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