THE REVIEW

WRITERS’ DEN


My living room was full last night with eight writers gathered to read and discuss some of our recent drafts. Many thanks to all who attended. Monica Buchanan is a new face who joined us last night for the first time. And Michael Hiebert joined us again after a very long absence. He has moved to Chilliwack and so attendance has been difficult, for sure. Along with Michael were his girlfriend Shannon, and his son, Legend. It was nice to meet Shannon and amazing to see how much Legend has grown in three years. And Jim joined us again, back in good health we are glad to see.

Julie read her short personal piece “Peanut Butter And Jam”, a sensual account of making and eating toast with peanut butter and jam. It made us all hungry.

Wendy read a short piece called “Nightmares”. A woman is searching in a darkened cave for her “boy” and encounters fire. She awakes from the nightmare but then sees her dog has singed fur, and she knows he was with her in the dream.

Michael read from a new novel he has started that is based on an award winning short story he had written previously. It is called “Boy Alone” and is a daily summer journal assigned as homework to the 14 year old’s class. It is written in first person and provides a very strong voice for this young boy who complains about his single mother and her meds, and her boyfriend on crack, and not knowing his real father. We know the story will lead somewhere difficult.

Monica hopes to write a self-help book about abused girls growing up still silent about their suffering and having trouble finding and using their own voices. She read us a piece of analysis she hopes to include somewhere in the book. It alludes to her own past emotional abuse and has insight into how this impacts herself and others. She writes with a great deal of emotion about a life filled with lemons and no sugar to make lemonade, and of survivors of the suffering who become a group of living dead, that impacts the reader very strongly. We hope to see how the book develops.

Margaret Florczak read a poem of hers called “Personal Science” inspired by her mother suffering from and dying of alzheimer’s. The poem gave all the scientific explanations of how the disease shrivels the brain and destroys a life. Margaret is also self-publishing a book with Amazon called “Unforgiving” which is an autobiography of her own young life and the abuse she suffered.

Jason read the chapter “Consternation” from his novel. We see Gregg’s great grandmother, Iris, visiting the grave where Jody’s parents are buried. She remembers how she met them in a snowstorm. Breaking into her reveries is Gregg’s voice calling for Jody, and she finds Gregg naked, climbing out of an open grave. There was a little bit of humour in this chapter, which was sharp contrast to the grimness of previous chapters.

Jim read Chapter 12 of his second novel in the “Coventry Ghosts” series, and we see Sarah, the kitten ghost, getting frustrated at having to learn the alphabet and the vowels in order to learn to read. She invites Carly, her teacher, back to the coffee shop to visit with the other ghosts there. The judge informs everyone that Jason, the thief of ghost essences, has escaped from prison in Mexico. Jim has had an agent request to see the first 100 pages of “Coventry Ghosts”. We hope something comes of it for him.

I read another story from my “Honey” collection. This one is “It’s Honey’s Fault” and tells of all the household and technical difficulties over the past six weeks that prevented me from getting any writing done. My listeners laughed so that was a good way to end the evening.

I apologize to Margaret Moffatt that there wasn’t time to read the next two chapters of her “Coffin And Dye” series. Hopefully I can read them next time.

Ellie was unable to attend as she has a terrible cold and Anne Berrie said she will come to the next Meeting. We are still waiting to hear what happened at a court case she was attending last December.

The next Meeting will be Wednesday, March 7th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then. Happy writing in the meantime!

Lisa