The anthology of writer essays, I, The Writer, from Sweetycat Press, is now available on Amazon. It consists of 114 modern-day authors, fiction and non-fiction writers, poets, song writers, playwrights and journalists from across the globe writing "about the intertwining of their personal lives with their journeys in the literary arts."

Mark Scheel, District 2 member, is among the authors included in the anthology.

More about Mark Scheel:
https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/mark_scheel
author of Star Chaser
author of And Eve Said Yes: Seven Stories and a Novella
author of A Backward View: Stories and Poems
former prose editor Kansas City Voices magazine
recipient of the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award
recipient of the Nostalgia Poetry Award

From D2 member, Vicki Julian:

We could all use a little humor right now, and I hope you might have a story to contribute to my book which will be released this Christmas season (by December 1). The title, It Wasn't Funny...Then is a collection of most embarrassing moments. My deadline for submissions is NOVEMBER 1 and can be as short as a paragraph up to 3-500 words. Because of the content, I promise discretion, and I can keep your identity anonymous to every one but me, if you wish.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, here are some examples that will appear in the book: one woman stood up to eulogize her father at his memorial service and had a "break wind" moment, another had Montezuma's revenge while playing video poker at the casino and left a trail of brown spots running out the door, and another couple was "discovered" at an inopportune moment by their 15 year old son.

Please consider submitting a story--the world could use a laugh and writers are the perfect ones to do it! Please submit to vickijulian@sunflower.com. 

D5 member Robert L. Dean, Jr., has a new poem, "The Caress," which came out October 15th in the new issue of the online magazine "October Hill Magazine." This is the first time Dean has submitted to this publication; two of the three works submitted were accepted, with one being held back for a future issue. This is a truly gorgeous online magazine, laid out like a print magazine. To access Dean's poem, click on the link below, which is the "Archives" page of the website. Select OHM Fall 2020, Volume 4, Issue 3, labeled "New," and either click on the cover photo, which will open the entire issue in your browser, or click on "download" to download a pdf file of the entire issue. Dean's poem "The Caress" appears on page 164 in the issue, you can scroll down to it. October Hill Magazine also publishes a lot of fiction and some book reviews. Read the "Welcome" pages at the front of the issue for more info about this publication.  The online pdf is free to download. Both poets and fiction writers should seriously consider this fine publication! You can find more info about October Hill from the menu at the top of the "Archives" page. They plan to start a print version at some point. The link:

October Hill Magazine Archives

The new issue of I-70 Review (issue date September 28, 2020) has pieces by several Kansas Authors Club members.

Congratulations to:
Boyd Bauman (D2)
Robert L. Dean, Jr. (D5)
Kelly Johnston (D5)
Denise Low (D2)
Kevin Rabas (D2)

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. ​

D5 member Robert L. Dean, Jr., has two poems and a CNF piece in the new issue of MacQueen's Quinterly. Two of the works are ekphrastic, and in her intro Clare MacQueen refers to Dean as one of "my favorite masters of ekphrasis." Links:

MacQueen’s Quinterly: Poetry & Hybrids: Robert L. Dean, Jr.: Eyes on You

MacQueen’s Quinterly: Poetry & Hybrids: Robert L. Dean, Jr.: Impresssion

MacQueen’s Quinterly: Poetry & Hybrids: Robert L. Dean, Jr.: Doppelgänger

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. ​

Press Release
Virtual Launch Scheduled for Wichita Author’s Debut Book of Poetry
Emporia, KS - Setting the Waves on Fire, by Arlice W. Davenport, is the newest book of poetry released by Meadowlark Press. The book retails for $15 and is now available to order. The launch event will take place via Zoom on October 14 at 7:00pm. Attendees are invited to sign up at www.meadowlark-books.com.


Of Davenport’s poetry collection, Roy Beckemeyer, Kansas Authors Club multi-year Poet of the Year, writes, “This is poetry of intellectual breadth built on a foundation of honest emotional depth. I encourage you to take up this book and read, to follow Davenport’s best advice: “Your heart is bruised, bleeding / drops of unrequited love. / The viscera of your body / tighten like a noose. You could slide // your head into it, if you choose, / . . . Love flees / like a deer bounding in a forest. / You are too broken to give chase . . . /. . . Let poems be your new heart. // It will not bleed.”

Davenport, a lifelong Wichitan, is the retired Travel editor and Books Page editor for The Wichita Eagle. 
​
​Setting the Waves on Fire (ISBN 978-1734247770) is available to order from the Meadowlark Books web-store at www.meadowlark-books.com, and for order through all online and traditional book outlets. 
____________________________________________

On any given day in any given year this century, Tracy Million Simmons can be found doing something that contributes to Kansas Authors Club. Whether it is working with Reaona Hemmingway, Carol Yoho and sometimes others to write our newsletters and create our annual yearbook—a monumental task in itself; or maintaining and coordinating work on the KAC website; or collaborating with contest managers to find judges and help them and all the rest of us in myriad ways prepare for our annual convention; or overseeing Submittable; or doing half a dozen other tasks that I’m forgetting about, Tracy distinguishes herself year in and year out as Kansas Authors Club’s most indispensable worker bee.

Sometimes I imagine that we will one day discover her dirty little secret, that she is actually identical twins.

But in this year of the Pandemic, Tracy has outdone even Tracy in utilizing her innovative skills to pioneer two more features that will become welcome and established components of Kansas Author Club from this point forward.

First, she has extended our use of Submittable account, which she pioneered, by utilizing it for convention registration, thus simplifying and streamlining the process.

Second, she has created a virtual book room for KAC members on the issuu.com website. Not only does this mitigate our inability to have a physical book room for this year’s convention, but it means that KAC members will be able to exhibit and sell their books online not just once a year but 24/7 into the foreseeable future.

And she did this, along with everything else she does, while also playing a key role along with Carol Yoho and Curtis Becker on the Webinar team that, together with this year’s convention committee, made it possible to hold this year’s annual convention.

By the sheer volume of the work she does year in and year out, Tracy would qualify for a special service award every year, but this year it would be a major oversight if we did not recognize her with a Special Award for Particular Accomplishment for her innovative work on convention registration and for creating KAC’s own virtual book room.

Presented by Duane Johnson, 2020 State President

All members are invited to our Annual Meeting. It will take place via ZOOM on Saturday, October 10, at 10:30 am. A link has been emailed to each member via the kansasauthorsclub email. 

Note: a state board meeting will take place via that same ZOOM link at 9:00 am on Saturday, October 10.

Note from Nancy: My story "Dinner at Bruna's" is featured in LifeStory Journal issue 255. Charley Kempthorne, former Manhattan resident and LifeStory instructor, publishes LifeStory Journal monthly. He is happy to receive submissions. Information to submit is found in each issue.

See The LifeStory Institute on Facebook

The LifeStory Institute website

D5 member Robert L. Dean, Jr. has been nominated for The Best of the Net Anthology for his poem "Pete & Bella," which appeared in the September 2019 issue of Shot Glass Journal (Issue #29). Shot Glass Journal is an online journal of short poetry, 16 lines or less, edited by Mary-Jane Grandinetti, and published by Muse-Pie Press, R. G. Rader, publisher. You can read the poem at
http://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/issue29/robert_l_dean_jr1.html

Congratulations to our 2020 Award Winners!

Kristine A. Polansky, Poet of the Year

Julie A. Sellers, Prose Writer of the Year

It is with sincere appreciation that we acknowledge your dedication and contribution to Kansas Authors Club. Please accept this small token of our gratitude. We look forward to many more years of fellowship and growing our organization for the benefit of writers like you.
 

Length of Membership Awards
 
Fred C. Appelhanz – 15 years
Roy J. Beckemeyer – 10 years
Patricia Bonine – 10 years
Annabelle Corrick – 10 years
Edna M. Dyck – 50 years*
Pauline Fecht – 20 years
Marie Fletcher – 30 years
Jean Grant – 10 years
Yvonne Evie Green – 20 years
Reaona T. Hemmingway – 15 years
Kelly W. Johnston – 10 years
Carole Katsantoness – 10 years
Peg Nichols – 15 years
Kristine A. Polansky – 15 years
Cheryl Skupa – 10 years
Candace C. Sherman – 30 years
 
 
Octogenarians
Sylvia Colombo (2018)
Tom Mach

Duane Johnson (D1) has been a member of Kansas Authors Club since 2014. He served as the president of District 1 in 2017-2018, state Vice President and book awards chair in 2019, and he took the helm as state President this year, 2020. I know that Duane had a vision for Kansas Authors Club when he accepted the role of President. As an active board member, he’d been taking notes on ways to modernize our organization, but I don’t imagine he expected to take this giant step forward to a full virtual convention format in less than a year. It would have been very easy to say, “Sorry folks, no convention in the time of COVID-19.” Duane studied, recruited a crew, and hired a tutor to get us up to speed. His organizational skills helped us develop and define what you are experiencing here this weekend. Thanks to Duane Johnson, we’ve enjoyed an October weekend with our writing family. I submit Duane Johnson for a merit award for service to Kansas Authors Club.
 
-presented by Tracy Million Simmons

Jim Potter became a member of Kansas Authors Club in 2015. He became president of District 6 in 2019, and has recruited at least 28 members to the organization since that time. Jim led the way in transitioning to Zoom meetings in 2020, the first of our seven districts to do so. In fact, his district began meeting twice a month, once for a program and once for a read around. Jim has been a dedicated leader on behalf of his district and our state organization. I submit Jim Potter (D6) for a merit award for service to Kansas Authors Club.
 
-presented by Tracy Million Simmons

Maryann Barry (D2) has been of service to Kansas Authors Club since she became a member of the board in 2007. 
 
Maryann has served on the State Kansas Authors Club Board as Assistant Recording Secretary, Recording Secretary, and as the current 2020 State Vice President. Maryann has a quiet, yet observant nature and looks out on behalf of the entire membership. She is a faithful member of Kansas Authors Club, both an excellent song writer and poet, and steadfast friend to members fortunate enough to know her well.

-Presented by Ronda Miller (D2) 

As most of you are aware, Diane Wahto (D5) passed away on September 16, 2020. She suffered a stroke in the fall of 2019 and had a long rehabilitation from that event. Then, in the spring this year, she had another stroke and eventually succumbed to the effects of that. 

Diane was a teacher of English and Journalism most of her career years. She graduated cum laude with a BA in English from Western Michigan University. She went on to earn an MA in English at Pittsburg State University and an MFA in creative writing from Wichita State University. She taught high school English and Journalism in Winfield, Kansas for nine years, and taught English composition at Butler Community College until her retirement in 2009.

Diane’s passion was poetry, though she confessed that she never wrote a poem before she reached middle age. She has written hundreds of poems; many have been published in various journals, and her awards include the American Academy of Poets Award.  In 2018, The Sad Joy of Leaving, her first book of poetry, was published by Blue Cedar Press, followed in 2019 by a second book, First, the Reflexion. She has been co-editor of “365”, an anthology of poetry from people who dedicate to write a poem a day for 365 days.

Diane first became a member of Kanas Authors Club in 2014, as did I. She became President of District 5 in 2017 and continued through 2019, including chairing the Convention Committee for the 2019 Convention in Wichita hosted by District 5. I served as District 5 secretary under Diane, and succeeded her as President of D5 when she retired at the end of 2019, and also helped to co-chair the Convention Committee when Diane’s health declined. She also had been the State Awards Chairperson from 2015-2020.

Diane gave of her time and talents freely to Kansas Authors Club, and still continued to strive for her own writing best. She was an encouraging and enthusiastic mentor and she will be greatly missed by all of us. I am so glad that she was able to be aware when her son, Geoffry presented this Award of Service to her.

Presented by Connie Rae White, D5 President