Magnificent Seven

In Which Seven Authors Declare Themselves Alliterates

In November of 1995, Rob and Dave gathered the first official group of Alliterates in a private room at Jake Sweeney’s Restaurant. The group consisted of seven writers, all of them published authors of long fiction. Between them, they had about forty published novels, two of which were New York Times best-sellers.

Rob penned the charter pictured to the right for the new members to sign:

The charter was signed that night by the following: J. Robert King, Douglas Niles, David Gross, Timothy Brown, Troy Denning, and Jeff Grubb. One of the original Alliterates, Lester Smith, was unable to attend that first meeting, but signed the charter in December.

The meeting included English beer, Irish whiskey, Dominican cigars, Pacific calamari, and much talk of writing fiction. No transcript remains of that first meeting, though the second meeting was attended by Anne E. Celano, a writer for the Walworth County Week. Here are excerpts from the fine article she wrote for the January 28th edition of the newspaper:

There is a certain boyish quality to each of them, which fits quite well with their chosen genres of fantasy and games. A majority of them also epitomize the scholarly, bookwormish-type—spectacled and bearded—the type who would look quite at home midst the dark stacks of a library.…

The table began to fill with plates, glasses, bottles, ashes and the air in the room became an ever-hovering cloud of smoke and din of voices hypothesizing, criticizing, reminiscing, and romanticizing about the myriad of topics—many being discussed simultaneously.…

However, all good things must come to an end. And with the cigar box nearly empty, the check placed in the center of the evening’s refuse and the smoke beginning to settle, the liveliness that had permeated the air throughout the evening began to wane and reluctantly, the club members began to offer their farewells…at least until next month when their paths would meet again and their spirits would be revitalized.