THE REVIEW

NORTH TO QUESNEL


Margaret is moving to Quesnel at the end of February to be closer to more family members. If there’s a writers’ group up there, I’m sure they will be happy to invite her to join them.

On Wednesday, Margaret read first, another chapter in “Coffin and Dye”. Coffin is getting ready to go to Sparrows Bridge on his bike when he’s offered a ride instead with a neighbour’s daughter, Tootsie, and her dog Arthur. When she asks him why he’s going to Sparrows Bridge, he lies and tells her he’s a private detective trying to solve a murder at Lark’s farm.

Bob joined us again and it was good to see him. He brought a piece of writing about ‘Jacoby Bros., Manufacuring Jewellers’ that was in the B.C. History magazine, written by Ronald Greene, current president of the B.C. Historical Federation. The article focused on the souvenir coins they used to make that were considered counterfeit by the American government and caused problems through the years. Bob wrote a letter to the editor adding information about the problems that were caused by these ‘coins’.

Jason brought a short story he had written called “Alone”. It shows a pastor who is remorseful about abusing young boys when he is confronted by a sexy female figure. He chastises her for trying to seduce him in “God’s” house. She sprouts black leathery wings and he realizes she’s an incarnation of the devil. As she strangles him, she tells him that God has left the building. The story was well written and portrays justice being meted out to one who deserves it. So tell me, was the female figure really the devil then?

I had been working on my novel, making a few changes to improve readability and flow of words. I was also trying to rename it from “Fire” to something else. I Googled all the titles I was interested in, and almost all of them had been previously used. The one I ended up with was “Latent Peril”, which I thought intimated a mystery. But everyone at the meeting was against my changing the title. Their reasoning was that “Fire” was just one word, easy to remember, and more likely to be recommended by word of mouth. So there you go. I won’t change the title. It sure saves me a lot of re-printing.

And speaking of printing, I recently inherited a used laser printer/copier/fax/scanner. I only had to buy a toner cartridge for it, which is more expensive than an ink cartridge, but is good for 2500 pages at least. So now I have an easy way to print my own manuscripts quickly. I have two printers hooked up to my computer now. The other one is ink jet and does all the same functions, just slower, and will do colour too. When did writing get to be so complicated?

Had an email from Amanda, whom we haven’t seen for several years. Her son is now 20 months old, and they are expecting another child late May, early June. She is still writing kids’ books, and also started her own business teaching baby sign language called Sticky Hands. Hope we get to see Amanda again some time.

Next Meeting will be Wednesday, February 16th at 7:00 p.m. at my place. It will be our last chance to see Margaret before she leaves. Hope to see you then.

Lisa