Bearlodge Writers

January

January 26 - Pat Frolander presents cowboy poetry at the “Stars Shine and Dessert Spectacular,” 7:30 p.m., Matthew’s Opera House, 614 1/2 Main Street, Spearfish, SD.
Tickets are $10 per person and available at the door or by calling (605) 642-7973. Spearfish Arts Center

April

TBA BLW judges DT/BLW writer’s residency submissions

May

May 2 & 3 -Terry Tempest Williams, noted environmental essayist and writer in residence for the b in Laramie, will offer (with several of her students) a reading at the Campbell County Public Library, 2101 South 4J Road, Gillette, on Friday evening, May 2. She will also present a Saturday morning workshop at the library on May 3. Please call Patty Meyers, Campbell County Director, 307-687-0009, for information on times.

What's New With Bearlodge Authors?

Winter is upon us here in Northeast Wyoming and we're busy, in the early throes of planning a spring workshop—a private one that should help Bearlodge Writers members further develop writing and editing skills. But there's much more going on in BLW, too!

We anxiously await Jeanne Rogers' book Standing Witness: Devils Tower National Monument, A History, and are hoping for book signings soon, as weather permits! We're also watching Jeanne as she begins another big project . . . a coffee table book she's working on with Tom Warner, of Rapid City, South Dakota, who did the cover photography for Standing Witness. Jeanne, busy as the vice president of Wyoming Writers, Inc., is also very involved with plans for the upcoming 2008 Wyoming Writers' Conference, scheduled for June 6-8, in Casper, Wyoming.

Pat Frolander and Jeanne Rogers have been working a nice "double-dog dare ya" over the past few months. They each have vowed to write something new, submit, or somehow participate in a writing-related event, once a week. Makes for lots of copy coming from both these long-time BLW members, and sometimes it gets them involved with speaking engagements, too. Both say their collection of reject slips is growing, but they've also had some sales, etc.

Gaydell Collier, recently back from a trip to France with fellow BLW member, Renee Carrier, has much to write about now that the holidays are behind us! Gaydell has recently sold an essay to The Christian Science Monitor and has two books, mysteries set in northeastern Wyoming, ready to make the rounds. The stories that are working themselves onto her pages tell us about her trip to France and the long-awaited visit with pen pal Monique d'Hooghe—with whom she has corresponded since 1947 but had never met in person. Theirs is a very special friendship.

While in France, Renee Carrier also visited with an old friend, Micheline Labrousse. The two have been friends since childhood, when Micheline, who was then fifteen, came to live during the week with Renee's family. Renee's father, Colonel S. Paul Latiolais, was stationed in France. Their friendship has lasted through the years and Micheline appears here and there in the essays Renee writes, stepping in early in the nostalgic stories that make up A Singular Notion, published in 2006 by Pronghorn Press. Renee is presently readying her father's early aviation memoirs for publication.

Andi Hummel, writing as A. M. Hummel, has recently published an article, "Burgundy's—A Taste of Greece in Duncannon," in the Winter 2007 issue of Susquehanna Life Magazine. Andi has published many feature articles—and a poem—with this market since its editor, Erica Shames, produced the first copy of this well-crafted, Central Pennsylvania-based, quarterly lifestyles magazine in the living room of her home in Lewisburg, PA fourteen years ago. Writing Pennsylvania-based nonfiction from northeastern Wyoming takes extra effort, but Andi builds in time for research and interviews when she visits family in Pennsylvania. Working from her home in Hulett, Wyoming, and from The Sunflower House, her writing getaway in Camp Crook, South Dakota, she also does some freelance editing and takes time whenever possible to "visit" with Mollie, her historical fiction work-in-progress about a pathetic young woman who met her death in 1894 on Christmas Night in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Speaking of The Sunflower House . . . several BLW members met there in October of 2007 for a relaxing retreat! Andi Hummel, Jeanne Rogers, Katie Smith, Maureen Blake, and Gaydell Collier (with special guest and BLW bow-wow mascot, Maxie!) spent several days and nights "holed up" in the little Victorian-Craftsman house (they also "explored" Camp Crook and took many pictures of the historic little town that is celebrating a sesquicentennial this year). Each laid claim to a "private" spot and worked on a specific project. One rainy afternoon, fellow BLW member Dave Wagner and his handsome Bassett hound, Patrick Connor, stopped in for a brief visit, braving several miles of gumbo-laced roads between Albion, Montana and Camp Crook. Dave couldn't be talked into staying over, in spite of the abundance of food on the premises!

Dave's first nonfiction book, Powder River Odyssey, has been accepted for publication by Arthur H. Clark Co., an imprint of the University of Oklahoma Press. Due out in Spring 2009, the book tells of the story of Colonel Nelson Cole's Eastern Division of the Powder River Indian Expedition of 1865, one of the earliest post-Civil War campaigns in the Indian Wars of the American West. Dave's second book—its working title is Patrick Connor's War—is tied closely with the first, and is presently under consideration with the same publisher. In 2006, Dave spoke before the Black Hills Westerners and also the Eastern Montana Library Association regarding the theme of both books, and in 2007 he told the story of this expedition at the Carter County Museum Founders' Day celebration in Ekalaka, Montana.

Jim and Jytte Bowers, are presently combining efforts in a translation of Old Houses in Rauland, by Thorbjorn Egner, a book about Norwegian houses and fairytales. Jim reports his Voices from the Underground, published by Many Kites Press, Rapid City, South Dakota, a small press started several years ago by Jamie Lee and her husband, Milt Lee, is now available on Amazon.com. Jytte still finds time to work on her memoir, the poignant story of raising a child afflicted with Downs Syndrome.

Kathy Bjornestad's Servant of the Necromancer was named a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Novel Colorado Gold Contest last year. It is the second book in her Kingmaker trilogy and is presently being submitted for consideration. Kathy, who teaches English in Sundance, Wyoming, reports the first book of the trilogy, The Poison Eater, is also complete and the third book is well underway.