12:00 Noon Break

1:00 Meeting

May's speaker will be
Susan Kirkpatrick

2:00 Business Meeting

May 24, 2008

Susan Kirkpatrick, editor of Ozarks Magazine and author of Route 66,
the Highway and its People, will speak on "Right Brain or Left
Brain? The Writer' Dilemma."

Susan's credits include being a reporter for the Springfield news-
paper in the 1970's (Susan Croce Kelly) and in St. Louis and Chicago.
She worked in Belgium and England and had her own business in
Houston with Shell Oil, Hearst Magazines and American Medical
Association as clients. Kirkpatrick has also written annual reports,
textbook chapters and dozens of freelance articles.

As a reporter in Springfield, her favorite job ever was the result
of being ordered to stay out of town, so she traveled the Ozarks,
met wonderful people and wrote stories about the surrounding area.
That job brought her and her husband back to the Lake of the Ozarks
area (where childhood summers were spent with her grandparents) and
she founded Ozarks Magazine. She loves being a magazine editor and
works under the belief that no matter what it is, "There's always a
story to tell."

April 26, 2008

Mike Strain's, topic was: "Screen Writing - Writing a Motion
Picture from Idea to Shooting Script."

Springfield native, film maker and special effects artist, Mike,
grew up on a staple of 1970's movies, comic books, science fiction,
action and horror, 1940's and 50's music and TV shows and applied
those interests to art and videography. He drew his own comic books,
made 16mm short and animated films and shot his own effects-filled
amateur films throughout the late 70's and early 80's.

In his teens, Mike formed a special effects company, Fantasy
Creations FX and created a mobile home commercial, then worked on
the television show, "Rescue 911," at age 18. In 1994 Mike created
special effects and pyrotechnics for the motion picture, Sinistre,
AKA Sinyster. He has also created FX for over 30 feature motion
pictures including Albino Farm and Saving Grace B. Jones.

A motion picture/video production company, Oaktree Studios, was
founded in 1994. Mike co-wrote a screen play, Vile 21, based on his
short story written in high school. Other feature-length, live-
action movies include: Mystery Monsters & Magic, Until Sunrise,
Hotel of Terror and Best of Friends.

In 2002, Mike founded and is president of the CINEmerge Entertainment
Group, an outlet for local and independent film and video makers for
support and education with workshops taught by professionals, crews
and actors, and the annual film and video festival. He also founded
a world-wide distribution company, Royal Oaks Film and Video.

Mike and his wife, Lily and son, Madison, live in the Willard area.

March 22, 2008

Sarah Overstreet is a graduate of Willard High School and Missouri
State University where she majored in English education and minored
in art. She was a reporter and columnist at the then Springfield
Daily News from 1979-1987, then a consumer reporter for KSPR-TV,
and the Public Access Coordinator and talk-show host at TeleCable.

As syndicated newspaper columnist for United Media, she founded
the Southwest Missouri Speakers Bureau in 1990, then returned to
the News-Leader in 1994 as associate editorial page editor and is
presently a columnist.

Overstreet has a children's personalized book business, "My Own Books."

February 23, 2008

Maryellen Stratmann grew up in Cleveland, and graduated Summa Cum
Laude from Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio, and later
received a M.D. from Case-Western Reserve University School of
Medicine. Her internship, residency and fellowship were at Washington
University/Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, and she is also Board
Certified in Diagnostic and Nuclear Radiology. She is currently
an adjunct professor at Drury University, teaching in the On-Line
Education Department and is a member of the Board of Directors of
Ozarks Marriage Matters.

Maryellen's first publication was a poem in a neighborhood paper. She
was editor of her college newspaper and has since co-authored twelve
articles in medical journals.

Henry Stratmann grew up in East St. Louis, Illinois, and graduated
Summa Cum Laude from St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. He
received a M.D. from Southern Illinois University, Springfield,
Illinois.

Henry's career includes being Professor of Medicine, Director of
various VA Medical Centers, Acting Chief, Department of Cardiology
in St. Louis, and he is currently a Cardiovascular Specialist at St.
John's Hospital Regional Health Center, with experience also in
nuclear cardiology and tomography.

Henry is a member of myriad professional organizations and has
written numerous grants and articles in research and other medical
publications. Henry is a life member of the Science Fiction Writers
of America and his short stories have appeared in Analog Science
Fiction and Fact Magazine.

Maryellen and Henry met through a personal ad in The Riverfront
Times in St. Louis, married in 1984, and have two teenage sons
(one of whom has two books of his own) You can visit their website
at www.ozarksmarriagematters.org.

January 26, 2008

Suzann Ledbetter is a gifted humorist, columnist for Family Circle
magazine and author of two humorous books, The Toast Always Lands
Jelly-Side Down and Other Tales of Suburban Life and I Have
Everything I Had Twenty Years Ago, Except Now It's All Lower. Non-
Fiction books include Shady Ladies - 19 Surprising and Rebellious
American Women and Nellie Cashman - Prospector and Trailblazer.
Fifteen fiction books include Once a Thief, West of Bliss, North
of Clever, South of Sanity, East of Peculiar, Halfway to Half Way,
Klondike Fever, Deliverance Drive and Redemption Trail.

Suzann, her husband, Dave, three greyhounds and two cats live in
Nixa, Missouri.

November 24, 2007

Marilyn K.Smith's topic was "Feature Articles and a Bit More." Smith's
Letters to the Editor and reminiscent articles in the Springfield News-
Leader thirty years ago preceded her weekly column, "A Tale or Two" for
the Buffalo Reflex starting in 1986, followed by columns in Fair Grove
Heritage and Marshfield Mail. Smith has published articles in the Ozarks
Mountaineer, Springfield! Magazine, Ozarks Watch, Reminisce, Ozarks
Senior Living, The Possom Trot Quarterly, Hodgepodge, Golden Words,
Geniis at Work, Every Day is Father's Day and numerous others.

Smith's non-fiction manuscript, From the Middle of the Road, the History
of Highway 65, is in the final stages of editing, and she is also writing
a book on the history of Fair Grove, Missouri, near where she and her
husband, Terry, reside. Smith is also the secretary of the Fair Grove
Historical and Preservation Society, which sponsors the annual Fair Grove
Heritage Reunion Arts and Crafts Show on the grounds of the Fair Grove
Wommack Mill.

Wayne Warner's topic was, "Some Things I Have Learned in Researching."
Wayne is the retired Director of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage
Center (formerly Assemblies of God Archives) in Springfield, a position
he held for 25 years. Warner has published numerous materials in
periodicals, journals and non-fiction books. Several of his books are
in foreign languages. His latest book, Maria Woodworth-Etter: For Such
a Time as This, is the 2006 Missouri Writers' Guild first place winner
for non-fiction. Warner and his wife, Pat, live in Springfield..

October 27, 2007

Larry Cunningham spoke about the basic principles of and structural
differences among SHORT STORIES, ESSAYS, ARTICLES and NOVELS. Larry
promised, "Handouts, while perhaps not falling like snowflakes, will at
least be in the offing, and you can doodle on them." He adds, "You may
or may not benefit from being present, depending on your attitude, how
well you slept, and whether or not someone yelled at you, however, the
opportunity to scoff and/or raise your voice in derision may never again
be so ridiculously easy."

From his own self-deprecating bio information:
"Larry, among other things (some best left unsaid) is a retired Marine, a
retired cattle rancher, a retired high school teacher, and presently ranks
high in the ranks of full-fledged writing wannabes. However (once again),
he understands better than most beginning writers what it takes to
succeed, if for no other reason than he is a man of great experience, if
you count as experience the practice of making the mistakes (repeatedly)
that ensure the probability of staving off success. He speaks with great
authority (a useful habit picked up in the Marine Corps to cover himself
in situations that caught him unprepared)."

September 22, 2007

Louise A. Jackson's topic was, "How and What to Write for Youth."
Jackson is the author of four novels: Exiled! From Tragedy to Triumph on
the Missouri Frontier; Gone To Texas: From Virginia to Adventure; Grandpa
Had a Windmill, Grandma Had a Churn and Over on the River. Articles have
been published in The Reading Teacher, Language Arts, Journal of the West,
and Roundup.

Jackson gives presentations to children and youth in schools and libraries
and practical in-service sessions with teachers and librarians. She was an
elementary classroom teacher, special reading teacher, and university
professor of reading and language arts.

A fifth-generation Texan, Jackson grew up on the family ranch in Central
Texas, where she and her younger brother climbed trees, rode horses, and
raised orphan goats and calves. She now lives in Springfield with her
husband, Don and likes to read, write, garden, hike and travel. She has
been to most of the U.S. and to parts of Canada, Mexico, Western Europe
and Argentina.

August 25, 2007

Using her topic, "The 12 P's to Publishing Prose," Sylvia Forbes explained
tips for finding new markets for your work and told how to polish that
all-important query.

Forbes is a full-time freelance writer from Fayette, Missouri. Her wide-
ranging interests have led her to publish articles on everything from
Arizona dude ranches and Italian art to the local police report. She has
published over 300 non-fiction articles in AAA Midwest Traveler, St.
Louis Post-Dispatch, Herb Quarterly, Missouri Life, Illinois Magazine,
Grit, Outdoor Guide Magazine, Columbia Home & Lifestyle, Mid-Missouri
Mature Living, Jefferson City Business Times, The Columbia Tribune, and
a variety of other publications and websites. She currently serves on
the state Literary Panel for the Missouri Arts Council.

In 2005, Sylvia founded a publishing company, Snowflake Press, and
annually publishes the Bylines Writer's Desk Calendar, a weekly planner
for writers.

July 28, 2007
Dr. Robert Bradley spoke on, "A Director Looks at Playwriting.
He is the retired head of the SMSU theatre department.

"Dr. Bradley has directed over 150 productions, including Blithe Spirit,
The Pirates of Penzance and others for SMSU (now MSU) where he spent 39
years on the faculty, 31 years as theatre department head. He is the
lecturer/interviewer for the television course of Introduction to Theatre
on telecable channel 24 and KOZK channel 21. He is also associated with
the Vandivort Center Theatre where he directed Nine, the Musical, Man of
La Mancha, A New Brain and others.

June 23, 2007
The News-Leader's health and medical reporter, Kathleen O'Dell spoke on
"Fiction Techniques Used in Non-Fiction Newspaper Stories."

O'Dell has a bachelor of journalism from the University of Missouri. She
joined the Springfield Daily News in 1977, then worked on the USA Today
staff in Washington, D.C. for a couple of years, which were highlighted by
interviewing former President Jimmy Carter and meeting President Ronald
Reagan. She returned to the News-Leader in 1984 and has since worked
as a reporter, copy editor, education writer, projects writer and city
editor. She is also working a new mini-beat, "Lake Life."

O'Dell has won writing awards from the Missouri Press Association, Gannett
Company, Associated Press, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Salute to
Health Care, and National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, among others.

She is a St. Louis native and attended Catholic grade school and public
high school, where she was co-editor of the school paper. She and her
husband, Jim, live in Springfield where their two daughters attend Drury
University.