You can now follow me at my new Blog:
https://lisahatton.blogspot.com
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Thursday, January 10, 2019
THE FINAL REVIEW
FINAL REVIEW
Sadly, this will be the final Review for The Ram’s Head Writers’ Group. At last night’s Meeting, Annette was the only member, besides me, who attended, and there was no communication from anyone else. Since participation has dwindled considerably over the past year, I have decided to no longer host Meetings for The Rams. I think writers today have other ways of connecting with each other, so meetings in person are no longer as eagerly attended as they once were.
Even though there will no longer be any Meetings or Review, I will still forward to everyone on The Ram’s email list any requests for submissions or news of writing events that I receive. Since The Rams have had an online presence for many years, since 2003, I do receive some communications from other sources looking for writers and I am happy to pass them along.
Through the years I have met many different writers and have learned a great deal from each and every one. My thanks to all the Rams, past and present, who have willingly shared their treasured written words and so greatly enriched my own writing experiences. I have witnessed all sorts of writing formats and genres that people have worked on. There’s been poetry, short stories, novellas, articles, memoirs, novels, songs, plays, screenplays, theses, romance, mystery, suspense, western, sci-fi, fantasy, erotica, history, adventure, humour, young adult, mid-grade, true crime and how-to. It’s been a fascinating journey seeing all this magnificent creativity.
For those who are looking for a meeting, Jim Williams said there is a writers’ group at the Langley City branch of the Fraser Valley Regional Library. You would have to look up dates and times. I may even look into it myself.
In the next little while, I am going to focus on creating my own online platform, and hope to start a blog where I will post some of my previously published pieces, some poetry, and some smaller pieces of writing that I wouldn’t be sending out to publishers anyhow. Stay tuned. I will send a link when it’s up and running.
If anyone still wants to get together with another writer, please feel free to contact me. We can always do coffee sometime.
I wish everyone all the best with their own writing, and if you have any news about it, I’m always happy to hear it. Good luck with everything, and thanks again to everyone.
Sincerely,
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Sadly, this will be the final Review for The Ram’s Head Writers’ Group. At last night’s Meeting, Annette was the only member, besides me, who attended, and there was no communication from anyone else. Since participation has dwindled considerably over the past year, I have decided to no longer host Meetings for The Rams. I think writers today have other ways of connecting with each other, so meetings in person are no longer as eagerly attended as they once were.
Even though there will no longer be any Meetings or Review, I will still forward to everyone on The Ram’s email list any requests for submissions or news of writing events that I receive. Since The Rams have had an online presence for many years, since 2003, I do receive some communications from other sources looking for writers and I am happy to pass them along.
Through the years I have met many different writers and have learned a great deal from each and every one. My thanks to all the Rams, past and present, who have willingly shared their treasured written words and so greatly enriched my own writing experiences. I have witnessed all sorts of writing formats and genres that people have worked on. There’s been poetry, short stories, novellas, articles, memoirs, novels, songs, plays, screenplays, theses, romance, mystery, suspense, western, sci-fi, fantasy, erotica, history, adventure, humour, young adult, mid-grade, true crime and how-to. It’s been a fascinating journey seeing all this magnificent creativity.
For those who are looking for a meeting, Jim Williams said there is a writers’ group at the Langley City branch of the Fraser Valley Regional Library. You would have to look up dates and times. I may even look into it myself.
In the next little while, I am going to focus on creating my own online platform, and hope to start a blog where I will post some of my previously published pieces, some poetry, and some smaller pieces of writing that I wouldn’t be sending out to publishers anyhow. Stay tuned. I will send a link when it’s up and running.
If anyone still wants to get together with another writer, please feel free to contact me. We can always do coffee sometime.
I wish everyone all the best with their own writing, and if you have any news about it, I’m always happy to hear it. Good luck with everything, and thanks again to everyone.
Sincerely,
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Friday, December 7, 2018
THE REVIEW
TWENTY DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Jim, Annette and Charity joined me Wednesday night, twenty days before Christmas, for our last Meeting of 2018. Unfortunately, Cougar was in hospital and unable to attend. But he did phone and ask if anyone would be willing to receive some of his work by email and critique it for him. Charity and Jim both said they would be willing to do that.
Charity read first, the second part of her chapter, “Dead Or Alive”. Trixie has decided to leave her Ma’s “protection”, and wants to return to her Pa’s hideout and search the pool to see if there is any more gold to be found. She needs supplies but can’t get the young boy in the general store to open up, so she breaks in. Her injured leg is still painful and she needs a burro. She has to get moving because the town is waking up.
Jim said his book, “The Hunt For Jason” can be purchased as an ebook anywhere that sells them online. It can also be purchased now from Amazon.ca as a print-on-demand hard copy for $16.00 delivered to your door. However, he was upset that the hard copy version does not have his tag line printed on the cover.
Then Jim read to us a re-write of Chapter One from “Smart Mestiza”. The re-write is much shorter and starts with a great hook that draws the reader in right away. I think it’s a great beginning.
Charity read again, this time a short fairy tale where a King’s stare turns people to stone. The kingdom is saved when he turns himself to stone looking at his own image at the bottom of a silver bowl. The curse is broken and all others come back to life. This is how not to get your kids to finish their meal! Ha! Ha!
Annette often has to write a short story for church, and she read us one of those. It told of her family not having enough money for new shoes when the children lost them in a pond, or got them caught and shredded in an escalator. It ended telling about her pulling Santa’s beard.
I read “Cold Turkey” from my collection of Honey stories. It was the tale of turkey leftovers being stored in a cooler on the back porch one Christmas, and being destroyed by raiding racoons. I still had thirty people to feed on Boxing Day, but Honey saved the day because he had stored the uncut half turkey in the fridge inside. Jim and Charity remember my reading this story before, but Annette said she hadn’t heard it.
Yesterday I received from Polar Expressions my copy of the anthology “The Way Through”. It includes my short story “Grief Or Guilt?” and Annette’s story “Red Charger”.
After some discussion, we decided that the next Meeting in January won’t happen until Wednesday, Jan. 9th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. And that means the second Meeting will be the 23rd of January. Then in February we will return to having Meetings the first and third Wednesdays of the month. I hope that’s clear to everybody. I will send out my usual reminders.
Here’s hoping everyone will have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! I will be so eager to get back together again in January.
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Friday, November 23, 2018
THE REVIEW
WRITING IN THE RAIN
In spite of heavy rain, four people joined me for a Meeting on Wednesday. Cougar, Charity and Annette were here, as well as new member Chelsey Anderson. We started by giving brief writing bios, and learned Chelsey likes to write short stories and recently attended The Surrey International Writers’ Conference.
I read first, but not a new piece of work. This was a short story called “Fine Print” which was published in 2010 in a short-lived magazine named “Eclectica”. My story was my one and only attempt at sci-fi, or maybe it could by fantasy, depending on your perspective. It detailed a woman returning a male robot she found unsatisfactory in all respects. Due to fine print, she was only allowed a replacement on her purchase.
Cougar has re-written his Chapter 1 and the latest draft gives three different points of view, but the transition from one to the other is more seamless. It ends with Eric questioning his own identity, which is the conflict he must resolve for himself as well as the other characters in the story.
Annette said sometimes she writes as therapy, and then read to us the beginning of a story entitled “Sometimes I Forget To Breathe”. It starts with a first person female character telling of her first encounters with the opposite sex, and then segues into telling about living with a young daughter consumed by raging hormones. As a mother of a daughter, I could relate. Hope to hear more of this.
Chelsey bravely read to us her short story “Hi-Rise Jeans”. It is fiction written in first person and tells the story of a sixteen year old facing an abrupt and heartbreaking conflict between trying to loosen the ties of home and religion, but then confronting the sexual abuse and exploitation of the outside world. You could sense how the girl’s innocence and hopes and dreams were so rudely slaughtered. It was a great story that needs a bigger audience.
Charity read her chapter called “Dead Or Alive” about Trixie. We see her sleeping on the floor in her Ma’s room, in turmoil over what she should do. She knows the Preacher and his son would turn her in for the death of the Marley boy. But if she tells her Ma, her Ma would see to them being killed to protect her. But Trixie doesn’t want anything more to do with death or to become like her Ma, so she sneaks out during the night. Charity promised that Trixie will have a few more bumps along the way before the end of the story.
I asked the group for help picking a new title for my story “Penny Pincher”. As I hope to submit it to mystery magazines, I needed a title that would indicate it is a mystery, as it doesn’t start out that way. After reading out several titles, the one that was picked was “Bloody Quittance”.
Charity said she has started a blog connected to her writing, and is doing more online. She said she often tells people she writes, but felt she needed to provide evidence of that in case anyone was looking online. I think she’s right and have also been thinking of putting more of my writing online, probably in a blog. I have a great number of small pieces that I will never send anywhere, so I may as well put them out for others to read, and hopefully enjoy.
The next Meeting will be Wednesday, December 5th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. That will be the only Meeting in December. If anyone has a Christmas story they would like to read, that is welcome, too. Hope to see you then!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
In spite of heavy rain, four people joined me for a Meeting on Wednesday. Cougar, Charity and Annette were here, as well as new member Chelsey Anderson. We started by giving brief writing bios, and learned Chelsey likes to write short stories and recently attended The Surrey International Writers’ Conference.
I read first, but not a new piece of work. This was a short story called “Fine Print” which was published in 2010 in a short-lived magazine named “Eclectica”. My story was my one and only attempt at sci-fi, or maybe it could by fantasy, depending on your perspective. It detailed a woman returning a male robot she found unsatisfactory in all respects. Due to fine print, she was only allowed a replacement on her purchase.
Cougar has re-written his Chapter 1 and the latest draft gives three different points of view, but the transition from one to the other is more seamless. It ends with Eric questioning his own identity, which is the conflict he must resolve for himself as well as the other characters in the story.
Annette said sometimes she writes as therapy, and then read to us the beginning of a story entitled “Sometimes I Forget To Breathe”. It starts with a first person female character telling of her first encounters with the opposite sex, and then segues into telling about living with a young daughter consumed by raging hormones. As a mother of a daughter, I could relate. Hope to hear more of this.
Chelsey bravely read to us her short story “Hi-Rise Jeans”. It is fiction written in first person and tells the story of a sixteen year old facing an abrupt and heartbreaking conflict between trying to loosen the ties of home and religion, but then confronting the sexual abuse and exploitation of the outside world. You could sense how the girl’s innocence and hopes and dreams were so rudely slaughtered. It was a great story that needs a bigger audience.
Charity read her chapter called “Dead Or Alive” about Trixie. We see her sleeping on the floor in her Ma’s room, in turmoil over what she should do. She knows the Preacher and his son would turn her in for the death of the Marley boy. But if she tells her Ma, her Ma would see to them being killed to protect her. But Trixie doesn’t want anything more to do with death or to become like her Ma, so she sneaks out during the night. Charity promised that Trixie will have a few more bumps along the way before the end of the story.
I asked the group for help picking a new title for my story “Penny Pincher”. As I hope to submit it to mystery magazines, I needed a title that would indicate it is a mystery, as it doesn’t start out that way. After reading out several titles, the one that was picked was “Bloody Quittance”.
Charity said she has started a blog connected to her writing, and is doing more online. She said she often tells people she writes, but felt she needed to provide evidence of that in case anyone was looking online. I think she’s right and have also been thinking of putting more of my writing online, probably in a blog. I have a great number of small pieces that I will never send anywhere, so I may as well put them out for others to read, and hopefully enjoy.
The next Meeting will be Wednesday, December 5th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. That will be the only Meeting in December. If anyone has a Christmas story they would like to read, that is welcome, too. Hope to see you then!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Thursday, October 18, 2018
THE REVIEW
DETERMINED DUO
Cougar joined me last night for a Ram’s Meeting of two. I know Annette and Jim have been dealing with health issues. Charity had been doing so as well, but was on the road to recovery two weeks ago. Hope everyone regains their health and stays healthy. I did contribute to immunity of the herd and had my flu shot yesterday. However, yesterday was also known as Weed Wednesday, the first day of legal cannabis sales in Canada. I hope that won’t detract from any writer’s determination to create.
Cougar read his next chapter, which was very long. It was a good chapter that showed Eric’s introduction to Elfa’s home and the people who lived with her. At the beginning of the chapter and part way through, Cougar had switched into omniscient point of view in order to deliver information about Iceland, and I strongly recommended against doing that. I felt it severed the reader’s connection to characters and broke the story line. He said he would try to incorporate that info some other way as part of the story.
I read another revised beginning to my story “Penny Pincher”. Then I discussed with Cougar my thinking that I would send the story to one of two mystery/crime magazines. He said if I did that I should change the title to indicate the story would contain a violent crime, as the story doesn’t start out that way. He said readers of mystery/crime magazines are expecting that type of content and I needed to promise them that at the start. He was absolutely right. I hadn’t thought of intended audience when I started writing this story and had no idea how it was going to end. The violent outcome was a surprise to me when I wrote it. The title “Penny Pincher” applied to the main character, not the situation in which she found herself. I think I’m going to go with “Grisly Remittance” or “Bloody Quittance”. Anybody have a preference on which I should use?
I had downloaded “Proper Manuscript Format” by William Shunn and read through it. Most of the info I already knew, but there were a couple of things I learned. It said if you want a line break between scenes, instead of a blank line, center the character “#” on a line by itself. Do this so scene breaks are not lost with editing and revising, because word processing can often hide blank lines if they come at the beginning or end of a page. You don’t want your scene breaks rendered invisible to your editor. And the other thing was about placing your name in the top left corner of the title page, and also using a byline. The name in the corner is who the publisher sends the cheque to, and the name in the byline is who receives credit for the story when it’s published. Sometimes the two are the same, but sometimes the author uses a pseudonym, and sometimes a married woman uses her maiden name as author. Both should appear on the manuscript.
I gave Cougar an article from the Vancouver Sun entitled “10 Ways Iceland Can Kill You”. It was a travel article warning tourists about natural phenomenon that can be very dangerous. I said there were some good suggestions there that could up the danger to any of his characters. Writing tips can come from anywhere.
The next Meeting will be Wednesday, November 7th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Really hope to see you then!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Cougar joined me last night for a Ram’s Meeting of two. I know Annette and Jim have been dealing with health issues. Charity had been doing so as well, but was on the road to recovery two weeks ago. Hope everyone regains their health and stays healthy. I did contribute to immunity of the herd and had my flu shot yesterday. However, yesterday was also known as Weed Wednesday, the first day of legal cannabis sales in Canada. I hope that won’t detract from any writer’s determination to create.
Cougar read his next chapter, which was very long. It was a good chapter that showed Eric’s introduction to Elfa’s home and the people who lived with her. At the beginning of the chapter and part way through, Cougar had switched into omniscient point of view in order to deliver information about Iceland, and I strongly recommended against doing that. I felt it severed the reader’s connection to characters and broke the story line. He said he would try to incorporate that info some other way as part of the story.
I read another revised beginning to my story “Penny Pincher”. Then I discussed with Cougar my thinking that I would send the story to one of two mystery/crime magazines. He said if I did that I should change the title to indicate the story would contain a violent crime, as the story doesn’t start out that way. He said readers of mystery/crime magazines are expecting that type of content and I needed to promise them that at the start. He was absolutely right. I hadn’t thought of intended audience when I started writing this story and had no idea how it was going to end. The violent outcome was a surprise to me when I wrote it. The title “Penny Pincher” applied to the main character, not the situation in which she found herself. I think I’m going to go with “Grisly Remittance” or “Bloody Quittance”. Anybody have a preference on which I should use?
I had downloaded “Proper Manuscript Format” by William Shunn and read through it. Most of the info I already knew, but there were a couple of things I learned. It said if you want a line break between scenes, instead of a blank line, center the character “#” on a line by itself. Do this so scene breaks are not lost with editing and revising, because word processing can often hide blank lines if they come at the beginning or end of a page. You don’t want your scene breaks rendered invisible to your editor. And the other thing was about placing your name in the top left corner of the title page, and also using a byline. The name in the corner is who the publisher sends the cheque to, and the name in the byline is who receives credit for the story when it’s published. Sometimes the two are the same, but sometimes the author uses a pseudonym, and sometimes a married woman uses her maiden name as author. Both should appear on the manuscript.
I gave Cougar an article from the Vancouver Sun entitled “10 Ways Iceland Can Kill You”. It was a travel article warning tourists about natural phenomenon that can be very dangerous. I said there were some good suggestions there that could up the danger to any of his characters. Writing tips can come from anywhere.
The next Meeting will be Wednesday, November 7th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Really hope to see you then!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Monday, October 8, 2018
THE REVIEW
RE-WRITES
At Wednesday’s Meeting, Charity and Cougar joined me and all three of us read from projects we had been re-writing. It was wonderful Charity had regained her health well enough to attend. Unfortunately, Annette wasn’t feeling well and was unable to join us.
Cougar said he had been working on changing the character Erik, to make the conflict he feels about his trip to Iceland more intense. He re-read the same chapter as last time, with all the changes he’d made. Charity said she could really see how depressed, paranoid and neurotic Erik appeared, so Cougar achieved his goal. I especially liked the descriptions of the desolate Icelandic landscapes.
Charity read from her YA western, “Trixie Trouble”. This chapter was “Georgina Clay”, about Trixie’s mother. Trixie is still recovering from her injuries but wants to leave. Her mother wants her to stay. Trixie thinks Georgina wants the gold from a previous stage robbery and Georgina thinks Trixie knows where it is. There is also a bounty out for Trixie for Brett Marley’s death. Donovan arrives in town for a boxing match. Charity said she had re-written earlier parts of the book to add to the relationship between Trixie and Donovan, that will intensify the conflict that may, or may not, be resolved. Charity is thinking of writing another book to continue Trixie’s saga. In this chapter I enjoyed the portrayal of the mother’s character. She is a beautiful woman who can be kind and caring, or else as hard as nails, whatever she needs to be to attain her goals.
I read my re-write of “Penny Pincher”. At Cougar’s suggestion, I started the story with a scene that included dialogue, instead of the narrative and introspection I had first used. I let Cougar and Charity read both beginnings. Charity, like Annette did previously, said she liked the first writing better. She felt an instant connection with a woman finding the perfect purse at a thrift store. I liked the first version better, too. So I guess preference is a gender thing. Men and women respond differently not only to content of stories, but also to how they are told. That is something to consider when you think of who might be your audience. And I will do some more re-writing on this story.
Next Meeting will be Wednesday, October 17th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope you’ve had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. And I look forward to seeing you on the 17th! Keep writing!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
At Wednesday’s Meeting, Charity and Cougar joined me and all three of us read from projects we had been re-writing. It was wonderful Charity had regained her health well enough to attend. Unfortunately, Annette wasn’t feeling well and was unable to join us.
Cougar said he had been working on changing the character Erik, to make the conflict he feels about his trip to Iceland more intense. He re-read the same chapter as last time, with all the changes he’d made. Charity said she could really see how depressed, paranoid and neurotic Erik appeared, so Cougar achieved his goal. I especially liked the descriptions of the desolate Icelandic landscapes.
Charity read from her YA western, “Trixie Trouble”. This chapter was “Georgina Clay”, about Trixie’s mother. Trixie is still recovering from her injuries but wants to leave. Her mother wants her to stay. Trixie thinks Georgina wants the gold from a previous stage robbery and Georgina thinks Trixie knows where it is. There is also a bounty out for Trixie for Brett Marley’s death. Donovan arrives in town for a boxing match. Charity said she had re-written earlier parts of the book to add to the relationship between Trixie and Donovan, that will intensify the conflict that may, or may not, be resolved. Charity is thinking of writing another book to continue Trixie’s saga. In this chapter I enjoyed the portrayal of the mother’s character. She is a beautiful woman who can be kind and caring, or else as hard as nails, whatever she needs to be to attain her goals.
I read my re-write of “Penny Pincher”. At Cougar’s suggestion, I started the story with a scene that included dialogue, instead of the narrative and introspection I had first used. I let Cougar and Charity read both beginnings. Charity, like Annette did previously, said she liked the first writing better. She felt an instant connection with a woman finding the perfect purse at a thrift store. I liked the first version better, too. So I guess preference is a gender thing. Men and women respond differently not only to content of stories, but also to how they are told. That is something to consider when you think of who might be your audience. And I will do some more re-writing on this story.
Next Meeting will be Wednesday, October 17th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope you’ve had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. And I look forward to seeing you on the 17th! Keep writing!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Thursday, September 20, 2018
THE REVIEW
HOLDING DOWN THE FORT
Annette and Cougar joined me last night for the latest Meeting of The Rams. Unfortunately, Charity is still recovering from her summer health issues, but she’s hoping she’ll be well enough to make the next Meeting. We sure hope she gets better soon.
Cougar read first, Chapter 6 of his novel. It sees Eric arrive in Iceland and describes the scenery and how uncertain he’s feeling about his journey and about communicating with Elfa. The last section of the chapter tells about Aoal being sexually propositioned by the office girl. This chapter was mostly about setting and seemed to be a pause in the story. We suggested that it might need a hook towards the end to keep the reader wanting to turn the pages to find out what happens. I did like the descriptions of Iceland, though, and Cougar said he had spent hours viewing Iceland online in order to tell what it looked like. His words did capture a very bleak looking landscape.
I read another short story I just wrote called “Penny Pincher”. It’s about a female senior who struggles with a limited income but is talked into attending her niece’s lavish wedding, which means an overnight stay away from home. Due to her brother’s involvement in gambling, the wedding turns into a blood bath and the protagonist ends up being grateful for her own circumstances. Cougar and Annette said they found the story riveting, but we all agreed the beginning needs some work. Rather than starting with the character’s introspection, it might work better to have a scene that includes dialogue with another character to introduce the conflict. I will do some work on it to improve things.
Annette didn’t read anything. She said she had started writing a story, but was distracted. She is still dealing with so many things since her husband died and focusing on writing just isn’t happening. It was amazing she showed up last night, and Cougar and I were both grateful for her input.
After our readings, Cougar and I both agreed critiquing the other’s work helped us see what needed doing with our own. That is the advantage of a writers’ group, learning from each other.
Next Meeting will be Wednesday, October 3rd at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then. Keep writing!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Annette and Cougar joined me last night for the latest Meeting of The Rams. Unfortunately, Charity is still recovering from her summer health issues, but she’s hoping she’ll be well enough to make the next Meeting. We sure hope she gets better soon.
Cougar read first, Chapter 6 of his novel. It sees Eric arrive in Iceland and describes the scenery and how uncertain he’s feeling about his journey and about communicating with Elfa. The last section of the chapter tells about Aoal being sexually propositioned by the office girl. This chapter was mostly about setting and seemed to be a pause in the story. We suggested that it might need a hook towards the end to keep the reader wanting to turn the pages to find out what happens. I did like the descriptions of Iceland, though, and Cougar said he had spent hours viewing Iceland online in order to tell what it looked like. His words did capture a very bleak looking landscape.
I read another short story I just wrote called “Penny Pincher”. It’s about a female senior who struggles with a limited income but is talked into attending her niece’s lavish wedding, which means an overnight stay away from home. Due to her brother’s involvement in gambling, the wedding turns into a blood bath and the protagonist ends up being grateful for her own circumstances. Cougar and Annette said they found the story riveting, but we all agreed the beginning needs some work. Rather than starting with the character’s introspection, it might work better to have a scene that includes dialogue with another character to introduce the conflict. I will do some work on it to improve things.
Annette didn’t read anything. She said she had started writing a story, but was distracted. She is still dealing with so many things since her husband died and focusing on writing just isn’t happening. It was amazing she showed up last night, and Cougar and I were both grateful for her input.
After our readings, Cougar and I both agreed critiquing the other’s work helped us see what needed doing with our own. That is the advantage of a writers’ group, learning from each other.
Next Meeting will be Wednesday, October 3rd at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then. Keep writing!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)