Seven members and one guest attended The Beanery Writers Group meeting on February 23. The Trib-Review didn’t publicize our meeting this week----I’m not sure what their policy is, but I sent the notice in to be publicized through March. Joe posted a flyer on the bulletin board on the Ligonier diamond and we received a call from a neighbor of mine. I haven’t yet signed our E-mail site up for subscriptions. I’ll do so before the next meeting. I appreciated the help critiquing my article at the last meeting. It is finally complete. I mailed the pictures in last night. I had to write “around” some of the sidebars since Bob Mendler has been in a lot of pain from his knee surgery and I couldn’t get to his house to get the pictures I really wanted to use. Pat submitted a Valentine’s day piece (the best and worst Valentine’s day) to a newspaper. The editor misunderstood what she said and put that misunderstanding in quotes, and she’s not too happy with that. She talked to the editor, who pulled out her notes, and said she assumed the items her husband gave her for Valentine’s day one year were freebies. The editor continued to say running corrections by an editor were only done in cases of major importance. Pat “Googled” and found her letter printed online, on the newspaper website, and it will be there for a long time. The editor said it wouldn’t be corrected. Pat said the editor was friendly and easy to work with. Pat also learned she had an honorable mention in a cartoon caption contest at the same paper. Pat is concerned that whatever she submits there seems to be problems. Another newspaper uses the name Pat, not her writing name, Patricia that is on her portfolio, but she isn’t going to do anything about it because she received good because she received good publicity. She noted that she’d heard writers must be careful how they criticize editors because editors are a small circle of people who talk to each other (and can blackball a writer). I said Lois and I attended the Ligonier Valley Writer’s Hot Dog Fest and I showed a humorous picture I’d composed of Sal S’s husband and I. I announced the beanerywriters blog has not only moved into number one position on our blogsite, but has passed our closest competitor by almost 1100 hits. Our count to date is 14,000 hits, and our average “circulation” has risen from 60 in the fall to 96.6 in January to 133 currently. I told the group the next goal is a circulation of 200 hits a day, and I’m researching ways to increase blog traffic. I’ll bring the results to one of the March meetings. It could turn into an article. The blog site had problems that are mostly fixed. The Open Hands Ministries (United Methodist Churches) website is posting daily Lenten devotions. I emailed everyone to ask if we should piggy-back on them by adding an extra post each day during Lent---a freebie to us. I’ve gotten two favorable responses, but am open for discussion. Do you want to continue doing this? All agreed. Our next meeting is our one-year anniversary. George D. Shuman, author of 18 Seconds, will speak with us at 2:00 p.m. We voted to pay for his refreshment and purchase a copy of his book for the Indiana Library (Hempfield Library, Greensburg, has copies of his book. The Ligonier Valley Library has four copies---three were out when Joe asked them about it, and he has the fourth copy). My hat was passed and $26 was counted by Sal S. for this purpose. The owner of the Coffee Bean Café appreciates our positive, respectful patronage and we resolved the issue of the room fee. While exploring the Internet to research ways to increase blog traffic I discovered homeschool students blog a lot. I came up with an idea: a writing contest for county home school students, perhaps tie it in with a Laurel Highlands theme: history of the Lincoln Highway Corridor (we could ask director Olga Herbert if they would co-sponsor the competition). The Ligonier Valley Writers group is sponsoring a Murder Mystery Workshop at Greensburg Hempfield Library Feb. 24. On March 25 Ed Kelemen will direct a Police Procedures for Writers workshop, 3-5 p.m., at St. Michael’s Church in Rector. Visit their web site: www.ligoniervalleywriters.org for further information. Items for critique were handed out and read by Joe (The Night We Almost Saw Bigfoot) and Carolyn (The Bubble Ride). Pat, Sal S. and Kathleen brought items in to share. Sal S. is involved mainly in local history. She’s done a photo history of Ligonier and a history of her church. Another project she was working on was replaced by a building project. She shared a piece from a book titled Finding Water. It speaks of having artist’s dates, time taken just to appreciate different arts, which add refreshment and enrichment to the writer’s life. Attending our group was her “artist’s date” for this week. She stated she never met a bookstore she didn’t like. Kathleen read a poem about the children’s poems I shared with the group several meetings ago before burning them. She then read a poem she wrote about the recent snow and ice storm. Pat shared a poem written by her 15-year old granddaughter, and said she has three grandchildren writing now. Claudette shared a picture of a snow sculpture from a contest in Northern Maine in the 1960s. Joe chose the prompt Since no one wrote on the prompt Joe handed out at the last meeting, he passed it out again. We wrote eight minutes and shared the results. Meeting was adjourned at 3:01 p.m. Carolyn | 
