THE REVIEW

TEARS AND LAUGHTER

Jim, Jason, Ron and Ellie joined me for a fun Meeting here on Wednesday.

We started with Jason spreading pages all over my living room floor and then asking us to help judge the best artwork. He had solicited art submissions for his chapter headings and after over 300 submissions, he still needed to make the short list even shorter. But instead of picking individual winning pieces, we were asked to pick winning sets of diagrams. Each set was by the same artist. This was interesting and most of us chose the same set of diagrams. Now Jason has to pay the winner for the work. I told him he should have run it like a writing contest and charged everybody an entry fee for their submissions. He could have made a lot of money!

Jim told us negotiations over a publishing contract with Amira Press for his romance novel have come to a stop. Anne Berrie looked over the contract for him and pointed out Amira had the right to end the contract at any time for any reason, but he would not be able to do the same. He would have been tied in forever as the contract was stipulated to self-renew every thirty days. When Jim pointed this out and asked for a change to the contract, all communication from them ceased. So writers beware! Jim is now submitting elsewhere.

Ellie read first, a rewrite of “Flying From The Grass”. This is a children’s story in poetic form about a child imagining being able to fly. We all thought it would make a great picture book for young children.

Ron read a poem called “Disappearing Man” about his Dad’s life from young and vibrant to old and frail and his descent into the diminishment caused by dementia. Very, very sad.

Because Valentine’s Day is near, and further to Ron’s piece he read last time about placing a companion ad, I read an article of mine on the same topic that was published by The Province in 1988, on Valentine’s Day. Then I read a poem of mine entitled “The Question Of Love”, citing all the many ways love can be expressed and asking at the end what new kind of love the person just met would like to try?

Jim read Chapter 24 from the second book of “Coventry Ghosts”. Here we meet a new character, Launi, who goes into the Wired Monk and hires the ghostly caterers for an afternoon tea party. We learn she is the backup investigator in the search for Jason.

Jason read Chapter 30, “Spent”. We see an intense power flowing through Gregg to his Granny and bringing her back to life as he held onto her. However, he is dizzy and confused and knows he has to let go of her but is unable to do so. Then the ambulance and paramedics arrive and Gregg passes out.

Next Meeting will be Wednesday, February 20th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Margaret F. said she would bring the U.S. tax forms and explain how it works for Canadian authors to become exempt from paying U.S. income tax when their work is published in the U.S. She said it wouldn’t take much time to explain. Hope to see you here on the 20th.

Lisa