Kaye's work goes international

Kaye's short story, "Candle Garden" -- which is also being used as the basis for an art installation by artist Melissa Duckworth come the end of the year -- will be published in India's Taj Mahal Review. The magazine is only in print and is available only in India, or through their website via Paypal. The piece will appear in the June 2007 issue.

Jen gets a new writing post!

Jen Connic has been named senior web producer for the Herald News in New
Jersey. Their offices are based in West Patterson, and they cover all
of Passaic County and a portion of Bergen County. They are the sister
paper of The Bergen Record.

Congratulations, Jen! Her start date is June 19.

Pencils! Points: May 8, 2007

Hello, gang! Another great, in-depth meeting last night, and great to see some familiar faces, Vance, Kathryn, and Shirley! It was terrific to see everybody.

Anyway, here's our Pencils! Points for Tuesday, May 8, 2007!

1. Jerry opened with his newest short story, "The Plan," a fun little delve into some noir. "The Renaldi Funeral Home had been their forbidden playground for most of those early years, when they would sneak in and dare each other to touch various parts of the corpses."

2. Henderson continued to entertain us with more of The Eight-Fold Way, and lively discussion ensued.

"I recoiled a bit, surprise flashing and receding. A sunrise pattern spread up Blue's face, and she giggled. Then laughing colors splashed across her bare arms."

3. Dave, who will be leaving us to go off to the prestigious Odyssey Fantasy Workshop for six weeks, presented the first half of a story with a Lovecraftian bent called "The Ones Who Listen." "Bad luck for him I had the tire iron sitting right there. But I probably did him a favor, considering. After you saw the towers fall, didn't you think, OK, now the rest of my life is going to suck?"

4. Lastly, Roger rejoined us from his travels with Chapters 13 and 14 of How My Retirement Went South. From "No Child Left Behind": "As reported in the April, 2005 issue of Creative Loafing, the county "graduation rate is only 53.7 percent. Of the freshmen that started four years before, 53.7 percent graduated, 21 percent left the county school district, 4 percent remained active students but lacked the credits to graduate, and 22 percent dropped out."

We also got tons of wonderful announcement news from members, both at the meeting and through e-mail.

Have a magical couple of weeks. We'll see you all on May 22!

Arun to speak this Thursday at Stamford Chamber

This Thursday (May 10), Arun will be presenting a seminar at the Stamford Chamber of Commerce entitled "How to Advertise Your Small Business." He will "show small businesses how to make their advertising rise above the competitive noise." The seminar is for members of the Stamford Chamber only. Arun will cover how to:

• Plan an advertising strategy;
• Create persuasive messages for various media;
• Make the best use of your marketing dollars.

Go, Arun!! For all the new members who haven't had a chance to meet him, he's a true fireball of inspiration. If you've known him for years, well--you know what I mean!

Vance named to Honor Society

Vance was named to the English Honor Society at Sacred Heart University, where he is just a few credits away from his Bachelor's degree. Rock and roll, Vance!

Mike gets great news and columns in Greenwich Time

Mike has just returned from China, where he received notification that he was accepted into the State of Connecticut's Alternate Route to Teacher Certification program. This means that by the close of summer he'll be a fully certified high school English Teacher!! Due to the intensity of the nine-week program, he'll be on hiatus from Pencils! for the hot months. He has noted, however, he plans on returning in the Fall.

Below are links to the stories which were published in the Greenwich Time while he was in China.

Making music in China

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-a1ghsbandinchinaapr18,0,6004429.story

A Great Wall of GHS music

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-a1chinastoryapr20,0,271679.story

Dave off to the Odyssey Fantasy Workshop

Dave has been accepted to and will be attending the prestigious Odyssey Fantasy Workshop, held each year at Saint Anselm Colege in New Hampshire. This six-week course is not the easiest thing to get into, and Dave has done it. He leaves for his adventure shortly, and will be gone until the end of July.

I'd love to beam about this workshop here in e-mail (and on the blog site), but the website is chock-full of everything you'd want to know, so here it is:

http://www.sff.net/odyssey/

This is a wonderful and exciting opportunity for Dave and a credit to his skill as a writer. Let's all wish him the best!