FORGING AHEAD
Wendy, Jason and Leah joined me on Wednesday for our Meeting. Annette and Kristie were both busy with other commitments. Lorelei said she hopes to attend on September 17th after her mother is settled in assisted living and visiting relatives have left.
I read first, a short piece called “Predator And Prey” about a woman calling to inquire about the writers’ group, and then criticising it and hanging up. After reading, I brought out the critiquing outline obtained at a workshop given by Lois Peterson. It mentions many technical aspects of writing fiction and provides a valuable guide at how to look at any story and evaluate it. Jason said he still likes the brainstorming we do on how to add to a story.
Jason read the next chapter, where Gregg and Jody are still on their picnic, and he’s telling her everything he has learned about the Nornir. She is not that interested, and keeps drinking the wine. She and Gregg are both overwhelmed by how much has happened and wonder what the future holds. The scene seemed a little tame, and we had previously suggested Jason ramp it up, but he said he wasn’t sure where to go with it. We suggested Jody seemed very depressed, perhaps he could have her do something explosive, totally out of character, and we suggested maybe she could run away and not show up the first day of school. (We were brainstorming. Jason took notes.)
Leah read us two of her poems. “Language Lessons” was rhyming verse, about trying to master the Welsh language. The second poem was “Affair With Frankie” and is a loving, sensuous ode to her tenor saxophone.
Leah shared some news with us. Her business development plan was accepted and she will be receiving a grant to start her business. And the photo artwork she submitted to the Cascadia competition on flora and fauna of Canada was juried in, and will be on display in the Surrey Art Gallery August 23rd to November 6th. She also told us about her harrowing search from here for her missing ex-husband in Ontario, and how she found him as a stroke patient at a hospital, and the immense difficulty of helping him from so far away. Now there is a heart-gripping story waiting for Leah’s fingers on the keyboard.
Wendy didn’t have anything to read, but did share the trouble she has had looking after her mother out in Chilliwack.
Maybe we should have one Meeting where we all share stories about taking care of someone else?
Jason asked about updating our website and making it more relevant to the current times. I explained that my son was the only one who could do that, and as a Lt. Colonel is usually too busy. Then Leah piped up that she could do it as she did computer programming and knows how to build websites. She said she could even get us started with a Twitter account, and explained that it is only short conversational snippets added to the website daily, but that we need at least three persons to contribute. That negated some of the fears Wendy and I had about anything new and onerous in the digital world. Leah then laughed and said this reminded her of the military, where if you open your mouth to suggest something, you have volunteered to do it. Too funny!
As far as typing and preparing manuscripts goes, my son asked me why I still use two spaces after a period, before the start of the next sentence. He sent me an article about that being the bane of printers, typesetters and typographers. I do it because that was the way I was taught on a manual typewriter, way back when. It had to do with the way a typewriter spaced the letters. Apparently, that isn’t necessary with computer fonts, except for perhaps Courier. But that habit is so ingrained, I don’t know if I can stop doing it. What are your thoughts?
Our next Meeting will be Wednesday, September 17th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place after I return from watching the Change of Command Ceremony where my son, Lt. Col. Sonny T. Hatton, takes command of the 2nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, Petawawa, Ontario. (You can tell I’m the proud Mama, right?) Hope to see you September 17th!
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
2 comments:
Re: why I still use two spaces after a period, before the start of the next sentence - I still do it too, Lisa, for the same reasons as you do. I found out that my MS Word software will take them out as part of the spell and grammar check if I let it, so I quit worrying about doing it myself and just let Word take them out afterward -- much easier and less stressful for me!
It was me, Leah -- sorry for anon post!
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