8/27/09 Writer Group meeting. We had 13 present. They came to hear our guest speaker, Ray Zimmerman, from the Chattanooga Writers Guild. Mr. Zimmerman brought along a friend, Mr. Lantz Powell also from the CWG.

Attendees were: Moon Pie, Lantz Powell (CWG), Ray Edwards, Mary Dolberry, Claudie Ellard, Ann Moody, Ann Chambless, Cheyenne Duncan, Jerry Tidwell, Sarah Walls, Trish Watson, Cathy Palmer.

Mr. Zimmerman’s day job is working in Marketing in the Chattanooga area. His current client is Rock City. He started the meeting by reading a poem, “Glen Falls Trail”. This is a prize-winning poem and has been electronically published. Next he read the poem “Hair” which was based on his experience with heart bypass surgery. He read this poem at the Beatnik Council meeting in Trenton. Three other nature poems he shared with us were “Mercury”, “Cranes”, and “Screech Owl.”

We then moved on to the next area of discussion which discussed the trials and tribulations of getting published. He showed us a book titled Bird by Bird by Anne LaMont. He told us Anne was a fan of using index cards when she wrote. An excerpt from the book he read was called “Moral Point of View.” Ms. LaMont said you must be passionate about your subject to be successful.

The last area of discussion was very important, as far as research. Mr. Zimmerman showed us many good reference books to aid writers. One very popular one was Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. This book tells how misplaced punctuation can ruin your work. Two other books he showed were Strunk and White Manual of Style and the Poetry Repair Manual. All these books are vital to pumping up your writing.

Getting away from book publishing for a minute, Mr. Zimmerman told our group how writers can also be published in other forms and earn money to boot. He showed us a newspaper called the Bloomsbury Review Paper. This bi-monthly paper lists the bi-monthly best seller list. He then told how writers can be published in trade journals. Many journals and magazines also buy photographs.
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Changing speakers, Mr. Lantz Powell (also from the Chattanooga Writers Guild) shared some insights with us. He discussed the CWG and how they operate under a 5013C tax status. He told us their Web site address which is Chattanooga Writers Guild dot Org. They hold monthy meetings and in September they have their annual picnic. The December meeting is replaced by a Christmas party.
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The meeting then was opened to discussion. Sarah Walls asked where could a person locate a ghost writer. Cathy Palmer asked Mr. Powell how does the mystery market look? He replied that all publishers base their acceptances on whether a book will make them a profit, not usually if the manuscript is good. Ann Chambless said a good used book store in Huntsville is called “Book Legger”. Mr. Powell then distributed free CWG coffee mugs to all present.

He asked us to Google search the blog of writer Dr. Tom Bibey. He is developing quite a good fan base. Look for “Billy” on the blog listing. He talked about LULU Publishing. Their cost runs about $6.00/book and the author can purchase and then resell their work. Another company is called LIGHTNING SOURCE and is located outside of Nashville. He has visited their printing warehouse and said they are a POD publisher and are used by Doubleday.
Our next scheduled meeting is September 10th. Please bring a short story, reading, or poem to share with the group!

guest speaker Mr. Martin Foster 8/13/09

9 present today.
Mary Dolberry, Cathy Palmer, MoonPie, Cheyenne Duncan, Paulette Moore, Leah Wilson, Martin Foster, Ray Edwards, Jack Willoughby.

This was a different sort of meeting today. Mr. Martin Foster came from Huntsville with copies of his book, Night Café, which he distributed and personalized for each person present. He also brought two hardcopy books of poetry that his father (also named Martin Foster) published titled Nature Poems. He asked for volunteers to read a poem of their choosing. MoonPie and Paulette Moore did so. MoonPie’s poem was “The Water Trough” and Paulette’s was “Dixie Born.”

We had readings of his short plays. This was unique as none of us had ever done anything like this! He said he had attended Eugene O’Neil workshops in the past in New Hampshire. To participate in these workshops, you wrote plays and read them before judges. Unfortunately, his were not picked as winners. But we felt as a group that they were professional and interesting.

He discussed why he wrote Night Café. It started out to be a play, and then ended up being a book. He mentioned three or four movies he watched to research Van Gogh. One was done by Kirk Douglas. He also visited many art museums to study Van Gogh’s paintings. As an illustrator for his book (both inside art and cover art) he got Don Howard, an illustrator for the Disney movie, The Lion King. This really added flavor to the book! Mr. Foster did not intend for his picture to be on the cover, but Mr. Howard worked it in, with many small details that were pointed out. He had shared parts of his book with another author. This person plagiarized parts of the manuscript that Mr. Foster generously let him look at.

The theme of Night Café was “the Hell of schizophrenia.”

Mr. Foster told us different rankings his book had on the Internet on Amazon and Swapfree. His book is selling quite well in the United Kingdom. He found his publisher, Llumina press on the Internet. He said a lot of people want to write books and will say they want to be published. However, only one out of ten of these people do succeed in becoming published authors.

MoonPie, Paulette, Ray, and Jack read parts in the plays. These were “Dixie rainbow”, and “A Reunion of the Blue and Grey.” These had never been read before in public.

Mr. Foster has written four plays for competition. These are titled, “Rattle,” “Spirit of St. Louis,”, “Hook or Crook,” and “Dr. R.”

Paulette Moore also volunteered to read the Don McClean song, “Starry Starry Night” which was about Van Gogh.