MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009
Our Holiday get-together last Wednesday was a great little party, and we had way too much food. Bob’s pecan tarts and the salmon & cream cheese spread Gemma brought, made with the salmon Laszlo smoked, stole the show. And there were all sorts of chocolates cookies and nibbles and cheese and crackers, and Tim Horton’s Timbits. The Muse was impressed.
Unfortunately, Anne Berrie and Ann Robertson were both under the weather and unable to join us. Hope both ladies are feeling better.
Margaret read a poem she had written back in the ‘70s when she worked as a copy writer for the Lougheed Mall. It was a takeoff on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’, but written to include the names of all the stores existing at the Mall at that time. Very well done.
Ron read a short story he had written, “A Christmas Miracle in Walnut Grove”. It told of his tennis association showing up just before Christmas to play tennis at a court that was on its last legs and which flooded regularly. He described all the various non-athletes that showed up to play and then were drowned out by freezing rain. On Christmas Day he felt compelled to visit the court and when he arrived he saw 6 new covered courts and all the players showed up to play. “Santa” was an old drinking buddy, Raymond Chan, who worked for the Christmas department of the Chinese Government monitoring the internet for Santa wishes. He had seen Ron’s blog and brought a new product in response, an instant indoor tennis court. Excellent story for Christmas.
Jim brought a printout from the International Pun Contest and I read them all, to many moans after each one.
Some of us had some wine, some had pop and some had water. Then I read Stuart McLean’s “Christmas with the Turlingtons” from his “Secrets From The Vinyl Café”. I was laughing so hard I found it difficult to keep reading. So if your Christmas is short of your expectations, be sure to read this story and re-evaluate.
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, January 6th, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you all then. In the meantime, all our very best wishes to you and yours for a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Lisa and Bryon
Monday, December 21, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
THE REVIEW
CHRISTMAS IS COMING
Seven of us met on Wednesday, and Anne brought some chocolate brownies for us. She won’t be driving for a few weeks after surgery scheduled for Monday, so we won’t see her again until the New Year. We all wish her a speedy recovery.
Margaret read “Ghost In The Waxworks”, the next chapter in Coffin & Dye. Mr. Fox was concerned about the ghost at the wax museum at the Borough of Whistle. He wanted the it identified. He believed it was the ghost of Lucy Walter, the mistress of Charles II. Dye would only allot a week to identify the ghost. Coffin, afraid of ghosts, bought some whiskey to take with him to the Museum after dinner, where he would do a stakeout to catch the ghost.
Margaret is also in further talks with the publisher interested in her book “Blow Up The Castle”. We are all waiting to hear what transpires.
Danny read four pages talking about the time just before his breakdown. He gave us a lot of detail about group therapy, a social worker, anti-depressants, suicidal thoughts, side-effects of meds, suicidal ideation, erectile dysfunction, Viagra (and the opposite problem), girlfriend excluding him, dreading Christmas alone, and more suicidal thoughts. We were shown how thoughts of suicide were underlying everything else in his life.
Bob rewrote his fan letter to the Boston Red Sox and mailed it. We hope he gets a reply.
And then Bob read to us his account of all the electronics failures he and his wife have been plagued with recently. At various times they lost the use of T.V.s, computers and phones. A nightmare, to be sure. And Bob has yet to finish the story for us.
Anne read “Barbie Goes To The Lake”, an epic poem recounting an episode in her childhood when she took Barbie and Ken outside, and got into mischief with her friend Trish. Very comical.
Margaret and Gemma were both published in the December issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine. Margaret’s piece listed some well-known Christmas carols and then gave their history and told who wrote them. Gemma’s story, “A Christmas Present”, was about a hospital worker going home late on a snowy Christmas Eve in Montreal, to find her husband and son waiting for her with the gift of a new puppy. Very touching.
In the January issue of Eclectica Magazine, Jim, Anne and I will all be contributing authors. Jim and I have had short stories accepted, and Anne has two poems accepted. This group is doing very well, indeed.
I showed the group the anthology “Below The Canopy” which I received last week. It included my short piece “His Rant”.
Since Holidays are near, I asked the group if they wanted to have a meeting on the 16th or if they wanted to take a break until the New Year. Consensus was that we would have a little Christmas party on Wednesday, December 16th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. I’ll put out some wine, and everybody will bring something to snack on. Bob said he would make some of his pecan tarts. So be sure to join us that night and we will toast The Muse and be merry and jolly. If you have anything with a Christmas or New Year theme to read, bring it along. And I can always read Stuart McLean’s “Dave Cooks The Turkey” to give us a good laugh. Really hope to see you on the 16th.
Lisa
Seven of us met on Wednesday, and Anne brought some chocolate brownies for us. She won’t be driving for a few weeks after surgery scheduled for Monday, so we won’t see her again until the New Year. We all wish her a speedy recovery.
Margaret read “Ghost In The Waxworks”, the next chapter in Coffin & Dye. Mr. Fox was concerned about the ghost at the wax museum at the Borough of Whistle. He wanted the it identified. He believed it was the ghost of Lucy Walter, the mistress of Charles II. Dye would only allot a week to identify the ghost. Coffin, afraid of ghosts, bought some whiskey to take with him to the Museum after dinner, where he would do a stakeout to catch the ghost.
Margaret is also in further talks with the publisher interested in her book “Blow Up The Castle”. We are all waiting to hear what transpires.
Danny read four pages talking about the time just before his breakdown. He gave us a lot of detail about group therapy, a social worker, anti-depressants, suicidal thoughts, side-effects of meds, suicidal ideation, erectile dysfunction, Viagra (and the opposite problem), girlfriend excluding him, dreading Christmas alone, and more suicidal thoughts. We were shown how thoughts of suicide were underlying everything else in his life.
Bob rewrote his fan letter to the Boston Red Sox and mailed it. We hope he gets a reply.
And then Bob read to us his account of all the electronics failures he and his wife have been plagued with recently. At various times they lost the use of T.V.s, computers and phones. A nightmare, to be sure. And Bob has yet to finish the story for us.
Anne read “Barbie Goes To The Lake”, an epic poem recounting an episode in her childhood when she took Barbie and Ken outside, and got into mischief with her friend Trish. Very comical.
Margaret and Gemma were both published in the December issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine. Margaret’s piece listed some well-known Christmas carols and then gave their history and told who wrote them. Gemma’s story, “A Christmas Present”, was about a hospital worker going home late on a snowy Christmas Eve in Montreal, to find her husband and son waiting for her with the gift of a new puppy. Very touching.
In the January issue of Eclectica Magazine, Jim, Anne and I will all be contributing authors. Jim and I have had short stories accepted, and Anne has two poems accepted. This group is doing very well, indeed.
I showed the group the anthology “Below The Canopy” which I received last week. It included my short piece “His Rant”.
Since Holidays are near, I asked the group if they wanted to have a meeting on the 16th or if they wanted to take a break until the New Year. Consensus was that we would have a little Christmas party on Wednesday, December 16th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. I’ll put out some wine, and everybody will bring something to snack on. Bob said he would make some of his pecan tarts. So be sure to join us that night and we will toast The Muse and be merry and jolly. If you have anything with a Christmas or New Year theme to read, bring it along. And I can always read Stuart McLean’s “Dave Cooks The Turkey” to give us a good laugh. Really hope to see you on the 16th.
Lisa
Saturday, November 21, 2009
THE REVIEW
ECLECTIC
Six of us braved the storm on Wednesday and met to honour The Muse.
Bob was feeling stressed over all the electronics turmoil at his house during the past few weeks. But he phoned me since Wednesday to say his computer is up and running again and he could now receive his email. I told him he must write a story about his computer and T.V. saga of despair.
Margaret read her next chapter in “Coffin & Dye”. Dye had leased a small, shabby office over Reeds Books, for the new partnership of Coffin & Dye, Ghost Eradicators. Coffin was not impressed that Dye had signed a lease for 2 years. However, Dye had also placed an ad in the local paper and their first customer arrived, a Jordan Fox. Margaret has also sent an item to Today’s Seniors Newsmagazine, which she thinks will appear in their December issue.
Ann brought a poem to read that she said was a happy piece compared to the darker ones she had read previously. She read “The Gray Goose Goober”, a humorous animal story in meter and rhyme that illustrates the circle of life and death and also points out the need of animals, too, for familial companionship.
Jason had re-written, again, his Chapter 1 and read it to us. This time it captivated listeners right from the very beginning, portraying a frustrated sexual encounter between Greg and Jodie, and also exposing the fanciful menace that will permeate this urban fantasy he is writing. We were spellbound as he read and we all gave him two thumbs up on it.
Jim read some erotica for seniors, a short story called “Dirty Old Man” which portrays the very lusty sex lives of a married couple in their 80s and the acceptance and emulation of same by all their offspring. Jim also said his story “Janina”, about a young woman’s struggles on a houseboat during a violent storm, has been accepted by Eclectica Magazine for publication in their Issue #7. Congratulations from all of us.
Lastly, I read a new short story I wrote on Monday, “Enemy At The Gate”, a humorous account about disaster striking during the 2010 Winter Games. Everyone laughed at the end, so I think I accomplished what I wanted with it. The next day I submitted it to Eclectica Magazine and it has been accepted for their Issue #8, which comes out Jan. 21st, perfect timing just before the games. Thanks to Jim for their website address.
Next Meeting will be Wednesday, December 2nd, at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Six of us braved the storm on Wednesday and met to honour The Muse.
Bob was feeling stressed over all the electronics turmoil at his house during the past few weeks. But he phoned me since Wednesday to say his computer is up and running again and he could now receive his email. I told him he must write a story about his computer and T.V. saga of despair.
Margaret read her next chapter in “Coffin & Dye”. Dye had leased a small, shabby office over Reeds Books, for the new partnership of Coffin & Dye, Ghost Eradicators. Coffin was not impressed that Dye had signed a lease for 2 years. However, Dye had also placed an ad in the local paper and their first customer arrived, a Jordan Fox. Margaret has also sent an item to Today’s Seniors Newsmagazine, which she thinks will appear in their December issue.
Ann brought a poem to read that she said was a happy piece compared to the darker ones she had read previously. She read “The Gray Goose Goober”, a humorous animal story in meter and rhyme that illustrates the circle of life and death and also points out the need of animals, too, for familial companionship.
Jason had re-written, again, his Chapter 1 and read it to us. This time it captivated listeners right from the very beginning, portraying a frustrated sexual encounter between Greg and Jodie, and also exposing the fanciful menace that will permeate this urban fantasy he is writing. We were spellbound as he read and we all gave him two thumbs up on it.
Jim read some erotica for seniors, a short story called “Dirty Old Man” which portrays the very lusty sex lives of a married couple in their 80s and the acceptance and emulation of same by all their offspring. Jim also said his story “Janina”, about a young woman’s struggles on a houseboat during a violent storm, has been accepted by Eclectica Magazine for publication in their Issue #7. Congratulations from all of us.
Lastly, I read a new short story I wrote on Monday, “Enemy At The Gate”, a humorous account about disaster striking during the 2010 Winter Games. Everyone laughed at the end, so I think I accomplished what I wanted with it. The next day I submitted it to Eclectica Magazine and it has been accepted for their Issue #8, which comes out Jan. 21st, perfect timing just before the games. Thanks to Jim for their website address.
Next Meeting will be Wednesday, December 2nd, at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Friday, November 6, 2009
THE REVIEW
WINTER’S APPROACHING
With both the time change and wet and stormy weather, I’m afraid there’s no stopping Old Man Winter from arriving soon. But the threat of his appearance didn’t stop The Rams from meeting again last Wednesday. There were eight of us here to honour The Muse.
Margaret read first, her second chapter called “A Day Of Judgement”. Coffin has a sleepless night after Dye made him a job offer and arises with a pounding headache. He discovers a message from Dye to say he has leased office space for the ghost hunting business, and asks Coffin to meet him there. Coffin rides his bike over and is quite pleased to find the leased office space is luxurious, and has a gorgeous secretary. When Dye arrives, Coffin tells him, of course he’ll work with him. But then Dye explains that Coffin was at the wrong address. Margaret also had a picture of the Rolls Royce that Dye drives, from the 1930s.
Danny said he is going to chop his long manuscript into 2, and Book 1 will deal with the time he spent on the racing circuit. He read a section of Book 1 called “Taking One For The Team”, which details the lurid sex lives of those who traveled the circuit and congregated on the infield.
Bob wrote a fan letter to Mr. John Henry, principle owner of the Boston Red Sox, telling him why he had been a happy fan since the mid 1940s. Danny thinks the letter will result in Bob receiving some free offering for such long-time loyalty.
I read two items that I will be submitting to the anthology the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group is producing. One was my poem “Sweet Betrayal”, about a man’s obsessive love for a woman who turns on him and kills him, only “she” is the bottle. The second piece was a first person humorous prose piece about my ‘Honey’ finally going to see his cabin up in the Caribou in March one year.
Jim read a chapter from the 3rd book of his trilogy where he introduces a new character who will work for Joseph and his pregnant wife in a company that uses green technology in construction to “better’ the world. The new character is a young Aztec woman who grew up and achieved an education in spite of the racism she experienced where she lived in Mexico. Both the green technology and the issue of racism are timely topics in today’s world. And the way Jim portrayed her first day at a secondary school vividly describes the culture she came from.
Jason, when he first signed on for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, had made an appointment with an agent, but later thought that might be premature and didn’t know how to get out of trying to sell an unfinished product. However, at the conference, he learned the agent was a no-show and he was given a time slot with another agent. But at the meeting, he learned the second agent only handled non-fiction. Strange how prayers are answered. However, he did learn his particular genre is called urban fantasy. Now he has a definite pigeon-hole to define his work.
Gemma’s “Collateral Damage” is in the November issue of Today’s Senior News Magazine. Two thumbs up, Gemma!
Ron had done some research on Hungary from the 1800s and brought a print-out to show Gemma, as he couldn’t read it. It was in Hungarian, and Gemma is our official translator of Hungarian into English.
November 11 is fast approaching. I hope you buy a poppy to remember the fallen and to support the living vets.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Look forward to seeing you then. Bring your Muse, your talent and your love of the literate. I’ll supply ice water to drench all egos and cookies with calories to inflate them back up again.
Lisa
With both the time change and wet and stormy weather, I’m afraid there’s no stopping Old Man Winter from arriving soon. But the threat of his appearance didn’t stop The Rams from meeting again last Wednesday. There were eight of us here to honour The Muse.
Margaret read first, her second chapter called “A Day Of Judgement”. Coffin has a sleepless night after Dye made him a job offer and arises with a pounding headache. He discovers a message from Dye to say he has leased office space for the ghost hunting business, and asks Coffin to meet him there. Coffin rides his bike over and is quite pleased to find the leased office space is luxurious, and has a gorgeous secretary. When Dye arrives, Coffin tells him, of course he’ll work with him. But then Dye explains that Coffin was at the wrong address. Margaret also had a picture of the Rolls Royce that Dye drives, from the 1930s.
Danny said he is going to chop his long manuscript into 2, and Book 1 will deal with the time he spent on the racing circuit. He read a section of Book 1 called “Taking One For The Team”, which details the lurid sex lives of those who traveled the circuit and congregated on the infield.
Bob wrote a fan letter to Mr. John Henry, principle owner of the Boston Red Sox, telling him why he had been a happy fan since the mid 1940s. Danny thinks the letter will result in Bob receiving some free offering for such long-time loyalty.
I read two items that I will be submitting to the anthology the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group is producing. One was my poem “Sweet Betrayal”, about a man’s obsessive love for a woman who turns on him and kills him, only “she” is the bottle. The second piece was a first person humorous prose piece about my ‘Honey’ finally going to see his cabin up in the Caribou in March one year.
Jim read a chapter from the 3rd book of his trilogy where he introduces a new character who will work for Joseph and his pregnant wife in a company that uses green technology in construction to “better’ the world. The new character is a young Aztec woman who grew up and achieved an education in spite of the racism she experienced where she lived in Mexico. Both the green technology and the issue of racism are timely topics in today’s world. And the way Jim portrayed her first day at a secondary school vividly describes the culture she came from.
Jason, when he first signed on for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, had made an appointment with an agent, but later thought that might be premature and didn’t know how to get out of trying to sell an unfinished product. However, at the conference, he learned the agent was a no-show and he was given a time slot with another agent. But at the meeting, he learned the second agent only handled non-fiction. Strange how prayers are answered. However, he did learn his particular genre is called urban fantasy. Now he has a definite pigeon-hole to define his work.
Gemma’s “Collateral Damage” is in the November issue of Today’s Senior News Magazine. Two thumbs up, Gemma!
Ron had done some research on Hungary from the 1800s and brought a print-out to show Gemma, as he couldn’t read it. It was in Hungarian, and Gemma is our official translator of Hungarian into English.
November 11 is fast approaching. I hope you buy a poppy to remember the fallen and to support the living vets.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Look forward to seeing you then. Bring your Muse, your talent and your love of the literate. I’ll supply ice water to drench all egos and cookies with calories to inflate them back up again.
Lisa
Saturday, October 24, 2009
THE REVIEW
IN THE DOGHOUSE
As all our male members started arriving Wednesday, I was afraid I would be the only woman present. But then Margaret and Ann both arrived and we were a total of six men and three women. What an awesome group!
I am in the doghouse for a critique I did of a rewrite Jason sent me of his first two chapters. He said I totally crushed his self-confidence and I am repentant. Since I have never read a single fantasy novel, I have no business critiquing one. According to Ann, this genre is usually written with almost its own vernacular, which I know nothing about. It is a genre I have absolutely no experience with and so I ask if any of our members have resource material for Jason, to please forward it to him. Thank you so much.
I mentioned a Vancouver Sun article about the Kindle, a digital format for reading books. One problem seemed to be that page numbers were not apparent in the application, and so it was difficult to mark how far you had read in a particular novel. Ron did say he thought use of the Kindle in Canada was still not available. Does anybody know for sure about that?
After drawing up a timeline for an anthology that will be produced by the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group, I shared the steps involved. It’s a long process from start to finish.
Margaret read her umpteenth draft of Chapter 1 in “Coffin & Dye”. This draft read extremely well and the chapter unfolds mostly through conversation between the two men, a much better way than the previous narrative form. And of course, Margaret’s detailed descriptions bring that whole place and period of history to life for us.
Danny read his latest composition for his book, trying to verify how the family dynamics and sibling rivalry caused family dysfunction. Any specific problems or incidents mentioned were very interesting, but there needed to be more of them. This piece still needs some work to delete some of the rant and analyzing, and put in more actual people and incidents to help the reader connect with parties involved.
Robin joined us after a long hiatus. He explained with writing he likes to start with poetry and eventually work it into a song. Much of his writing comes from a desire to “play”, and is often light and humourous. He read us a recent poem, “Beware! Toe Shrapnel Flies!”, a funny and very exaggerated account of what happens when he gets his wife to cut his toenails.
Jason read Chapter 4 of his novel, and this account has an angel writing a journal of events, explaining the necessary key had been delivered to the boys. This chapter evoked a lot of interest and supplied suspense. Everyone wanted to know what would happen next.
Ann read a poem entitle “Disclosure”. It is a nineteen year old daughter telling her mother about the sexual abuse she suffered from her father when she was aged 5 to 11, while the mother was often passed out drunk. The mother doesn’t believe her and accuses her of collusion with her sister, saying they are both liars. The mother tells the daughter she has to leave the home. This poem is a very stark portrayal of family trauma and is dynamic enough to win a contest, I’m sure.
Ron read the next chapter in his novel. We see the csendorseg (mounted police in Hungary) confront the protesting peasant farmers’ union. They charge the peasants and a small boy is run down and seriously injured. The policeman responsible stops in concern. The child’s father appears and is distraught. The policeman is ordered by his commander to arrest the father, but refuses to do so and allows the father to leave, carrying his child. (This policeman will also emigrate to Canada.) This was a great way to show the conflict between rich and poor in Hungary.
Jim read his first chapter in his novel “Dimensions”. This portrays a married couple with children fighting and breaking up. But as the husband is now forty, he is “pulled” out of that incarnation and plopped into another. This chapter was well written and much sleeker in the storytelling. Jim said he spent time removing adverbs and adjectives and consequently the story stands up much better.
Also, Jim has kindly forwarded to all an article on manuscript formatting which is well worth reading for anyone submitting their writing to agents or publishers. The competition is fierce, and the formatting of the manuscript is its dress code. If it isn’t dressed properly, it won’t get in the door.
This weekend, Jason and Ron are participants in the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. Hope they get as much as they hoped from it. And I did ask they bring back the free handout information for the rest of us, things like the booklet from the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. It’s always good to have the latest news from local publishers.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, November 4th here at my place at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully Jason will let me out of the doghouse by then. Happy writing in the meantime.
Lisa
As all our male members started arriving Wednesday, I was afraid I would be the only woman present. But then Margaret and Ann both arrived and we were a total of six men and three women. What an awesome group!
I am in the doghouse for a critique I did of a rewrite Jason sent me of his first two chapters. He said I totally crushed his self-confidence and I am repentant. Since I have never read a single fantasy novel, I have no business critiquing one. According to Ann, this genre is usually written with almost its own vernacular, which I know nothing about. It is a genre I have absolutely no experience with and so I ask if any of our members have resource material for Jason, to please forward it to him. Thank you so much.
I mentioned a Vancouver Sun article about the Kindle, a digital format for reading books. One problem seemed to be that page numbers were not apparent in the application, and so it was difficult to mark how far you had read in a particular novel. Ron did say he thought use of the Kindle in Canada was still not available. Does anybody know for sure about that?
After drawing up a timeline for an anthology that will be produced by the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group, I shared the steps involved. It’s a long process from start to finish.
Margaret read her umpteenth draft of Chapter 1 in “Coffin & Dye”. This draft read extremely well and the chapter unfolds mostly through conversation between the two men, a much better way than the previous narrative form. And of course, Margaret’s detailed descriptions bring that whole place and period of history to life for us.
Danny read his latest composition for his book, trying to verify how the family dynamics and sibling rivalry caused family dysfunction. Any specific problems or incidents mentioned were very interesting, but there needed to be more of them. This piece still needs some work to delete some of the rant and analyzing, and put in more actual people and incidents to help the reader connect with parties involved.
Robin joined us after a long hiatus. He explained with writing he likes to start with poetry and eventually work it into a song. Much of his writing comes from a desire to “play”, and is often light and humourous. He read us a recent poem, “Beware! Toe Shrapnel Flies!”, a funny and very exaggerated account of what happens when he gets his wife to cut his toenails.
Jason read Chapter 4 of his novel, and this account has an angel writing a journal of events, explaining the necessary key had been delivered to the boys. This chapter evoked a lot of interest and supplied suspense. Everyone wanted to know what would happen next.
Ann read a poem entitle “Disclosure”. It is a nineteen year old daughter telling her mother about the sexual abuse she suffered from her father when she was aged 5 to 11, while the mother was often passed out drunk. The mother doesn’t believe her and accuses her of collusion with her sister, saying they are both liars. The mother tells the daughter she has to leave the home. This poem is a very stark portrayal of family trauma and is dynamic enough to win a contest, I’m sure.
Ron read the next chapter in his novel. We see the csendorseg (mounted police in Hungary) confront the protesting peasant farmers’ union. They charge the peasants and a small boy is run down and seriously injured. The policeman responsible stops in concern. The child’s father appears and is distraught. The policeman is ordered by his commander to arrest the father, but refuses to do so and allows the father to leave, carrying his child. (This policeman will also emigrate to Canada.) This was a great way to show the conflict between rich and poor in Hungary.
Jim read his first chapter in his novel “Dimensions”. This portrays a married couple with children fighting and breaking up. But as the husband is now forty, he is “pulled” out of that incarnation and plopped into another. This chapter was well written and much sleeker in the storytelling. Jim said he spent time removing adverbs and adjectives and consequently the story stands up much better.
Also, Jim has kindly forwarded to all an article on manuscript formatting which is well worth reading for anyone submitting their writing to agents or publishers. The competition is fierce, and the formatting of the manuscript is its dress code. If it isn’t dressed properly, it won’t get in the door.
This weekend, Jason and Ron are participants in the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. Hope they get as much as they hoped from it. And I did ask they bring back the free handout information for the rest of us, things like the booklet from the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. It’s always good to have the latest news from local publishers.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, November 4th here at my place at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully Jason will let me out of the doghouse by then. Happy writing in the meantime.
Lisa
Friday, October 9, 2009
THE REVIEW
OCTOBER WRITERS
Eight writers convened Wednesday night to deliberate, debate and confabulate the merits of our written words. Ann Berrie was the new face in the crowd and we welcome her to this flock of Rams.
Margaret read first. She had re-written chapter one of “Coffin and Dye”, and now had most of the story told through dialogue as opposed to the former narrative style. Much better flow.
Bob has given up the idea of finishing the complete history of the jewellery business in B.C. and will now concentrate of finishing the sections he is familiar with in manufacturing and retail. He read two paragraphs about the vocation of jewellery sales people and the territories they covered. Another paragraph dealt with the number of watch-maker jewellers who took up their craft on returning to civilian life at the end of WWII and then retired en masse in the 1980s, which resulted in large chain stores stepping in and buying their inventories and locations.
Ron read the rest of the chapter he had started last time. Joseph and his friends are still in Keszthely, Hungary and walk to the monastery where they meet with the booking Agent to learn about emigrating to Canada. They are offered 160 acres of free farmland, but Joseph is skeptical and starts asking questions. What is the winter like? Is the winter longer and the growing season shorter? Has the Agent been to Canada? What are the costs? When are they due? What exactly do they cover? The Agent had answers, but Joseph was still dubious about his honesty.
I read a rhyming poem in Iambic Tetrameter, called “My Lady Muse”, which I wrote that afternoon because I hadn’t written anything else. I did read once that if you are suffering writer’s block, then you can at least write about not writing. So I did.
Jim has outlined the next 4 chapters of “Dimensions”, to carry on from the short story he read last time. He is also working on the trilogy he had already written.
Ann brought two of her poems to share with us, both razor sharp depictions of disturbing images. The first poem, which Jason read, was “From Now On” and is the distressing experience of a young girl being raped and realizing that continuing incestuous abuse would be her fate. The other poem, untitled and not ended, was a stark picture of the victims during the holocaust. These are powerful pieces that need to find a much wider audience to appreciate them.
Gemma brought her poem, “Let It Go”, to read. It is discourse between a single apple and the very old tree that produced it, with the young apple wanting its freedom, but the tree refusing to let go until the fall when its leaves were gone. Parent and child?
After the last meeting, Jim and I did a lot of emailing and online editing of his short story “Dimensions” without using any paper. He emailed the story to me, I turned on Tracking Changes under Tools, made the changes I thought it needed, and emailed it back. When he got it, he went under View and turned on Markup so he could see the changes I’d made, which appeared in red. Then he made more changes and sent it back to me and I turned on Markup and could see my changes in red and his in blue. And for every party that makes changes, another color is used. A very interesting process and good to know.
Gemma also brought submission guideline from Whitmore Publishing, a company accepting submission for standard publishing (not self-publishing or vanity publishing). You can find their guidelines at submissions@whitmorepublishing.com .
Jason was asking for help in understanding more effectively the elements of fantasy fiction novels. If anyone has any resources to share, please contact Jason. His address will be on the email I send with the link to this Review. You can find it by clicking on File and then on Properties.
Next meeting will be here at my place, Wednesday, October 21st at 7:00 p.m. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Eight writers convened Wednesday night to deliberate, debate and confabulate the merits of our written words. Ann Berrie was the new face in the crowd and we welcome her to this flock of Rams.
Margaret read first. She had re-written chapter one of “Coffin and Dye”, and now had most of the story told through dialogue as opposed to the former narrative style. Much better flow.
Bob has given up the idea of finishing the complete history of the jewellery business in B.C. and will now concentrate of finishing the sections he is familiar with in manufacturing and retail. He read two paragraphs about the vocation of jewellery sales people and the territories they covered. Another paragraph dealt with the number of watch-maker jewellers who took up their craft on returning to civilian life at the end of WWII and then retired en masse in the 1980s, which resulted in large chain stores stepping in and buying their inventories and locations.
Ron read the rest of the chapter he had started last time. Joseph and his friends are still in Keszthely, Hungary and walk to the monastery where they meet with the booking Agent to learn about emigrating to Canada. They are offered 160 acres of free farmland, but Joseph is skeptical and starts asking questions. What is the winter like? Is the winter longer and the growing season shorter? Has the Agent been to Canada? What are the costs? When are they due? What exactly do they cover? The Agent had answers, but Joseph was still dubious about his honesty.
I read a rhyming poem in Iambic Tetrameter, called “My Lady Muse”, which I wrote that afternoon because I hadn’t written anything else. I did read once that if you are suffering writer’s block, then you can at least write about not writing. So I did.
Jim has outlined the next 4 chapters of “Dimensions”, to carry on from the short story he read last time. He is also working on the trilogy he had already written.
Ann brought two of her poems to share with us, both razor sharp depictions of disturbing images. The first poem, which Jason read, was “From Now On” and is the distressing experience of a young girl being raped and realizing that continuing incestuous abuse would be her fate. The other poem, untitled and not ended, was a stark picture of the victims during the holocaust. These are powerful pieces that need to find a much wider audience to appreciate them.
Gemma brought her poem, “Let It Go”, to read. It is discourse between a single apple and the very old tree that produced it, with the young apple wanting its freedom, but the tree refusing to let go until the fall when its leaves were gone. Parent and child?
After the last meeting, Jim and I did a lot of emailing and online editing of his short story “Dimensions” without using any paper. He emailed the story to me, I turned on Tracking Changes under Tools, made the changes I thought it needed, and emailed it back. When he got it, he went under View and turned on Markup so he could see the changes I’d made, which appeared in red. Then he made more changes and sent it back to me and I turned on Markup and could see my changes in red and his in blue. And for every party that makes changes, another color is used. A very interesting process and good to know.
Gemma also brought submission guideline from Whitmore Publishing, a company accepting submission for standard publishing (not self-publishing or vanity publishing). You can find their guidelines at submissions@whitmorepublishing.com .
Jason was asking for help in understanding more effectively the elements of fantasy fiction novels. If anyone has any resources to share, please contact Jason. His address will be on the email I send with the link to this Review. You can find it by clicking on File and then on Properties.
Next meeting will be here at my place, Wednesday, October 21st at 7:00 p.m. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Sunday, September 20, 2009
THE REVIEW
SEPTEMBER SEVEN
Wednesday saw another wonderful meeting with seven of us present: Bob, Margaret, Gemma, Jim, Jason, Ron and myself.
Bob has recently read a book called “Sweet Francaise”, about WWII in France. The author died before she finished the book, and the daughter later had it published. But the author had left notes on changes she wanted to make to her manuscript and they were included in the published version as a 16 page appendix. Now that is due diligence as an author, making notes on changes that should be made.
Margaret read her first chapter in her new book, “Coffin and Dye”. These two characters in later life meet up in a fish and chip shop and recall their school days together. We learn Detective Coffin is a widower and that Sir Donald Dye banishes ghosts. The two begin to chat about working together.
Gemma read a personal piece called “Collateral Damage”, about how she incurred her current injuries. She was walking Heidi on a leash when two other dogs approached aggressively and in the turmoil, Gemma still held the leash and ended up on the ground, with back injuries and dog bites. She is slowly recovering and will submit this piece to Today’s Senior Newsmagazine. So keep your eye out for it.
Jim read a revision of “Dimensions”, which he intends to submit to Writers’ Digest Short Story Contest. Some of us made suggestions and Jim has since rewritten again and sent us his 6th draft. The piece has really taken shape.
Ron read Chapter 2 of his novel. We see Joseph deciding to go with other friends to town to meet with an Agent from the North Atlantic Trading Co., who was recruiting immigrants to Canada. The group left early in the morning and walked 4 hours to town. They went first to view the Palace, and became upset with the disparity between rich and poor. In unison, they all peed on the fence.
Jason read us the end section of Chapter 2, still at the funeral reception in the backyard. A stranger with a German accent tells the boys he wants to show them something. Greg follows the stranger, and Dave unwillingly follows his brother. The stranger goes to his car parked on the road, a 1972 Olds Delta 88. He gives the boys a key and tells them to beware the dragon. We tend to feel this is the real beginning of the story as the action draws us right in at this point. Jason said with many rejections already received he needed to rethink his story.
I read the beginning chapter of my new novel, which I’m calling “Murder” as the working title. The first chapter is mostly background info to show setting and main characters from the previous novel now here in this one. But there is mention of a rapist, twice, which is where the mystery begins. I had some interesting experiences doing research. Wanting to know when the MSA News of Abbotsford changed its name to Abbotsford News, I called the paper. Can you believe it? Nobody there could tell me. I then went to the FVR Library and “Ask A Librarian” online. They got back to me the next day. Also wanting to get some info on restoration procedures for smoke damage, I called Edenvale Restoration. They told me to call their head office in Toronto. So I went online and found the info I wanted from another company. Another question I had was where would a seventeen year old from Abbotsford be held in custody after being charged with an offence. Since he was injured before that, I also wanted to know if he would have had a police guard in hospital. My brother put me in touch with a court clerk who canvassed several JPs and co-workers to get me the answers. I have now organized a 3” binder to hold all the pieces I am collecting for this latest literary endeavor.
Susan recently had an article in St. John’s Telegram about the Terry Fox Run, and will have another one on the collapse of the Berlin Wall published soon. She has also sent out two simultaneous submissions for her young adult novel “Geofind”. If you ever want to know anything about Newfoundland, ask Susan. She’s our East Coast Correspondent.
Members present on Wednesday were saying they find it hard to critique effectively without the written version to look at, and would also appreciate having time beforehand to read the pieces being read. Consequently, they have asked that those planning to read please email their chosen writings to them ahead of time. Can that be done?
Next meeting will be at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 7th, here at my place. Really look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Wednesday saw another wonderful meeting with seven of us present: Bob, Margaret, Gemma, Jim, Jason, Ron and myself.
Bob has recently read a book called “Sweet Francaise”, about WWII in France. The author died before she finished the book, and the daughter later had it published. But the author had left notes on changes she wanted to make to her manuscript and they were included in the published version as a 16 page appendix. Now that is due diligence as an author, making notes on changes that should be made.
Margaret read her first chapter in her new book, “Coffin and Dye”. These two characters in later life meet up in a fish and chip shop and recall their school days together. We learn Detective Coffin is a widower and that Sir Donald Dye banishes ghosts. The two begin to chat about working together.
Gemma read a personal piece called “Collateral Damage”, about how she incurred her current injuries. She was walking Heidi on a leash when two other dogs approached aggressively and in the turmoil, Gemma still held the leash and ended up on the ground, with back injuries and dog bites. She is slowly recovering and will submit this piece to Today’s Senior Newsmagazine. So keep your eye out for it.
Jim read a revision of “Dimensions”, which he intends to submit to Writers’ Digest Short Story Contest. Some of us made suggestions and Jim has since rewritten again and sent us his 6th draft. The piece has really taken shape.
Ron read Chapter 2 of his novel. We see Joseph deciding to go with other friends to town to meet with an Agent from the North Atlantic Trading Co., who was recruiting immigrants to Canada. The group left early in the morning and walked 4 hours to town. They went first to view the Palace, and became upset with the disparity between rich and poor. In unison, they all peed on the fence.
Jason read us the end section of Chapter 2, still at the funeral reception in the backyard. A stranger with a German accent tells the boys he wants to show them something. Greg follows the stranger, and Dave unwillingly follows his brother. The stranger goes to his car parked on the road, a 1972 Olds Delta 88. He gives the boys a key and tells them to beware the dragon. We tend to feel this is the real beginning of the story as the action draws us right in at this point. Jason said with many rejections already received he needed to rethink his story.
I read the beginning chapter of my new novel, which I’m calling “Murder” as the working title. The first chapter is mostly background info to show setting and main characters from the previous novel now here in this one. But there is mention of a rapist, twice, which is where the mystery begins. I had some interesting experiences doing research. Wanting to know when the MSA News of Abbotsford changed its name to Abbotsford News, I called the paper. Can you believe it? Nobody there could tell me. I then went to the FVR Library and “Ask A Librarian” online. They got back to me the next day. Also wanting to get some info on restoration procedures for smoke damage, I called Edenvale Restoration. They told me to call their head office in Toronto. So I went online and found the info I wanted from another company. Another question I had was where would a seventeen year old from Abbotsford be held in custody after being charged with an offence. Since he was injured before that, I also wanted to know if he would have had a police guard in hospital. My brother put me in touch with a court clerk who canvassed several JPs and co-workers to get me the answers. I have now organized a 3” binder to hold all the pieces I am collecting for this latest literary endeavor.
Susan recently had an article in St. John’s Telegram about the Terry Fox Run, and will have another one on the collapse of the Berlin Wall published soon. She has also sent out two simultaneous submissions for her young adult novel “Geofind”. If you ever want to know anything about Newfoundland, ask Susan. She’s our East Coast Correspondent.
Members present on Wednesday were saying they find it hard to critique effectively without the written version to look at, and would also appreciate having time beforehand to read the pieces being read. Consequently, they have asked that those planning to read please email their chosen writings to them ahead of time. Can that be done?
Next meeting will be at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 7th, here at my place. Really look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Saturday, September 5, 2009
THE REVIEW
ADVERSARIAL ADVERBS
Jason, Ron, Bob, Jim, Danny and Margaret all joined me Wednesday night for another awesome meeting. They just keep getting better and better, both the meetings and the writers. Unfortunately, Gemma was unable to join us as she is recovering from injuries recently suffered handling her dog. Bob and Jim returned copies of her manuscript after reading it, and I have those copies here. We hope Gemma is feeling better and will be able to join us again soon.
I started the meeting with my latest news. My short story, “His Rant”, was short-listed in the Polar Expressions contest, and consequently will be included in their anthology “Beneath The Canopy”. This story was written several years ago when we were drawing weekly writing prompts from The Bucket, and this prompt was about somebody living over a 3-car garage. I tweaked it so the word count worked for the contest, and there you have it. Don’t throw out anything you write. You never know when some opportunity may arise for submitting it.
Margaret read the Epilogue from “Blow Up The Castle”, which tells us what happened to the three reverends after 1936. During WWII and after, their lives changed considerably. Rev. Peabody and Marie married and went to live with his nephew Hamish, in the castle. Rev. Peasly emigrated to Canada after Barker died. And Rev. Peacock, Marigold, and Joey the parrot moved to the seaside. All three reverends passed away on the same day. And those walking the beach can still hear Joey calling “Blow up the castle!”
Danny read his chapter “Did It Hurt Right Away?” While working the Nascar infield, Danny suffered a badly broken left foot when a 400 lb. battleaxe (I don’t know what that is?) fell on it. This chapter gave us very graphic descriptions of the pain and gory medical procedures when the bones became infected. Fortunately, Danny still has his foot, attached to his leg, that is.
Ron read us his Chapter 1, where we are introduced to Joseph and his wife, Julia, in Hungary. They are farmers, in their fifties, with five children aged 12 to 21. Although they own some land of their own, they work for a large farm to earn enough to support themselves. We see them cutting the grain with scythes, the method of harvest at that time. But Joseph is told there won’t be much work the coming year, as the large farm is bringing in machinery to do what many men did by hand. That’s when the decision is made to emigrate to Canada, where free land is being offered.
Jason read us Chapter 3 of his novel. The setting is the reception after the funeral. The father removes himself from the crowd and sits alone. Laura plays hostess to a number of elderly friends of the deceased. The two sons behave like typical teenaged boys. Greg is snarky to his father. Dave criticizes him. The two argue. Greg is hot for Jody, a neighbourhood girl, and he asks her if she believes in heaven. This is a difficult question for her as her parents are both dead. The two wrestle, but Dave interrupts them. This chapter shows us more of the family dynamics.
Jim shared with us five different drafts of the same sentence, where he was trying to eliminate adverbs. The original sentence was: When she quickly turned her head, her hair seemed to stretch and elongate then as quickly return to its tightly packed state as her curls fought centrifugal force. The final sentence read: With each quick turn of the head, her hair stretched and elongated then snapped back to its original state. What a process rewriting can be! We agreed maybe we should all go and read some Hemingway to learn about succinct condensation of verbiage. Jim admitted he had just reread “The Old Man And The Sea”. Hilarious. The following is Jim’s journaling about being plagued by adverbs:
Adverbs are my enemy! As soon as I wrestle one to the ground there is another before me, taunting. It is a never-ending fight and I tire of the battle. What else can I do? I struggle on and on, forcing one to submit and then another.
One day I will defeat them! I will complete a manuscript barren of the (bloody) buggers. Then I will laugh at them, when I have faced them all down.
Right on, Jim. We’re all behind you!
Bob didn’t have time to write anything between baseball games, but he kindly fixed glasses of ice water, and served cookies and banana bread for me. He is always a help in that department. Many thanks.
And thanks to all those who donated for the domain name. Much appreciated.
Next meeting will be here at my place at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 16th. Hope to see you then, and by all means, bring your Muse.
Lisa
Jason, Ron, Bob, Jim, Danny and Margaret all joined me Wednesday night for another awesome meeting. They just keep getting better and better, both the meetings and the writers. Unfortunately, Gemma was unable to join us as she is recovering from injuries recently suffered handling her dog. Bob and Jim returned copies of her manuscript after reading it, and I have those copies here. We hope Gemma is feeling better and will be able to join us again soon.
I started the meeting with my latest news. My short story, “His Rant”, was short-listed in the Polar Expressions contest, and consequently will be included in their anthology “Beneath The Canopy”. This story was written several years ago when we were drawing weekly writing prompts from The Bucket, and this prompt was about somebody living over a 3-car garage. I tweaked it so the word count worked for the contest, and there you have it. Don’t throw out anything you write. You never know when some opportunity may arise for submitting it.
Margaret read the Epilogue from “Blow Up The Castle”, which tells us what happened to the three reverends after 1936. During WWII and after, their lives changed considerably. Rev. Peabody and Marie married and went to live with his nephew Hamish, in the castle. Rev. Peasly emigrated to Canada after Barker died. And Rev. Peacock, Marigold, and Joey the parrot moved to the seaside. All three reverends passed away on the same day. And those walking the beach can still hear Joey calling “Blow up the castle!”
Danny read his chapter “Did It Hurt Right Away?” While working the Nascar infield, Danny suffered a badly broken left foot when a 400 lb. battleaxe (I don’t know what that is?) fell on it. This chapter gave us very graphic descriptions of the pain and gory medical procedures when the bones became infected. Fortunately, Danny still has his foot, attached to his leg, that is.
Ron read us his Chapter 1, where we are introduced to Joseph and his wife, Julia, in Hungary. They are farmers, in their fifties, with five children aged 12 to 21. Although they own some land of their own, they work for a large farm to earn enough to support themselves. We see them cutting the grain with scythes, the method of harvest at that time. But Joseph is told there won’t be much work the coming year, as the large farm is bringing in machinery to do what many men did by hand. That’s when the decision is made to emigrate to Canada, where free land is being offered.
Jason read us Chapter 3 of his novel. The setting is the reception after the funeral. The father removes himself from the crowd and sits alone. Laura plays hostess to a number of elderly friends of the deceased. The two sons behave like typical teenaged boys. Greg is snarky to his father. Dave criticizes him. The two argue. Greg is hot for Jody, a neighbourhood girl, and he asks her if she believes in heaven. This is a difficult question for her as her parents are both dead. The two wrestle, but Dave interrupts them. This chapter shows us more of the family dynamics.
Jim shared with us five different drafts of the same sentence, where he was trying to eliminate adverbs. The original sentence was: When she quickly turned her head, her hair seemed to stretch and elongate then as quickly return to its tightly packed state as her curls fought centrifugal force. The final sentence read: With each quick turn of the head, her hair stretched and elongated then snapped back to its original state. What a process rewriting can be! We agreed maybe we should all go and read some Hemingway to learn about succinct condensation of verbiage. Jim admitted he had just reread “The Old Man And The Sea”. Hilarious. The following is Jim’s journaling about being plagued by adverbs:
Adverbs are my enemy! As soon as I wrestle one to the ground there is another before me, taunting. It is a never-ending fight and I tire of the battle. What else can I do? I struggle on and on, forcing one to submit and then another.
One day I will defeat them! I will complete a manuscript barren of the (bloody) buggers. Then I will laugh at them, when I have faced them all down.
Right on, Jim. We’re all behind you!
Bob didn’t have time to write anything between baseball games, but he kindly fixed glasses of ice water, and served cookies and banana bread for me. He is always a help in that department. Many thanks.
And thanks to all those who donated for the domain name. Much appreciated.
Next meeting will be here at my place at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 16th. Hope to see you then, and by all means, bring your Muse.
Lisa
Sunday, August 23, 2009
THE REVIEW
WE’RE A TEN!
Ten of us met Wednesday night for another exciting meeting of dedicated scribes. Norah Dunlop and Ron Young were two new faces. Welcome to the fold.
I started by telling everyone the September issue of Writers’ Digest has a lot of excellent material in it. There is a list of agents looking for new writers. There are some very good sample Query letters. And there are several articles looking at various aspects of memoir writing. Worth picking up a copy if any of those topics interest you. I also put out a number of writing resource books that I am willing to lend, but I did ask for a list of who took what as I don’t want to lose any of them in the process.
Jim said he had been inspired to write a short story after receiving two emails requesting submissions that I had forwarded. His story was called “Dimensions”, and Danny read it aloud so Jim could hear how it sounded. It is about a male who changes realities every time he reaches his 40th birthday. That is when he is removed from that lifetime and plunked into another where he begins again at age 16. The story has him leaving a wife and 2 children when he turns 40. But before he is inserted into his next 24 year lifespan, there is a glitch and he wakes up beside a beautiful woman whom he wants to make love to. In this short lifespan, we see him trying to find some coffee and trying to figure out how the appliances work, since all these daily essentials are different with each incarnation. But very suddenly he is removed and wakes up at age 16, on a farm, where he toils till he’s 40. He wants to, and tries to commit suicide, but is unable to accomplish his desire. So he works the farm till his next transition. Fascinating theory. Jim says he is also half way through the 2nd draft of his novel.
Margaret read us the last chapter of “Blow Up The Castle”. The clergy of the area have come to Castle Hall to meet and listen to the Bishop, whom most of them have never met. Unfortunately, Rev. Peacock had to bring Joey, his parrot, with him and he was hidden under the reverend’s coat. As the meeting progressed, Joey looked out from under the coat and all the clergy, dressed in black and white, appeared to him to be penguins. On seeing a model of a clipper ship resembling one blown up by pirates, Joey immediately assumed the worst and screamed “Blow up the Castle!” The Hall was evacuated in five minutes flat. Margaret said she has a publisher currently reading her story collection. We all have our fingers crossed for her.
Ron read from his first draft of a novel about Hungarian ancestors who immigrated to Canada around the late 1800s and early 1900s, entitle “Of Stalwart Peasants”. Ron read his prologue, about Alistair MacArthur’s career as press secretary for Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior. It was Sifton’s idea to populate the prairies with immigrant farmers, ideally eastern European Slavic peasants who could settle and work and farm, which caused a great deal of controversy among the predominantly English population that existed outside of Quebec at the time. There was a great deal of relevant Canadian history in this prologue, and fascinating to us listeners.
Danny read the prologue from his book. We hear he is seriously depressed and suicidal after his breakup with his love interest. He unscrews the gas line where she lives. Suddenly there are the sirens of police cars and fire trucks. He is in the midst of a breakdown. Then Danny read the next paragraph, which tells us he was born August 14, 1959, the oldest of eight. Danny’s writing is very gritty and to the point, portraying the pain and angst of what he was going through.
Bob had some more writing about the history of B.C.’s jewellery business to read. This chapter is about the salespeople who worked in the trade and traveled the province during the last century, which could be a difficult process. In 1958 they formed the B.C. Chapter of the Canadian Jewllery Travellers Association, which eventually organized jewellery buying shows, which brought the buyers to them instead. In 1987 their show was the first event held in the new Canada Place Convention Centre. But the show in 1995 was their last.
Jason read his 2nd Chapter. We see the funeral for Iris, who passed away. Her great grandsons are teenagers, not really wanting to be there. Greg is bored and wants to be gone. Dave is more spiritual, and asks for the appearance of an angel. Outside, he sees a form take shape from the dust, but his father calls him and says he can drive the car. His mother’s thoughts are all about the details of catering to all the guests after the funeral. This was a good chapter for showing us the family setup of characters we assume will be major players in the novel.
Gemma brought copies of her book, “What Heidi Knows”, and asked for some volunteer readers. Bob and Jim each took a copy and we look forward to their views about this dog story. Gemma also has a poem accepted for the anthology being put out by Polar Expressions. Congratulations.
Lynette and Norah and I didn’t read anything. But we sure enjoyed listening to everything. Maybe we’ll read next time.
The contest deadline for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference is 4:00 p.m., Friday, September 4th. You can find contest guidelines at www.siwc.ca
Next meeting will be here at my place on Wednesday, September 2nd at 7:00 p.m. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Ten of us met Wednesday night for another exciting meeting of dedicated scribes. Norah Dunlop and Ron Young were two new faces. Welcome to the fold.
I started by telling everyone the September issue of Writers’ Digest has a lot of excellent material in it. There is a list of agents looking for new writers. There are some very good sample Query letters. And there are several articles looking at various aspects of memoir writing. Worth picking up a copy if any of those topics interest you. I also put out a number of writing resource books that I am willing to lend, but I did ask for a list of who took what as I don’t want to lose any of them in the process.
Jim said he had been inspired to write a short story after receiving two emails requesting submissions that I had forwarded. His story was called “Dimensions”, and Danny read it aloud so Jim could hear how it sounded. It is about a male who changes realities every time he reaches his 40th birthday. That is when he is removed from that lifetime and plunked into another where he begins again at age 16. The story has him leaving a wife and 2 children when he turns 40. But before he is inserted into his next 24 year lifespan, there is a glitch and he wakes up beside a beautiful woman whom he wants to make love to. In this short lifespan, we see him trying to find some coffee and trying to figure out how the appliances work, since all these daily essentials are different with each incarnation. But very suddenly he is removed and wakes up at age 16, on a farm, where he toils till he’s 40. He wants to, and tries to commit suicide, but is unable to accomplish his desire. So he works the farm till his next transition. Fascinating theory. Jim says he is also half way through the 2nd draft of his novel.
Margaret read us the last chapter of “Blow Up The Castle”. The clergy of the area have come to Castle Hall to meet and listen to the Bishop, whom most of them have never met. Unfortunately, Rev. Peacock had to bring Joey, his parrot, with him and he was hidden under the reverend’s coat. As the meeting progressed, Joey looked out from under the coat and all the clergy, dressed in black and white, appeared to him to be penguins. On seeing a model of a clipper ship resembling one blown up by pirates, Joey immediately assumed the worst and screamed “Blow up the Castle!” The Hall was evacuated in five minutes flat. Margaret said she has a publisher currently reading her story collection. We all have our fingers crossed for her.
Ron read from his first draft of a novel about Hungarian ancestors who immigrated to Canada around the late 1800s and early 1900s, entitle “Of Stalwart Peasants”. Ron read his prologue, about Alistair MacArthur’s career as press secretary for Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior. It was Sifton’s idea to populate the prairies with immigrant farmers, ideally eastern European Slavic peasants who could settle and work and farm, which caused a great deal of controversy among the predominantly English population that existed outside of Quebec at the time. There was a great deal of relevant Canadian history in this prologue, and fascinating to us listeners.
Danny read the prologue from his book. We hear he is seriously depressed and suicidal after his breakup with his love interest. He unscrews the gas line where she lives. Suddenly there are the sirens of police cars and fire trucks. He is in the midst of a breakdown. Then Danny read the next paragraph, which tells us he was born August 14, 1959, the oldest of eight. Danny’s writing is very gritty and to the point, portraying the pain and angst of what he was going through.
Bob had some more writing about the history of B.C.’s jewellery business to read. This chapter is about the salespeople who worked in the trade and traveled the province during the last century, which could be a difficult process. In 1958 they formed the B.C. Chapter of the Canadian Jewllery Travellers Association, which eventually organized jewellery buying shows, which brought the buyers to them instead. In 1987 their show was the first event held in the new Canada Place Convention Centre. But the show in 1995 was their last.
Jason read his 2nd Chapter. We see the funeral for Iris, who passed away. Her great grandsons are teenagers, not really wanting to be there. Greg is bored and wants to be gone. Dave is more spiritual, and asks for the appearance of an angel. Outside, he sees a form take shape from the dust, but his father calls him and says he can drive the car. His mother’s thoughts are all about the details of catering to all the guests after the funeral. This was a good chapter for showing us the family setup of characters we assume will be major players in the novel.
Gemma brought copies of her book, “What Heidi Knows”, and asked for some volunteer readers. Bob and Jim each took a copy and we look forward to their views about this dog story. Gemma also has a poem accepted for the anthology being put out by Polar Expressions. Congratulations.
Lynette and Norah and I didn’t read anything. But we sure enjoyed listening to everything. Maybe we’ll read next time.
The contest deadline for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference is 4:00 p.m., Friday, September 4th. You can find contest guidelines at www.siwc.ca
Next meeting will be here at my place on Wednesday, September 2nd at 7:00 p.m. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Saturday, August 8, 2009
THE REVIEW
THE SONG OF SEVEN SCRIBES
There were seven of us again on Wednesday, all eager to meet and share with other writers. Gemma wasn’t able to attend, but Danny Halmo joined us for the first time, so we were still seven in number.
Margaret read first, her second to last chapter in the Peabody series. In ‘The Bishop’, we hear that Mr. Lamb, the farmer, is depressed about the loss of his still. The innkeeper tells him about a recipe that doesn’t require machinery to make, and so Mr. Lamb makes a concoction he calls ‘The Bishop’, and then puts up a sign inviting everyone to come and ‘enjoy The Bishop’. Marie sees the sign and rushes home to tell Rev. Peabody that the Bishop is staying at Mr. Lamb’s farm, instead of with them at the manse. Rev. Peabody thanks God for small miracles, as now he won’t have to give in to Marie and renovate the manse to accommodate such an esteemed guest.
Lynette read us “Who Is Salome?”, a lot of background information she had gathered after seeing the Strauss opera. But we were concerned that Lynette was only recapping what others had done, rather than telling us what she thought the story was really about. And we all encouraged her to write her own version, giving today’s world the female perspective of this character.
Danny read from his autobiography “One Flew Over The Racer’s Nest”. In the year 2000, he had a fight with his brother Tom, at Easter. Five days later Tom was in a car accident and ends up hospitalized. Shortly after that, Danny’s friend Walt was driving, drunk, and also badly injured in an accident. He is hospitalized two beds away from Tom. Unfortunately, Walt never recovered and died a year later.
Danny also read two poems from his book. ‘Les Miserables’ was about being on suicide watch while in jail in protective custody, awaiting transfer to a medical facility. ‘Hey Buddy’ was about finally being able to get over an ex-girlfriend with the help of friends.
Jason read to us a rewrite of his prologue, which strives to give us the context of the world where his novel takes place, an imperative in fantasy novels. As listeners, we thought things were a little slow until the arrival of the dragon and all the fire and action thereafter. I think Jim was the only listener who had read any fantasy, so the rest of us didn’t really know how much validity the change of prologue would have. I don’t know if we were any help at all.
Jim read to us further along in his first chapter, where Joseph sits down beside Daniella at the tennis club. He feels attracted to her and loves the fluidity of her long dark curls when she moves. But at the entrance of his former tennis partner, whom he had hurt, he feels obligated to take her to lunch and gets up and leaves. Daniella heard him admit he hurt the other woman, and is impressed he wants to make amends. She thinks she should ask him out on a date herself.
Bob didn’t have anything to read and nor did I. Maybe next time. Jim and Danny both have said they want to hear something Bob has written about the jewellery business.
I recently had a manuscript printed up down at Staples and found it to be a good solution. The manuscript was an MS Word document burned to a CD, 229 pages in length, double spaced. I took the CD down, and they printed the manuscript at $0.08 a page for that number of pages, which turned out to be less in cost than buying an ink cartridge and doing it myself at home. And the finished product came in a box, something to remember when you need a manuscript box for shipping. They also have a lot of options for binding, as well. So if you are thinking of putting together a publication of your own, be sure to go down and pick up their brochure.
Regarding Susan’s young adult novel on geo-caching, it was interesting to note that an activity now offered by Langley City is a family Saturday course on learning to geo-cache. I still think there’s a growing market for her novel.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, August 19th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Bring your Muse and I look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
There were seven of us again on Wednesday, all eager to meet and share with other writers. Gemma wasn’t able to attend, but Danny Halmo joined us for the first time, so we were still seven in number.
Margaret read first, her second to last chapter in the Peabody series. In ‘The Bishop’, we hear that Mr. Lamb, the farmer, is depressed about the loss of his still. The innkeeper tells him about a recipe that doesn’t require machinery to make, and so Mr. Lamb makes a concoction he calls ‘The Bishop’, and then puts up a sign inviting everyone to come and ‘enjoy The Bishop’. Marie sees the sign and rushes home to tell Rev. Peabody that the Bishop is staying at Mr. Lamb’s farm, instead of with them at the manse. Rev. Peabody thanks God for small miracles, as now he won’t have to give in to Marie and renovate the manse to accommodate such an esteemed guest.
Lynette read us “Who Is Salome?”, a lot of background information she had gathered after seeing the Strauss opera. But we were concerned that Lynette was only recapping what others had done, rather than telling us what she thought the story was really about. And we all encouraged her to write her own version, giving today’s world the female perspective of this character.
Danny read from his autobiography “One Flew Over The Racer’s Nest”. In the year 2000, he had a fight with his brother Tom, at Easter. Five days later Tom was in a car accident and ends up hospitalized. Shortly after that, Danny’s friend Walt was driving, drunk, and also badly injured in an accident. He is hospitalized two beds away from Tom. Unfortunately, Walt never recovered and died a year later.
Danny also read two poems from his book. ‘Les Miserables’ was about being on suicide watch while in jail in protective custody, awaiting transfer to a medical facility. ‘Hey Buddy’ was about finally being able to get over an ex-girlfriend with the help of friends.
Jason read to us a rewrite of his prologue, which strives to give us the context of the world where his novel takes place, an imperative in fantasy novels. As listeners, we thought things were a little slow until the arrival of the dragon and all the fire and action thereafter. I think Jim was the only listener who had read any fantasy, so the rest of us didn’t really know how much validity the change of prologue would have. I don’t know if we were any help at all.
Jim read to us further along in his first chapter, where Joseph sits down beside Daniella at the tennis club. He feels attracted to her and loves the fluidity of her long dark curls when she moves. But at the entrance of his former tennis partner, whom he had hurt, he feels obligated to take her to lunch and gets up and leaves. Daniella heard him admit he hurt the other woman, and is impressed he wants to make amends. She thinks she should ask him out on a date herself.
Bob didn’t have anything to read and nor did I. Maybe next time. Jim and Danny both have said they want to hear something Bob has written about the jewellery business.
I recently had a manuscript printed up down at Staples and found it to be a good solution. The manuscript was an MS Word document burned to a CD, 229 pages in length, double spaced. I took the CD down, and they printed the manuscript at $0.08 a page for that number of pages, which turned out to be less in cost than buying an ink cartridge and doing it myself at home. And the finished product came in a box, something to remember when you need a manuscript box for shipping. They also have a lot of options for binding, as well. So if you are thinking of putting together a publication of your own, be sure to go down and pick up their brochure.
Regarding Susan’s young adult novel on geo-caching, it was interesting to note that an activity now offered by Langley City is a family Saturday course on learning to geo-cache. I still think there’s a growing market for her novel.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, August 19th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Bring your Muse and I look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Sunday, July 26, 2009
THE REVIEW
SUMMER TALES
Wednesday’s meeting saw seven of us gather to shoot the breeze, spin the yarn, and frolic in the fiction. An awesome good time!
Jason Vance was a new face. He’s writing a fantasy series based on the theme that because heaven is boring, individuals are allowed to experience the drama they crave by incarnating in physical existence where they are challenged by the illusion of so-called reality. The story includes characters and a dragon, entities lost on the astral plane, a murder, and an out-of-body experience. The first book is called “A Rude Awakening”, and is complete. Jason is looking to start submissions.
I read my Synopsis for “Fire”, and also my query letter to an agent (who rejected my ms.), as Jason said he would like to hear how I had written these two items.
Jim rewrote his first chapter 5 times after the last meeting, and read his revised beginning, with the focus now mostly on Joseph, through his own point of view, and also through that of his housekeeper. It more clearly stresses his mental illness, which is what catches the reader. Jim said he had also written a short story, and we hope to hear it sometime.
Margaret read her second to last chapter from “Blow Up The Castle!”, where nobody knows for sure if the Bishop is coming to visit, or where he is staying. Mr. Lamb, the sheep farmer who now has no still, brews up a new concoction he calls the 'Bishop', and puts up a sign inviting everyone to meet the 'Bishop' at his place. Marie thinks the real Bishop is going to stay with Mr. Lamb. Of course, Reverend Peabody is relieved that the Bishop is staying elsewhere, as he does not want to give in to Marie's demands the manse be updated and prettied up.
Bob is still watching baseball. He came all dressed up and looking spiffy, on his way back from a memorial service in Chilliwack.
Gemma has finished doing her re-writing of “Heidi Knows”, and says that’s it. No more. She’s tired of working on that story and will now turn her attention to other writing.
Lynette attended on Wednesday, and we were so pleased to see her after such a long time. She said she’s finally doing some writing again. She recently saw a play about Salome, and was struck that all the works about this Biblical character have been written by men. She really wants to write something that will give a needed comment from the female perspective.
We had some discussion about what constitutes the criteria for a Young Adult novel. I remember Susan researching this when she was here, and the main rule is that the protagonist must be in the age group of 13-18, and navigating the transition from childhood to adulthood. It is usually first or third person point of view. Average length is 40,000 to 75,000 words. It does not contain erotica, and any profanity must be used sparingly. And it is wise not to beat the readers over the head with moralizing. Teenagers are pretty savvy and they can slam a book shut as well as they can slam the door.
Next meeting will be here at my place on Wednesday, August 5th at 7:00 p.m. and I hope to see you then. And in the meantime, don’t melt in the heat wave.
Lisa
Wednesday’s meeting saw seven of us gather to shoot the breeze, spin the yarn, and frolic in the fiction. An awesome good time!
Jason Vance was a new face. He’s writing a fantasy series based on the theme that because heaven is boring, individuals are allowed to experience the drama they crave by incarnating in physical existence where they are challenged by the illusion of so-called reality. The story includes characters and a dragon, entities lost on the astral plane, a murder, and an out-of-body experience. The first book is called “A Rude Awakening”, and is complete. Jason is looking to start submissions.
I read my Synopsis for “Fire”, and also my query letter to an agent (who rejected my ms.), as Jason said he would like to hear how I had written these two items.
Jim rewrote his first chapter 5 times after the last meeting, and read his revised beginning, with the focus now mostly on Joseph, through his own point of view, and also through that of his housekeeper. It more clearly stresses his mental illness, which is what catches the reader. Jim said he had also written a short story, and we hope to hear it sometime.
Margaret read her second to last chapter from “Blow Up The Castle!”, where nobody knows for sure if the Bishop is coming to visit, or where he is staying. Mr. Lamb, the sheep farmer who now has no still, brews up a new concoction he calls the 'Bishop', and puts up a sign inviting everyone to meet the 'Bishop' at his place. Marie thinks the real Bishop is going to stay with Mr. Lamb. Of course, Reverend Peabody is relieved that the Bishop is staying elsewhere, as he does not want to give in to Marie's demands the manse be updated and prettied up.
Bob is still watching baseball. He came all dressed up and looking spiffy, on his way back from a memorial service in Chilliwack.
Gemma has finished doing her re-writing of “Heidi Knows”, and says that’s it. No more. She’s tired of working on that story and will now turn her attention to other writing.
Lynette attended on Wednesday, and we were so pleased to see her after such a long time. She said she’s finally doing some writing again. She recently saw a play about Salome, and was struck that all the works about this Biblical character have been written by men. She really wants to write something that will give a needed comment from the female perspective.
We had some discussion about what constitutes the criteria for a Young Adult novel. I remember Susan researching this when she was here, and the main rule is that the protagonist must be in the age group of 13-18, and navigating the transition from childhood to adulthood. It is usually first or third person point of view. Average length is 40,000 to 75,000 words. It does not contain erotica, and any profanity must be used sparingly. And it is wise not to beat the readers over the head with moralizing. Teenagers are pretty savvy and they can slam a book shut as well as they can slam the door.
Next meeting will be here at my place on Wednesday, August 5th at 7:00 p.m. and I hope to see you then. And in the meantime, don’t melt in the heat wave.
Lisa
Sunday, July 12, 2009
THE REVIEW
BACK IN PRODUCTION
Wednesday’s meeting was exciting, with five of us here, and after a month without a meeting. Gemma has decided to come back to our meetings after taking a long break to recover from injuries sustained in a car accident. And we have a new member, Jim Williams, who attended Wednesday as well. Jim has written an exceptionally long novel he is turning into a trilogy, and wants some serious feedback on his endeavors. Welcome, Jim, to the fold.
I shared some pictures and a note received from our dear Susan out in Newfoundland. There was an awesome picture of her and Chris with their five offspring, and a cute one of Declan with a hockey stick, standing by the net. As soon as school was out, they were all heading to Lancashire, England to visit Chris’s birthplace.
Sylvia Taylor attended a recent meeting of the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group, and talked about the publishing industry, the function of editors, and the basics of acceptable prose. She said the U.S. publishing industry has been in free fall since last year and the economic downturn, and that American agents and publishers are NOT accepting any new writers. But the Canadian publishing industry has still been plugging along, the same as always, as Canadians are wont to do, not huge or mega-successful, but still viable. Unfortunately, that means American agents and writers now have their eyes on getting published up here. Where is Canada Customs when you need them?
On the subject of what editors or contest judges look for, these are the points she stressed, in order of importance:
- Formatting of manuscripts!!! (double spaced, 12 point font, acceptable margins all around, pages numbered top right, title & author name & date top left every page, except for blind contest entries)
- Punctuation
- Language
- Point of view (only one per scene if using multiple points of view)
- Tenses
- Descriptions
- Dialogue
- Character development
- Show, don’t tell
- Story arc
- Weaving of plot and sub-plots
- Showing character remembering, or thinking, or use of flashbacks.
Sylvia also said that she is judging a novel writing contest back east this summer and with over a hundred novels to consider, there is a system judges tend to follow. They read the first page, the last page, and maybe every fortieth page in between to check for story arc.So there you have the latest info from somebody in the know
Jim was the first to read from his novel, “Power Tends To Corrupt”. Book One of his trilogy is “Joseph And Daniela”. In the first chapter we are introduced to Joseph, cutting back on his meds in order to fuel his obsession for writing. He wants control of the creative process, which he doesn’t have taking medication for a mental illness that is hinted at, but not clinically defined. Jim does a good job of showing Joseph’s teeter-tottering between reality and illusion, and how members of his household react. We look forward to meeting Daniela, the other protagonist in this story.
Margaret read another story from her Peabody collection we are now calling “Blow Up The Castle!”. The latest story is “Sheep Dip”, and tells of two detectives going to visit Mr. Lamb after his still blew up. He steadfastly maintains he was only brewing sheep dip, and that was what blew up. Margaret is almost at the end of the Peabody collection and is already planning another series of stories about a detective. Go, Margaret!
Gemma has done a lot of thinking and revising of her canine novel “What Heidi Knows”. She will use points of view of two different dogs, Heidi and Checkmate, and will title chapters/sections based on periods of history (ie: ‘Age of Innocence’).
Bob and I did not have anything of our own to read. I think Bob’s been watching baseball, and I’ve been very busy typing a manuscript for another writer.
Meetings this month are a little out of whack since the first Wednesday was a holiday. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, July 22nd at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then, and be sure to bring your Muse.
Lisa
Wednesday’s meeting was exciting, with five of us here, and after a month without a meeting. Gemma has decided to come back to our meetings after taking a long break to recover from injuries sustained in a car accident. And we have a new member, Jim Williams, who attended Wednesday as well. Jim has written an exceptionally long novel he is turning into a trilogy, and wants some serious feedback on his endeavors. Welcome, Jim, to the fold.
I shared some pictures and a note received from our dear Susan out in Newfoundland. There was an awesome picture of her and Chris with their five offspring, and a cute one of Declan with a hockey stick, standing by the net. As soon as school was out, they were all heading to Lancashire, England to visit Chris’s birthplace.
Sylvia Taylor attended a recent meeting of the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group, and talked about the publishing industry, the function of editors, and the basics of acceptable prose. She said the U.S. publishing industry has been in free fall since last year and the economic downturn, and that American agents and publishers are NOT accepting any new writers. But the Canadian publishing industry has still been plugging along, the same as always, as Canadians are wont to do, not huge or mega-successful, but still viable. Unfortunately, that means American agents and writers now have their eyes on getting published up here. Where is Canada Customs when you need them?
On the subject of what editors or contest judges look for, these are the points she stressed, in order of importance:
- Formatting of manuscripts!!! (double spaced, 12 point font, acceptable margins all around, pages numbered top right, title & author name & date top left every page, except for blind contest entries)
- Punctuation
- Language
- Point of view (only one per scene if using multiple points of view)
- Tenses
- Descriptions
- Dialogue
- Character development
- Show, don’t tell
- Story arc
- Weaving of plot and sub-plots
- Showing character remembering, or thinking, or use of flashbacks.
Sylvia also said that she is judging a novel writing contest back east this summer and with over a hundred novels to consider, there is a system judges tend to follow. They read the first page, the last page, and maybe every fortieth page in between to check for story arc.So there you have the latest info from somebody in the know
Jim was the first to read from his novel, “Power Tends To Corrupt”. Book One of his trilogy is “Joseph And Daniela”. In the first chapter we are introduced to Joseph, cutting back on his meds in order to fuel his obsession for writing. He wants control of the creative process, which he doesn’t have taking medication for a mental illness that is hinted at, but not clinically defined. Jim does a good job of showing Joseph’s teeter-tottering between reality and illusion, and how members of his household react. We look forward to meeting Daniela, the other protagonist in this story.
Margaret read another story from her Peabody collection we are now calling “Blow Up The Castle!”. The latest story is “Sheep Dip”, and tells of two detectives going to visit Mr. Lamb after his still blew up. He steadfastly maintains he was only brewing sheep dip, and that was what blew up. Margaret is almost at the end of the Peabody collection and is already planning another series of stories about a detective. Go, Margaret!
Gemma has done a lot of thinking and revising of her canine novel “What Heidi Knows”. She will use points of view of two different dogs, Heidi and Checkmate, and will title chapters/sections based on periods of history (ie: ‘Age of Innocence’).
Bob and I did not have anything of our own to read. I think Bob’s been watching baseball, and I’ve been very busy typing a manuscript for another writer.
Meetings this month are a little out of whack since the first Wednesday was a holiday. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, July 22nd at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then, and be sure to bring your Muse.
Lisa
Sunday, June 7, 2009
THE REVIEW
HEAT WAVE
Wednesday’s meeting was in the middle of the heat wave, but there were four of us here enjoying my air conditioning anyhow. Gemma arrived first, bringing a gorgeous orchid plant in apology for her long absence. We were thrilled to see her. And our faithful cohorts, Bob and Margaret, also attended.
Gemma wants to enter two contests, one at Polar Express and one at the Poetry Institute of Canada. She plans on sending one poem and one short story to each. With her short story “Out Of Order”, Gemma had to cut back the word count, and read to us her revision. If anything, it sounded even more powerful recounting a child choosing death rather than an upbringing in a convent when her own mother doesn’t want her. Gemma also read to us her short story “The Chase”, a humourous account of an escaped white pet mouse taking refuge in a mother’s purse. Because her boys are so upset at losing the mouse, she goes shopping for another one, but at the pet store the original mouse appears and is finally apprehended by the Mom. Gemma and I also exchanged finished novels for each other to read.
Margaret had her article “Gibsons” published in the June edition of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine. It tells of how friends she met while vacationing there during the summer later introduced Margaret to the man she married.
Margaret read a prologue she had written for her Peabody collection. It tells of the three reverends meeting at Cambridge University and becoming fast friends. They went their separate ways after graduating, but later all came together while officiating at three different churches in Wickerton. After some discussion, the title “Blow Up The Castle!” was chosen for Margaret’s collection of stories. That was the command often repeated by Joey, the parrot.
The next chapter “New Year’s Eve” was read by Margaret. Mr. Lamb, the sheep farmer, was bottling his distilled whiskey for their dinner guests up at the house, the three reverends. Mr. Lamb was sampling as he bottled. Mrs. Lamb wanted her guests to use noisemakers at midnight, when the church bell was supposed to ring. But there was a very loud explosion instead when the still blew up.
I read a revised story of mine called “His Rant”, which had been written when we took subject matter from ‘the bucket’. This is the story I entered in the contest at Polar Express. I did receive a rejection from the first agent I queried about my novel. Have to look for others to approach. The latest issue of “Writers’ Digest” suggests sending multiple submissions to agents, rather than one at a time.
Bob said he hadn’t done any writing as he’s been so busy, and of course, it’s baseball season, too.
As Margaret’s going on vacation, and the first Wednesday in July is a holiday, our next meeting isn’t scheduled until Wednesday, July 8th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Would love to see you then.
Happy Writing!
Lisa
Wednesday’s meeting was in the middle of the heat wave, but there were four of us here enjoying my air conditioning anyhow. Gemma arrived first, bringing a gorgeous orchid plant in apology for her long absence. We were thrilled to see her. And our faithful cohorts, Bob and Margaret, also attended.
Gemma wants to enter two contests, one at Polar Express and one at the Poetry Institute of Canada. She plans on sending one poem and one short story to each. With her short story “Out Of Order”, Gemma had to cut back the word count, and read to us her revision. If anything, it sounded even more powerful recounting a child choosing death rather than an upbringing in a convent when her own mother doesn’t want her. Gemma also read to us her short story “The Chase”, a humourous account of an escaped white pet mouse taking refuge in a mother’s purse. Because her boys are so upset at losing the mouse, she goes shopping for another one, but at the pet store the original mouse appears and is finally apprehended by the Mom. Gemma and I also exchanged finished novels for each other to read.
Margaret had her article “Gibsons” published in the June edition of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine. It tells of how friends she met while vacationing there during the summer later introduced Margaret to the man she married.
Margaret read a prologue she had written for her Peabody collection. It tells of the three reverends meeting at Cambridge University and becoming fast friends. They went their separate ways after graduating, but later all came together while officiating at three different churches in Wickerton. After some discussion, the title “Blow Up The Castle!” was chosen for Margaret’s collection of stories. That was the command often repeated by Joey, the parrot.
The next chapter “New Year’s Eve” was read by Margaret. Mr. Lamb, the sheep farmer, was bottling his distilled whiskey for their dinner guests up at the house, the three reverends. Mr. Lamb was sampling as he bottled. Mrs. Lamb wanted her guests to use noisemakers at midnight, when the church bell was supposed to ring. But there was a very loud explosion instead when the still blew up.
I read a revised story of mine called “His Rant”, which had been written when we took subject matter from ‘the bucket’. This is the story I entered in the contest at Polar Express. I did receive a rejection from the first agent I queried about my novel. Have to look for others to approach. The latest issue of “Writers’ Digest” suggests sending multiple submissions to agents, rather than one at a time.
Bob said he hadn’t done any writing as he’s been so busy, and of course, it’s baseball season, too.
As Margaret’s going on vacation, and the first Wednesday in July is a holiday, our next meeting isn’t scheduled until Wednesday, July 8th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Would love to see you then.
Happy Writing!
Lisa
Sunday, May 24, 2009
RAM'S HEAD REVIEW
SPRING IS SPRUNG
Wednesday’s meeting saw the faithful trio of Bob, Margaret and myself here to share our writing pursuits.
Bob is going to submit his story “Going Downtown” to the short story contest at the Poetry Institute of Canada. He brought it along and asked for help in re-writing it for submission. So we read the story aloud and verbally edited every paragraph and ended up with a version that satisfied the three of us. Great fun. But that only worked because Bob had brought a hard copy for each of us to look at. Smart man.
Margaret read two chapters from the Peabody collection. Peacock is interviewing applicant number five for the position of his housekeeper. Her name is Mrs. Mousley, but she was scared off when Joey started crying like a cat, a habit he picked up while visiting Marigold. Mrs. Mousley was afraid of cats. But she had suspiciously reminded Peacock of Goldie, as in Goldie and Sylvester, who had bombed the Inn on Guy Fawkes Day. Then Rev. Peasley visits and strongly advises Peacock not to hire applicant number six, as she is Miss Dye, who had talked to the town about the resident ghosts of the area. Peacock doesn’t believe in ghosts. But Miss Dye likes Joey, his parrot, so he hires her. She then asks him to call her by her first name, which just happens to be “Marigold”.
I read a short story by a writer at the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group, about a young girl growing up in Jamaica and staying at a boarding school. The girl and her sister and a friend had to take their dirty clothes and linens each Saturday to the on-site laundry, where they were terrified by the mechanic who looked after the boilers and equipment. This was an actual memoir and very interesting to read.
Last week I sent off a short story submission to Polar Express. Am also organizing things for the next novel I will write, putting together a binder with sections for character development, plot outline, chapter outline, research, and the actual writing I will do. This is something I learned I need while doing the first novel. It certainly simplifies the work process and is a great aid when I can’t remember how I spelled somebody’s name or in which chapter something specific happened. No problem with a short story, but by the time I had over a hundred pages in my novel, it was a real nuisance trying to find something. The chapter outline I did after writing each one became invaluable to me when I did the rewriting.
Hope everybody is enjoying the gorgeous spring weather that has finally arrived. It was sure a long time coming this year. Now we can take our notebooks outside to write!
Next meeting here at my place on Wednesday, June 3rd at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you then. Happy Writing!
Lisa
Wednesday’s meeting saw the faithful trio of Bob, Margaret and myself here to share our writing pursuits.
Bob is going to submit his story “Going Downtown” to the short story contest at the Poetry Institute of Canada. He brought it along and asked for help in re-writing it for submission. So we read the story aloud and verbally edited every paragraph and ended up with a version that satisfied the three of us. Great fun. But that only worked because Bob had brought a hard copy for each of us to look at. Smart man.
Margaret read two chapters from the Peabody collection. Peacock is interviewing applicant number five for the position of his housekeeper. Her name is Mrs. Mousley, but she was scared off when Joey started crying like a cat, a habit he picked up while visiting Marigold. Mrs. Mousley was afraid of cats. But she had suspiciously reminded Peacock of Goldie, as in Goldie and Sylvester, who had bombed the Inn on Guy Fawkes Day. Then Rev. Peasley visits and strongly advises Peacock not to hire applicant number six, as she is Miss Dye, who had talked to the town about the resident ghosts of the area. Peacock doesn’t believe in ghosts. But Miss Dye likes Joey, his parrot, so he hires her. She then asks him to call her by her first name, which just happens to be “Marigold”.
I read a short story by a writer at the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group, about a young girl growing up in Jamaica and staying at a boarding school. The girl and her sister and a friend had to take their dirty clothes and linens each Saturday to the on-site laundry, where they were terrified by the mechanic who looked after the boilers and equipment. This was an actual memoir and very interesting to read.
Last week I sent off a short story submission to Polar Express. Am also organizing things for the next novel I will write, putting together a binder with sections for character development, plot outline, chapter outline, research, and the actual writing I will do. This is something I learned I need while doing the first novel. It certainly simplifies the work process and is a great aid when I can’t remember how I spelled somebody’s name or in which chapter something specific happened. No problem with a short story, but by the time I had over a hundred pages in my novel, it was a real nuisance trying to find something. The chapter outline I did after writing each one became invaluable to me when I did the rewriting.
Hope everybody is enjoying the gorgeous spring weather that has finally arrived. It was sure a long time coming this year. Now we can take our notebooks outside to write!
Next meeting here at my place on Wednesday, June 3rd at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you then. Happy Writing!
Lisa
Sunday, May 10, 2009
THE REVIEW
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Since I didn’t write a Review after our meeting in April, I will have to include news from two meetings this time.
On April 1st, Bob and Margaret joined me and Margaret was the only one who read. From the Peabody collection, she read “The Intruder”, which sees Marie come back to the smelly manse after staying overnight at the Inn. She opens the doors and windows to air the place out, then goes to get eggs at a farm. Meanwhile, Peabody gets up to a cold house and calls police to say there’s been an intruder, and the policeman tells Marie, who thinks it’s bad luck because the Xmas tree was removed before New Year’s. Peabody tells her he feels guilty for removing the tree, so then she feels sorry for him and puts the kettle on.
In Seniors Today, there was an article called “Just for Laughs” by Laszlo Tamas, Gemma’s husband.
On May 6th, Bob and Margaret again joined me for another meeting. Margaret brought pictures showing a brass plaque that’s on a pole in Vancouver. The plaque has Margaret’s story “Dinner At Love’s Café” on it. Isn’t that a great way of preserving an author’s work?
Bob read from his jewellery history, about the hub of the business being in the area of Hastings St. and Cordova. There was a very large diamond robbery on 1906, with $8500.00 in rings stolen, and a shot fired at a clerk pursuing the thieves. One thief was caught with 9 diamonds in the butt of a revolver. Bob also read an account of this episode from the Vancouver archives.
Margaret read about Reverend Peacock’s Christmas at Marigold’s in Gretna Green. Unfortunately, he fell out of the hole in the wall bed and Marigold called a vet to attend to his injuries. The vet was more interested in Joey, the squawking parrot. On his return home, he started interviewing for a new housekeeper. He kept praying for another Marigold.
While Sonny and Chantal and baby Grayson stayed with me in April, I asked Chantal to read my novel “Fire”, which she did. She said it was a good read and she really wanted to learn the identity of the arsonist. She also said there weren’t any parts in the book that she felt she had to slog through. This was all very pleasing for me to hear. Chantal is well educated and an avid reader of fiction, so I highly respect her opinion as a reader. After that good news, I sent off my first submission to an agent, which included cover letter, synopsis, and first two chapters.
Now I am getting organized to start another novel. I plan to continue with the same characters in the same setting, but this will be a murder mystery.
Ann is currently taking a course in the History of Africa at Kwantlen, and plans to take a creative writing course in the fall. Her community hosted a talk by Doris Reidwig about having her first novel published.
In yesterday’s Langley Times there was a call for submissions of poetry or short stories to a contest where a lot of submissions will be included in an anthology. You might want to take a look.
Next meeting here at my place on Wednesday, May 20th at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you then, even if you haven’t written anything.
Lisa
Since I didn’t write a Review after our meeting in April, I will have to include news from two meetings this time.
On April 1st, Bob and Margaret joined me and Margaret was the only one who read. From the Peabody collection, she read “The Intruder”, which sees Marie come back to the smelly manse after staying overnight at the Inn. She opens the doors and windows to air the place out, then goes to get eggs at a farm. Meanwhile, Peabody gets up to a cold house and calls police to say there’s been an intruder, and the policeman tells Marie, who thinks it’s bad luck because the Xmas tree was removed before New Year’s. Peabody tells her he feels guilty for removing the tree, so then she feels sorry for him and puts the kettle on.
In Seniors Today, there was an article called “Just for Laughs” by Laszlo Tamas, Gemma’s husband.
On May 6th, Bob and Margaret again joined me for another meeting. Margaret brought pictures showing a brass plaque that’s on a pole in Vancouver. The plaque has Margaret’s story “Dinner At Love’s Café” on it. Isn’t that a great way of preserving an author’s work?
Bob read from his jewellery history, about the hub of the business being in the area of Hastings St. and Cordova. There was a very large diamond robbery on 1906, with $8500.00 in rings stolen, and a shot fired at a clerk pursuing the thieves. One thief was caught with 9 diamonds in the butt of a revolver. Bob also read an account of this episode from the Vancouver archives.
Margaret read about Reverend Peacock’s Christmas at Marigold’s in Gretna Green. Unfortunately, he fell out of the hole in the wall bed and Marigold called a vet to attend to his injuries. The vet was more interested in Joey, the squawking parrot. On his return home, he started interviewing for a new housekeeper. He kept praying for another Marigold.
While Sonny and Chantal and baby Grayson stayed with me in April, I asked Chantal to read my novel “Fire”, which she did. She said it was a good read and she really wanted to learn the identity of the arsonist. She also said there weren’t any parts in the book that she felt she had to slog through. This was all very pleasing for me to hear. Chantal is well educated and an avid reader of fiction, so I highly respect her opinion as a reader. After that good news, I sent off my first submission to an agent, which included cover letter, synopsis, and first two chapters.
Now I am getting organized to start another novel. I plan to continue with the same characters in the same setting, but this will be a murder mystery.
Ann is currently taking a course in the History of Africa at Kwantlen, and plans to take a creative writing course in the fall. Her community hosted a talk by Doris Reidwig about having her first novel published.
In yesterday’s Langley Times there was a call for submissions of poetry or short stories to a contest where a lot of submissions will be included in an anthology. You might want to take a look.
Next meeting here at my place on Wednesday, May 20th at 7:00 p.m. Hope to see you then, even if you haven’t written anything.
Lisa
Sunday, March 22, 2009
THE REVIEW
SPRING AHEAD
Wednesday’s meeting was just ahead of the first day of spring. We were a group of four; Robin, Bob, Margaret and I. It was great to see Robin again.
Bob had been doing some more research regarding his memoirs of the WWII years. He went looking for the ship that transported Canadian soldiers to Hong Kong. He found a picture of the HMT Awatea on which the soldiers traveled. Bob thinks it was a New Zealand ship. They were brought home later on the CN ship Prince Robert.
Trying to decide how to write his novel, Bob is taking inspiration from Marcia Muller’s collection of short stories, “Somewhere In The City”. He says he wants to write a series of short stories that include the same main characters, in different vignettes. But Bob feels he must first complete his history of the jewellery business in B.C. and consequently brought an excerpt on Zuker and Company to read to us.
Robin’s had time to work on some songs while he’s been recovering from his knee replacement surgery. He brought along the typed lyrics to “Little Glass House By The Sea”, a rousing ballad about a young man in love with the women down on the beach. Then Robin gave us the CD to play, with the recorded song on it. Very interesting. And as well, Robin turned on my electric keyboard and played a bit for us. Another song Robin has been working on for years is “No Someone”. It is a very sad song about a man not having someone to ask “Do you love me?” anymore.
Margaret read another story from her Peabody collection. Rev. Peasly and his dog, Barker, go to visit Rev. Peabody, who confides that Marie has called him an old fogey. Peasly tells him it’s a type of compliment. Barker sniffs at the Christmas tree, which is the one stolen from Peasly’s yard and then sold to Peacock, who gave it to Peabody. But Barker was happy to recognize it and lifted his leg against it in greeting. Peasly and Peabody try to clean up and get rid of the smell of urine by turfing the tree out in the yard. Marie comes home and is disgusted by the smell of urine and goes to stay at the Inn.
Time had flown and I didn’t read any Chapters from my novel, but I am working on the Chapter Outline, which I could use for a longer synopsis by simply removing chapter headings from the document. Will see how this works out.
Next Meeting Wednesday, April 1st at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then.
Lisa
Wednesday’s meeting was just ahead of the first day of spring. We were a group of four; Robin, Bob, Margaret and I. It was great to see Robin again.
Bob had been doing some more research regarding his memoirs of the WWII years. He went looking for the ship that transported Canadian soldiers to Hong Kong. He found a picture of the HMT Awatea on which the soldiers traveled. Bob thinks it was a New Zealand ship. They were brought home later on the CN ship Prince Robert.
Trying to decide how to write his novel, Bob is taking inspiration from Marcia Muller’s collection of short stories, “Somewhere In The City”. He says he wants to write a series of short stories that include the same main characters, in different vignettes. But Bob feels he must first complete his history of the jewellery business in B.C. and consequently brought an excerpt on Zuker and Company to read to us.
Robin’s had time to work on some songs while he’s been recovering from his knee replacement surgery. He brought along the typed lyrics to “Little Glass House By The Sea”, a rousing ballad about a young man in love with the women down on the beach. Then Robin gave us the CD to play, with the recorded song on it. Very interesting. And as well, Robin turned on my electric keyboard and played a bit for us. Another song Robin has been working on for years is “No Someone”. It is a very sad song about a man not having someone to ask “Do you love me?” anymore.
Margaret read another story from her Peabody collection. Rev. Peasly and his dog, Barker, go to visit Rev. Peabody, who confides that Marie has called him an old fogey. Peasly tells him it’s a type of compliment. Barker sniffs at the Christmas tree, which is the one stolen from Peasly’s yard and then sold to Peacock, who gave it to Peabody. But Barker was happy to recognize it and lifted his leg against it in greeting. Peasly and Peabody try to clean up and get rid of the smell of urine by turfing the tree out in the yard. Marie comes home and is disgusted by the smell of urine and goes to stay at the Inn.
Time had flown and I didn’t read any Chapters from my novel, but I am working on the Chapter Outline, which I could use for a longer synopsis by simply removing chapter headings from the document. Will see how this works out.
Next Meeting Wednesday, April 1st at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then.
Lisa
Sunday, March 8, 2009
THE REVIEW
NEW OPPORTUNITIES
It was great to hear Susan’s voice again when I listened to her on CBC Radio on February 26th. She was a guest commentator on The Point and along with Kevin Paterson, offered her opinions on the federal government’s increased sentences for violence in public places, on the validity of zoos in today’s world, on giving things up for Lent, and on stem cell research. It was an hour long program and a lot was discussed. And it was mentioned several times that Susan was a writer and a mother of five. The latter seemed to be the bigger claim to fame on the show. Hoorah for Motherhood!
The expected opening of a new book store in Chilliwack by a lady keen to support and promote local authors is generating excitement, especially since she asked I forward the notice of same to our members. Bryon and I hope to go out to visit when it opens, and Gemma has asked to go with us as she has a book she would like to take out to put in the store on consignment.
Bob started writing his first fiction novel, “The Consultant”. He said it was really difficult and knowing you are supposed to catch the reader with the first paragraph he wrote four versions of same and was still stumped. Margaret and I went through a process of elimination on the four, and picked what we thought was the best one to use as it started directly with some action, rather than background information. We did tell Bob not to worry about perfection to begin with, just to write. It can all be improved later for a better read, but you should first get the story down on paper.
Margaret was doing some research on Gretna Green. When she Googled it, all she got was one sentence. When she pulled out her own very old encyclopedia she found a whole page of information. She feels sorry for today’s researchers relying on the internet and feels they are being shortchanged on historical facts.
In her Peabody collection, Margaret read that Rev. Peabody was remembering his experience of Christmas with so many houseguests. He had not felt obligated to conduct a funeral service for the dead spider. And he did not admit finding the cat with the rat’s remains. Hamish did tell him he should take a wife to prevent himself from becoming an old fogey. Peabody tells Marie he has an important question to ask her. She thinks he’s going to propose. But he only asks if he’s on old fogey.
I read the next chapter from “Fire”, where Cam is at work at the bowling alley Saturday morning, with all the little hooligans. Lucy’s brother, Rick, arrives and threatens to hurt Cam’s Mom if she doesn’t stay away from the Detective.
Last week I finished the rewrite of my novel, so am now looking at starting to send it out. I have a one-page synopsis, but still need to write a longer one. Am currently typing up my chapter outline, which I may be able to use for the longer synopsis. It’s annoying that different agents and publishers want it in different lengths.
I explained to Bryon that I had a one-page synopsis, but needed to do a twenty-page synopsis, and maybe one in-between. Being an engineer, he came up with the most practical, time saving solution. “Just change the font,” he said.
Next meeting here at my place Wednesday, March 18th at 7:00 p.m. Would love to see you then.
Lisa
It was great to hear Susan’s voice again when I listened to her on CBC Radio on February 26th. She was a guest commentator on The Point and along with Kevin Paterson, offered her opinions on the federal government’s increased sentences for violence in public places, on the validity of zoos in today’s world, on giving things up for Lent, and on stem cell research. It was an hour long program and a lot was discussed. And it was mentioned several times that Susan was a writer and a mother of five. The latter seemed to be the bigger claim to fame on the show. Hoorah for Motherhood!
The expected opening of a new book store in Chilliwack by a lady keen to support and promote local authors is generating excitement, especially since she asked I forward the notice of same to our members. Bryon and I hope to go out to visit when it opens, and Gemma has asked to go with us as she has a book she would like to take out to put in the store on consignment.
Bob started writing his first fiction novel, “The Consultant”. He said it was really difficult and knowing you are supposed to catch the reader with the first paragraph he wrote four versions of same and was still stumped. Margaret and I went through a process of elimination on the four, and picked what we thought was the best one to use as it started directly with some action, rather than background information. We did tell Bob not to worry about perfection to begin with, just to write. It can all be improved later for a better read, but you should first get the story down on paper.
Margaret was doing some research on Gretna Green. When she Googled it, all she got was one sentence. When she pulled out her own very old encyclopedia she found a whole page of information. She feels sorry for today’s researchers relying on the internet and feels they are being shortchanged on historical facts.
In her Peabody collection, Margaret read that Rev. Peabody was remembering his experience of Christmas with so many houseguests. He had not felt obligated to conduct a funeral service for the dead spider. And he did not admit finding the cat with the rat’s remains. Hamish did tell him he should take a wife to prevent himself from becoming an old fogey. Peabody tells Marie he has an important question to ask her. She thinks he’s going to propose. But he only asks if he’s on old fogey.
I read the next chapter from “Fire”, where Cam is at work at the bowling alley Saturday morning, with all the little hooligans. Lucy’s brother, Rick, arrives and threatens to hurt Cam’s Mom if she doesn’t stay away from the Detective.
Last week I finished the rewrite of my novel, so am now looking at starting to send it out. I have a one-page synopsis, but still need to write a longer one. Am currently typing up my chapter outline, which I may be able to use for the longer synopsis. It’s annoying that different agents and publishers want it in different lengths.
I explained to Bryon that I had a one-page synopsis, but needed to do a twenty-page synopsis, and maybe one in-between. Being an engineer, he came up with the most practical, time saving solution. “Just change the font,” he said.
Next meeting here at my place Wednesday, March 18th at 7:00 p.m. Would love to see you then.
Lisa
Sunday, February 22, 2009
THE REVIEW
STILL WRITING
Bob and Margaret and I were still the only ones present at our meeting on Wednesday. Does that mean we’re the only ones still writing?
Bob is recovering slowly from surgery he had 2 weeks ago, but was able to complete the piece he was writing about his memories of the WWII years. He read about seeing an aircraft carrier in Vancouver harbour, a small one that only carried 5 or 6 planes. He told us the allied invasion of Normandy was called Operation Overload. The Canadian infantry spent the winter of 1944-45 in Holland. CPR steamships ran the ferry to Victoria as part of the transcontinental railway system. In 1944 patients from Shaughnessy Military Hospital were seen in Bob’s neighbourhood. On April 12, 1945 there was an assembly at school because Roosevelt died. On May 6, 1945 the war was over in Europe. After the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945. That fall Bob was sent to a boarding school where the cadets wore uniforms that were old leftovers from the Boer war. He remembers taking a trip with his parents from Ontario to Detroit to Chicago and a train trip on the Golden State Railway which traveled on the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railway Line (AT&SF). He loved that name.
Margaret read “The Royal Bedroom”. Marie was reading the Christmas mail and learned that Hamish and his wife Matilda and their adopted son, Gaylord and his two pets were coming to visit Rev. Peabody for Christmas. Marie had already invited her own son and daughter-in-law and their two children and two pets. Where would they all sleep? Rev. Peabody found her in the office as she was planning to turn it into an extra bedroom. He wanted to know if she was cooking supper as they hadn’t had any lunch.
Then Margaret read the next chapter, “Dear Diary”. Marie is writing in her diary about the Christmas holidays they had with seven guests and four pets. The remains of Mandrake, the English black rat, were found in front of Angora, one of the cats. Aristotle, the second cat, attacked the turkey. Gooseberry, the 8 legged spider in the canning jar got loose and Rev. Peabody stepped on him. Marie was relieved to see that for the next Christmas, they were invited to the Flemish castle with Hamish and Matilda to celebrate.
I read Chapter 17 in my novel. Fiona woke up Saturday morning on Easter weekend, thinking she’d have the day to herself. She heard Cam leave for work. She relaxed over coffee and remembered her years with her husband before he died, and then saw how lucky her job in the complex was as it enabled her to be close by for Cam as she was working. She couldn’t do anything more about the arson fires until Monday or Tuesday and she planned to have dinner at home that night with her son. Then she checked telephone messages and learned an emergency Council meeting had been called for that afternoon to discuss the fires and she would have to attend.
Next Meeting on Wednesday, March 4th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then.
Lisa
Bob and Margaret and I were still the only ones present at our meeting on Wednesday. Does that mean we’re the only ones still writing?
Bob is recovering slowly from surgery he had 2 weeks ago, but was able to complete the piece he was writing about his memories of the WWII years. He read about seeing an aircraft carrier in Vancouver harbour, a small one that only carried 5 or 6 planes. He told us the allied invasion of Normandy was called Operation Overload. The Canadian infantry spent the winter of 1944-45 in Holland. CPR steamships ran the ferry to Victoria as part of the transcontinental railway system. In 1944 patients from Shaughnessy Military Hospital were seen in Bob’s neighbourhood. On April 12, 1945 there was an assembly at school because Roosevelt died. On May 6, 1945 the war was over in Europe. After the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945. That fall Bob was sent to a boarding school where the cadets wore uniforms that were old leftovers from the Boer war. He remembers taking a trip with his parents from Ontario to Detroit to Chicago and a train trip on the Golden State Railway which traveled on the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railway Line (AT&SF). He loved that name.
Margaret read “The Royal Bedroom”. Marie was reading the Christmas mail and learned that Hamish and his wife Matilda and their adopted son, Gaylord and his two pets were coming to visit Rev. Peabody for Christmas. Marie had already invited her own son and daughter-in-law and their two children and two pets. Where would they all sleep? Rev. Peabody found her in the office as she was planning to turn it into an extra bedroom. He wanted to know if she was cooking supper as they hadn’t had any lunch.
Then Margaret read the next chapter, “Dear Diary”. Marie is writing in her diary about the Christmas holidays they had with seven guests and four pets. The remains of Mandrake, the English black rat, were found in front of Angora, one of the cats. Aristotle, the second cat, attacked the turkey. Gooseberry, the 8 legged spider in the canning jar got loose and Rev. Peabody stepped on him. Marie was relieved to see that for the next Christmas, they were invited to the Flemish castle with Hamish and Matilda to celebrate.
I read Chapter 17 in my novel. Fiona woke up Saturday morning on Easter weekend, thinking she’d have the day to herself. She heard Cam leave for work. She relaxed over coffee and remembered her years with her husband before he died, and then saw how lucky her job in the complex was as it enabled her to be close by for Cam as she was working. She couldn’t do anything more about the arson fires until Monday or Tuesday and she planned to have dinner at home that night with her son. Then she checked telephone messages and learned an emergency Council meeting had been called for that afternoon to discuss the fires and she would have to attend.
Next Meeting on Wednesday, March 4th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then.
Lisa
Sunday, February 8, 2009
THE REVIEW
WEDNESDAY’S CHILD
We have moved our Meetings to the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month and hope that might make it possible for more to attend. According to the nursery rhyme, “Wednesday’s child is full of woe”. But the original version from 1887 had “Wednesday’s child is loving and giving”. So whatever inspires your writing, pain or pleasure, Wednesday can handle it all!
Bob had written more about his childhood memories during WWII. He did some research on Zombies and Zoot Suiters. Zombies were draftees in the army as non-fighting forces. Zoot Suiters wore a strange fashion made in Chinatown with high-waisted baggy-bottom trousers that had a very narrow cuff. The jackets were very long, double breasted, and had padded shoulders. Bob also had many pictures of aircraft used during WWII and we enjoyed looking at them.
Margaret read “Bearer Of Gifts” from her Peabody collection. The farmer, Mr. Lamb, who raises sheep, noticed that somebody stole all his mistletoe. Peabody went to cut down a Xmas tree but found somebody else had already cut it down and it was gone. Then Rev. Peacock answered his door and from a young boy, bought a Xmas tree and some mistletoe, which, because he was going away to visit Marigold for Xmas, he then gave to Peabody.
Margaret and I both received our copies of “Summer Tapestry”, an anthology which includes our short stories; my “The Perfect Size” and Margaret’s “The Assignment”. Nice to see my name in a book instead of a newspaper or magazine. Is that a step up?
The February issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine has Margaret’s story “The Hat” and a reprint of Gemma’s “New Year’s Resolution”. I read Margaret’s story out loud. It’s about one day in 1945 when she went to a shop on Granville St. to buy a hat, and a huge explosion rocked the street and blew out windows. The ship Greenhill Park had blown up in the harbour.
Bob has decided to forego writing the history of the jewllery business in B.C. and focus his talents on writing a novel, humour and a little mystery, based on all the interesting stories he has told us on the side. That way, he can use all that’s most interesting if he’s writing fiction instead of fact. He was all smiles talking about it. This could be fun.
Robin Ryan is recovering from knee surgery and some complications since. We wish him a speedy recovery and return to good health.
Bob had day surgery on Friday, and though I haven’t heard anything since, we assume he, too, is recovering.
Next Meeting here at my place at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18th. Would love to see you then. Happy Valentine’s Day in the meantime.
Lisa
We have moved our Meetings to the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month and hope that might make it possible for more to attend. According to the nursery rhyme, “Wednesday’s child is full of woe”. But the original version from 1887 had “Wednesday’s child is loving and giving”. So whatever inspires your writing, pain or pleasure, Wednesday can handle it all!
Bob had written more about his childhood memories during WWII. He did some research on Zombies and Zoot Suiters. Zombies were draftees in the army as non-fighting forces. Zoot Suiters wore a strange fashion made in Chinatown with high-waisted baggy-bottom trousers that had a very narrow cuff. The jackets were very long, double breasted, and had padded shoulders. Bob also had many pictures of aircraft used during WWII and we enjoyed looking at them.
Margaret read “Bearer Of Gifts” from her Peabody collection. The farmer, Mr. Lamb, who raises sheep, noticed that somebody stole all his mistletoe. Peabody went to cut down a Xmas tree but found somebody else had already cut it down and it was gone. Then Rev. Peacock answered his door and from a young boy, bought a Xmas tree and some mistletoe, which, because he was going away to visit Marigold for Xmas, he then gave to Peabody.
Margaret and I both received our copies of “Summer Tapestry”, an anthology which includes our short stories; my “The Perfect Size” and Margaret’s “The Assignment”. Nice to see my name in a book instead of a newspaper or magazine. Is that a step up?
The February issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine has Margaret’s story “The Hat” and a reprint of Gemma’s “New Year’s Resolution”. I read Margaret’s story out loud. It’s about one day in 1945 when she went to a shop on Granville St. to buy a hat, and a huge explosion rocked the street and blew out windows. The ship Greenhill Park had blown up in the harbour.
Bob has decided to forego writing the history of the jewllery business in B.C. and focus his talents on writing a novel, humour and a little mystery, based on all the interesting stories he has told us on the side. That way, he can use all that’s most interesting if he’s writing fiction instead of fact. He was all smiles talking about it. This could be fun.
Robin Ryan is recovering from knee surgery and some complications since. We wish him a speedy recovery and return to good health.
Bob had day surgery on Friday, and though I haven’t heard anything since, we assume he, too, is recovering.
Next Meeting here at my place at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18th. Would love to see you then. Happy Valentine’s Day in the meantime.
Lisa
Saturday, January 24, 2009
THE REVIEW
IN BETWEEN SNOWSTORMS
We did have a Meeting on Thursday, when enough snow had melted for people to get around, and before the next snowfall comes on Tuesday. Bob and Margaret were here, and Cameron Dueck also attended for the first time. Cameron said he writes poetry, short stories and plays; a little bit of everything. We welcome him to the fold.
Bob started by reading an article from the Vancouver Historical Society detailing a visit to Vancouver on July 18, 1915 by Teddy Roosevelt and his wife.
Then Bob proudly told us he had written 2508 words on a topic other than the history of the jewellery business in B.C. He read to us his boyhood memories of local events and news received during WWII. Very interesting. We had told Bob that if writing about the jewellery business had become too onerous that he should consider writing on subjects that did grab his attention. It is true that if the writer is bored then he/she will probably bore their readers as well.
Margaret read another story from the Peabody collection , “Greetings From Marigold”. Reverend Peacock received a Christmas card and letter from Marigold. She told him she had married Jasper in Gretna Green in Scotland and that was where they were settling. Jasper’s aunt and uncle had disowned him because he married outside the Jewish faith, and her Catholic family were not communicating with them either. Therefore, she invited Rev. Peacock and his parrot, Joey, to visit and stay with them over Christmas. Margaret has said this story is nearing the end of the Peabody collection. We shall greatly miss hearing about these beloved characters she has brought to life for us.
Cameron read to us two of his poems. The first one, “If Totem Poles Could Talk They’d Probably Cry” detailed the dying tribal life and how the tribal voices are being stilled. It is a very moving poem. He said it had been published in an anthology, but we think he should do more with it. The next poem was “British Columbia” and it was a picture painted in words of all the beautiful vistas that B.C. has to offer. Both these poems were strong pieces of writing that spoke to the listener very clearly.
I received from Susan an envelope with several goodies. She sent two issues of the newsletter “Word” put out by the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador. That organization is probably similar to the Federation of B.C. Writers. Also included in the parcel was the January/February issue of Atlantic Business magazine, in which there is an announcement of Susan and her husband, Chris, starting their own business in communications/consultancy called “48 Degrees Inc. We wish them good luck with this business venture.
I did attend a meeting on the 15th, at the Murrayville library, of a recently formed writers’ group. It was interesting and I was happy to see the whole time was spent discussing writing topics only. There was a printed agenda for the meeting which included a specified time slot for writers to define what writing goals they hoped to meet before the next meeting. I thought this was an excellent idea as it gives the incentive of having a deadline to meet. Also received at this meeting was a list of library resources for writers, which I will forward in a separate email..
After some discussion, it was decided that we will switch meeting nights from Thursdays to Wednesdays. Our meetings will now be the first and third Wednesdays of each month. Hopefully that could eliminate scheduling conflicts for some people. Our next meeting will be here at my place at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 4th. Hope to see you then. Bring your Muse.
Lisa
We did have a Meeting on Thursday, when enough snow had melted for people to get around, and before the next snowfall comes on Tuesday. Bob and Margaret were here, and Cameron Dueck also attended for the first time. Cameron said he writes poetry, short stories and plays; a little bit of everything. We welcome him to the fold.
Bob started by reading an article from the Vancouver Historical Society detailing a visit to Vancouver on July 18, 1915 by Teddy Roosevelt and his wife.
Then Bob proudly told us he had written 2508 words on a topic other than the history of the jewellery business in B.C. He read to us his boyhood memories of local events and news received during WWII. Very interesting. We had told Bob that if writing about the jewellery business had become too onerous that he should consider writing on subjects that did grab his attention. It is true that if the writer is bored then he/she will probably bore their readers as well.
Margaret read another story from the Peabody collection , “Greetings From Marigold”. Reverend Peacock received a Christmas card and letter from Marigold. She told him she had married Jasper in Gretna Green in Scotland and that was where they were settling. Jasper’s aunt and uncle had disowned him because he married outside the Jewish faith, and her Catholic family were not communicating with them either. Therefore, she invited Rev. Peacock and his parrot, Joey, to visit and stay with them over Christmas. Margaret has said this story is nearing the end of the Peabody collection. We shall greatly miss hearing about these beloved characters she has brought to life for us.
Cameron read to us two of his poems. The first one, “If Totem Poles Could Talk They’d Probably Cry” detailed the dying tribal life and how the tribal voices are being stilled. It is a very moving poem. He said it had been published in an anthology, but we think he should do more with it. The next poem was “British Columbia” and it was a picture painted in words of all the beautiful vistas that B.C. has to offer. Both these poems were strong pieces of writing that spoke to the listener very clearly.
I received from Susan an envelope with several goodies. She sent two issues of the newsletter “Word” put out by the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador. That organization is probably similar to the Federation of B.C. Writers. Also included in the parcel was the January/February issue of Atlantic Business magazine, in which there is an announcement of Susan and her husband, Chris, starting their own business in communications/consultancy called “48 Degrees Inc. We wish them good luck with this business venture.
I did attend a meeting on the 15th, at the Murrayville library, of a recently formed writers’ group. It was interesting and I was happy to see the whole time was spent discussing writing topics only. There was a printed agenda for the meeting which included a specified time slot for writers to define what writing goals they hoped to meet before the next meeting. I thought this was an excellent idea as it gives the incentive of having a deadline to meet. Also received at this meeting was a list of library resources for writers, which I will forward in a separate email..
After some discussion, it was decided that we will switch meeting nights from Thursdays to Wednesdays. Our meetings will now be the first and third Wednesdays of each month. Hopefully that could eliminate scheduling conflicts for some people. Our next meeting will be here at my place at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 4th. Hope to see you then. Bring your Muse.
Lisa
Sunday, January 11, 2009
THE RAM'S HEAD REVIEW
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
This winter’s weather has made it difficult to get together. Margaret was the only one who made it to the meeting here on Thursday. In her 80s, she puts the rest of us to shame.
Margaret read another story from her Peabody collection, “Wednesday Evening At The Theater”. The Reverends Peabody and Peacock had gone to the theater to see an historical play they were interested in, with a castle being part of the last scene. It was during that scene that a loud scream was heard and everybody rushed to evacuate the theater. Peacock had been sound asleep, so Peabody urgently led him out. When they arrived at a restaurant, it was learned the scream in the theater had been Peacock’s parrot Joey, hidden under his coat, who had screamed “Blow up the castle!”.
Margaret and I had a discussion on preparation of long manuscripts for submissions, and the wisdom of submitting to agents or publishers. I had purchased Writers’ Digest’s book on Literary Agents for 2009, which Margaret borrowed. She and I are both getting near the time to start sending out queries/synopses/outlines/sample chapters for our books.
January saw three Ram’s Head writers published in Today’s Senior Newsmagazine: Gemma, Carolann, and me.
Susan sent a note at Christmas with three tear sheets of articles she had written that were published in The Telegram in St. John’s. It’s good to see she’s keeping her hand to the keyboard since she moved back to the east coast.
I am just plugging away at the 2nd draft of my novel and the only writing I’ve done lately has been a series of letters to Sonny in Afghanistan via email. He says he really hasn’t received any news from anybody except for my letters. However, he has received many parcels, just no letters. Until the 23rd he is on leave, at home with his wife and son in Kingston. Then he returns to Kandahar until February 19th, when his deployment ends. Maybe when he’s home sometime in March we could ask him to update our website for us.
On January 13th, I’m going to check out the writing group that is starting up at the Murrayville branch of the Fraser Valley Regional Library. They will only meet once a month, the 3rd Thursday. I thought a little networking wouldn’t be a bad thing. If anyone else would like to show up that night, in their meeting room, you would also be welcome, 7:00 p.m. Coffee and decaf available. Maybe cookies. Just like home.
Next Meeting for The Ram’s Head here at my place on Thursday, Jan 22nd at 7:00 p.m. It would be wonderful to see you then.
Lisa
This winter’s weather has made it difficult to get together. Margaret was the only one who made it to the meeting here on Thursday. In her 80s, she puts the rest of us to shame.
Margaret read another story from her Peabody collection, “Wednesday Evening At The Theater”. The Reverends Peabody and Peacock had gone to the theater to see an historical play they were interested in, with a castle being part of the last scene. It was during that scene that a loud scream was heard and everybody rushed to evacuate the theater. Peacock had been sound asleep, so Peabody urgently led him out. When they arrived at a restaurant, it was learned the scream in the theater had been Peacock’s parrot Joey, hidden under his coat, who had screamed “Blow up the castle!”.
Margaret and I had a discussion on preparation of long manuscripts for submissions, and the wisdom of submitting to agents or publishers. I had purchased Writers’ Digest’s book on Literary Agents for 2009, which Margaret borrowed. She and I are both getting near the time to start sending out queries/synopses/outlines/sample chapters for our books.
January saw three Ram’s Head writers published in Today’s Senior Newsmagazine: Gemma, Carolann, and me.
Susan sent a note at Christmas with three tear sheets of articles she had written that were published in The Telegram in St. John’s. It’s good to see she’s keeping her hand to the keyboard since she moved back to the east coast.
I am just plugging away at the 2nd draft of my novel and the only writing I’ve done lately has been a series of letters to Sonny in Afghanistan via email. He says he really hasn’t received any news from anybody except for my letters. However, he has received many parcels, just no letters. Until the 23rd he is on leave, at home with his wife and son in Kingston. Then he returns to Kandahar until February 19th, when his deployment ends. Maybe when he’s home sometime in March we could ask him to update our website for us.
On January 13th, I’m going to check out the writing group that is starting up at the Murrayville branch of the Fraser Valley Regional Library. They will only meet once a month, the 3rd Thursday. I thought a little networking wouldn’t be a bad thing. If anyone else would like to show up that night, in their meeting room, you would also be welcome, 7:00 p.m. Coffee and decaf available. Maybe cookies. Just like home.
Next Meeting for The Ram’s Head here at my place on Thursday, Jan 22nd at 7:00 p.m. It would be wonderful to see you then.
Lisa
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