Members present:  Ramona Burns, Lynn Crandall, HiDee Ekstrom, Nancy Purdy

Guest:  Mark Laughlin from www.smilepolitely.com

Correspondence:  HiDee shared a Christmas card from former member Eva Ridenour.  Eva’s next book Honeysuckle will be out in March 2009 from Wild Rose Press.

Old Business:

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  Contest  pages:  Ramona handed back contest entry pages with comments, and shared the score sheets so we could see how our scores compared.  We later took turns reading our contest entries and discussing where the ideas came from and where we are headed with them.


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  Newsletter:  Articles due to HiDee by January 31 for the January/February/March issue.  HiDee has an article from Robyn; Ramona will work on a history article, and Nancy will write a grammar column.  Lynn C. is signed up for the April/May/June issue.  Please sign up to write an article for 2009.


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  Market Research:  No updates.


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  Graphics update:  HiDee expects to have revised logo by mid-January.


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  Spring Retreat:  Tentatively scheduled for March 14 at Parkland.  HiDee has submitted request to Parkland for same facilities as last year.  Discussed ordering box lunches instead of getting meat/cheese trays.  Everyone could bring snacks and their own beverages.  More discussion to follow.

 New Business:

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  Writing updates:  Ramona has written Christmas poetry.  HiDee is working on 100 words for 100 days, journal style.  Nancy is trying to get her focus back on writing – will she kill Connor?  Lynn is working on the rough draft of her current manuscript in progress. 


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  Discussion:  The remainder of the meeting was spent talking with Mark and answering question about our group and about romance writing.

Next meeting:  February 14, 2009