Calligraphy Class!

9/29 - 11/3 @ E.B. Ball Center

Thursday nights  7p - 9p

$75 call Nancy @ 285-8975 to sign up

Submitted by Muncie Branch NLAPW member Paula Sullivan, instructor of this session

Please join us for a reading by award-winning writer Michael Martone, author or editor of twelve books of fiction and nonfiction. The reading will be followed by a reception and booksigning. Refreshments will be serves. This event is free and open to the public.

Monday, October 3rd at 7:30pm Bracken Library, Room 104

According to John Barth, Fort Wayne native Michael Martone's fiction "combines remarkable originality with a keen eye, deadpan humor, and an amused, massively knowledgeable obsession with his native Indiana." Martone's latest book is FOUR FOR A QUARTER. He is also the author or editor of twelve other books, including THE BLUE GUIDE TO INDIANA, THE FLATNESS AND OTHER LANDSCAPES, and DOUBLE-WIDE: COLLECTED FICTION OF MICHAEL MARTONE. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Alabama and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

This event is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in the department of English.

Manuscript Makeover Opportunity!

Straight from the Midwest Writers Workshop E-PISTLE:

Due to Popular Demand, MWW is offering Manuscript Makeover: October 29 at Ball State Alumni Center,  9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Get individual editing of your work!    

On Saturday, October 29, Midwest Writers will offer a special session of "Manuscript Makeover," the session which sells out first at our MWW summer workshop. MM is an intensive session with Dennis E. Hensley and Holly Miller, held at the Ball State Alumni Center, (Muncie, IN) from 9 am to 3:30 pm. The one-day workshop is limited to 20 participants and costs $125 (and includes a brown bag lunch so the work flow won't be interrupted).Register here! 

This interactive intensive is designed for those fiction and nonfiction writers who are ready to take a quantum leap forward in enhancing their writing skills. Participants will submit the first 10 pages of a manuscript in progress and a one-page synopsis. The instructors will edit and critique these pages and display them (anonymously) to the class as a way of revealing strengths and weaknesses in the material. 

Additionally, the instructors will lead the students in writing exercises and offer advice on such topics as enhancing dialogue, learning to self-edit, mastering proofreading, finding the right markets for manuscripts and knowing when and how to go into writing full-time. After your registration has been received, you will be asked to e-mail the FIRST 10 pages (double-spaced) of your manuscript and a one-page synopsis (single-spaced) by October 10.

Author Jeannette Walls at Ball State

Courtesy of Ball State email:

In her former role as the popular gossip columnist for MSNBC, tall and confident Jeannette Walls gave little indication of the extremely poor, nomadic childhood she lived and later chronicled in "The Glass Castle" (Scribner, 2005), this year's freshman common reader at Ball State. The "detailed, appealing and admirable" memoir spent three years on The New York Times bestseller list, and Walls will discuss it and her life since with an audience in Emens Auditorium on Wednesday evening, Sept. 21, beginning at 7:30 pm

Unknown to Walls' colleagues during her ascent to national network prominence was her greatest fear - that a fellow journalist might uncover the real scoop: that she had lived in near-unimaginable poverty in West Virginia as a child, sometimes sharing cat food with her siblings, and that her bohemian parents had followed her north when she was a student at Barnard College, willingly becoming members of New York City's homeless population.

"We were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure," Walls writes in "The Glass Castle." Instead, the family lived hand-to-mouth, with her father taking occasional electrician jobs and her mother using her teaching degree for a year before giving it up in favor of painting and drawing, a pastime she preferred over supervising or even providing meals for her children.

After earning her degree from Barnard in 1984, Walls went on to pen the "Intelligencer" column for New York magazine and features for Esquire.  She joined MSNBC in 1998. Her first book is "Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip" (William & Morrow, 2000); her latest is "Half Broke Horses" (Scribner, 2009).

She appears at Ball State courtesy of Freshman Connections. The event is free and open to the public. 

Update - August 2011 meeting reflection

By Cahty Shouse

Meetings aren't my favorite activities. (Are they anybody's?) That's why I'm glad when I find an organization where meetings aren't really meetings. They feel like friendly gatherings. Since my schedule hadn't cooperated so that I could attend a Pen Woman meeting for awhile, I was especially happy to be able to go on August 19tth. Our hostess was Barb Kehoe, our membership chairman.

Barb is very suited to her job in the chapter. I should know. She "dragged" me into the group before she officially became membership chair. Of course, she was the president. I was a tough sell. Did I mention I don't like meetings? But Barb was persistent. And once I saw these weren't really "meetings" and that as women in the arts, we automatically "get" one another, it wasn't long before I joined. Such a warm, inviting group of women!

Friday the 19th, we convened in Barb's lovely dining room for a meal of pasta, finished off with snicker doodle cookies, catered by Judy Baker. Yes, there was other food, but I would have been satisfied with just those two delectable selections. Yum!


We ate at two separate tables and at our table, we covered a variety of topic, including the Kardashians. Think cocktail party talk, except there was no alcohol, and it was around noon, before the weekend even kicked off. Divine!

Member Holly Miller gave a talk on "Norman and Me", reflecting on her time as editor for The Saturday Evening Post. Norman referred to Norman Rockwell, who did the Post's covers for decades. No, she didn't get to meet him. However, her story of the history of the magazine was fascinating. I hadn't realized it started out as a weekly (I think) and had so many over-sized pages someone said it took about 18 hours to read it. That's the number I think she said. I was enthralled and didn't even take notes, which is unusual for me. I'm a journalist, after all. My favorite part was Holly's initial interview with the Post, and Cory SerVass hiring her on the spot to interview a celebrity that same afternoon. See, Holly's from Anderson and, to give herself an edge, had read the Indy Star before the interview in Indianapolis. Holly tipped Cory off to the celebrity going to be in town, per the newspaper, and they were off and rolling--literally. The two women went to the interview with Holly driving Cory's car--a Cadillac or something. (I’m not a car person, either.) What an unusual start to a long-term business relationship. How spunky Holly was--and still is.

Holly's was a great talk for Ella to bring her guest, Jan Lewis. Laurie Lunsford brought her mother, Willa Mae Stevenson. Laurie was excited to share that she's gotten a position as interactive art specialist at Parkview Hospital, where she'll work with poetry and other arts with the residents. Jude is still writing for Maximum Living magazine and showed us her latest article.

I always like to hear what others are doing and go home inspired to kick up my work a notch.

Charlotte Shepperd talked about  Dear Me: Advice to Our Younger Selves, a book published in August 2011. She edited it and contributed, too. She worked with the Savvy Dames, who created the project. The title says it all. Charlotte wrote for the chapter about children, organized the chapters and collaborated in other ways. Indeed, it takes a village to publish a book. What a great reminder. None of us really does art alone, although it can feel like it sometimes. That's what's nice about connecting with artsy friends!

Art Collector's Home

One of our members, Pat Schaefer, is an avid art collector. Her home is really an art gallery – can you imagine living in an art museum?! Ms. Schaefer’s home gives new meaning to the term “usable art”; from the landscaping outside and the architecture of the physical structure and layout of her home to the various collections and unique pieces inside, Ms. Schaeffer’s home is a complete immersion in art!

Ms. Schaefer has worked with renowned professionals from all over the world to create an eclectic gallery of fine art masterpieces.

Earlier this summer Ms. Schaefer hosted the Muncie, Indiana chapter of NLAPW in her home. We held our meeting in her beautiful living room surrounded by pieces from her glass collection, paintings collection, and sculpture collection. Then we had a catered sit-down meal beneath a beautiful chandelier sculpture by Dale Chihuly.

After the meal we were treated to a tour of Ms. Schaefer’s home and a full viewing of all her collections. Below are just a few pictures of some of the pieces in this Muncie, Indiana Pen Woman’s home.

I’m hoping I can catch Ms. Schaefer in an opening in her busy schedule to interview her about some of her favorite artists and post that information here on our blog sometime in the near future. 

In the meantime, enjoy this visual peek into Ms. Schaefer’s Gallery Home!

Library

Gazebo Room

Bathroom

Art Studio

Garden

Front Entrance