PAW PRINTS

Professional and Amateur Writers' Society Newsletter
Pat Millette, Editor  February 2000  Volume 6 Issue 2

The President's Message
Pat Millette

I want to wish everyone a lovely Valentines Day (belated).
 Winter finally descended on Oklahoma with a vengeance....  I hope all of you made it through the cold
weather in reasonable comfort.  I stayed in and spent a lot of time in front of my ‘puter putting words to paper.

 Next month will be our 5th anniversary....  I find it hard to believe that our little club has only been in
existence for such a short time and already accomplished so much...  I’m very proud of all of you.
With such a good start I’m look forward to our club having another great 5+++ years.  Of course none of
this would happen without our great members.  Great going guys.


2000 Officers
Pat Millette, President
Sherri Dykes, VP/ProgramChair
Guinn Hodgson, Secretary
Elaine Wells, Treasurer
Pat Millette, Editor
Elaine Wells, OWFI Representative
Kelli McBride, OWFI Representative

Program Notes
Sherri Dykes

     At the February meeting, you will choose one of four scenarios and write one page of dialogue with a minimum of
narrative. This exercise will encourage you to let your characters speak spontaneously. I'll bring the hand outs - you
bring your brain.

How Do I Love Thee, Francis Crawford . . .Let Me List the Ways
Linda Lael Miller

I am an inveterate maker of lists. One application of this penchant, only recently applied and founded on the oldest and simplest of time management advice, i.e., to make a to-do list and follow through on it, has literally revolutionized my life. In a mere six weeks, I wrote and polished the initial draft of my medieval romance, My Lady Beloved.

To read the rest of this article, click  here.


Research -- The Funnest Part of Writing
Merline Lovelace

Okay, okay, I admit it --I'm a research junkie. I love surfing library card catalogs, encyclopedias, on-line web sites, and such for arcane bits of information and unique plot twists to "flavor" my books with. In fact, I usually have to force myself to stop researching and start writing. To my surprise, I generally find I have to do almost as much research for a contemporary romance as for a historical. After 26 novels, I've learned a few useful tricks in organizing the information I collect during my research. Here are a few you might find useful:

To read the rest of this article, click  here.


Membership News....

     Several of our members are planning to attend the up-coming OFWI Conference — Those who already plan to attend are: Linda Goodnight -- Darlene Lowery — Pat Millette — Elaine Wells, Barbard Dowty and Lorraine Stone are thinking seriously about attending at least one day.
     Those who are planning on entering the OWFI contest are: Darlene Lowery — Linda Goodnight — Sherri Dykes — Elaine Wells— Quinn Hodgson and Pat Millette.  Good Luck Everyone!!

     Linda Goodnight had sold another True Confession and a second novella — Way to go Linda!!
     Sherri Dykes is re-writing her story trying to get it ready to send to an editor (another True Confession).  


Notice:
Prior to our regular meeting on February 21st we will b holding a Board of Directors meeting at 6:30 pm.  All members are welcome to attend but are unable to vote on issues brought up at the meeting.  The regular meeting will begin at its usual time of 7 pm.

Basic Manuscript Format

  1.  All margins should be 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" on both sides and top/bottom.
  2.  Should always be double spaced, with a total of 25 lines per page (in novel length ms. each page counts for 250 words even if you only have 1 line on page)
  3. Each page should be numbered at the top right corner.
  4.  Each page should have the ms name (in all caps) and author's name following a / between title and name.
  5. In contest entries be sure to leave authors name off all pages.
  6.  Use either Courier New (12 point) or Times New Roman (14 point)
  7. Courier works out better for the proper amount of words per page.
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