State Newsletter
Spring/Summer 2022
Inside This Issue Promoting Your Work 1 Notes from the Desk of the President 2 Reflections on My Presidency
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Member News 4 Supporting Others
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Live Events Returning
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How My Novel The Potters Wheel Came to Be 5 More Member News
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Selling Books with Your Friends
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Contest Issue
Promoting Your Work by Deb Irsik District 2 Co-Chair In today’s world of self-publishing and traditional publishing self-promotion is a must. I have recently been looking for publishers for a full-length poetry book and have found that every publisher wants you to have a self-promotion plan. Every author should have an easily accessible web page, a profile on Author Central for Amazon, a Goodreads account, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter presence. We are our own advocate. Talking to our peers and like-minded
writing friends will help us to find our promotional footing. Attend your KAC district events and any other opportunities to get your books seen. Make sure your local bookstores and libraries have a copy and schools if the book is appropriate for the audience. There are many areas where I fall short in promoting my book. Ask fellow writers how and where they promote and tag along. We can help one another. KAC can help you promote your work. Please see Submit News under News for Members on our website.
Kansas Authors Club State Newsletter would have been easy to shut the doors until things returned to “normal.” Duane did not do that, and leaders such as Jim Potter, President of District 6, quickly pivoted and started looking at ways to continue programing through a pandemic. What we have gained from this time is, quite frankly, action on discussions that have taken place at the state level for years. How do we involve writers from across the state in our workshops? How do we reach the far corners of our state, the rural members, members of all ages and physical abilities?
Notes from the Desk of the President by Tracy Millon Simmons Kansas Authors Club President Membership Survey I would like to thank the 52 individuals who took the time to complete our membership survey. Those who answered represent approximately 16% of our membership. Though it is a small sample, it is the most comprehensive response we have gotten from our membership in the 20+ years that I have been a member. Reading the comments from the survey got me to thinking about what makes a person join an organization, what encourages them to stay, and what pushes them to go. Our survey likely reflects the thoughts of our most currently active members and those who will emerge as leaders in the near future. Though I would love to have heard from more members, I am content with the constructive criticism and many thoughtful comments collected. There are many good take-aways to be put to use from this survey. . How to Keep Up on News and Activities of Kansas Authors Club The last two years have pushed our organization to embrace new ways of gathering. Though it is not what Duane Johnson envisioned for his term of office, I am thankful that we had his leadership as we were plunged into the era of social distancing and virtual meetings. It
Now that we have added virtual conferencing to our arsenal of tools, we continue to strive to master it. Technology means new and additional roles for volunteers in our organization, and new and additional requirements for the venues where we determine to hold those meetings. Those who are taking on the roles of administrators for Zoom accounts and virtual connections for in-person meetings should be applauded. There is no denying the frustration caused by unstable internet connections, sound equipment malfunctions, and Zoom rooms that (inexplicably) won’t allow entrance. But let’s remember that there are people on the other end of these issues and difficulties, giving the gift of their time to try to make things better for all of us. Your patience is appreciated. Your support is crucial. One benefit of virtual and hybrid meetings is that the door has been opened for true state-wide (and beyond) participation in our meetings and workshops. Looking at the Kansas Authors Club calendar might be a little overwhelming to some. You can participate in an online read-around on a Tuesday night and fill at least three Saturdays listening to speakers (in person
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Spring/Summer 2022 - Contest Issue
Reflections on My Presidency
or virtually) from across the state. That’s a lot of meetings! And we all know we should be reserving more time for writing, right? The “Current News Feed” of the state website is the best place to go for member news, book announcements, and meeting invitations. Individual districts connect with members via email, google groups lists, Facebook groups, and more. If you are NOT getting updates and need help figuring out why, please reach out to your district president or contact me and we will make sure you are on the appropriate list for getting announcements.
by Duane R. Johnson Former KAC President I enjoyed and found satisfaction in serving as Kansas Authors Club’s president during the past two years. At the same time, I’ve enjoyed the first two months of this new year sitting in on various Zoom meetings, free from any KAC responsibilities. Each day, I’m impressed with the energy and talent of the volunteers who continue to improve Kansas Authors Club. I believe we made progress during the last two years, a time that required us to make transitions. I was lucky to have Tracy Million Simmons providing advice and perspective, while she worked at a thousand different tasks. All of us are fortunate to have Tracy at the helm now. With the changes to our constitution and other adjustments we’ve made at the state level, the impressive leadership and energy I see at the district level, and the crack team of volunteers that has developed our Website into something to be envied by other writers groups, the future of Kansas Authors Club looks bright.
Making the Most of Your Kansas Authors Club Membership Writing is not a passive activity. It requires time and dedication. It requires exploration of technique and practice, practice, practice. But just as there is no one way to write a poem, a novel, an essay—there is no one way to BE a Kansas Authors Club member. If your goal is simply to attach your name to an organization with more than 100 years of history, we welcome you. If your goal is to get published for the first time, our annual yearbook might be a fine place to start. If your goal is to hobnob and rub elbows with other creative spirits, you will find them aplenty in this organization. If your goal is to find a writing friend, an accountability buddy, a critique group, the connections you make as a member should help. It is my goal to reach out to members monthly with notes about making the most of your membership. These notes will be posted on our website. If you would prefer to receive my messages directly to your email inbox, please contact me at kansasauthorsclub@ gmail.com.
Link to the full member survey:
Much love and good writing— Tracy Million Simmons Kansas Authors Club President, 2022 and Transitional Manager*
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lE9TXpTHewhiSPP1WSF2oitUneGXqcTC/view?usp=sharing
*What is a Transitional Manager? Under “News for All Members” select sub-menu item “2022 Transitional Bylaws” https://www.kansasauthorsclub.org/2022-transitional-bylaws.html 3
Kansas Authors Club State Newsletter gest that your local library subscribe to 105MeadowlarkReader, a Kansas Journal of Creative Nonfiction. You might start by directing them to the website, https://www.105meadowlarkreader.com/ An even better approach would be to offer for their perusal an issue of the journal. In deciding to subscribe, the Olathe Library viewed the journal as a great addition to their offerings. “The personal stories from people in local settings makes it a unique resource that we wouldn’t find available from our larger vendors.”
Member News Members of Kansas Authors Club are welcome to submit news and updates for publication. Please submit to kansasauthorsclubwebsite@gmail.com. Please include “KAC Member News” in the subject line.
Vicki Julian recently published her 4th anthology titled, It Wasn’t Funny Then. This book includes stories from “brave souls” who shared some of their most embarrassing or uncomfortable moments which they can now look back on and laugh, or at least not cringe as much! Stories were written anonymously, using initials, or actual names, and even include submissions from some Kansas Authors Club members. Vicki also wrote an article for the Amazing Aging quarterly newspaper titled, “Educated by Experience--a lesson on identity theft.” Amazing Aging is a periodical distributed in NE Kansas by Jayhawk AAA, and includes the Lawrence and Topeka areas (Douglas and Shawnee Counties). Warren Ashworth and Susan Kander read at the Newton Public Library on January 28. More readings are planned for April, across the state. The authors will read passages from We, the House. The book begins in 1878 in the frontier town of Newton on the Kansas prairie. There a battered Civil War Union veteran builds his new wife her dream house, an Italianate glory she names Ambleside who tells this story. Soon an early American portrait of Mrs. Simon Peale arrives from Hartford, Connecticut to dignify the dining room wall. She can hear and see what goes on inside the house. He can see what occurs outside. Each is isolated and alone until the portrait’s existential yelp causes house and painting to discover each other, Ambleside is a perfect ‘tabula rasa,’ almost literally born yesterday, and Mrs. Peale is a devastated young widow, a starchy professor of Latin, who has been dead since 1841
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Live Events Returning by Curtis Becker Newletter Editor The COVID-19 Pandemic necessitated a change in the way we gathered and enjoyed words. We attended readings on Zoom! Now, with numbers waning, live, in-person events are making a comeback. On Saturday March 5, 2022, Former Kansas Poet Laureate and District 2 member, Kevin Rabas shared words and music with a group at The Emporia Public Library. Rabas read from is many books, played music on his drums, and answered questions about his craft from those assembled in the library’s conference room.
Supporting Others by Peg Nichols District 2 A frequent discussion theme among writers is how we can help promote other writers’ work. An easy way to promote a lot of Kansas writers would be to sug4
Spring/Summer 2022 - Contest Issue acters drawn from actual persons I’d encountered in Hollywood’s street scene: a true femme fatale, a draft-dodging night wanderer, a free-living libertine pottery student, a barren “mother earth” figure. All woven into a midwestern youth’s struggles coming of age in an alien world far removed from his rural roots. And some elements of the plot were spun from actual events I’d undergone, such as barely avoiding being shot in the head when viewing a street riot from my hotel window. Following the completion of the first draft of the novel, which had been done mostly during one college semester, Professor Wyrick and I had decided the voice needed refining and so began a four-year endeavor to virtually translate my main character’s telling into a more stylistic midwestern vernacular as well as flesh out some parts of the narrative. Fortunately, I was housesitting for a journalist friend at the time and therefore could manage to live frugally, akin to the starving artist stereotype. The first forays into marketing the novel brought encouraging responses and almost an acceptance by Bantam. But, as they say, no cigar. And over time the opportunities seem to diminish. I moved to Kansas City, secured a position as a library information specialist and began associating with other writers in the area. The novel then became shifted to a back shelf as I pursued other writing interests. It was when I claimed early retirement from the library and spent one winter “snowbirding” in Boulder City, Nevada, in 1999, that I took up the novel once more and decided to make one further major revision. It had been written from the beginning in the first-person point of view; I decided to convert the entire narrative into third-person limited. And, indeed, that seemed to snap the work into a far more pleasing aesthetic distance. So, upon my return to Kansas City, I began attempting to market the novel once more. Years passed while I engaged in numerous activities with the writing community, but without any discernable progress in placing The Potter’s Wheel with a publisher. I had already published four other books (a scholarly monograph, a co-authored memoir, a co-oppublished fiction/poetry collection, and a blog series) when finally, by the grace of the angels, I obtained an
How My Novel The Potter’s Wheel Came to Be by Mark Scheel District 2 The year was 1967 when I graduated from the University of Kansas, didn’t pass the military draft physical, ran out of money job-hunting in Denver, and “crashed” on an old college chum working in a funeral home near San Francisco. When the owner of the funeral home insisted I wasn’t welcome to freeload there, I hopped a bus to LA and landed in Hollywood, securing a menial job in a low-rent hotel chain. That was the beginning of a summer of exuberant adventure amid the now historically famous “summer of love,” an experience that gifted me the grist for a novel, but also almost cost me my life. In 1975, following my service with the American Red Cross overseas, I’d returned home to Emporia, Kansas, to assist with the care of my ailing mother, and decided then was the time to commence writing that novel. I titled it The Potter’s Wheel, taken from a shop of the same name I’d frequented on Hollywood Boulevard during that California odyssey after college. I enrolled in literature and writing classes at what is now Emporia State University, was granted a teaching assistantship and began the novel manuscript as an independent study in graduate school. The director of my project was an English professor named Green D. Wyrick, a knowledgeable fellow who had two novels himself in the rough draft but was also an incorrigible alcoholic. Thus, by happenstance, I became acquainted with some colorful members of the local AA group, one being Fr. John Kumli, an amazingly accomplished “priest poet” and master of the sonnet sequence. Over time we formed a writers’ critique group, providing helpful insight during my novel’s revision process as well as life anecdotes for my future literary material. I had populated my manuscript with many char5
Kansas Authors Club State Newsletter agent, Stephanie Hansen of Metamorphosis Literary Agency, who brokered two more books—a novella and a poetry collection—into print. And then another miraculous circumstance came about. I saw an announcement on LinkedIn about a blog site titled The Writers Journey Blog sponsored by Elaine Marie Carnegie-Padgett. I commented below her post, she and I connected, she accepted an essay about my career for a guest blog post. That, in turn, through her introduction, led to a sprawling new network of writers associated with a site called Sweetycat Press Facebook Group sponsored by the esteemed story writer Steven Carr. He accepted my application for membership there, and my writing began appearing in numerous anthologies and reference works he edited and produced. It soon came to my attention that a number of writers in the group had books published by a press in the UK named Clarendon House Publications, founded by the writer and educator Grant Hudson. I researched it and queried Mr. Hudson. He invited me to submit information about my novel into the house application form, which was quite thorough and detailed, for a rigorous vetting and appraisal. I did so, and, lo and behold, it passed muster and Grant agreed to read the manuscript and thereafter offered me publication! I was nearly numb with amazement that, after over 40 years of rejections, my beloved tale of sixties Hollywood and the farm youth caught up in its frenetic lifestream had found a home! I contacted Stephanie to handle the contract arrangements and it was a done deal. The Potter’s Wheel launched at the end of last August. Now, in conclusion, I’d like to offer an observation for any aspiring writers about the literary scene today, and how it’s changed since the advent of the internet and POD publishing. It would seem we now find a bifurcated world with books and writers and the 4,000 new titles appearing daily. Some lucky few inhabit the rarefied air of The New York Times Book Review, major New York publishing houses, New York agents and publicists and, with their MFAs and some literary award or other, are profiled in Poets & Writers Magazine. Then there are those who have studied the craft, joined critique groups, honed their efforts, and perse-
vered to produce comparable work to that found on the “bestseller lists,” but never got that lucky break to hit the big time and gain national exposure. It is for them that heroes like Elaine Marie Carnegie-Padgett, Steven Carr, and Grant Hudson have stepped forward to permit those struggling aspirants a deserved little taste of publication heaven. And they have more of my admiration and respect than I can put into words! I am honored and delighted that Grant Hudson has profiled my writing career in Clarendon House Publication’s Inner Circle Writers’ Magazine and featured my photo on the cover as well as details within about The Potter’s Wheel.
Supporting Others continued from page 4 I would guess that the reason more libraries haven’t subscribed is because they simply are not aware of the publication. In encouraging them to subscribe you would be supporting the work of your colleagues -- and also helping libraries provide the reading public some entertaining information about Kansas life. 6
Spring/Summer 2022 - Contest Issue
Recognizing our Top New Member Recruiters in 2021
Selling Books with Your Friends by Curtis Becker Newletter Editor One of the great benefits of belonging to a group like Kansas Authors Club is networking. Recently, members of District 2 were able to come together at the Flint Hills Mall in Emporia to celebrate Read Accross America and sell books. Having booths together leads to a great day with literary socialization. Ann Anderson, Lindsey Bartlett, Curtis Becker, Mike Graves, Hazel Hart, Kerry Moyer, Tracy Million Simmons, and Cheryl Unruh were in attendance.
There was a lot of activity in new member recruitment this year with 15 members being mentioned as the reason new members joined, as well as five new members brought in via 2021 Convention registration. For most new members recruited, three a piece, we have a tie. Gretchen Eick, from District 5, was listed by three new members as “recommended by.” Gretchen also served as D5 Vice President and was largely responsible for a tremendous lineup of speakers for District 5 in 2021. As well, Gretchen served on the Committee to Restructure, appointed by President Duane Johnson. Tying for first place in the new member recruitment department was Jared Vaughn, a new member in 2021 himself! Jared was invited to membership by D6 President, Jim Potter, and then was responsible for three additional members on our roles. Thanks to Gretchen and Jared for talking us up and getting new members to join our organization. Thanks also to the following members for sharing the love of Kansas Authors Club: Linda Brower, Cathy Callen, Maureen Carroll, Ronda Miller, Kristine Polansky, Jim Potter, Thea Rademacher, Julie Sellers, Anne Shiever, Tracy Million Simmons, Sandra Taylor, Cheryl Unruh, Connie White, and Gloria Zachgo.
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Jared Vaughn
Gretchen Eick
Kansas Authors Club P.O. Box 333 Emporia, KS 66801