THE REVIEW

STORMY WEATHER


In spite of the storm on Wednesday, we did have a meeting. My power stayed on, thank goodness. Margaret’s son Marshall was well enough to bring her to the meeting even though some tree branches were down along the way from Aldergrove. Unfortunately, when they went home later, their power was off and both had to climb three sets of stairs in the dark to reach their apartment. Marshall phoned to tell me they made it home though.

Margaret read first, telling us that Dye wanted to buy Coffin a present for going to the Moor in a kilt, looking for ghosts. Dye went shopping. First he looked at furniture for the office. Then he went to a dealership and looked at Rolls Royces. That’s when he decided what he would give Coffin. Coffin thanked him effusively for the generous gift, but honestly didn’t know what he would do with another bicycle.

Jim had both a query letter and a synopsis for “Coventry Ghosts” that he wanted to send to an agent. He asked us to go over them and make suggestions to improve them. We went through both missives sentence by sentence and made all sorts of suggestions. Hopefully we were a help in the process.

Anne brought a story she had started writing and felt compelled to continue. It was about Lilly and her friend, Tricia, young girls playing Barbies. Tricia wants Lilly to leave her Barbie overnight with her, but Lilly doesn’t want to as Tricia has stolen some of Lilly’s Barbie accessories in the past and Lilly wants to prevent that from happening again. We are shown the manipulative tendencies specific to Tricia’s personality and Lilly’s attempts to avoid them, but still remain friends.

Gemma brought two versions of the same story, one in first person and the other in third person point of view, and asked us to choose which we preferred. We all chose the first person point of view as it was more immediate.

Jason read from Chapter 10 of his novel, and we see Greg still in the woods watching the siren as she bends over Dave, but stares straight at Greg. Greg becomes sexually excited at her presence. She picks up the fallen pendant with a stick and gives it to Greg. Bruce warns Greg to stay away from her. He falls, and wonders if he’s dead. There’s a lot of sexual tension in this scene, and a deepening mystery.

Unfortunately, neither Bob nor I had anything new to read. Thirty lashes each with a limp bookmark.

Next Meeting will be Wednesday, June 2nd at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Look forward to seeing you then, and I wish you prolific writing in the meantime.

Lisa