Coffee and Critique's Art Interpretation Competition and the Dr. Oz Effect on Book Sales

Charles Rogers, author of Sermon at Dead Man's Bend and Conversations with a Barn Cat, did a great job planning, organizing, conducting, and tallying votes in Coffee and Critique's First Art Interpretation Writing Competition.

Entrants were to look at a piece of artwork selected by Charles then write a story no longer than 100 words. Entries were read aloud by someone other than the writer. No author identification appeared on the entries, which were peer-judged.

Congratulations to the top-two winners and everyone who took up the challenge!

The top-two scoring stories were:

"Alone" by Sarah Angleton (aka The Practical Historian)

"Joplin and the Giant" by Jane Hamilton

In case you missed it: on Wednesday, Jan 28, Dr. Oz mentioned the book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Touched by an Angel, as part of the segment on "Can Angels Help us Heal?" 

The Touched by An Angel anthology includes the story "A Patchwork of Hope" by Coffee and Critique member Donna Volkenannt, who did a before-and-after analysis of book sales to find out the effect on sales after the book was featured on the Dr. Oz show.

You can find a link to Donna's post about the Dr. Oz dramatic effect on book sales on Donna's Book Pub.

Thanks to our Coffee and Critique Writers' Group Veterans

Thanks to all our Coffee and Critique writers' group veterans, past and present.Thank you for the sacrifices you have made so the rest of us can enjoy our freedoms.

The following is the roll call of US Veterans who belong to Coffee and Critique writers' group who have honored us with their words, their wit, and their wisdom:


Nick Nixon (USMC, deceased)
Doyle Suit (US Army)
Bill Mueller (US Army)
Jack Zerr (US Navy)
Charles Rogers (USAF)
Les Thompson (US Navy)
Lonnie Whitaker (US Army)

Without your service we wouldn't be able to enjoy the liberties at our critique group, including:

* The right to assemble (every Tuesday for two hours and sometimes for lunch afterwards).

* The right of self-expression during our critiques (as long as they don't exceed two minutes).

* The freedom to write without fear or intimidation, (as long as we don't exceed our five, double-spaced page limit with one inch margins all around in Times New Roman or a similar font). ;-)

* The right to read our works and receive generous feedback from everyone present.