ever happened. They sat together talking, joking, laughing, and eating a sandwich. They had known each other and had been friends for over ten years. Their families often got together over the holidays and several times over the summer for outdoor barbecues. They had even taken trips together, sometimes for sailing, sometimes both families together for vacations.

Twenty minutes later the race director called, "Boats in the water. The start tape will begin in three minutes." The two skippers scrambled to comply and to then sail over to the area behind the starting line. They got there just as the two minute countdown began. At the starting gong they hit the start line side by side in third and fourth place with both of them jockeying for position.

The two sailboats were on a beat, heeled to almost 45 degrees in a fairly stiff breeze as each of the two skippers worked hard to get an advantage over the other. They were intent on the course and locked in on it, when suddenly Harry, the skipper of one of the boats, looked over at the other skipper and loudly yelled.

"I'm leeward" Harry yelled. "Don't keep coming down on me. I have the right of way. If you don't stop it we are going before the race committee."

"What do you mean you have right of way" George, the second skipper, retorted even louder. "You overtook me from astern and have to maintain your proper course. Stop coming up into me or we will take this to the race committee."

Don’s Book mark reads:

The Wannabes of

Metro Dayton,

Ohio

The greatest

Pleasure on earth

after sex, is reading

a good story

followed very,

closely by writing

one.

Thus the great life

Includes a bad boy

A good book, and

Paper and pencil

Live it up

Write a story

Long or short

But never hurry

He also recommended and distributed to the members present a copy of an article on “101 Best Websites for Writers:

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2010/05/17/101BestWebsitesForWritersMyFavorites.aspx

Don H: recently published an article in his favorite web site, The World Net daily entitled

Republican Mensheviks have to go!

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=296561

Congrats to Don for having his work being published. He would like to write a column for the web site on a permanent basis. He is off to a good start. Don also read one of his short stories that he has been working on recently entitled: The Magic Set. The story details the search by a young man to find out the source of the secret words that are mumbled by the magician as he makes rabbits and playing cards disappear. He describes how the young man could not wait for Christmas morning when he received his Magic kit under the Christmas tree. It reminded me of one of the featured speakers at Antioch Writers Workshop a few years ago who discussed the power of words. Rebecca McClanahan’s book entitled “Word Painting” provides new writers with a guide for writing more descriptively. Writing is a form of Magic in the mind of the reader.

Last of all Don Q: I have finally finished my “Santa’s Magic” book. The editing, design and formatting are complete. I will proof it one more time before uploading it to Createspace and Smashwords in order to create the various versions. Then the real work begins.

I have recently started a new book on ghosts and family reunions. My bride has also convinced me to create a book of pictures of the flowers of the world that I have taken while on our many trips in Europe and the US.

I will be teaching again in the fall but I am registered to participate in the Antioch Writers Workshop which I am looking forward to participating in.

A Special request from Rosie H, a frequent Wannabe who is paying tribute to a young artist whom passed away too young in his creative career.

Hi Everyone,

I would like to invite you to a very special event--one that celebrates the memory of a young man and special friend of mine, Brandon Haskins. His life ended last July in a horrific scene. You might have read it in the newspaper and/or seen it on television. His step-father shot and killed him. Myself, along with a couple of my artist friends, started a memorial art scholarship as a way to honor Brandon's memory. We are also commemorating his life and beautiful spirit by having an exhibition in his honor.

I know this announcement is rather lengthy, but it is so important to me that you know about what we are planning, in order to honor our friend's memory. No matter, if you live far or near, I hope you can participate in some way.

Thank you in advance for your thoughtfulness, support and generosity.

Warm regards,

Rosie

ANNOUNCING: The Brandon Haskins Memorial Art Scholarship and Art Exhibit preserving a legacy of creative vision... The Brandon Haskins Memorial Art Scholarship a permanent endowment at Sinclair Community College

Next Meeting of the Wannabe’s: June 17^th 2011 at 9 AM Panera on Brown Street

For those of you who want to manage your calendar there will be a meeting in July on the 22^nd at Panera at 9 AM as well. The location may change