MAY 2014 NEWSLETTER
Page 1
The Valley Byliners Meets Saturday, May 10
1:30 pm at the Harlingen Public Library,
410 “76 Drive, Harlingen, TX
Our speaker will be Richard Sanchez
“Unraveling the road to The Jelly Jar”
Richard Sanchez is a native of the Rio Grande Valley and
a creative writer from Edinburg, Texas. He is a graduate
of Pan American University and a Registered Nurse by
trade. A ghost writer for many years, Richard has
recently made his stories public and has now put one of
his collections in book form for your reading pleasure.
He has had much success in writing short stories as a
guest columnist for Texas Trophy Hunter’s Magazine.
He has also been published in Texas Fish & Game and in
the Electronic Magazine, Somos Primos, out of
Albuquerque, New Mexico. In local circles, Richard is a
member of Texas Rio Writers and has had his work
published in Valleysong, An Anthology Echoing the
Rhythm and Cadence of Life in the Rio Grande Valley.
He is also a member of the Nueva Onda Poets Society
and the Nameless Poets Organization.
Richard’s most recent publication is The Jelly Jar, a
collection of short stories.
The Election of Officers will be held at the May
meeting. Only members in good standing may
vote.
~~~~~~
The Nominees are:
President: Frank Cortazo
Vice President for Programs:
Ann Greenfield
Vice President for Public relations (and Newsletter
editor): No nomination received to date***
Treasurer: Jose Alvarez
Board member : Sue Groves
***I have decided not to continue as Newsletter Editor and V.P forPublic Relations after my present term expires at the May meeting. This is my last newsletter
MAY 2014 NEWSLETTER
Page 2
Sixty copies of the new Byliner anthology, The Rio
Grande: A River With A Thousand Tales is expected to arrive here on May 8, hopefully in time for the May 10 meeting. Each contributing author is entitled to one free copy of the book. The suggested retail price for the book is $16.95; member discount for each additional hard copy is $10. The anthology will also be available on Amazon's Kindle for $5.99. If you will be unable to attend the May 10 meeting to pick up your copy of the book, contact Don Clifford for alternate arrangements. ([email protected]) Congratulations to all our authors!
The Winner of the May Writing Challenge was:
“When Daphne Comes Back”...by Frank Cortazo
The other entries were:
“Cigarette Break” by Ann Greenfield
“Sundays with Pamina” by Jose Alvarez
"Blake’s Lake" by Judy Stevens
“What is Art?” by Marge Flados
“End of Childhood” by Susan Kerr
__________________________________
This Month’s Writing Challenge is Poetry Only Valley Byliners Members in good standing may
participate in the writing challenges! Send your Poem of not more than 60 lines to Edna
Ratliff by May 5 to:
Edna will re-send your entry, sans the author’s name,
to the membership.
Each member can cast his or her vote by sending an e-
mail to Edna or by voting in person at the Valley
Byliners meeting.
The winning author will receive $10.00.
Every third month the Writing Challenge accepts works
up to 4000 words in length. These months are:
March~~June~~September~~December
For the other months, the limit is 1500 words except for
May and November which are for poetry up to 60 lines
long.
The Line-up for future Writing Challenges:
January…….1500 words
February…...1500 word Childrens Story
March……...4000 words of Non-Fiction
April……….1500 words
May………..60 lines of Poetry
June……….4000 words
August…….1500 words
September...4000 word Mystery
October…...1500 words
November...60 lines of Poetry
December…4000 words _________________________________________
Don Clifford spearheaded this project. Frank Cortazo assisted in the editing. Verne Wheelwright polished up the pdf file for final review and publishing. Roger Young worked hard to get the cover just right. Our thanks for a job well done!
MAY 2014 NEWSLETTER
Page 3
Critiquing the Monthly Writing Challenge entries:
Any author who wishes his or her entry to be critiqued
must label his work “Critique invited.”
Anyone who would like to critique an entry can send
the critique to Edna Ratliff. Edna will forward the
critique to the author. Edna asks that the critiques be
sent to her no later than Wednesday of the week after
our meeting. She will forward the critique to the author
on the following day.
Critiquing is not mandatory and is at your discretion.
Sarah Book Society forming Don Clifford and Sue Groves have been invited to attend the Inaugural meeting of the Sarah Book Society. The Society will be a platform for marketing Sarah Book Publishing's books. This meeting will be held on May 17. Don or Sue may be reporting on this at the June meeting.
This Newsletter was created in MS Word and
saved in Word as a .doc file for working purposes
and as a .pdf file for email distribution.
The literary journal riverSedge is poised to
resume publication through the English
Department and MFA Program at the University
of Texas Pan American. With a 37-year history,
riverSedge has a proud past and, I hope, a
bright future publishing art and literature from
the best writers and artists today.
riverSedge is seeking the best unpublished
short fiction, poetry, scripts, art work, creative
nonfiction and graphic literature. Our editors
will consider work in Spanish and English and
anything in between.
We begin with contests in fiction and poetry
with one $1,000 prize in each category. All
submissions in these two categories will
automatically be entered in the contests.
Persons currently affiliated with UT Pan
American, UT Brownsville, and South Texas
College are barred from submitting to
riverSedge. Only submissions sent through the
online service, Submittable, will be considered.
Deadline for submissions is May 10, 2014.
Submission guidelines and instructions on how
to submit can be found
at https://riversedge.submittable.com/submit