THE REVIEW

JANUARY JOTTINGS


Our meeting on Wednesday was a little smaller in the number of participants. Bob and Danny were both under the weather, and Ron was on Vancouver Island.

Margaret read her next chapter in “Coffin and Dye” or is that “Dye and Coffin”? Anyhow, Coffin is at the Museum with his whiskey, waiting among the wax models for the appearance of a ghost he needs to identify. Falling asleep, he has a most vivid dream of Lucy who entices him into undressing her and then she seduces him. But alas, he is caught and is being beheaded when he wakes up. Later, at the pub across the street, he tells Dye the ghost in the Museum is definitely Lucy.

Discussing Margaret’s first book, “Blow Up The Castle”, she was able to tell us she now has a signed contract with West Pro Publishing that she is happy with. Her niece, who had handled paperwork for Margaret’s sister’s published novels, had read the contract and told Margaret it was about as good as it gets. For Margaret’s sake, the rest of us sighed with relief. The book may be ready in a month or so.

Gemma was concerned with possible plagiarizing of one of her poems that had been previously published in both a magazine and an anthology, and now appeared with a few words changed in a current magazine issue. Margaret advised her that she should definitely pursue the matter, and we hope to hear what the eventual outcome will be.

Jason read Chapter 2 of his novel, which is in the process of a re-write. We see Greg awakening in his Great Grandmother’s living room, after his nightmare, and he checks his hands to make sure they are normal, and not animalistic. He overhears his Great Grandmother telling a man named Ludwig that she wants the chest. Greg sees a sword under Ludwig’s coat. After Ludwig leaves, he asks who the man was, but his Great Grandmother wants to know what he had been dreaming. Greg tells her he’s terrified of losing control of himself. This Chapter continued the suspense of the first, and we applaud Jason for what he is doing with the novel.

Jim read to us the first chapter of “High Fashion”, a romance novel he has started. It began with a really steamy sex scene that the women were shaking their heads over. We all told Jim that if he starts with the climax, there’s no reason for a reader to read the rest of the novel. As women who read romance novels, we do think there is a pretty rigid formula for this type of genre fiction. But hey, if men are to write romance and read romance, maybe the placement and significance of sex in a novel will change. But ain’t that the way? Men want the sex and women want the foreplay?

Even though Ron was away, he did send me the link to his new website at http://www.rdyoungwrites.com/ if you want to check it out. He did offer to exchange links with http://www.ramsheadwriters.ca/ which I will take him up on, as soon as Sonny comes back from training troops for deployment to Afghanistan down in the California desert. Sonny is our site administrator as most of you already know.
Thanks to Jim and his burgeoning success as a published writer, he and I both met today with Jane Blackmore and Robynn Maher, editors of Eclectica Magazine. They have been working for over a year to get their magazine up and running. It is published 8 times a year, the next issue due out Jan. 21st. The magazine is a forum for all sorts of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, recipes, artwork, etc. and submissions are most welcome. However, there is no payment to writers or artists for anything published. Anne Berrie, Jim, and I will all have something appearing in the next issue. You can learn more about the magazine and find out where in the Lower Mainland to buy a copy on their website at http://www.voicefortheunheard.com/ .

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, January 20th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then with your latest written creations. Keep Writing!

Lisa