Blog Archives

December 4 Book Launch Invitation - Brenda Leigh White (D2)

11/30/2021

You are invited

The book launch for Brenda Leigh White’s collection of poetry, Blue Collar Saint, will be held at Twin Rivers Winery, 627 Commercial, Emporia, Saturday, December 4, 4:00-6:00pm. The author, along with friends and supporters, will share work from Brenda’s collection followed by a short open mic opportunity for attendees.

White is a native of Emporia, Kansas, but her heart resides on the family farm in Morris County. Her most favorite place in Kansas is the woods and creek on the farm. There she has seen snakes fishing in a puddle and found a baby western box turtle at the natural spring feeding into the creek. She has had poetry published in Quivira and The Flint Hills Review. What she loves most about living in Kansas is the beauty of the flint hills and the state motto, ad astra per aspera, “to the stars through difficulties.”

Cheryl Unruh, Kansas Notable author, says, “With unapologetic honesty and a masterful use of language, Brenda Leigh White, in Blue Collar Saint, cycles through whimsy, curiosity, and harsh reality. Always questioning the world around her, White writes with sharpness, clarity, and wit, leaving the reader alternately gutted and longing for more.”

Emporia poet Kerry Moyer says, “The verses in Blue Collar Saint were born on the assembly line, in the working-class spaces and places of this poetic traveler’s journey. White shares her scars and lays bare a resilience rooted in wit, intelligence, and strength. This is a fine collection, from an authentic new voice in Kansas poetry.”

Blue Collar Saint is available for order through meadowlark-books.square.site and may be ordered through any bookseller. Learn more at www.meadowlark-books.com.

Welcome New Member Timothy Keane

11/22/2021

Perhaps you saw our newest KAC member during the convention. Dr. Tim Keane was the keynote speaker. Welcome, Dr. Keane, to the Kansas Authors Club!

Dr. Tim Keane is Emeritus Professor of Landscape Architecture at Kansas State University where he taught, researched, and served for thirty-seven years before retiring in 2021. Keane was the keynote speaker at the KAC 2021 Convention.

His writing ranges from academic/technical in reporting on his research in journals and research proposals, to his poetry both “cowboy” poems and more traditional meter and verse, as well as free verse.

He has been writing poetry for nearly fifty years and feels it keeps the right side of his brain balanced with the logical, researcher, left side; one must always strive to be “level-headed”.

Tim is available for performances of almost any kind as long as there is food and drink provided. Keane is a three-time KS champion and five-time national champion cowboy poet.

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Deadline for Yearbook Entries Extended

11/22/2021

The deadline for submitting entries to the 2022 yearbook has been extended. Members now have until December 31 to enter.

Every Member having paid current dues is invited to submit ONE literary contribution for the yearbook. That submission can be either prose or poetry. Prose is limited to one printed page (no more than 500 words). Poetry is limited to one printed page (no more than 40 lines including spaces between verses).

All literary contributions remain the property of the individual authors. Authors may continue to use or distribute their work without requesting permission from the Kansas Authors Club. No work printed in the KAC yearbook may be copied or distributed in any form without explicit permission from the author.

Yearbook Submissions are preferred via the online site, Submittable. There is NO CHARGE to submit a yearbook entry.

Invitation to attend D6 Monthly Meeting: Speaker Jared Vaughn, Time Honored Productions

11/22/2021

Saturday, November 27
1:30pm - Zoom Event

District 6 Meetings are held on the 4th Saturday of each month (except December), online via Zoom at 1:30 p.m. Questions? Contact Jim Potter for a meeting link.

Jared Vaughn started writing stories at the age of nine, including terrible sequels to Back to the Future. By 2014, he'd written stories, songs, skits, and just about anything but a book. So he set out to write The Longest Time, a story that had been in his mind for fifteen years. He released it in 2017, dressed as Marty McFly at his first booth at a comic con. The Longest Time received unanimously positive reviews from readers of all ages who appreciated the story's nostalgic appeal, heart, humor, and positive message as well as a genre-bending twist that takes everyone by surprise. Through his company, Time Honored Productions, he next published a collection of short stories called Free Time Tales. It featured nine other local writers including Shoshanna Aaliyah, a young lady who also wrote Tobias' Travels, which is releasing soon as a kid's book. Another Time, the sequel to The Longest Time, was released in 2020 to reviews that compared it as equal in quality to the original or even better. The Time Honored team can be seen at many events throughout the year sharing their creativity and the Power of Love. They continue to grow with artists, cosplayers, actors, and authors including the recent addition of acclaimed author Lynn Main.

In 2021, Jared joined the Kansas Authors Club and was introduced to a new circle of talent. He was invited to be the guest speaker for the November 27th Zoom meeting for District 6 and enthusiastically accepted. Jared will share tips about what he feels is the most important part of writing-- the art of storytelling. His fun and informative presentation has been utilized at writing workshops and author panels and proven effective for all ages and levels of experience.

Ready For a Treat?

11/17/2021

You can view the interaction of Huascar Medina and Annette Billings as they shared their poetry. They carried on a delightful poetry conversation at the November D5 meeting. I guarantee you will be inspired to write poetry after listening to these skilled wordsmiths. Click on the button below.

View Medina/Billings Poetry Presentation

Welcome New Member Cat Webling

11/17/2021

Today, I am honored to introduce Cat Webling, a new member to the KAC and District 6. She lives in Russell.

I’m a Georgia-born writer who moved to Kansas post-pandemic to be with my family – my partner, son, and cute cats! So far, I’ve had six major publications: a science fiction novel (with a second on the way!), two short story collections, and three poetry collections. You can find my work on my website. I’m a regular writer and editor for SUPERJUMP Magazine, and have contributed posts for Nymeria Publishing, The Gamer, and FanFare. I write science fiction and fantasy, as well as poetry and articles about literature, theater, gaming (especially Dungeons and Dragons), and fan culture. I like to write things that make people think, or smile, or feel something; it’s what I think writing can and should do!

I look forward to learning more about the KAC and my district, and I’m excited to join this vibrant community.

Welcome, Cat! We look forward to meeting you.

[Cheryl Unruh]

Books by Cat Webling:

Note from D2 member, Mark Scheel

11/12/2021

I'm excited to see my most recent fiction just released in Steven Carr's Short Story Town site, a coveted venue in which to have one's work appear. Do have a look and hope you enjoy! The title is "First Communion."

Mark Scheel was raised on a farm in eastern Kansas. A former teacher and librarian, he has had work appear in numerous periodicals and his seventh book, the novel, The Potter's Wheel, was just released from Clarendon House Publications.

If you have news of writing events that would be of interest to all Kansas Authors Club members, or if you are a member (dues current) who would like to announce an achievement, please submit your news via this form.

Have an Amazing Poetry Experience

11/10/2021

Huascar Medina, the Poet Laureate of Kansas since 2019, and Annette Hope Billings are presenting during the D5 meeting this Saturday. You won't want to miss experiencing the creativity of these gifted people.

D5 will meet on Saturday, November 13. We meet in person at Asbury Church on 15th Street and St. Paul Street. Enter through the southwest door. The meeting will start promptly at 1:30. The presentation is the first thing on the agenda. There is no need to preregister if you are attending in person.

For those of you who will attend via Zoom, click on the registration link below.

D2 Member, Cheryl Unruh, Book Launch Event in Emporia

11/9/2021

Emporia, KS--Flyover People essayist Cheryl Unruh, takes the stage for a literary celebration, complete with reading and book signing as Meadowlark Press releases Unruh’s new memoir, Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town, at Lyon County History Center on Saturday, November 13 at 1:00pm.

An array of regional books will be available for purchase, including other titles by Unruh, as well as books published by Meadowlark Press.

Unruh’s memoir details a small-town childhood as the daughter of a carpenter-father, who also happens to be the town cemetery caretaker. As Cheryl grows, so does her comprehension of her father’s particular maladies, a skin-condition that is not discussed by the family, as well as his struggles with depression. Presented in short vignettes, Gravedigger’s Daughter introduces Unruh’s father from a child’s eye view, and then via observations and interactions that take us through Unruh’s adolescence to adulthood. Divided into three parts, the book covers Unruh’s childhood in Pawnee Rock, her father’s middle-age years when she lived away, and his later years.

Unruh grew up in the town of Pawnee Rock in central Kansas, population 400, in the 1960s and 70s. “The stories, or vignettes, are poem-shaped, but each captures a moment in time. I see each one as a snapshot,” Unruh says. “While I will never be able to relate the entirety and complexity of a life, I hope that some of my dad’s weird and wonderful personality shines through.”

From Laura Moriarty, author of The Chaperone: “With Gravedigger’s Daughter, Cheryl Unruh has created something so fresh and inviting—a memoir in lean vignettes. Each is moving on its own, and also part of a compelling portrait of a childhood in an isolated town with a dwindling population. Unruh’s details are too specific for sentimentalism, but places and people are observed with a loving gaze that also feels wise and honest. Her father, especially, emerges as both haunted and quietly heroic. What a beautiful book.”

Fans of Cheryl’s two previous collections of vivid Kansas essays, Flyover People (2011 KS Notable Book) and Waiting on the Sky (2015 KS Notable Book), and Walking on Water, her collection of poetry, will delight in this memoir. Unruh hopes that the book will inspire readers to write their own stories “whether they write for their own pleasure or choose to share their stories with family and friends or perhaps even go on to publish their writing.” Unruh will be scheduling a series of memoir writing workshops starting in the spring of 2022.

Gravedigger’s Daughter is available for order through meadowlark-books.square.site and may be ordered through any bookseller. Learn more at www.meadowlark-books.com.

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November 12 & 13 Member Events in Salina

11/9/2021

District 2 members Linzi Garcia and Ann Vigola Anderson will be in Salina with poetry and book events this weekend. All are invited to attend.

Hosted by Ad Astra Books & Coffee House
141 N Santa Fe Ave., Salina
Friday, November 12, 7:00pm
Click here for more information.

Hosted by Ad Astra Books & Coffee House
141 N Santa Fe Ave., Salina
Saturday, November 13, 4:00pm
Click here for more information.

Cheryl Unruh to Speak at D2 November Meeting

11/9/2021

Cheryl Unruh is presenting at the next District 2 Meeting, Saturday, November 20, 2021 from 10:00-12:00pm at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont, lower level.

For 11 years, Cheryl Unruh wrote a weekly newspaper column, Flyover People, for The Emporia Gazette. She has twice received the Kansas Notable Book Award for her collections of Kansas essays, Flyover People and Waiting on the Sky, both published by Quincy Press. Meadowlark Press published her collection of poetry, Walking on Water, as well as her brand new book, Gravedigger’s Daughter, a memoir. She is the editor of 105 Meadowlark Reader, a Kansas journal of creative nonfiction. Cheryl lives in Emporia, Kansas.

Cheryl's book launch for Gravedigger's Daughter is scheduled for November 13, at 1:00 p.m. at the Lyon County History Center, 711 Commercial, Emporia.

Announcing: 2022 Convention Logo Contest

11/8/2021

Dear Kansas Authors Club Members and Area Artists,

District 2 looks forward to hosting the 2022 Annual Writing Convention, and we need YOUR help. Design the winning logo and you will receive a $50 honorarium, as well as a featured spot in the convention program.

We will consider any type of artwork that can be submitted and translates well in JPG format. (If you paint or draw by hand, simply scan or photograph the image.)

The Theme for the event is--

The Write Way to the Future

Instructions for entering:

Design a logo/image/graphic incorporating the words, “The Write Way to the Future.” Save, scan, or photograph the design in JPG format.
Submit your logo via the Kansas Authors Club Submittable website: https://kansasauthorsclub.submittable.com/submit
Deadline for Entry: December 31, 2021.

Questions? Email the D2 Convention Team at KansasAuthorsClub@gmail.com.

Tuesday, November 9, 2021, at 7:00 p.m., is D3/D4 “OPEN MIKE NIGHT” via Zoom.

11/7/2021

Tuesday, November 9, 2021, at 7:00 p.m., is “OPEN MIKE NIGHT” via Zoom. Kris Polansky will start off by reading the poems that made her “Poet of the Year” for Kansas Authors Club. There are six of them, but they are short. So we need many more readers. Come sign in at 7:00. Sharing is what writing is all about!

Do you have an award-winning entry to share from the 2021 KAC Literary Contest? Or one from an earlier contest? Or a “should-have-won” of which you are proud? Or something you are working on? We want to hear it!

This and other 2nd Tuesday Zoom Meetings jointly provided by KAC Districts 3 and 4 are open to all KAC members. The Zoom link has been sent to members via email through your district president or district email announcement list.

Prose Writer of the Year for 2020 to give District 1 Program Nov. 20

11/5/2021

Join Julie A. Sellers, and other members of District 1, at the group's regular monthly meeting on Saturday, November 20 at 1 p.m. This will be the first in-person meeting the district has held in more than a year. It will be held in the Menninger Room of the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library and is limited to only ten attendees due to social distancing requirements.

Sellers was named the 2020 Kansas Authors Club Prose Writer of the Year. She will be discussing The
Two I’s of writing: inspiration and intentionality. Julie will share tips for looking for inspiration (ideas), and techniques she uses to be intentional about writing. Attendees will have the opportunity to try out some of these techniques by participating in short writing activities.

Julie is the author of three academic monographs on Dominican music and identity, and her creative prose and poetry have appeared in publications such as 105 Meadowlark Reader, Cagibi, Wanderlust, The Very Edge, and Kansas Time + Place. Her collection, Kindred Verse: Poems Inspired by Anne of Green Gables (Blue Cedar Press) was released in 2021.

Anyone wishing to join the meeting via zoom should email Anne Spry for the link.

Writing and Performing Poetry for the Soul

11/3/2021

Huascar Medina, the Poet Laureate of Kansas since 2019, has been nominated to serve on the National Council on the Arts by President Joe Biden. Medina is a poet, writer, and performer who lives in Topeka. His message is one of poetry as truth and finding empathy. He desires to be seen as another person. Not as a person of color, not as a Hispanic male, not a Latino, but as a Kansan living in Kansas.

Annette Hope Billings is an African-American Kansas poet, playwright, actress and nurse. She has written two collections of poetry, one-act plays, and numerous short stories. Annette’s readers have dubbed her “Maya of the Midwest,” a moniker she allows with all due humility and gratitude. She is known for her performance delivery style.

D5 will meet on Saturday, November 13. We will meet in person at Asbury Church on 15th Street and St. Paul Street. Enter through the southwest door. The meeting will start promptly at 1:30. There is no need to preregister if you are attending in person. For those of you who will attend via Zoom, click on the registration link below.

Members Published in 105 Meadowlark Reader, Issue #2

11/2/2021

Carolyn Hall, D2 Member, is one of 21 Kansas Authors Club members published in the second issue of 105 Meadowlark Reader: Kansas Travel Stories.

The journal of Kansas creative nonfiction can be purchased at "Partner Bookstores" including Crow and Co Books (Hutchinson), Eighth Day Books (Wichita), Flint Hills Books (Council Grove), Raven Book Store (Lawrence), Russell Specialty Books & Gifts (Russell), and Watermark Books & Cafe (Wichita).

Subscriptions can also be purchased at Meadowlark Press.

Kansas Authors Club members featured in this issue include:

Ann Anderson (D2)

Curtis Becker (D2)

Sheryl Brenn (D7)

Annabelle Corrick (D1)

Gretchen Cassel Eick (D5)

Marie Baum Fletcher (D7)

Tammy Gilley (D6)

Michael D. Graves (D2)

Monica (Osgood) Graves (D2)

Carolyn Hall (D2)

Jerilynn Jones Henrikson (D2)

Sally Jadlow (D2)

Nancy Julien Kopp (D4)

Sandee Lee (D5)

Jim Potter (D6)

Julie A. Sellers (D1)

Mark Scheel (D2)

Tracy Million Simmons (D2)

Barbara Waterman-Peters (D1)

Brenda White (D2)

Editor, Chery Unruh (D2)

The journal is currently taking submissions for issue #3 to be published in the spring of 2022.

Theme: True Bicycle Stories
Guidelines can be found on the
105 Meadowlark Reader website.

District 2 NaNoWriMo Invitation

11/1/2021

NaNoWriMo Website

Image courtesy of NaNoWriMo.

This starts Monday, November 1st!

Please join us each Monday for the month of November for NaNoWriMo (1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and the 29th) for encouragement and ideas.

We’ll meet in a private room at Perkins restaurant, 1711 W 23rd St., Lawrence, KS 66046, from 4 to 6 p.m.

Please rsvp by Sunday as I’ll need to let Perkins’ staff know how many of us to expect.

I plan to send reminders each week.

Do you have a friend who enjoys writing? Please invite them.

You need not write a novel. Feel free to write whatever you’ve been wanting to. Our group will hold each other accountable, over pie no less!

Not familiar with it?

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-national-novel-writing-month-success

Sincerely,
Ronda Miller, District 2 Member

Are you a KAC member who is hosting NaNoWriMo gatherings? Or simply an individual participating? Feel free to share news of your meetings and/or your progress here. Send us some photos. Share some word counts! What is the title of your work in progress?

You are invited

Saturday, November 271:30pm - Zoom Event

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Saturday, November 27
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