THE REVIEW

FORSAKEN FRUIT


The grapes and watermelon I put out for Wednesday’s meeting were largely ignored. And Bryon isn’t a fruitaholic, either, so I’ve been enjoying them by myself. There were five of us here at the meeting, an increase of 25% over the last meeting! Jason keeps saying we need to improve marketing strategies. I’ll have a sandwich board made for him and he can stand at the corner of No. 10 and 200th Street flagging down all unaffiliated writers for us. Failing that we will have to rely on the two community ads I’ve sent to the Langley Times and the Langley Advance.

Margaret sent me a copy of the Quesnel Observer with her interview and picture in it. I will save that for posterity. She was interviewed on air by CBC Northern Radio on Wednesday morning at 6:30. That had been arranged by her publisher.

I received a letter from Polar Expressions to say my short story “Freedom”, about the homeless man in Langley City, is being included in their anthology “Inkspots”, which will be published by year end, I believe.

Jason read first, a chapter of his novel, called “Devote”. We see the half brothers, Gregg and Dave, at their aunt’s funeral, and Dave is chastised rudely by his stepmother. Both boys are bored. Gregg starts thinking about his aunt, and her suicide, and wondering what drove her to it, and what is on the other side of death. Then his great grandmother tells him his aunt died thinking it was the best way to keep him safe. There is developing tension here and we liked the switch from two brothers to making them half brothers, and then making Gregg’s Mom the evil stepmother to Dave. It adds to the tension, that’s for sure.

Anne brought her thesis for me to read for her, and so we asked her to read the introduction out loud. Protesting that it was so boring, she did read it and we were all interested in learning more about the causes of serial murder; what goes into generating a serial murderer. This should give me good background for a future murder mystery!

In helping her sister who was being harassed by a Strata corporation, Anne has more than enough material for a fascinating book about strata Nazis victimizing someone with mental illness.

Anne also wants Margaret to know that her teenaged son, Trevor, is reading Margaret’s “Blow Up The Castle” and just raves about it. She said she is going to donate a copy to her son’s school library.

I read Margaret’s chapter “Perplexing Situations”, all three sections of it she had sent me. Trisha, who had proposed to Coffin, and her daughter Tootsie, both wanted to know why he had a suitcase full of women’s clothing. He explained that he wore them to catch Tootsie’s dog for her. When Dye saw Coffin looking ill, Coffin told him that Wagnal’s ghost tried to strangle him when he was wearing Mrs. Wagnal’s clothes. Then Dye proceeds to tell Detective Philmore Shorthouse that Mrs. Wagnal was murdered by Mr. Wagnal. The Detective sent a squad to the manor. Upon investigating, the police found everyone happy the ghost had been eradicated. The Detective asked to see room 30, and when Mr. Sours opened it, they found it completely empty. Mrs. Wagnal’s ghost had taken her furniture with her!

I read chapter 3 of “Nigel Wingate Is Dead”. Jason and Anne both thought it should become the first chapter, even though it would put the time line out of sync. I’ll have to give it some thought and try it out. It would emphasize more explicitly the part that Nigel plays in the novel, which would be good.

Jim read chapter 5 of the second book in “Coventry Ghosts”. We see two Asian villains scheming to kidnap Jason, the genius scientist who had been steeling souls through his computer, from a Mexican prison. It is thought Jason’s power would be very useful to them.

We were very glad to see Jim recovering from failing kidneys and his stay in ER over the weekend. He returned to work on Tuesday and next week will see the specialist again. We wish him all the best of health and a total recovery.

Nest Meeting will be Wednesday, September 7th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then, and feel free to invite any other writers you think might like to join us, preferably those incarnate.

Lisa

THE REVIEW

MID-SUMMER


Jim, Gemma and Bob joined me Wednesday for a short meeting. Jason was housebound with his kids while his wife was away on business.

Gemma asked us to read and comment on a personal article of hers that she had re-written at the request of “Chicken Soup For The Soul”. The article is about her family immigrating to Canada and coming to love hockey. She was a radiology technician required to be on duty when games were played in Montreal, but she would sit in the hospital corridor knitting and let her young son use her reserved seat to watch the games. The article had been accepted for the Chicken Soup book “Oh, Canada” but they had asked for some changes to eliminate repetition. Congratulations to Gemma!

An interview of Margaret by the Quesnel Observer appears in their paper today, Friday, August 4th. You can find this online. In it she mentions the Ram’s Head Writers’ Group. That was nice to read.

I then read Margaret’s next chapter in “Coffin And Dye” which was titled “Arthur”. In it, Coffin has some boozy adventures and takes credit for finding the dog, Arthur. And Tootsie’s mother, Trisha, admits to having amorous intentions towards Coffin. Donny merely staggered across the hall to his own flat and passed out.

Since only Jim had heard the re-written first chapter of my new book, “Nigel Wingate Is Dead”, I read that again as well as the second chapter which tells how Nigel met Deirdre in the mid 1960s, and tells of her abusive boyfriend and that Nigel gave her the money to take her child and go to her mother at Watch Lake to escape. That is where the child drowns. Jim said I was keeping up the suspense.

Jim read the 4th chapter in the second book about the Coventry ghosts, and this is where the kitten, Sara dies and meets Leanne in ghostdom, who wants her to stay with her in her haunt at the coffee shop. They are both happy to have found a ghostly friend.

Next Meeting will be Wednesday, August 17th at 7:00 p.m. at my place. Hope to see you then.

Lisa