TECH TALK
There were seven of us here Wednesday night in heavy discussion about making changes to our website at www.ramsheadwriters.ca Leah Murray has brought her expertise in web design to our group and had us answering questions about what we want for the site. We discussed such things as the purpose of the site, the members’ pages, archives for included published work, twitter feed for news such as calls for submissions, a page for writing resource links, compiling a mailing list from site visitors, contact info, what we want on the front page. It’s amazing what should be considered, and we’re not even an email retail site!
Leah didn’t read but did pass around her now available DVD, “Winter In The Rain Forest”, which is a photographic display with her poetry voiced over music that was composed with her nephew. Very impressive.
Margaret Florczak was able to join us, sneaking away from caretaking duties for an invalid husband. Her interest in the ‘Babes In The Woods’ mystery inspired her to write a reply to the article that was featured in the Sunday Province. We first had Jason read the article, and then Margaret read her response, which is a letter to the editor she sent in. After all her years of research into these unsolved murders, she is still furious at the lack of professional skill brought to bear in even identifying these children, never mind who killed them. I also read an account from Margaret Moffatt of having sighted a strange woman in a fur coat with two young boys on her own residential street in the mid 1940s, that may or may not be relevant to this case.
Annette read Chapter 17 in “A Touch Of Wormwood”. Mike is still having coffee with Alyssa’s father, who has asked if he’s the one hired to kill her. Mike tells him he was hired by her boss to ‘deal’with her, but because he was an undercover cop, he arranged for her to survive the supposed murder attempt and escape into hiding. Later, Alyssa’s mother tells him if he cares deeply for her daughter, he shouldn’t give up on trying to win her. But Mike is afraid Alyssa has fallen for his brother, John. We like how this is setting up future conflict between the two brothers over Alyssa’s affections.
Kristi read a rewrite of the chapter that introduces Jane, in “The Midnight Daisies”. She is now an older version of Jane, a teacher, and we see her dismiss her students early as a rainstorm approaches. On her own way home with her treasured poetry books wrapped in her shawl, she is accosted by Sean, a townie. But she is able to fight him off and run toward home in the hills clutching her soaking and muddy books. Kristi says every time she re-reads something she has written, she sees a need for revision. We told her to go ahead and write the story and then worry later about the re-writing to polish her treasured accounting of horror.
Jason read the next chapter in his book. Jody is helping Greg to leave the hospital after he healed the girl who had been burned. She’s afraid of people finding out they are only half human. A big man intervenes and steers them swiftly into a washroom where Greg vomits into the toilet. The stranger chastises them for the healing they had done, telling them it is too exhausting and can bring dangerous unwanted attention. He also tells them the girl’s suffering has now become their own. This was a riveting chapter, very exciting.
Monica Buchanan joined us Wednesday for the first time in a couple of years. She says she wants to get back into writing and hoped to absorb some inspiration. Jim was unable to join us as he was meeting with the editor that Jason had introduced him to.
Next Meeting will be Wednesday, November 5th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then and don’t get lost with the ghouls and ghosts and goblins 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
Friday, October 17, 2014
Saturday, October 4, 2014
THE REVIEW
AUTUMN SCRIBES
Wednesday’s Meeting was lively and fun and full of laughter as six of us were here to worship the Muse. I had found and re-activated our ‘talking stick’, complete with a blue rubber ram’s head on top of a brass vase. The ram’s head is actually a phallic prosthesis glued to the top of the vase. (This was thanks to Nathaniel Poole for his donation of said item in the earlier days of this writers’ group.) Kristi thought it was a hookah pipe when she first saw it. We did use it as a ‘talking stick’ and it was passed around the room to give each speaker authority to command attention. So now you know the origins of the name “Ram’s Head Writers’ Group”. Too funny!
Kristi was eager to read a new short story she wrote, “Of The Moon”. It told of a wandering soul that was in an acorn and then a wolf, a fish, a man, a tree, a sparrow, a hawk, and then the sky, and a moonbeam, where it returns to the moon. This story was very haunting and evocative of animal and spirit. We hope she can find somewhere to have it published and showcased.
Annette read her next two chapters in “A Touch of Wormwood”. We see Mike approaching Alyssa’s parents and trying to move them and their other two daughters to safety. He spends the night collecting Mr. and Mrs. Jorgen at their home, their daughter Eva at church, and their daughter Benny at a motel with a co-ed crowd, and then driving them all some distance to a motel he checks them into. Mike and Mr. Jorgen go out to collect some breakfast for all of them, but also to discuss the situation. After explaining that Alyssa and her whole family were in danger, that an assassin had been hired previously to kill Alyssa, Mr. Jorgen wants to know if Mike was that hired assassin. His question was the end of the chapter, and that was a great hook to keep readers turning the pages.
Jim read Chapter 59 in Book II of “Coventry Ghosts”. Sara and Joel are trying to avoid both the Umbra and the guards at the compound where they think Jason is, so Sara tries teaching Joel mental telepathy so they can communicate without being heard. However, Joel is annoyed and keeps telling her to get out of his head. He eventually catches on and suggests they walk, while Sara shields him and keeps him invisible.
Jim said he had contacted the editor that Jason had recommended to him and was waiting to hear from her after sending samples of his work.
Jason read another chapter from his book. Here we see a Hindu mother in hospital praying fervently for the life of her badly burned ten year old daughter. Through the night there is a miraculous healing and the mother witnesses energy flowing from Gregg into her daughter, as he’s holding her hand. Jason put a lot of research into this chapter about burns and their treatment, but also about Hindu prayer. There was good tension here, and it added much more depth to the story.
Margaret Moffatt has an article on the history of Surrey in the October issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine.
Wendy and I didn’t read anything, but I did bring up a discussion about our website and future possibilities. I did say I don’t want the site to lose any current content if it is updated, and that I also don’t want the site used specifically for sales. However, I have no objection to it containing links to members’ own websites where they want to sell their own work. Members at the meeting were all in agreement they would like to see many more links to writers’ resource websites and will start collecting ones they think would be beneficial to the writing community.
Recently Margaret Moffatt received an email from someone who read her article about her father that is included on our website. And the blog received a comment from a writer in Toronto who also had a story accepted by Polar Expressions. It’s good to know Ram’s Head members are not the only ones who read the website or the blog for The Review.
Copies of the anthology “Don’t Light A Match In The Outhouse” by Summit Studios were available and my thanks to the four who bought copies. The book includes my short story “The Blob At Green Lake”. The editor said the book should be available in stores by November.
The next Meeting will be Wednesday, October 15th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then and may the Muse inspire you 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
Wednesday’s Meeting was lively and fun and full of laughter as six of us were here to worship the Muse. I had found and re-activated our ‘talking stick’, complete with a blue rubber ram’s head on top of a brass vase. The ram’s head is actually a phallic prosthesis glued to the top of the vase. (This was thanks to Nathaniel Poole for his donation of said item in the earlier days of this writers’ group.) Kristi thought it was a hookah pipe when she first saw it. We did use it as a ‘talking stick’ and it was passed around the room to give each speaker authority to command attention. So now you know the origins of the name “Ram’s Head Writers’ Group”. Too funny!
Kristi was eager to read a new short story she wrote, “Of The Moon”. It told of a wandering soul that was in an acorn and then a wolf, a fish, a man, a tree, a sparrow, a hawk, and then the sky, and a moonbeam, where it returns to the moon. This story was very haunting and evocative of animal and spirit. We hope she can find somewhere to have it published and showcased.
Annette read her next two chapters in “A Touch of Wormwood”. We see Mike approaching Alyssa’s parents and trying to move them and their other two daughters to safety. He spends the night collecting Mr. and Mrs. Jorgen at their home, their daughter Eva at church, and their daughter Benny at a motel with a co-ed crowd, and then driving them all some distance to a motel he checks them into. Mike and Mr. Jorgen go out to collect some breakfast for all of them, but also to discuss the situation. After explaining that Alyssa and her whole family were in danger, that an assassin had been hired previously to kill Alyssa, Mr. Jorgen wants to know if Mike was that hired assassin. His question was the end of the chapter, and that was a great hook to keep readers turning the pages.
Jim read Chapter 59 in Book II of “Coventry Ghosts”. Sara and Joel are trying to avoid both the Umbra and the guards at the compound where they think Jason is, so Sara tries teaching Joel mental telepathy so they can communicate without being heard. However, Joel is annoyed and keeps telling her to get out of his head. He eventually catches on and suggests they walk, while Sara shields him and keeps him invisible.
Jim said he had contacted the editor that Jason had recommended to him and was waiting to hear from her after sending samples of his work.
Jason read another chapter from his book. Here we see a Hindu mother in hospital praying fervently for the life of her badly burned ten year old daughter. Through the night there is a miraculous healing and the mother witnesses energy flowing from Gregg into her daughter, as he’s holding her hand. Jason put a lot of research into this chapter about burns and their treatment, but also about Hindu prayer. There was good tension here, and it added much more depth to the story.
Margaret Moffatt has an article on the history of Surrey in the October issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine.
Wendy and I didn’t read anything, but I did bring up a discussion about our website and future possibilities. I did say I don’t want the site to lose any current content if it is updated, and that I also don’t want the site used specifically for sales. However, I have no objection to it containing links to members’ own websites where they want to sell their own work. Members at the meeting were all in agreement they would like to see many more links to writers’ resource websites and will start collecting ones they think would be beneficial to the writing community.
Recently Margaret Moffatt received an email from someone who read her article about her father that is included on our website. And the blog received a comment from a writer in Toronto who also had a story accepted by Polar Expressions. It’s good to know Ram’s Head members are not the only ones who read the website or the blog for The Review.
Copies of the anthology “Don’t Light A Match In The Outhouse” by Summit Studios were available and my thanks to the four who bought copies. The book includes my short story “The Blob At Green Lake”. The editor said the book should be available in stores by November.
The next Meeting will be Wednesday, October 15th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then and may the Muse inspire you 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
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