AGT Monthly Meeting for March 2026

The Authors Guild of Tennessee held their monthly meeting on Thursday, March 5, 2026, at the Faith Lutheran Church, Farragut, from 10:30 until noon.

The following members were present:

Bill Barbour, Gary Butler, Pat Crumpler, Gayle Curtin, Barb Dunn, Kaye George, Leoma Gilley, Jim Hartsell, Wes Hibbert, David Johnston, Ernie Lancaster, Jerry Morton, David Page, Cheryl Peyton, Nancy Pressley, Ron Pressley, Nolen Rollins, Kit Sexton, Art Stewart, Becky Tucker, Jeri Weems, Victoria Winifred, and Curt Young.

Guests: Elaine Jungk, Martin Shoffner, and Karen Petrillo.

Welcome – Cheryl

David Page and Pat Crumpler are back. Karen Patrillo, Pat’s guest is a writer. Marty is not published but is working on a novel. He was a TVA engineer, then FEMA, and an inventor.

New books: David Page has a new book titled More Republic, Less Cowbell. His The Art of Compromise is now in paperback. He knows self-publishing very well and will do it for $100. He has also learned how to produce audiobooks. The microphone, software, and dog clicker cost $150.

Pat Crumpler has two new books: Flexible Virtue (adult) and Charlie and the Coal Dust Dragon (children’s book dealing with depression).

Jim Hartsell has a new middle-grade novel: Infinite Possibilities.

Cheryl Peyton’s latest book is nonfiction: From Wolf to Woof.

Kit Sexton has a new children’s book titled Saving Spot.

 

Treasurer’s Report – Bill

February 2026

Beginning Cash Balance $ 4,070

Ending Cash Balance $ 4,517

Less: $ (962) Writing Competition

$ (610) Outstanding checks

Net Cash Available $ 2,945

 

Income

Membership Dues $ 120

 

Expenses

Speaker lunch $ 19

Storage Rental $ 29

Fairs Festivals Balance $ (229)

 

Committee Chairs.

Fairs and Festivals – Nancy

Saturday is the only festival for March, Mardi Growl. It is a fun time.

April in Clinton, Paws for Cause April 25. We need one more person to join.

June shows are closed and there is a waiting list. Everyone should have paid.

There will be a list coming out soon for the second half of the year. She will not apply to participate in a show unless people show an interest.

 

Student Writing Contest – Jerry Morton

Projected expenses have been covered. There is enough for next year, but hopefully generous people will continue to provide funding.

Art reported on a message from Angela Crabtree from Lenoir City High School. Presenters have 20 minutes on any topic of creative writing. There have been very positive responses from the students.

 

Word Fest: Jerry Weems reported it was not well attended. Victoria gave a presentation and enjoyed it, although felt the venue wasn’t as good as their previous location. At this one, visitors had to walk the aisles, and there was no food or beverages inside. There were 80 authors. It is run by the Chamber of Commerce in Sevierville. Next year it will be in February at the same location.

 

Upcoming programs:

April 2 – Humorous Tales of an Appalachian Gamekeeper by Pete Wyatt

May 7 – Writing Books about Faith by Bill Barbour and Leoma Gilley

June 4 – Blue Collar Hollywood by Chuck Roseberry

July 2 – How Personality Type Impacts Writing by Barb Dunn and Nolen Rollins

August 6 – Writing Poetry Books by David Johnson and Art Stewart

September 3 – The Forgotten History by Wes Hibbert

October 1 – How to Save Money When Hiring an Editor by Debbie Burke

November 5 – The Drawing Board: What Are You Working On?

December 3 – Christmas Short Stories by AGT Authors after the Annual Christmas Dinner with spouses

 

Program

Our guest speaker was AGT member Kaye George who gave a presentation on short-story writing. Kaye has published 17 novels and about 60 short stories. She has also compiled several anthologies, some on her own and some with others.

Her current book in process is Death in a Rehab Center. She recently spent 2.5 months in rehab, which sparked the idea.

Short stories have a different structure from a novel. There isn’t a lot of material describing how to write short stories. They can be any length. Flash fiction is VERY short, even 6-12 words. Anything up to1000 words is considered flash fiction. It is excellent practice to get to the essence of the story.

Short stories are generally1000-4000 words. There should be a hero, a goal, an obstacle, and a solution.

Keep the structure simple.

Characters: How many? There can be only one or up to three normally. Don’t use too many. Usually, there are two main characters in mysteries: sleuth and villain, or the hero and sidekicks or suspects. The protagonist doesn’t have to be a person, and the antagonist can be worry, fate, etc. There must be conflict. If you get too many characters in a story, put some together into one. Don’t throw too many at the reader at once. Differentiate characters to make them come alive.

If a character is walking into a building where an action will take place, name one or two feelings about the place rather than focusing on descriptions. Don’t spell it out. Is sand hot? Is it hard for the character to see? Are splashing children making it hard to hear? Show rather than tell. Insert the setting into the action. One sensory experience can reveal the scene.

Twists at the end aren’t imperative, but they can make the story more interesting. Every story must include a mystery that keeps the reader reading. Something needs to add tension. At the end, you can’t bring up information that the reader hasn’t known before. The clues must be there but hidden. Take a story to its logical conclusion, then do something else. Or add a double twist where you have two logical conclusions and offer a third. What is the reader expecting? Suspects A, B, C. A has an alibi, B has physical evidence, so it must be C. Then someone lied, physical evidence is false…

How to write shorter. Eliminate unnecessary words and take out descriptions. Don’t use more than one adjective with a noun or find a better noun. Don’t use adverbs. Count how many pages you have as you may have 1000 too many words. Go back and cut 50 words per page. Concise is good.

You may want to approach paying markets (with a lot of rejections) or get exposure without pay. Contests aren’t so beneficial. Put your stories on your website or publish your own book. Woman’s World has a mystery and a romance story in each publication. Print a collection of stories. Editors are essential for catching mistakes you don’t see. Sometimes, you get an explanation about why you were rejected. Not everyone likes the same book, so try various places. Rewrite, submit, rewrite, submit.

Kaye provided an example of the story arc of one of her short stories from the End of the World anthology. Cell phone, radio, and TV waves are constrained by bandwidth. Radio waves can collide and cause heat. In her story, LA radio waves were altered, and the resulting heat ignited the smog. A family goes higher up to avoid the fires until they are high in a cave. Then they realize they won’t survive and tell their thoughts as they prepare to die.

Kaye states she’s a natural short-story writer. With an anthology, you don’t make any significant amount of money, so giving money to a charity is easiest.

 

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 12:00

Respectfully submitted,

Leoma Gilley, Secretary