The December meeting will be held December 10^th starting at 5:30 p.m. at Winfield in Jean Pamplin’s building. Bring finger foods and be prepared to write a short story which will be read that night. Joy Chitsey will have a writing prompt set up to inspire new stories about this holiday season.

This will be an evening of great fun and creativity.

Directions:

From I-30, take the Winfield exit, turn north approximately ½ mile. Cross a railroad track and immediately to your left you will see the old bank building and the Winfield US Post office.

Minutes of NETWO November 2009 Meeting

The Northeast Texas Writers’ Organization met on November 12, 3009 at the Western Sizzlin in Mount Pleasant, Texas at 5:30 p.m.

Ted Rankin opened the meeting by thanking the writers who participated in the Children’s Literature Class for students who are earning a teaching certificate at Northeast Texas Community College. The writers were Galand Nuchols—Mt. Pleasant; Gay Ingram—Big Sandy; George “Bob” Allen—Daingerfield, and Joy M. Chitsey—Mt. Vernon.
The NETWO 2010 Short Story rules have been published in the NETWO newsletter.
Gay Ingram has developed a bibliography sheet for the new directory. Copies are in the NETWO newsletter. Please fill out and mail or e-mail as soon as possible.
Skip Hughes will have a poetry reading Friday night, November 13, 2009 at the Winnsboro Expresso at 7:00 p.m.
Stewart Betts addressed the members on how to promote POD casting using recordings which can be posted on the web for members who are not able to attend meetings. A committee was formed to look into the matter. Those serving are Galand Nuchols, Skip Hughes and Bryan Freeman.
A motion to place NETWO’s A Treasure Box anthology in public libraries in the East Texas area given by donors from NETWO was suggested. Jim Callan made the motion for the first Anthology to cost $5.00 and multiple copies cost $4.00 each. Skip Hughes seconded the motion. Each book would contain the brochure o the club’s history. Vote carried.
The contest for the Team Writing for January was announced. Members are encouraged to find a writing buddy for the next two months to work together and write a short story with 1100 to 2500 words. These stories will be read during the January 2010 meeting. First place will receive $60; second place--$30; and third place--$10.
For the December meeting, which will be held at Winfield in Jean Pamplin’s building, members will need to bring finger foods and be prepared to write a short story which will be read that night. Joy Chitsey will have a writing prompt set up to inspire new stories about this holiday season.

Meeting adjourned.

Submitted by Joy M. Chitsey

In this time of H1N1, we should remember the proper definitions –

Coffee – the person upon whom one coughs

Gargoyle – olive-flavored mouthwash

BITS AND PIECES

Jim Ainsworth is having a launch party for his new book, Home Lights Burning. It will be at the A&M-Commerce Alumni Center, 1706 Stonewall, Commerce, Texas on Thursday, December 10, from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Jim will speak a few minutes about the book at 7:30 p.m.

The Winnsboro Center for the Arts is presenting the third production of “Scrooge”, a Christmas classic adapted by NETWO member Maryann Miller. Performances will be on Friday, Dec. 4^th, at 7 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 6^th at 2 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, Dec. 11 & 12, 7 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 13 at 2 p.m. Tickets: $10 for adults, $5 for children and students, and $30 for a family. Call 903-342-0686.

Gay Ingram’s short story, “A Tree Fell” has been awarded an Honorable Mention in the View House Publishing 2009 Short Story Contest for Aspiring Writers. Congratulations!

A bookselling opportunity NETWO published authors might be interested in has been provided by Gay Ingram. The North Texas Book Festival will be held April 16-17, 2010 at the Center for Visual Arts, 400 E. Hickory, Denton, Texas. Check it out at http://www.ntbf.org/RegForms.html.

Nine people read at Skip’s Poetry Reading at Art & Espresso November 13^th.

Photo by Bryan Freeman

First Place winner in the NETWO 2009 Short Story Contest, Denise Weeks, advises that her story has appeared in The Storyteller. She has given permission to publish it in “With Pen in Hand,” so look for it in the January issue.

She has also consented to write up her experience with TextNovel and their contest. She participated in NaNoWriMo this year and shares some thoughts on that. She says that during National Novel Writing Month, you have a reason to write a certain number of words a day, and around her area there are lots of “meetups” where people gather with laptops or notebooks to do a Write-In, so you meet a lot of kindred spirits. There were meetups all over DFW this time.

Denise says she has also decided to use the Amazon DTP program to put her chick lit novel, Little Rituals, directly to the Kindle. She says, “this has been a pretty good experience: you don’t have to sign any contracts or whatnot, but just create an Amazon DTP account and post your Kindle-ready book file. I had to go to another (free) website to get the Word file made into a Kindle-ready file, and I had to put some front matter on it… The arrangement leaves the rights with the author, and you can close your account and withdraw your work at any time. Anyone who goes to the Amazon Kindle store, and searches on “Denise Weeks” finds it, and searching on “Shalanna Collins” finds my YA urban fantasy there.”

                REMINDER

If you would like to be included in the new NETWO Membership Directory, send your completed questionnaire to Gay Ingram at GayIngram@hotmail.com right away or by USPS to

     Gay Ingram

     8119 Mulberry Rd.

      Big Sandy, TX 75755

Thank you, Jim Callan, for the following:

Subject – Verb Agreement – Beyond “I am” and “We are”

We all (I certainly hope) know the basics of subject and verb agreement. A singular subject gets a singular verb; a plural subject gets a plural verb.

But, let’s look at some trickier situations. [In our examples, (S) denotes a singular example; (P) denotes a plural example.]

Number. If “number” is preceded by “the”, then it is singular; if “number” is preceded by “a” it is plural.

Example: (S) The number of entries is unknown. (P) A number of entries have been disqualified.

When two subjects are connected by “and”, the verb is plural; except when the two subjects are generally treated as one.

Example: (P) Jack and Jill are climbing the hill. (S) Peanut butter and jelly is my favorite sandwich.

If singular subjects are connected by “or” or “either … or”, use a singular verb; if plural subjects are connected by “or” or “either … or”, use a plural verb.

(S) A boy or a girl is to be chosen. (P) Two boys or two girls are to be chosen.

(S) Either a lion or a tiger is to lead the parade. (P) Either two lions or two tigers are to lead the parade.

Phrases or clauses between the subject and verb are generally ignored when determining agreement.

Example: (S) A collection of pictures is up for auction. (P) Pictures of Jack are not.

Except—

With “most,” “some,” “all,” “any,” “more,” and “none,” the “of” phrase determines the agreement.

Example: (S) Most of my homework is finished. (S) All of dinner is ready. (S) More of the team is absent. (P) Most of my chores are finished. (P) All of the dishes are ready. (P) More of members are sick.

When you have a positive subject and a negative subject, generally, the verb agrees with the positive subject.

Example: (S) John, but not the twins, is coming. (P) The twins, but not John, are coming.

When a subject is preceded by “each,” or “every,” use a singular verb.

Example: (S) Each of the twins is competing. (S) Every one on the team is invited.

Continued on Page 5

Continued from Page 4

When a subject is preceded by ”both,” “many,” or “several,” generally use a plural verb.

Example: (P) both Jane and June are coming. (P) Many individuals are invited. (P) Several of the team are invited.

Except –

When preceded by “a”, use a singular verb.

(S) Many a player has cheated

We’ll explore other aspects of grammar and punctuation in future issues. t

Allan Smith

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!