THE REVIEW

FAITHFUL FOUR


Jim, Margaret, Ron and I were the four who were faithful to The Muse last Wednesday. Bob is off learning to play bridge with his wife for a few weeks. Anne B. is re-writing her thesis. And Jason was busy parenting while his wife was away on business.

Margaret read of Coffin deciding to move since he was worried about Sam Chou’s ghost that also resided where he lived. He rented an apartment over Ling’s laundry, but couldn’t access the communal toilet since another tenant was in there reading on the throne. So then he moved to 13 Ivy Lane. Unknown to him, Dye received a request to eradicate a ghost at that address.

Sometime this week, Margaret’s book, “Blow Up The Castle” should be out. And she will be doing a signing at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference on the 23rd, from 5:30 till 7:00 p.m.

Ron was recovering from his daughter’s wedding, so didn’t have any new work to read. But he did share with us his friend’s experience at being accepted by a New York agent, who told him he was accepted because he could write. So what did that mean? Steps in the process of getting there were: meeting the agent, submitting first page and a half, then submitting the next 50 pages, then the rest of the manuscript, and then doing the suggested re-write of 2/3 of the book. Ron also recently posted another article about his father’s dementia on his website at www.rdyoungwrites.com if you want to check it out.

I read another story for my “Honey” collection called “Mr. Sticky”, about our experience buying a newly demonstrated consumer product and then bringing it home and trying it out. I also read an article from the Vancouver Sun which was a copy of a letter from Hunter S. Thompson applying for a job as a journalist at the Sun in 1958. The application was wildly aggressive and totally hilarious.

Jim read the last half of Ch. 12 in his “Coventry Ghosts”, where we see the ghostly essence of Ilancueitl being sucked into the laptop of the evil Jason. Ilancueitl and Sherlock had been investigating the disappearance of the Green Lady’s essence, when Sherlock felt Ilancueitl disappear. He gathered her ghostly shell and went to inform the Committee. Jim has finished the first draft of his second novel in this series but is not willing to share it with us yet. Also, he has again entered the Coffee Shop Authors’ Contest. This time he is doing a collection of short stories to enter.

Next Meeting will be Wednesday, October 20th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. The Muse cordially invites any Halloween stories you might offer to sacrifice for communal consumption. Hope to see you on the 20th.

Lisa