THE REVIEW

LAUGHING ALL THE WAY


Margaret was still laughing at Thursday’s meeting about her exploits trying to vote in the civic elections on the 15th of this month. She wrote and sent a letter to the editor at both The Langley Times and The Langley Advance, which I spied in both papers. The mavens in charge of voter registration were making her jump through hoops they couldn’t see to prove who she was and where she lived, just to cast a ballot in voting booths where the pens didn’t work. And her son, with the same last name and the same address, had just voted. Only a writer would laugh at and write about the ambiguity of bureaucracy. Thank God for free speech (press).

Margaret also had a bad bruise on her right arm. There was a paper jam in her photo copier, so she pushed her hand in to pull the paper out, but got stuck. Not able to reach the phone or carry the copier over to it, she resorted to giving her hand a mighty pull and injured herself. Who says writers don’t need WCB coverage? This is dangerous work!

Bob read first, a letter he received in response to his letter he sent to “any Canadian soldier”. The reply that he received was from Lt. Col. Mark John Gendron. He is a legal advisor to the Regional Command in Afghanistan. This is his 3rd deployment overseas, and he has been there this time for almost a year. He is married and lives near Kingston, Ontario. Fascinating.

Bob also read a short piece he had written that day, called “Retirement”. It was an introspective piece musing about how his life had always been too busy to just sit and enjoy watching nature, as he had done for an hour on Thursday. It’s an excellent piece of writing and we encourage him to send it to Today’s Senior Newsmagazine. We could tell Bob put his heart into writing this piece and think he should do more of that.

Margaret re-wrote her chapter “Ghosts”, deleting some names and changing others. She read the second draft for us and we all agreed it reads much better.

I read Chapter 15 from my novel, which has Fiona and Tanner doing dinner at a local restaurant after he gets his car from the impound lot. He is grilling her about the complex she manages, trying to find somewhere to look for the arsonist, some motive for the crime. She takes a call at the end of their dinner, thinking it’s her son asking when she’s coming home. But he’s calling to tell her there’s another fire and #337. Tanner starts to ask her what’s happening, when his own phone rings and he’s told the same thing by the police department.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a short piece called “Nostalgia”, about a New Year’s Eve that Bryon and I listened to old records. Last week I submitted it to Today’s Senior Newsmagazine and hope they will use it for their January issue.

Next meeting here at my place Thursday, December 4th at 7:00 p.m. Really hope to see you then.

Lisa