THE REVIEW

NEW YEAR START


Six of us writers managed to get together to start the New Year last night. Jim, Annette, Kristi, Jason and Ellie joined me and it was great to see them all. Wendy emailed she wasn’t well, and Leah had phoned to say she had to work late yesterday. Hope to see them both next time.

I did not read any of my own work, but did discuss a book my son had given me for Christmas. He sent it to me because he was mentioned in the Acknowledgements and he knows the author and she had signed it. The book is for school children and is about a Canadian soldier who was wounded in Afghanistan. Although the book touches on war injuries and deaths and PTSD and the hardships faced by the people of Afghanistan as well as international soldiers, I took exception to it being written as a factual autobiography when it was really a work of fiction. The story ends with an illustration of the female narrator in uniform and missing her right arm. But the author was not a soldier, had never been to Afghanistan and still had both arms. The only place in the entire book that admits it is fiction is in the cataloguing info on the copyright page, in small print, and which very few people ever read. I asked the group what they thought of how this was done and Jim agreed it was misleading as he would have thought it was a true story as well. Jason has taken the book home with him to see what his son Tristan has to say about it. He’s our star reviewer of all things mid-grade anyhow. I look forward to hearing what he thinks.

Jim read Chapter 39 in the Coventry Ghosts, Book II. Sara the kitten travels overnight with Joel, and they then take refuge in a barn. As Joel sleeps, Sara goes back and forth between the barn and the coffee shop. On returning to the barn one time, she sees a farm girl enter the barn and stop in total surprise when she sees Joel who is still sleeping. So Sara enfolds the girl with an empty space so she doesn’t see him anymore, and then lifts Joel and carries him out of the barn, while she is trying to be in two places at the same time. I can see Sara probably getting into trouble here.

Ellie read a re-write of Kid Sister, a story about when she was thirteen and sexually molested by a 24 year old friend of her older brother. It ends with a stunning line that sums up devastatingly how the incident affected her relationships with men for the rest of her life. Ellie is entering this in the CBC Creative Non-Fiction contest. It’s a powerful story that needs to be told.

Kristi read the first chapter in The Midnight Daisies. We see the young married couple Dianna and Gordon sneak out late at night, leaving the grandmother and their young daughter, Jane, still sleeping. Dianna and Gordon playfully run up the next hill to the Captain’s house. It has been sitting empty for a long time, and is starting to fall apart. But as young lovers, they fall to the ground under the apple tree, which has no apples, and start to make love. The apple tree comes to life and attacks them. Then the midnight daisies spring teeth and eat them until there is nothing left of them. This is gothic horror at its best.

Annette read the next two chapters about Alyssa, the young woman hiding from the former boyfriend who hired someone to kill her. She wants to befriend Carrie, but doesn’t want to live with her and her brother, John. John offers to protect her, even though he only suspects she’s running from a jealous boyfriend. Alyssa promises to think about his offer, and then leaves and rents a room in a run-down hotel on the seamy side of town. Because the sheets and mattress are so filthy, she sleeps in a chair. The next day, before returning to Carrie and John, she stops at a thrift store to buy something pretty to wear. Even though there are intimations of romance between Alyssa and John, there is still plenty of threatening suspense in these pages.

Jason read another chapter in the second book of his Provoked series. This one is about Dave, Gregg’s older half-brother. It tells us Dave’s Mom became addicted to prescription pain killers after a back injury and then surgery. He feels guilty that she’s gone because the injury was caused when she slipped in bathwater he had splashed on the floor as a young child. He only feels strong and capable when he holds an ancient sword he has hidden in the barn at his grandmother’s place. He’s obsessed with it. I’m eager to find out why his mother is gone. Did she just run away? Did she die? Is she incarcerated somewhere? Tell me what happened, please.

I entered “The Making Of A Soldier” in the CBC Creative Non-Fiction contest. That’s about as creative as I was with my writing over the holidays. Does anybody want to offer Honey a paying job outside of the home?

And today, January 9th, is Margaret Moffatt’s 90th birthday. So here’s a very hearty Happy Birthday from all the Rams, Margaret! You are still writing and still being published and a true inspiration to all the rest of us!

The next Meeting will be Wednesday, January 22nd at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. I hope to see you then.

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