Abilene Writers Guild Abilene, Texas, U.S.A. "Not failure, but low aim, is crime." (Lowell) P.O. Box 2562—Abilene, Texas 79604 Monthly meetings are the fourth Thursday at 7:00 P.M. Meeting at the Center for Contemporary Arts, 220 Cypress St.

 Us and Ours: News and Stuff 

Learning From Landmarks - June 26, 2008

     The AWG new year begins with the first of three "Southern Nights with Southern Knights" programs scheduled for our regular June, July, and August meetings. On June 26 Steve Butman will share his latest accomplishment as the photographer for the coffee table art book, Abilene Landmarks: An Illustrated Tour published by State House Press. The book contains Steve's fabulous photos of 100 of Abilene's most historic places. McMurry University historians Robert Pace and Don Frazier headed the project produced in partnership with Preserve America.

     But wait! There's more to the story! You'll learn how Steve managed to provide the necessary photos IN JUST ONE WEEK after receiving a call asking him to take on the assignment. Steve will also share answers to book contract questions he didn't know when he agreed to take on the project, but has now learned. These questions and answers will help any writer be prepared when an unexpected opportunity comes knocking with no time to spare. And take it from Steve, it can happen to you!

      Steve is no stranger to the AWG as the photographer for our annual Art Awards recipients. If you are not familiar with one of Abilene's landmark photographers, take a moment to meet him. He is the first of three Southern Knight speakers who will make this summer's AWG meetings nights to remember.

AWG Annual Contest

     Our annual contest, open to the world, happens at a new time this year. Entries will be accepted from September 1, 2008, until October 31, 2008, and prizes will be awarded at a workshop in March, 2009. Details will be posted here soon. Thanks for your patience. We do appreciate the interest.

What's Been Happening? (Including New Officers)

     With chagrin your webmaster realized just how behind the curve she'd fallen. With apologies, here's what you missed if you missed it--or what you enjoyed, I hope!

Fun with Runge Jim Runge at the March meeting on promotion and selling yourself.

Spring Fling PAT PARKER -- "Thinking Maps: Tools to Make Your Writing Sizzle, Not Fizzle" LINDA KIRKPATRICK -- "How to Write the Range the Cowboy Poet Way" with Jean Prescott

Talent Night at AWG David Dodge on a lifetime of making movies Richard Pickett who composed and performed a song about AWG Betty Thomason, cartoonist Gordon Root on postcard collecting Gail McMillan, storyteller and Sharon Ellison, pianist and composer

AWG New Officers

     Abilene Writers Guild officers serve two-year terms, some of the board positions being elected each year. We elected officers for vacant positions and some for positions that were vacated by the elevation of the office holder to another slot. Our new officers for 2008-2010 with the expiration date for the term are:

President – Barbara Darnall (2010)
Executive Vice President – Bill Neal (2009)
Program Vice President – Nancy Robinson Masters (2010)
Secretary – Sharon Ellison (2010)
Board Member - Ginny Greene (2010)
Board Member - Sue Davis (2010)

     These officers join on the board with others completing two-year terms:

Treasurer – Gail McMillan (2009)
Board Member - Rita Rasco (2009)
Board Member - John Matthews (2009)
Alternate - Stewart Caffey (2009)
Juanita Zachry, the founder of AWG, is a life member of the board.

     Also serving in ex officio capacities are:

Karen Greene - Publicity
Barbara B. Rollins - Newsletter and website

     The AWG Board works hard. Our annual planning meeting will be Thursday, July 10, and if you have issues and concerns you would like addressed during the 2008-2009 year, please contact a member of the board before then. We welcome member input and know that active members are the only way to have a dynamic organization that best meets the needs of each of us! Get involved, please!

To the top

March Members-Only Contest Winners

April Members-Only Contest Winners

May Members-Only Contest Winners

All New Members-Only Contests for 2008

Members-Only Contest!!
New Rules -- Big Changes
Big Choices -- Money More Often!

     Abilene Writers Guild has great contests, attractive to people around the world. Our own membership, though, often passes up the chance to enter and thereby to win and to learn. The AWG Board considered ending contests in that they seem not to be benefiting the membership. Instead, the Board chose to address problems and concerns with the contests, both monthly and annual.

     Major changes in the monthly contests are:

• Compete apples to apples, oranges to oranges--Categories in members contest will match those of the annual contest.
• Three prizes in each of three categories will be awarded each month.
• The monthly contests begin in January and continue through August, then entries for the annual contest are accepted in September and October.

We Need Your Participation!

Members-Only Contest Rules

1. Only Abilene Writers Guild members in good standing may enter the contests.
2. Work must be the member's original work, unpublished at the entry deadline.
3. There's no entry fee.
4. Any piece of writing can be entered that has not won a money prize in any other AWG contest. These entries may be submitted in the annual contest, even those winning money.
5. Word count: 1000 words maximum for prose categories, 50 lines for poetry.
6. Works must be postmarked by the 10th day of the month of the competition and mailed to AWG Contest, month (Jan, etc.), Karen Witemeyer, 58 Augusta Drive, Abilene TX 79606. Note: Karen will accept entries at any time for any contest. You must clearly mark the topic and month for judging. Only members outside the United States may enter by email.
7. Prose format: Manuscripts must be double-spaced, typed/printed on one side of paper, with at least one-inch margins. Author's name appears only on the cover sheet. Number pages.
8. Poetry format: Manuscripts may be single-spaced. Author's name appears only on the cover sheet.
9. Cover sheet: Each entry must have a cover sheet with name, address, telephone, and email information on top left, word or line count on top right, and title of work centered in middle of page.
10. Judging will not be by members of the Abilene Writers Guild and will be based on reader reactions. Some may write comments; others will not.
11. First, second, third, and honorable mention will be designated.
12. Manuscripts sent with a self-addressed stamped envelope will be returned. Others, if not claimed at the next monthly meeting, will be discarded.
13. The topic/theme/idea is:
• January - Winter Wonderland
• February - Flights of Fancy / Love
• March - In Like a Lion
• April - Music Makes the World Go Round
• May - Remembrance
• June - Nature's Majesty
• July - The United States
• August - Writing
14. The categories are:
• January - Rhymed Poetry, For Children (state age), Inspiration
• February - Unrhymed Poetry, Adult Fiction, Memoir/Nostalgia
• March - Rhymed Poetry, Flash Fiction (200 word limit), Article General Interest
• April - Unrhymed Poetry, For Children, Inspiration
• May - Rhymed Poetry, Adult Fiction, Memoir/Nostalgia
• June - Unrhymed Poetry, Flash Fiction (200 word limit), Article General Interest
• July - Rhymed Poetry, For Children (state age), Inspiration
• August - Unrhymed Poetry, Adult Fiction, Memoir/Nostalgia
15. For example, in January you may enter as many times as you wish. If you enter three times, one may be a rhymed poem, the second a child's story, the third a piece of inspirational writing, all on the subject of Winter Wonderland.
16. Prizes in each category will be: $15 first prize, $10 second prize, $5 third prize. We are awarding $90 in prizes each month. Please participate!
17. If fewer than five entries are received for any of the three monthly categories, no money will be awarded for 2nd or 3rd prize. If fewer than three entries are received for any category, no money will be awarded for 1st prize. The judges, at their sole discretion, may find no entry in a category merits an award.
18. You must enter to win!

What? You want to participate and you're not a member? JOIN! Membership is a bargain at $25 a year!

Operation Paperbacks for Patriots

     We have learned that the airlift troops, particularly those living in extremely remote airfields in conditions much like we see on M*A*S*H, are in need of good paperback book reading material for the times when they get to relax.

     Abilene Writers Guild's new project--to continue as long as necessary--is "OPERATION PAPERBACKS FOR PATRIOTS." We ask our members to go through their shelves and collections and donate any good paperbacks--adventure, thriller, western, inspirational, science fiction, nonfiction--to send to our Dyess troops. (No porn, no slime, no political propoganda.) Bring them to the meetings or drop them by Nancy Masters' house and they'll be packed and delivered to the Squadron to go out with the re-supply flights. These flights go out about every two weeks, so there's no deadline or cut off. Of course, we'll take books from non-members as well! We'll keep count and make a report ever so often of how many paperbacks AWG members and friends have sent.

The Email Notice List

     Computer technicians mess up. Computers fail. Webmasters fail to keep backup lists. If you no longer receive notices but want to, click this link.

Join!

     Please join us! For our ridiculously low dues structure and the membership form, click to join Abilene Writers Guild.

Say When!

     We'd love to have you on our contact list to announce meetings and other special events, including periodic updates to this site. If you'd like to be on the list, click here to email us. Thanks!

 Thanks for stopping by! 

All New Members-Only Contests for 2008

Members-Only Contest!!
New Rules -- Big Changes
Big Choices -- Money More Often!

     Abilene Writers Guild has great contests, attractive to people around the world. Our own membership, though, often passes up the chance to enter and thereby to win and to learn. The AWG Board considered ending contests in that they seem not to be benefiting the membership. Instead, the Board chose to address problems and concerns with the contests, both monthly and annual.

     Major changes in the monthly contests are:

• Compete apples to apples, oranges to oranges--Categories in members contest will match those of the annual contest.
• Three prizes in each of three categories will be awarded each month.
• The monthly contests begin in January and continue through August, then entries for the annual contest are accepted in September and October.

We Need Your Participation!

Members-Only Contest Rules

1. Only Abilene Writers Guild members in good standing may enter the contests.
2. Work must be the member's original work, unpublished at the entry deadline.
3. There's no entry fee.
4. Any piece of writing can be entered that has not won a money prize in any other AWG contest. These entries may be submitted in the annual contest, even those winning money.
5. Word count: 1000 words maximum for prose categories, 50 lines for poetry.
6. Works must be postmarked by the 10th day of the month of the competition and mailed to AWG Contest, month (Jan, etc.), Karen Witemeyer, 58 Augusta Drive, Abilene TX 79606. Note: Karen will accept entries at any time for any contest. You must clearly mark the topic and month for judging. Only members outside the United States may enter by email.
7. Prose format: Manuscripts must be double-spaced, typed/printed on one side of paper, with at least one-inch margins. Author's name appears only on the cover sheet. Number pages.
8. Poetry format: Manuscripts may be single-spaced. Author's name appears only on the cover sheet.
9. Cover sheet: Each entry must have a cover sheet with name, address, telephone, and email information on top left, word or line count on top right, and title of work centered in middle of page.
10. Judging will not be by members of the Abilene Writers Guild and will be based on reader reactions. Some may write comments; others will not.
11. First, second, third, and honorable mention will be designated.
12. Manuscripts sent with a self-addressed stamped envelope will be returned. Others, if not claimed at the next monthly meeting, will be discarded.
13. The topic/theme/idea is:
• January - Winter Wonderland
• February - Flights of Fancy / Love
• March - In Like a Lion
• April - Music Makes the World Go Round
• May - Remembrance
• June - Nature's Majesty
• July - The United States
• August - Writing
14. The categories are:
• January - Rhymed Poetry, For Children (state age), Inspiration
• February - Unrhymed Poetry, Adult Fiction, Memoir/Nostalgia
• March - Rhymed Poetry, Flash Fiction (200 word limit), Article General Interest
• April - Unrhymed Poetry, For Children, Inspiration
• May - Rhymed Poetry, Adult Fiction, Memoir/Nostalgia
• June - Unrhymed Poetry, Flash Fiction (200 word limit), Article General Interest
• July - Rhymed Poetry, For Children (state age), Inspiration
• August - Unrhymed Poetry, Adult Fiction, Memoir/Nostalgia
15. For example, in January you may enter as many times as you wish. If you enter three times, one may be a rhymed poem, the second a child's story, the third a piece of inspirational writing, all on the subject of Winter Wonderland.
16. Prizes in each category will be: $15 first prize, $10 second prize, $5 third prize. We are awarding $90 in prizes each month. Please participate!
17. If fewer than five entries are received for any of the three monthly categories, no money will be awarded for 2nd or 3rd prize. If fewer than three entries are received for any category, no money will be awarded for 1st prize. The judges, at their sole discretion, may find no entry in a category merits an award.
18. You must enter to win!

What? You want to participate and you're not a member? JOIN! Membership is a bargain at $25 a year!

Operation Paperbacks for Patriots

     We have learned that the airlift troops, particularly those living in extremely remote airfields in conditions much like we see on M*A*S*H, are in need of good paperback book reading material for the times when they get to relax.

     Abilene Writers Guild's new project--to continue as long as necessary--is "OPERATION PAPERBACKS FOR PATRIOTS." We ask our members to go through their shelves and collections and donate any good paperbacks--adventure, thriller, western, inspirational, science fiction, nonfiction--to send to our Dyess troops. (No porn, no slime, no political propoganda.) Bring them to the meetings or drop them by Nancy Masters' house and they'll be packed and delivered to the Squadron to go out with the re-supply flights. These flights go out about every two weeks, so there's no deadline or cut off. Of course, we'll take books from non-members as well! We'll keep count and make a report ever so often of how many paperbacks AWG members and friends have sent.

The Email Notice List

     Computer technicians mess up. Computers fail. Webmasters fail to keep backup lists. If you no longer receive notices but want to, click this link.

Join!

     Please join us! For our ridiculously low dues structure and the membership form, click to join Abilene Writers Guild.

Say When!

     We'd love to have you on our contact list to announce meetings and other special events, including periodic updates to this site. If you'd like to be on the list, click here to email us. Thanks!

 Thanks for stopping by!