Next NETWO Meeting is                                                                       Volume 22, Issue 11

Thursday, November 13,  at                                                                   November 2008

Western Sizzlin, Mt. Pleasant                                                                  

 

                                                           

                                   


Northeast Texas Writers’ Organization (NETWO)

2009 Short Story Contest Rules

 

Cash Prizes total $325—Winner guaranteed publication

Entry Deadline:  February 14, 2009

 

  1. Entries must be short stories between 1,000 and 2,500 words to be considered.  Submit one (1) copy.
  2. Entries must be typed, double spaced, one side only on 8 ½” by 11” white paper, 1” margins.  Please use either Courier or Times New Roman type fonts, 12 point.
  3. Entry fee is $10 for each adult sub-mission.  NETWO members’ submission fee is $8 for each adult submission.  For students 18 and under, it is $5.  Make checks payable to “NETWO.”  (Please Note:  There is only one division.  There is NOT a separate student division.)
  4. Multiple entries are permitted.  Include entry fee for each entry.  Multiple entries may be submitted in a single envelop and with a single check to cover all fees.
  5. Entries must be postmarked between January 1 and February 14, 2009.  NOTE: This is an earlier date than last year.  Please get entries in the mail no later than February 14, 2009.  Mail entries to:

NETWO, P. O. Box 411, Winfield, TX 75493

If you wish confirmation of receipt of your entry, include a SASP.  On the message side of the post card, write the name of the short story.

      6.   First Place Award is $150; Second

            Place is $100; Third Place is $50 and    

            Fourth Place is $25.  Winners, and

            four Honorable Mentions, will            receive certificates suitable for           framing.

      7.   First Place winner will be     published (with author’s        permission) in The Storyteller, a         magazine dedicated to helping   writers.  The Storyteller is a paying     publication, and the word limit is       2,500 words.  The Storyteller was

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      one of the 101 Best Magazine             Markets  for 2006.

      8.   No more than one (1) CASH  prize    will be awarded to a single author.     However, this does not preclude an        author from receiving additional        certificates for honored stories.          Please note:  all cash prizes will be             awarded. (Four different authors will            receive prize money.)

      9.   Each story should have a cover sheet             containing only:

 

                        The name of the story

                        The author’s name

                        Complete address

                        Telephone number

                        e-mail address

                        and word count

                        Student entries should also                               include age, school                                          attending and grade.

 

    10.   The author’s name should not

            appear anywhere except on the                    cover sheet.  Each story page should have a header line with the story’s             title and the page number.

    11.   Entries must be previously      unpublished short stories written in    English by the person whose name is             on the cover sheet.

    12.   Judges do not see the author’s name,                         or any other information about the     author.  No entrant knows the        identity of any judges.

    13.   Decisions of the judges are final.

    14.   Neither NETWO, any of its members            or any judge is responsible for late     delivery of entries, or lost entries.

    15.   Winners will be announced during     the 2009 NETWO Writers’     Conference, April 24 & 25.  Winners             unable to attend will have awards      mailed to the address on the cover     sheet.

    16.   Winners’ names will be printed in      the May issue of the NETWO news-  letter, With Pen in Hand.  Winners             names and story titles will also be      posted on the website by

            May 4,2009.

    17.   NETWO may request permission to   print some of the winning entries in   future issues of the newsletter, With     Pen in Hand.  This NOT a require-     ment to enter.

    18.   The author relinquishes none of his    or her rights by entering the contest.

    19.   Please included a SASE (with            sufficient postage) if you wish your   entry returned.  Otherwise, entries             will not be returned and will be

            shredded.  @

 

 NETWO October 2008 Meeting Minutes

 

The Northeast Texas Writers’ Organization met at the Western Sizzlin iu Mt. Pleasant, Texas on October 9, 2008, at 6;30  Twelve members were present.  Ted Rankin presided.

 

Old Business:

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            motioned to keep the same rules as    last year’s competition or let the         committee members who are in             charge set up the guidelines that will enhance the rules.  Jean Pamplin         seconded.  Members for that             committee will be David and Nita      Allen, and Skip Hughes.

New Business:

Business Session Adjourned.

Critique Session:

Next month, reading slots are open.  Be prepared to bring something to read or sign up for the month of December.

      Respectfully submitted, Joy M. Chitsey

 

                    BITS AND PIECES

 

Georgia and Galand attended the East Texas Writers’ Association gathering where Galand thought she might have garnered an Honorable Mention in the Writing Contest.  Instead, she tied with Gay Ingram (also a NETWO member) for 1st Place.  Gay’s story was entitled “A Learned Lesson,” and Galand’s was  “Granddad’s Way.”  Then Galand’s second story, “Twice Lost,” was announced the 3rd Place winner.  Congratulations to both of you.

 

Be sure to read  “A Little Girl’s Treasures” by Janice Glass in the current issue of  East Texas Journal.  Galand reports that when she recently submitted stories, Mr. Olds, Publisher,  told her he could hardly wait to read them, saying “You folks are churning out some really good stuff.” 

 

Bryan Freeman, NETWO photographer, has just about completed his treatments, but his doctor advises that he must plan to stay out of crowds for a while yet.  We look forward to his complete recovery and return to NETWO.  <

 

              NETWO WORD FUN

                    By Liz Sanders

 

See if you can unscramble the letters to form the names of famous authors.

 

1.    teeeshinp eermy

2.    soliu umrlao

3.    hojn niebecskt

4.    naje satnue

5.    lalwiim rnfkaeul

6.    onjh sirmgah

7.    raaeeessphk

8.    nalcisoh ksaprs

9.    neda otkzno

10.  yrjo mesrhna

                       (November Key on Page 5) 

 

     GEORGIA B. HENSON

 

             A Biography

         By Jackie Brown

 

   Our NETWO meetings wouldn’t be the same without Georgia Henson greeting people in her smiling way.  She listens closely and approvingly as various people read their excerpts from stories and novels for the critique by other club members, and just generally makes herself useful timing speeches and noting unusual facts.  She’s our Historian and, along with others, greets and welcomes members and guests.  And she writes clever stories, many of them about things she saw and learned in her childhood.

     Although she’s been through illness and heart surgery over the past several years, Georgia somehow finds time and energy to call hundreds of people over the year for various reasons for the club, both for reminders to do important and necessary functions and to reach many people to remind and encourage them to attend our yearly writers’ conference.  Of all our members, she has perhaps done the most to build NETWO, although several other charter members have also worked and dreamed to get us to our present success.  (She and Jim Callan head the list!)

     Georgia grew up on a farm in East Texas, and many of her stories reflect those early years. In our anthology, A Treasure Box, we’re told that she became a nurse, an LVN, and retired from the profession after 30 years of service.  She started writing at the age of 65, and has over 100 bylines to her credit, published in various publications.  I saw in our last issue of “With Pen in Hand” that her true story “Kate, the Mule” appears in the September issue of East Texas Journal.  Congratulations again, Georgia!  Since she rolled into the area at the age of three in a covered wagon, she’s been soaking in history and stories about Texas, always wanting to write, but she says somehow it got pushed aside.

      At age 66, she enrolled at Northeast Texas Community College where she took classes in English and creative writing, to improve her writing.  She became a charter member of NETWO and has attended all the conferences except for the year she was in the hospital.  She loves the conferences and meeting all the people.  She says that her involvement in NETWO and all she does and the people she loves to see are what keeps her going.  Right now she’s getting ready to write a book in one month.  I think this is explained elsewhere in this newsletter, but apparently one just writes as fast as one can, doing no re-writes, and gets the job done!  Many try to do this, and more and more people try and succeed, it seems.

     Georgia loves her Bible, and is currently re-reading it.  Her faith is very important to her.  Her favorite Epistle is The Letter to the Hebrews,  13:5-6.  “Let brotherly love continue;  keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for He has said, ‘I will never fail you nor forsake you.’ Hence we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?”

     Between writing a book in one month, and re-reading the entire Bible, you can see Georgia is filled with ambition.

     One of Georgia’s favorite authors is Frances Parkinson Keyes, who wrote in the 1930s and ‘40s.  Georgia collects her books and says she has 60 or 70 of them.  She also likes Gresham’s legal mysteries, as well as Patterson (who wrote about letters from a grandmother to her granddaughter).

     I asked her when she was going to finish the “Jodie” stories by putting them into a

Book.  She says they’re finished, just not

                       

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printed and bound.  The stories are rather autobiographical, she says, about the things she knew and did when she was young.  I told her it was high time they were printed up.  Let’s encourage her.  I want to know what happens next.

     Georgia says that writing has introduced her to many interesting people and brightened her life.  She has certainly brightened ours.

     “So say we all!”      <

 

 

              NaNoWriMo

 

     A couple of weeks ago, Georgia and Galand attended the East Texas Writers’ Association general meeting. The guest speaker told about the National Novel Writing month.  The handout said: “It’s a hands-on writing adventure where everyday people all around the world bash out a 50,000-word novel in 30 days.  No judges, no entry fees, no pressure.  Just a walloping deadline and a supportive, over-caffeinated community to help you reach your book writing goals.

     The general rules are you try to write 50,000 words of a novel between Novem-ber 1 and November 30.  You can only count the words you write after November 1.  You must submit the novel November 30.  The only thing that is judged is the number of words.  After the count the novel is disposed of, deleted, done away with.  No one reads, edits, or copies it.  It’s up to you to finish, rewrite, edit, file, or otherwise dispose of it from your end,.  You are considered a winner and get a winner certificate if you write the 50,000 words.  In the 2007 event, 101,510 participated and 15,333 reached their goal of writing 50,000 words or more in a novel.  For more information check out the website at www.nanowrimo.org.

     A suggested outline given us at the East Texas Writers’ Association meeting was as follows:

 

GOAL:  My goal is to write a novel of no                   less than 50,000 words in the month

              Of November.

 

MY PLAN OF ACTION is as follows:

            1) 

            2)

            3)

 

The title of my novel is:

 

In general, this novel will be about:

 

The main characters in my novel will be:

            1)

            2)

            3)

            4)

 

An outline of my novel:

 

The speaker worked a full-time job.  This November will be his third time to enter.  He succeeded before by getting up 30 minutes early each morning to write before the family got up.  And he skipped a couple days of work, he said, but don’t tell anyone.

 

Sounds like fun.  If you need a little push, this might be it.    <

 

November Key

1.    Stephanie Meyer

2.    Louis L’Amour

3.    John Steinbeck

4.    Jane Austen

5.    William Faulkner

6.    John Grisham

7.    Shakespeare

8.    Nicholas Sparks

9.    Dean Koontz

10.   Jory Sherman