THE REVIEW

NEW BEGINNINGS

The writing year of 2013 got off to a great start at our Meeting on Wednesday. Jason, Ron, Wendy and Margaret F. joined me to bring in the New Year for the Rams.

I started by showing off some books of mine. Two were used resource books. One was on crime scene forensics and the other on Canadian law. Both are written for the layman and easy to understand, useful for needed background information in writing mysteries. Another book was a mystery novel from my stepson. He knows my interests. Three other books were gifts from my son and one was full of writing prompts. I used one of those prompts and wrote a one page character description which I read. It began with “He haunted the night in search of excitement like a raccoon in search of food for survival.”

Margaret read next, a rewrite for the beginning of “Babes In The Woods”. We all liked the personal story parts about the detectives and really wanted to hear more about the characters in this true crime story. We also hoped Margaret would put more of herself and her need to know what really happened into this recounting of events, as it is the personal connection that holds the reader’s attention best. This was evident when Margaret admitted to us her attention was first drawn to this case because she had a lunch kit exactly the same as the one found with the bodies of these two children.

Ron read to us a short story of his titled “Stumped”. It is a humorous account of him spending four days trying to remove a tree stump from his backyard using a chainsaw and axes and a bushwhacker saw and a winch. The feat finally accomplished, he goes to have a drink with his cronies and one tells him he could have done it in twenty minutes if he’d rented a stump grinder. Too funny!

Jason read to us Chapter 28, “Released”. Damianos has come back to get the Book of the Nornir, and Gregg is torn between needing to stop him to save Jody and needing to stay with his Grammy and save her from the burning house. Fueled by his desperate desire to do both, he is infused with super powers that allow him to swoop over Damianos and retrieve the book, and then return immediately to his Grammy’s side. Good suspense here, for sure. Jason tells us things are progressing with his editor, but he thinks he might do things differently in the future.

We had a lot of discussion about self-publishing ebooks, and the differences between Smashwords and Kobo. The Smashwords Style Guide is the most comprehensive manual on formatting a manuscript for uploading as an ebook, but you do have to follow it as it is outlined, step by step. Margaret offered valuable information on the process and forms needed in the U.S. so a Canadian author published by an American company is not subject to withholding of funds to pay American income tax. She did it all herself when she self-published through Amazon. Good to know we have an expert in our midst.

Margaret told us several glowing reviews of her book have been posted online by Vanessa Grant, a well-published author. That’s exciting, for sure.

Ron brought with him his new tablet and while at the Meeting, he logged onto my Wi-fi and purchased my book, “Love Found” at Kobo while he was here. And since my son had also bought a copy, that makes a grand total of four books sold! I’m amazed, but then Jason had given it a 5 star rating! :) Now I have to get busy and publish my novel “Fire” at Kobo as well.

Hope everyone had a great holiday season and wish you all a wonderful, prosperous 2013.

The next Meeting will be Wednesday, January 16th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then.

Lisa