THE REVIEW

GOOD NEWS REVIEW!

Wendy, Jim, Jason and Margaret F. joined me Wednesday for a Meeting. Lorelie had planned to attend but was again caring for her mother. Ellie was over at Tofino on the Island.

I read my latest ‘Honey’ story, “Mechanically Challenged”, about car trouble on one of our trips to the cabin and the saga about getting the car fixed.

Margaret read from her journal about probing the murder investigation of the “Babes In The Wood”. This was from her point of view and gave us an intimate look at what she was thinking and the questions she asked and all that were still unanswered. We agreed this was the voice to use for her whole book as it not only gave us the facts and/or lack of fact, but also engaged us far more than an academic analysis would do.

Wendy read a new poem she had written from the prompt “I dare you”. The poem tells of her younger self in the 1960s, giving in to peer pressure to try mescaline, an hallucinogenic drug used supposedly for greater self-awareness. The ‘trip’ was an induced high that was also very terrifying for her.

Jim read Chapter 29 from “Coventry Ghosts, Book II”. We see Olivia and her boyfriend, Shen, at Olivia’s with her mother, and the ghost kitten, Sara. They are talking about Jason, the villain stealing ghost essences, and how things are changing in Ghostdom. Shen says he wants to be a ghost too, but not very soon.

There is lots of writing news to report this time. My news was that my story “The Blob At Green Lake”, which I submitted to a contest in February 2012, was bought by Summit Studios for inclusion in their anthology “Never Light A Match In The Outhouse: Funny Stories From Cottage Country”. Instead of a rejection letter, I was able to pass around an acceptance letter and contract. Since this is one of my ‘Honey’ stories, I first made sure I would still own copyright so I can include it in my own collection. I’ve had a number of short stories published, but this is the first time I’ll be paid for one, other than something I’ve self-published.

Margaret F., after winning 1st place in the memoir category for “Unforgiving” in a contest she entered, was going to Bellingham this weekend to receive the award for it at the Chuckanut Writers’ Conference.

Jason has been slaving away to get his book “Provoked” self-published with Amazon. He said the eBook should have been available this week, and the print-on-demand would be available very soon. He found it a lot of work to do all the formatting for eBook publication, especially with all his diagrams for chapter headings. Our congratulations to him for persevering!

And Jim called me last night with some awesome news! A well-known New York literary agent has requested the whole manuscript for “Coventry Ghosts – Book I”, now that Jim has done a rewrite and re-classified the novel as mid-grade. He had previously queried the same agent two years earlier with the manuscript noted as young adult. Patience and perseverance pay off!

We had some discussion about self-promotion to sell our books but all of us are feeling out of our league. None of us are technical experts and have trouble knowing how to promote online. Selling in person is hard to do, especially if you don’t have hard copy to sell in the first place. We love to write, but the actual selling we find difficult.

Margaret and Jason were talking about volunteering this year at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, rather than paying to attend.

The next Meeting will be Wednesday, July 3rd at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Write on, Fellow Rams, write on!!!

LISA A. HATTON
Author

Published eBooks available at Kobo Books:

FIRE: http://kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=9780991739615

LOVE FOUND: http://kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=9780991739608