HWA SFV – MINUTES OF APRIL MEETING

The meeting was held on Sunday, April 2, 2006 at 6 p.m., at Dark Delicacies (since Iliad Bookshop just moved and had no seating). Present were: Michael Caradonna (guest), Del Howison, Courtney Joyner, Brenda Knutson (guest), Mike McCarty, Lisa Morton, John Palisano, Jonathan Torres, and Scott Woodard.

After introductions, minutes of the March meeting were read and discussed.

Next item was discussion of news from the parent organization, including the status of chapters and the upcoming Stoker Award weekend. There was also some discussion of lobbying the parent organization to re-install the Screenwriting category in the Stoker Awards, and it was agreed that this would be pursued at a later date.

Next, the floor was opened to discussion of new business. Guest Brenda Knutson, who is a member in the local Romance Writers of America (RWA) chapter, filled us in on some of their activities, including guest speakers; they do pay guest speakers, charge a small fee to members to attend the meetings, and hold them at a Barnes and Noble which accommodates large numbers of attendees.

Further discussion on the HWA SFV proposed website took place. Members present agreed that they would like the chapter site to include a page with links to current markets.

Non-profit status of HWA and what it might mean to chapter activities was discussed. All RWA chapters are individually incorporated, and thus operate within the non-profit laws of their states. It was agreed that this discussion will be resumed when HWA has established firmer guidelines and rules for its own chapters.

The idea of interacting with other local writers organizations and chapters was brought up, and it was also suggested that, when our website is running, we might trade links with these other chapters/organizations, and also news of events.

There was also some brief discussion of how other organizations operate critique groups and writers workshops.

Since in our first meeting we approved the idea of picking a writing topic to discuss at each meeting, we talked about topics for future meetings. It was agreed that the writing topic at the May meeting will be point-of-view. Future topics suggested were: Working with deadlines; contracts; writing young adult fiction; and writing non-fiction and “as told to” biographical books.

Del Howison closed the meeting by reading Douglas Preston’s letter regarding his recent situation in Italy, in which he was interrogated by police for his part in writing a true crime book that is critical of certain officers.

The meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.

Minutes prepared and submitted by Lisa Morton