THE RAM'S HEAD REVIEW

THE RAM’S HEAD REVIEW
January 12, 2008


Another year has dawned and empty pages beckon the Muse from its hibernation within us. Days are also getting longer and it’s time to rouse and let it be known “WE ARE WRITERS!”.

There were four of us here to read at Thursday’s meeting.

Bob started with a memoir, “Going Downtown” written in first person as the child who lived in Vancouver and experienced travelling downtown with his stepmother to have lunch, visit his Dad’s shop, visit the old Woodwards with its huge grocery floor and decorated windows, and to visit the PNE and watch the parade. Interesting depiction of another era in the life of Vancouver.

Margaret has started another on-going Peabody saga she calls “The Gypsy and The Button”. Peabody is alone one evening and visited by a Gypsy woman and her son who are selling odds and ends from a basket. The Rev. Peabody buys a brass button that looks familiar to him and phones his brother Mathew about it. (To be continued…)

Carolann read a piece that started as prose and ended in poetic form that she will read at the funeral of a neighbour who just recently passed away. Touching.

I read two letters. The first was from Nathaniel, in response to my query I had sent to an email address I found on a blog where he wrote about his writing and trying to find a publisher. We had no way of contacting him after he and his family left their home in Abbotsford last spring so it was wonderful to finally make contact again.

The second letter had been forward to me by Suan from a friend of theirs’ who decried the difficulty of finding a publisher for his two completed novels. In his research, he did learn that publishers of novels prefer writers have experience writing and getting short stories published first, before they will even think of putting into print a novel they have written. So he turned his hand to writing short stories, and much prefers them, and has had one accepted for publication by a Vancouver magazine. So there you have the other side of the story.

I then read Chapter 48 in my novel, which has Cam trying to staunch the flow of blood from Lucy’s stab wound, waiting for ambulance attendants to arrive. Their arrival coincides with that of two police officers who then start asking him questions in a threatening manner, but he is rescued when Tanner and his Mom arrive. He shows Tanner the journal Rick kept detailing the arson fires.

Carolann brought January’s issue of Senior Newsmagazine, in which she had one prose piece and one poem published. Also, two Christmas stories by Gemma were in the same issue. Our girls were on a roll!
Ellie was unable to attend as her son from Toronto was in town and she was having dinner with three of her four sons, always a special treat for her. Elaine emailed that it had been her birthday the day before and her children were coming to celebrate on Thursday, so she was unable to attend.

Next meeting will be here at my place on Thursday, January 17th at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you then whether you have writing of your own to read or not. It’s still important for us to support the ones who have written something, right? May communion with your Muse be long and deep, blessing or curse, as you so choose.

Lisa