STILL LEARNING
Leah, Annette and Jason joined me on Wednesday for our Meeting of The Rams. Kristie was unable to get a babysitter so she could attend. We were very happy to see Annette recovering from her recent heart attack. There’s been no word from Jim, and we are also wondering how he’s doing. And we do know Wendy is busy with family this month.
Annette read first, Chapter 11 in “A Touch Of Wormwood”. Ally is trying to avoid John, afraid that he’s becoming too fond of her and not wanting that kind of involvement. She is tempted to search his room, but he catches her there and puts his arms around her and then proposes marriage. We did suggest that John, as a police officer, needed to be made a more aggressive character and Annette said she would think on it, but that the proposal would stay as it’s part of the ongoing plot.
Jason read his next chapter that shows Leah and David entering the barn where he has hidden the sword she wants to see. There is an instant where he sees Leah’s face older and wrinkled in the glow of candlelight. As they are about to ascend the ladder to the hay loft, there is a noise and suddenly Granny appears and scares them. We anticipate a showdown between Leah and Granny at some point.
Jason was asking me for a book review on his first novel, but I have never written a book review and told him I didn’t think my opinion mattered that much as I wasn’t a journalist who did book reviews, and I wasn’t a well-known editor or publisher, either. He assured me book reviews these days have devolved to the masses, such as at Amazon or Goodreads. I’ll keep that in mind.
Our Leah shared a summary of a business plan she hopes to submit to the Small Business Development Bank hoping for support to start a consulting company. I said I found the first page too full of generalities, but Leah assured me that’s how a business plan summary is done. Personally, I thought it would be more effective with some concrete examples thrown in to better describe the type of business envisioned. But that is obviously the writer and journalist in me. However, I was very impressed with the questionnaire that accompanied it to ascertain the type of service that prospective clients would need. Writing abilities have numerous applications, with business endeavors also included among them.
I didn’t read anything, but did pass around a book I purchased recently, “The Canadian Writers’ Guide”. It was published in 2003, but still has a great deal of relevant information, from how to find writing topics or inspiration, to self-publishing ebooks, to manuscript formatting, to Canadian Literary Agents, to Canadian writing contests, to how much to charge for magazine articles. And there were several chapters by Lois Peterson, a local writing teacher I respect greatly for her practical suggestions on many writing topics.
The next Meeting will be Wednesday, August 6th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then, and please stay healthy in the meantime!
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
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Friday, July 4, 2014
THE REVIEW
A CROWD OF THREE
Jason and Kristi joined me Wednesday for a meeting of three. There was lots of time to discuss writing and talk about our goals.
Kristie regaled us with tales of an author who cyber bullies participants in a twitter writing forum, and who was bullying her. Very bizarre. Then she tells us her computer crashed, and we wonder if the two are connected? She needs to write a horror tale about this.
I read first, another ‘Honey’ story called “Face To Face”, about my recent acquisition of a new cell phone so I could take pictures with it, and how I’m too busy playing with my new toy to actually communicate face to face with anyone, namely Honey. I don’t even answer when he calls me on it.
I now have 30,000 words in ‘Honey’ stories and feel that’s a good basis for a small book of humour. I’m still working on putting them all together in one manuscript and editing them so there isn’t a lot of repetition. I don’t yet know if I want to self-publish them as an ebook, or if I want to seek a book publisher.
Kristi read the next chapter in “Jane And The Midnight Daisies”. Jane reaches home just before dawn after her terrifying encounter with the daisies. She desperately wants to sleep, but is disturbed by the hateful cat in her room. She tries to oust the cat, which evades her, and then it suddenly turns mellow and loving before finally leaving the room.
Kristie says she has reworked the story and has made Jane a schoolteacher in her twenties instead of a teenaged school girl. She thinks this will give her more options in plot development. And she finds the more she writes, the more she wants to re-write to make her story better.
Jason read the next Chapter in his second book. Dave and Leah have left the campfire and she is enticing him with sexual advances, but then stops Dave from going any further. She tells him she wants to see the sword he has hidden and, from his sexual frustration, Dave finally agrees. A lot of sexual tension in this Chapter.
Jason was saying he doesn’t know if he wants to continue writing one book with two plot-lines or if he should split it into two books, each with its own plot. He’s worried about what the reader wants. We discussed this and spoke of other books that have more than one plot and also many different character viewpoints. Whichever way he chooses is acceptable.
Margaret Moffatt has an article on the history of Penticton in the July issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine.
We are all hoping Annette is home again and safely recovering from her stay in hospital. Wendy is out of the loop for the month of July, busy with family engagements. Ellie is on the last stages of packing and moving and we wish her well in her new home on the Island. Leah should be at the next Meeting. And we haven’t heard anything from Jim.
I had suggested maybe cancelling Meetings for some or all of the summer, but Jason and Kristi were against this. They said as parents of young children, this is their only chance to get out and congregate with other writers without interruption. With that endorsement in mind, the next Meeting will be Wednesday, July 16th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. 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
Jason and Kristi joined me Wednesday for a meeting of three. There was lots of time to discuss writing and talk about our goals.
Kristie regaled us with tales of an author who cyber bullies participants in a twitter writing forum, and who was bullying her. Very bizarre. Then she tells us her computer crashed, and we wonder if the two are connected? She needs to write a horror tale about this.
I read first, another ‘Honey’ story called “Face To Face”, about my recent acquisition of a new cell phone so I could take pictures with it, and how I’m too busy playing with my new toy to actually communicate face to face with anyone, namely Honey. I don’t even answer when he calls me on it.
I now have 30,000 words in ‘Honey’ stories and feel that’s a good basis for a small book of humour. I’m still working on putting them all together in one manuscript and editing them so there isn’t a lot of repetition. I don’t yet know if I want to self-publish them as an ebook, or if I want to seek a book publisher.
Kristi read the next chapter in “Jane And The Midnight Daisies”. Jane reaches home just before dawn after her terrifying encounter with the daisies. She desperately wants to sleep, but is disturbed by the hateful cat in her room. She tries to oust the cat, which evades her, and then it suddenly turns mellow and loving before finally leaving the room.
Kristie says she has reworked the story and has made Jane a schoolteacher in her twenties instead of a teenaged school girl. She thinks this will give her more options in plot development. And she finds the more she writes, the more she wants to re-write to make her story better.
Jason read the next Chapter in his second book. Dave and Leah have left the campfire and she is enticing him with sexual advances, but then stops Dave from going any further. She tells him she wants to see the sword he has hidden and, from his sexual frustration, Dave finally agrees. A lot of sexual tension in this Chapter.
Jason was saying he doesn’t know if he wants to continue writing one book with two plot-lines or if he should split it into two books, each with its own plot. He’s worried about what the reader wants. We discussed this and spoke of other books that have more than one plot and also many different character viewpoints. Whichever way he chooses is acceptable.
Margaret Moffatt has an article on the history of Penticton in the July issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine.
We are all hoping Annette is home again and safely recovering from her stay in hospital. Wendy is out of the loop for the month of July, busy with family engagements. Ellie is on the last stages of packing and moving and we wish her well in her new home on the Island. Leah should be at the next Meeting. And we haven’t heard anything from Jim.
I had suggested maybe cancelling Meetings for some or all of the summer, but Jason and Kristi were against this. They said as parents of young children, this is their only chance to get out and congregate with other writers without interruption. With that endorsement in mind, the next Meeting will be Wednesday, July 16th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. 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
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