June Meeting Notice: Reply Requested

Richmond Christians Who Write

"Write the vision, and make it plain..." Hab. 2:2

12114 Walnut Hill Drive, Rockville, Virginia 23146
Telephone:
804-749-4050
FAX 804-749-4939

E-mail: RichmondCWW@aol.com
Blog: http://rcww.blogspot.com

Rev. Thomas C. Lacy
Founder - President

Barbara Baranowski
Membership

Marie Corso
Advisor

Michael Rew
Blog Master

June 3, 2006

Dear Christians Who Write:

NOTE: We will meet on the second Sunday to avoid meeting Father's Day, June 18th.
ALSO NOTE: Due to my error, the May Meeting Notice did not go out to the e-mail list, therefore, I am repeating the program I had planned for May.

June Meeting

Our next meeting will be June 11th, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Grove Avenue Baptist Church. NOTE: Enter the church through the rear entrance closest to the Parham Road side of the building. Upon entering, look for the elevator on your left. Go to the 2nd floor. Turn right when getting off the elevator, go to the end of the hall, turn right, go to the first door on the left past the water cooler.

At last, I've found a kind of poetry I can write. Follow the instructions below and bring your best effort to read and discuss at our June meeting.

(This idea is from Tami Filbrant's article "Cultural Identity" in POTATO HILL POETRY, Vol. 4, No. 4.)

Notice how the poet eloquently evokes her culture, her roots, her experiences through vivid sensory imagery. Try your had at a vivid poem showing where YOU are from, in every sense of the word: geographically, physically (your family), emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.
Think of childhood memories of tastes, smells, sounds, colors, textures -- think of the people in your life and their favorite sayings, of special toys and animals in your life, of family stories, of special friends and secrets, of vacations and holidays, of school, of games and songs, etc. Let your vivid specifics create a sense of the whole of your life, the whole of YOU.
Example:

WHERE I'M FROM
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride,
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening, it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.

I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair
I'm from the know-it-alls
and pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I'm from He restoreth my soul
with a cotton ball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself
I'm from Artemus and Billies' Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the anger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded--
leaf-fall from the family tree.
- George Ella Lyon

I've already done mine. It was confusing at first, but then when it begins to flow it is hard to bring to a close. It has been deemed by some my best piece of writing. I'm looking forward to hearing what you write.

Planning Committee Meeting June 17th

Over the past couple of years I've called on a few RCWW members for suggestions and to help me with planning programs and meetings. We will be meting on June 17th. If you have suggestions for meetings, speakers, workshops or conferences, please let me hear from you. I am especially interested in getting your views on a fall writers conference as mentioned below.

2006 Meeting Schedule

July 16, August 20, September 17, October 13-14 RCWW, November 19.

Normal Monthly Meeting Schedule

2:00-2:15 Sign In and Fellowship
2:15 Opening Prayer
2:15-2:45 Introductions and Announcements
2:45-3:45 Speaker or Workshop
3:45-4:00 Refreshments and Fellowship
4:00-4:55 Critique (Bring 20 copies, typed, double spaced)
4:55-5:00 Closing Prayer

Writing Conferences

NOTE: I am repeating the following from a previous Meeting Notice because no one gave me feedback. In one sense of the word, no answer is an answer. If you are not interested in RCWW holding an annual weekend writers conference, please take a moment to say, "Not interested." If you would like to see RCWW hold an annual writers conference, please take a moment to say, "Yes, I'm interested."
Our planning committee will be meeting June 17th. We need feedback to set our agenda.
Thank you.

In my March meeting notice I asked you to look for my letter about local writing conferences. (Sorry, but I didn't think it would take me this long to get back to you.) American Christian Writers (ACW), of which we are a chapter, has come to Richmond for the last seven years because of RCWW. This year the numbers were way down. Next year they will not come back to Richmond. Like any business, they have to make a profit to stay in business.
RCWW has held 4 fall conferences. We did not hold one in 2005 because the last two were not well attended. But I know conferences are vital to writers. And I know they are expensive to hold and expensive to attend.
A small local conference cannot afford to bring in top authors, editors, publishers and agents. So local conferences tend to be writing workshops focusing on learning the craft. We have locals wo are qualified to teach writing workshops, and I have called on the ones I know, and they have done a great job. But these local conferences have not been well attended. Even so, I have set aside the weekend of October 13-14 this year and October 19-20 in 2007 for holding conferences. I need your help in planning.
What features would you like included? What workshops would benefit you the most? Do you know local instructors, authors, editors and publishers I could contact? What would you be willing to do to help?
Obviously, I need prompt feed back. Let me hear from you soon.

Write-to-Publish Conference, June 7-10, 2006
Details: www.writetopublish.com

Sandy Cove Christian Writers' Conference, October 1-4, 2006
Details: www.sandycovewriters.com
Dues and Mailing Lists

Dues, in the amount of $20.00, are payable January through June and $10.00 July through December. They may be paid at our monthly meetings or mailed to: Richmond Christians Who Write, 12114 Walnut Hill Drive, Rockville, VA 23146.

Check out our Blog! See you on June 11th. Bring a friend!

Tom Lacy