THE REVIEW

WORD ASSOCIATION

Wendy, Jason and Jim joined me last night for a Meeting in spite of the cold weather.

I started by telling the group about further developments in my sale of a ‘Honey’ story to Summit Studios for inclusion in their anthology “Never Light A Match In The Outhouse”. The story was “The Blob At Green Lake”. At first I received an email from the editor mentioning some changes he would like made to clarify things for the reader. One concern he had was my relationship to Bryon. Was he my husband, or a boyfriend, and was his name ‘Bryon’, since I had used that name once in the story? So I did a re-write and addressed all the concerns listed, and even took out the name ‘Bryon’ so he was called ‘Honey’ throughout. Then I had a phone call at 8:00 a.m. one morning. The editor still didn’t like my using the nickname ‘Honey’. He wanted to use ‘Bryon’ throughout. I said I thought it read funnier calling him ‘Honey’. He said he’d been doing this for over twenty years, and he was certain that would just confuse the reader. He’d had one writer call her husband ‘Studley’ and he had nixed that one, too. I sensed his deep aversion to the endearment of ‘Honey’, so I agreed to his making the change throughout the whole story. But I’ve had one other ‘Honey’ story included in an anthology here on the West Coast, without any change of moniker, so it makes me wonder if there is a difference in perceived meanings between regions. Anyhow, I have the right to include the story in my own collection, where it will still be a ‘Honey’ story.

Jason read a scene from his second book, but he wasn’t sure what chapter this would be. In this scene, we see Damianos thrust into an old building that had once been very grand, but was now decaying. He has trouble breathing and is wounded. He had been pulled through the “Book Of The Nornir” to this other reality. Then a frigid waterfall cleansed him of his wounds. As he stood up, roots came up from underneath and started pulling him toward a large hole, and he was screaming “Not again.” There are vivid descriptions in this scene that shows us the plight of Damianos, and you can almost feel sorry for this antagonist.

Jim read us Chapter 37 of Coventry Ghosts, Book II. Sara has popped back into the submarine to meet up with Joel. But she is very upset at the appearance of Launi Bridges, of CSIS, who had been spying on her and could communicate with her telepathically. She starts popping in and out and making the meeting room icy cold. She is asked to direct her anger at Ms. Bridges, and not the rest of them, so she dumps Ms. Bridges in the ocean until she admits to why she had been spying. Then Sara whooshes her back to the meeting, where she falls and cracks her head on the steel deck. Pesky little kitten, for sure. Kids reading this will just love it.

Wendy didn’t read but was very helpful with editing. Lorelei had emailed that she was still fighting the flu. Annette said she had to attend another meeting. Ellie is busy looking at houses on the Island, as she and her husband are planning on moving there in the spring. We will miss her so much! Margaret F. emailed that she and her husband had moved to an apartment in Surrey and she was busy getting settled.

Our next Meeting will be Wednesday, December 4th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Since it will be our last Meeting before the holidays, it will be our Christmas get-together. Feel free to bring any treats you’d like, sweet or savoury, as well as your writing, and we will feed our faces as well as our souls. I’ll try to have my decorating done, and will try to have Honey decorate the ficus tree again. Looking forward to seeing you then! Ho! Ho! Ho!

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