Gems of Wisdom by Pat Marcantel

Do many of you save gems of wisdom from writers and/or artists? My own personal "gem" on writing is that it is so ingrained in my psyche that I have to do it. It doesn't matter if it's never published or even read by anyone else. I first wrote poems to my mom and dad and to my brother. Then I wrote letters to that same brother when he went off to war. And so the writing never stopped. Here are some gems that I've picked up along the way from writers far more prolific and talented than I will ever be.

"One of the questions a writer is most often asked is, 'Where do you get your ideas?' If a person does not have ideas, he or she better not even think of becoming a writer. But ideas are everywhere. The daily newspaper could keep you writing for years. Ideas are all about us, in the people we meet, the way we live, travel and how we think about things. It's important to remember that we are writing about people. Ideas are important only as they affect people. And we are writing about emotion. A few people reason, but all people feel."

"There are only a certain number of plots (as value patterns are limited) and they are very basic. A plot is nothing but a normal human situation that keeps arising again and again. Shakespeare's work has lived as long as it has because he dealt with normal human emotions such as envy, ambition, rivalry, love, hate, greed, and so on. These are basic drives among and are with us forever."

"Start writing, no matter what about. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on." ~ Louis L'Amour

Will Durant said: "A book is a friend that will do what no friend does--be silent when we wish to think."

And Gustave Flaubert said, "Talent is nothing but long patience."

A. H. Maslow: "...[we assume that] creativeness consists of lightning striking you on the head in one glorious moment. The fact that the people who create are good workers tends to be lost."

Last is Sidney Harris: "Self-discipline without talent can often achieve astounding results, whereas talent without self-discipline inevitably dooms itself to failure."

To wrap all of this up: Write because you want to, have to, care to, or just because. Become a people watcher and listener and a newspaper reader. Do not wait until lightning strikes you on the head to begin writing, turn the faucet on now. Develop patience and self-discipline in your writing and in your life.

Finish what you start. How many neglected, half (more or less) finished works do we have stashed in our poor computers, or languishing in notebooks stacked ever so neatly? Don't you dare lie and say, "Oh, I don't have any writing hanging around like that." I know I can't be the only one who has neglected children.

"Consider the postage stamp. Its usefulness consists of its ability to stick to one thing until it gets there." ~Henry Wheeler Shaw


Artist/Author Pat Marcantel can be found blogging and hanging out on Facebook and Twitter any day of the week. Her poetry and photographs can be found in Swamp Lily Review. She's the author of Oberlin: The First 100 Years. If you'd like a copy, contact Pat.

Choices by Georgia Downer

I submitted a short story for inclusion in a local library publication. Today I was asked to read the story at the yearly awards program. I agreed. I then remembered that all stories submitted are included in a bound collection of that year’s submissions.

Before I committed to the library, I intended to submit the story to several publications, all of which require “unpublished” material.

Do I honor the first submission and have it become published material or withdraw the story from the library contest and submit as “unpublished” to other sources?


Georgia Downer is BWG Treasurer. She writes essays and short fiction and has won prizes for her work. She's currently working on a novel.

Are You Telling The Truth or Writing Fiction? by Stanley L. Klemetson

As I sit at my computer on this cold winter evening in Orem, Utah, with the temperature outside at about 2 ⁰F and frozen snow on the ground, my mind travels back over my journey in this life. I have just finished reading ‘Turning Life into Fiction’ by Robin Hemley and I am preparing to write about my adventures either as fiction or as family history. Mr. Hemley said that “…most autobiographic books stretch the truth from time to time, exaggerating and bending events to fit the story or the characters.” He also says the most outlandish fiction stories often contain a bit of real life experiences.

Each of us has interesting stories that we would like to share with our grandchildren. Do we have a responsibility to record the events of our lives for our descendants in a diary or journal as we think they happened? Or do we leave our family with a few short accurate paragraphs about ourselves and then use everything else as fodder for fiction stories that they might enjoy reading more. But what is the truth we want to tell? Is it accurate? Tell a story of a time you shared with a spouse or a friend and then have that person retell the story. Is it the same story or does point of view impact the details of the story. And what if your version of the story does not speak in glowing terms about the other person?

On January 22nd I am taking a class from Dr. Delma Porter at McNeese on Creative Non-Fiction Writing. For that class I read the book ‘Bird by Bird’ by Anne Lamott. She talks about taking major events or small episodes from our lives and shaping or exaggerating things to capture what life felt like. This leads me to think about another way to present our life’s experiences, or at least use them as a basis for stories.

I have prepared long detailed lists of episodes that come together to form major events. It is tempting to include everything, ‘because it really happened,’ but that does not always make a very interesting story and even I have to ask, ‘is it believable.’ Are all of the people important to the story or would a composite person be better to convey the feeling of the story. I am currently writing stories loosely based upon real events, but with characters, dialogues, and time frames modified to convey the stories, conflicts and resolutions.

Should I write my stories at all or just use the characters, circumstances, and settings that I use to bring life into the stories. Once those elements are in place then I am just the recorder of the truthful stories of those characters. At a workshop I attended last summer with Orson Scott Card we were assigned to interview someone. My partner and I interviewed a women in a book store to gather details about her life that I could use as a starting point of my story. In my life and travels there are many other starting points for stories. Of course these would be pure fiction stories as compared to the stories based upon personal past experiences.

Since it is unlikely that I will ever make a living at writing I still enjoy writing for my family and I also enjoy seeing my name in print. It is a conflict that I will continue to have as I search to find out what is truth and what is fiction.

A Day To Remember by Stanley Klemetson

Bayou writers’ group conference,
A bridge to publication;
You were rewarded for your presence
On listening to their presentations,
Underdown, Goldstein and Coen

Words printed upon the page
Recorded for all to read;
Interesting stories to share,
Tall tales of fiction to hear,
Enthralled and entertained,
Relishing in the synergy,
Speakers energized us all.


Stanley Klemetson, Ph.D., is head of the Department of Engineering at McNeese State University. Most of his writing experience has been for technical publications and books. He served as editor for a college magazine and had previously worked with a publisher for a proposed text book on technical writing. One of his goals is to complete that task. Stan also serves on the Advisory Board for the Write to Excellence Center at McNeese and is taking a class on creative writing. He has started submitting works for contests and is currently working on several poems, short stories and a book.

NOTE: If you are interested in an evening critique group, contact Stan at
stanley.klemetson (at) gmail.com

Poetry Can, and Does, Matter by Jan Rider Newman

(Jan with poet Stella Nesanovich)

In an issue of the Atlantic in 1991 Dana Gioia asked: "Can Poetry Matter?" His article was the lead essay in his book Can Poetry Matter? Essays on Poetry and American Culture. If you have somehow or other missed that wonderful essay, please read it here. In summary, the answer is "Yes." Of course. It has to.

Speaking to a poet friend once, I wondered how people live without poetry. Many people, if asked, will probably answer, "Very well, thank you," but I think such an answer comes from lack of understanding what poetry, what all art, is about and is supposed to do for us.

Dana Gioia's philosophy of poetry, simply stated, is that it be accessible to everyone, not only college professors and intellectuals, but plumbers, farmers, homemakers, secretaries, and store clerks. Poetry won't get you out of debt -- ask a poet. A painting won't repair a troubled marriage. A novel won't keep a house out of foreclosure. One thing art will do is show us that we're not alone in our turbulent lives. Our feelings and our losses and gains aren't only our own. So often, if we bother to look, we see them in a poem like "The Lost Garden," a painting like "Girl with a Pearl Earring," or a novel like Cannery Row.

Art doesn't enrich our pocketbooks; it enriches us. I think more people used to understand that. Educators used to grasp and base their teaching on that concept, so that students were prepared not only for the job market, but for life.

The best poetry doesn't live in an ivory tower. Give it a chance, and you'll find out. If you pick up a poem and find it too deep or too dull, put it down and look elsewhere. It doesn't matter if you like Shakespeare or John Donne or Joyce Kilmer. Give poetry a try and see if you get what I'm saying, and what Dana Gioia said better than I.

Jan Rider Newman is a published author whose poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in the New Orleans Review, Louisiana Literature, Oasis Journal, Yellow Flag Press, and Sweet Tea and Afternoon Tales, a 2009 anthology. She earned an M.A. in English and an M.F.A. at McNeese State University. She is a contributor to The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog and owner/editor of Swamp Lily Review.

My First Author Visit (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)

I recently experienced my first author school visit. It was a day long visit in which I was asked to speak to students in grades three through eight. It was in conjunction with their book fair taking place on campus.

Now, being a teacher for over thirty years, you would think this would come to me naturally right? WRONG!! I stayed away from teaching students with raging hormones all these years for a reason. I tend to gravitate to the ages where you still seem smart in their eyes and because you are their teacher they love you.

I wasn’t expecting to be asked to be a visiting author this quickly, but it came and I took advantage of the opportunity. Since my book is on a lower level than jr. high students would be interested in, I knew I better add something to my presentation or I would lose them for sure. I came up with something and had it approved by the school’s librarian and one of the eighth grade teachers who happens to be a friend of mine. It was ready to go. Two days before, I found out the presentation time was half the amount of time I was first told. So back to the drawing board I went to chip away at my presentation.

The day of the visit began with an unexpected fire drill and a relocation of where I was to make the presentation. That didn’t bother me. That’s how things go at schools sometimes and I was used to that thank goodness. I was nervous when I first began but soon became comfortable with speaking and really enjoyed it. I changed the presentation some with each age group who came to hear me speak. Even the teenagers gave their attention to my presentation.(Yes!)
At the end of the day, I survived my first author visit. I felt pure elation. It was one more thing on my bucket list I could check off if I actually had one.

I know this won’t be my last author visit. I actually have another one scheduled next month. I am going back to the drawing board to make my visits even more hands on and appealing to the students. I better work on making that bucket list too!

Peggy Clement is the author of a newly released children’s chapter book, Queen of the Castle and contributing author to an anthology, It’s in the Gulf. She is a member of Bayou Writers’ Group and Golden Triangle Writer’s Guild. She resides in Lumberton, TX.

WHAT'S YOUR DREAM? by Sherry Perkins

Forget bustling New York, glamorous California, picturesque Oregon, breezy Oklahoma, or mountainous Colorado. Being born and reared here, I am totally committed to Louisiana; although, some say we are inbred. Since inbred actually means innate or natural, we are inbred from the time we are babies with certain characteristics like manners, graciousness, calmness, and a fiery gumption in our spirit.

Recently, I proudly and quietly displayed each trait. First, I sat in an audience for over an hour. I then stood in line for a long while, too. “Why?” you ask. I received an invitation for a Louisiana Veterans’ Medal from Governor Bobby Jindal, and this was my experience.

I showed my manners by attending although I did not know anyone there. I knew it would be rude not to go. Graciousness came next when I finally received my medal, met the governor, shook his hand, and said, “Thank you, Governor Jindal.” Although he is young, and is not a veteran, he is our governor and you should have seen the prideful eyes of the hundreds in attendance! It was a humbling and gracious experience.

Sitting alone without my husband, my mother, or any other family member, I watched and listened to the activities around me. Yes, it could have been nerve-wracking for anyone, but I quietly and calmly absorbed my surroundings. Not only had the governor’s presence humbled me; but also the presence of the younger veterans, the veterans from Vietnam, the Korean Conflict, and ultimately from World War II which almost overwhelmed me. Some World War II men had to be in their 90s! I had to be calm, or I would have exploded.

Speaking of exploding, most Southerners have a fiery gumption inside of us. Our determined spirits are a result of many different factors. I do not know if it comes from our ancestors’ fight in the lost cause of a Confederacy. Or, were they beaten down as they drifted further into despair in the Depression? From where did their grit come? As I approached the governor, proud thoughts of my deceased family members flooded my mind.

Had I not gone, I would have let them down. Had I chose to ignore the occasion I would have erased their efforts in the Civil War. I would have spit on their determination to survive the gloomy Depression. Ultimately, I went for my ancestors who could not go. I went for my ancestors who never had a chance to meet a governor. I went for my ancestors who never received a thank you for their service! Sometimes a thank you goes a long ways.

I would not trade living in Louisiana for any other place. Yes, we have manners. Yes, we have grace. Yes, we are a fun-loving, family-oriented, calm people. Mostly though, we have a determined iron will that runs deep in our souls.

For without determination we have no dreams. Everyone has a dream! Bobby Jindal dreamed of being governor. What is your dream?

Sherry Perkins has been published in magazines and newspapers across the state of Louisiana. Her article, Liberty, won Honorable Mention in the BWG Members Only contest. Sherry loves speaking to people, organizing, being supportive of others, and working hard. She recently tossed her hat in the ring for president of BWG.