THE RAM’S HEAD REVIEW
Nov. 25, 2007


Six of us met Thursday in honour of The Muse. Carolann brought me a copy of “The Rag”, a quarterly magazine here in the Valley, mostly for women. I believe she and Margaret have both had something published in it in the past.

Carolann, had two poems to read. “My House” was a nostalgic recollection of memories one could have of a former home that no longer exists. Since I love pictures of old homes, this poem gave me the ‘warm & fuzzies’. In “No One Cared”, Carolann wrote about the sight of Robert Dziekanski dying when he was tasered by the RCMP. But she switched from a first person account to third person opinion at the end, and did admit she had trouble continuing in first person as the event was so terribly disturbing.

Margaret read about Rev. Peasly being sorry he filled Rev. Peacock with dread about losing his parrot. He told Peacock not to wear the costume again, and said he would go as Lord Bugwater to see if he could get the parrot back, and Peacock could be Lady Bugwater.

Ellie read more of the girl who had dropped cake in her betrothed’s lap. Her Uncle, Aunt and Mother were all horrified. She wept. Her Uncle stuck her across the side of the head and she crumpled. When she awoke, she was in her room and there were other people there with her, wearing the colors of Alvin, her betrothed. They made her change into mountain clothes, and she knew she was being sent to the mountains with Alvin.

Amanda read three poems, but only two of them were hers. First she read Jack Whyte’s poem, “My Friend”, about the withdrawal from living of a friend after he suffered a personal loss. Then Amanda read “Keep This Darned Dog Home”, her own poem about her Grandmother’s dog who kept running away, but would come home with a note on his collar telling her to keep him home. And then we heard Amanda’s rewrite of “The Robots Are Rising”, and how thought of them rising and marching, gives the young boy the strength to tell his parents to stop fighting. We love the rhythm and imagery in this children’s poem.

Bob didn’t have anything to read. His wife Carole had some testing done at the hospital, and is also scheduled for surgery on the 30th, so he has been busy with other things. We wish Carole the best of health.

I read Chapter 47 in my novel, where Fiona is packing to stay with Tanner, and is interrupted by a resident who accuses her of being the reason arson fires occurred in the complex. Tanner sticks up for her, drives her to the Office so she can work to get the water main fixed and water turned on again. They hear sirens, and Bert comes in to tell them they should go over to Lucy’s Unit, which she knows is where Cam is.

Sonny is very busy preparing for deployment to Afghanistan in April, and has little time to administer our website. So he has set up a blog for us to use until he returns in 2009. This means I can post The Review to the blog, which will be linked to our website. Eventually, you will just be able to click on it from our website, but in the meantime, you can find it at www.ramsheadwriters.blogspot.com

Next meeting here at my place, Thursday, Nov. 29th at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you then. Keep writing in the meantime.

Lisa

New Forum for Lisa's Weekly Reviews

Greetings Rammers!

As I am preparing to head off to Afghanistan and time to administer the ramsheadwriters.ca website tightens due to training commitments from now until April and then will be non-existent from April 08 through Feb 09, I have created this page to give Lisa a forum in which to publish her weekly reviews, but also to encourage dialogue between members of the Ram's Head Writers' Group and a few others. The blog is currently open to the public, and anyone can comment on the blog entries.

On Thursday, I will add a link from ramsheadwriters.ca pointing to the blog page, which can also be accessed by pointing your web browser to http://ramsheadwriters.blogspot.com. At the moment, clicking on Home at the left will take you to the Ram's Head Writers' Group Home Page.

Happy blogging! I encourage you all to comment.

Sonny
administrator
ramsheadwriters.ca

18 November - Susan's exciting news!

Bob had some exciting news at our meeting Thursday night. He had a phone call from Susan to tell him her newest son, Declan, was born at 11.59 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 13^th. Mother and child are doing well. Our congratulations to you and your family, Susan.

I read first Thursday, a poem I had written one other winter when there had been a storm and a power outage. And of course, that’s what the poem is about. It’s called “High Noon”, signifying the 12:00 that all sorts of appliances and electronics flash after a power outage.

Ellie read some more of the girl held captive by her uncle. She manages to shut the secret panel door. A maid comes to prepare her for a betrothal dinner in the hall. She meets the much older and very ugly man her uncle wants her to marry and suffers through the dinner. But when she is supposed to feed him a piece of betrothal cake to seal the deal, she deliberately drops it in his lap.

Margaret read to us of Rev. Peacock looking for his parrot, Joey. He went back to the Inn dressed in costume as the Captain of H.M.S. Pinafore. He meets Sylvester and Goldie, who had caused the rocket to go astray, and they tell him they know where there’s a parrot. They take him, in a very familier motorcycle sidecare, to see Mr. Wiebe, a candlemaker who is adamant that the parrot is his. Relating this to Rev. Peasley, he learns the Pinafore sunk with all lost except the Captain, and it had been bringing opium to England. There was a bounty out for the Captain.

Bob didn’t have anything to read and said he’d had a very difficult week. The storm on Monday caused both Ellie and I to be without power for hours and hours, but nobody else had power failure. Elaine is away for the next 2 weeks, visiting family in Thunder Bay. Amanda was meeting with Michael for help in preparing a manuscript for submission. Carolann had a meeting on cholesterol to attend.

Next meeting here at my place, Thursday, Nov. 22^nd at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you all then. Bring your Muse.

Lisa