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