Dear fellow writers,

Among his repertoire of bawdy songs from the Marine Corps and sundry memorabilia of youth, my father had a slightly twisted view of Daniel, the Old Testament prophet, whom he used as the main character of a short, Biblical-influenced saying. It was meant to warn listeners about the dangers of procrastination and lack of alacrity in answering the Lord's call. It went like this: "The Lord called on Daniel to come forth, but he slipped on a banana peel and came fifth."  Daddy thought this was hilarious and offered it to me by way of advice about how to rise to the occasion. So, here is our activity schedule for August, a little late, but blame that metaphorical banana peel.

As you know from previous correspondence and from last year's custom, there is no formal meeting of St. Nicholas Writes in either July or August. I am the substitute for said meeting, the last of which is  August 28th. I will be available to offer conferences to anyone who would like such communication. I have been impressed by the efforts I have seen so far, and I applaud your continuing to work towards self-improvement. Perhaps we can have a showing or sale eventually, among our other plans for publication.

In composing this preliminary letter, I have pondered the various signs of growth in the group--folks who have progressed in their writing and discovered new landscapes in their lives as a result. September's meeting features one of them.

The group starts up again for the year on  September 25th, and will feature three of our members working with various projects which demonstrate the versatility of photo software. Charlotte Winsness will show us the marvelous memory/scrapbook/photo album she created for her family and explain how to gift yours with a similar treasure. The second half of the hour will showcase John Winsness and Mallon Faircloth recreating a typical brainstorming experience with poetry. They will demonstrate