AGT Monthly Meeting for June 2025

The Authors Guild of Tennessee held its monthly meeting on Thursday, June 5, 2025, at Faith Lutheran Church in Farragut from 10:30 to noon.

The following members were present:

Bill Barbour, Gene Berryhill, Gary Butler, Gayle Curtin, Laura Derr, John Forcum, Kaye George, Leoma Gilley, Jim Hartsell, Wes Hibbert, David Johnston, Jim Johnston, Ernie Lancaster, Jerry Morton, Kathy Parr, Cheryl Peyton, Nancy Pressley, Ron Pressley, Chuck Roseberry, Brenda Sellars, Kit Sexton, Frank Snyder, Art Stewart, Jeri Weems, and Victoria Winifred.

Guests:  Debbie Burke, Veronika Mayhew, Amy Baltajian, and Elaine Jungk

Welcome – Cheryl.   The power was out, so no recording was possible.

May minutes:  Approved online. No corrections.

Treasurer’s Report for May – Bill

Beginning Cash Balance  $ 4,053

Ending Cash Balance       $ 3,474

                          Less:      $ (776)  Writing Competition

                                         $ (180)  Outstanding checks

Net Cash Available           $2,518

Income                           

Trade Show Booths          $      44

 

Expenses            

Author payments               $     70

Student Awards                 $    480

Domain renewal                $      46

Speaker Lunch                   $     17

Name badge                       $       9

 

Reports by members and Committee Chairs:

1. There are new books. Frank Snyder and Curt Young have released a children’s book, Stevie’s Fabulous Farm, and an adult Christian fiction book titled When Happiness Came Down from Heaven.
   Kaye George has a new psychological suspense novel, Someone is Out There.
   The Choto Writers’ Circle has released an anthology of short stories. This one is Summer Tales.
2. Festival Facts – Nancy P. informed us that June is an active month. The Lavender Festival and Summer on Broadway are both full. The Scopes Trial reenactment in Dayton is inside on July 11-12, while the Rhea County Heritage festival is outside on July 18-19. There are 2 weekends for the trial, but the second one is not really for authors, although some authors have been there. More information will be forthcoming. In August, there is Cars and Canines in Oak Ridge on the 16th, but no authors have signed up. There are three spots available for the Asian Festival on Aug. 23-24. The Balloon Fest on Aug. 30-31 has two spots. Everyone will receive a list of shows with the names of those who have signed up this coming week.
3. Writing Contest – Jerry. It was very successful. The recipients were very pleased to receive their prizes and certificates. The teacher sent thank-you notes to the eleven AGT members who participated.
4. Programs – Ernie – Kelly Griffin is a friend who has written a book on how to maximize your sales at festivals. She will be at Lenoir City Arts and Crafts, so look for her there.

Program 

Our speaker was author Debbie Burke, who gave a talk on writing a biography. Debbie is an award-winning editor with roots in publishing and journalism.  Her editing/author coaching business, Queen Esther Publishing LLC, provides editorial services for first-time and established authors, small publishers, ghostwriters, and university presses.

Debbie’s presentation was: Knowing Irv: The Life and Art of Irving Schiffer, about her father, who died prematurely due to pancreatic cancer. He left a legacy of paintings, songs, photographs, and books.

She described her journey to collect and organize all the materials her father left behind and discuss what it was like to do the research into this amazing human being whose active years encompassed the 1940s through the early 1970s. Truly a mid-century Renaissance Man.

She has written 12 books. She’s also a professional editor and has a book on that. In 2022, it was almost 50 years after her father’s passing from pancreatic cancer. He was an editor of multiple trade publications. He was also a photographer and painter. He took photos, which he projected and then traced the image. He liked painting houses, portraits, and city scenes. They had about 25 of their father’s paintings and 300 slides. Debbie found a local place to convert them to digital format. The 300 slides cost about $700 to convert to digital. Her father was raised in a Jewish orphanage because his mother died, and his father couldn’t deal with five children. He was also a songwriter. He also worked for a detective agency dealing with romantic issues and became disillusioned with detecting. He had written about many of his cases. He published a novel six months before he died. It is still on Amazon. He created a screenplay called “The Gig.”

What does this tell you about writing someone’s memoir or biography? Jump in anywhere and start writing. When you are passionate about something, you will be motivated to complete it. You can pull it all together later. If you write it well, people will be interested. Why write it? Because you can and because you love them.

She publishes on Amazon KDP.

P.S. Debbie Burke would like us to know that she doesn’t charge for consultations about publishing/self-publishing or to talk about your works in progress. Any interested authors can contact her at this email: debcolumn@gmail.com.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 12:00 Next meeting will be on July 3, 2025, at Faith Lutheran Church.

Respectfully submitted,

Leoma Gilley, Secretary