THE REVIEW

PROOF POSITIVE

Seven of us were here on Wednesday to prove we’re still writers, although not necessarily still writing. If all this gorgeous weather keeps us away from our computer screens, maybe we should regress to pen and paper? We might be further ahead. But seems to me Kristi already does that.

Jim read first, two chapters. The first was Ch. 66 which is the last chapter in “Coventry Ghosts, Book I”. In it a powerful figure in the country of Honywuan plans to break Jason out of a Mexican jail and bring him to Honywuan to collect soul essences by computer for that country to control the world. And the Umbra ghosts are angry with the ghosts of Leanne and Sara, and also plan to work with Jason for more control over ghostdom. The next piece Jim read is the prologue to Book II and shows the death of the kitten Sara and how she meets up with Leanne and joins her in the haunt of the coffee shop.

When I told Jim I didn’t remember this prologue he said it’s because he just wrote it, after he finished writing the book. And Lorelei perked up knowing somebody else was writing a book out of chronological order. Perfectly acceptable. I suppose I’ve done that with my “Honey” stories, but now I’m having difficulty putting them in some kind of order for a whole manuscript. And since I didn’t plan a book to begin with, I see there is a lot of repetition of background that I’m dealing with. Win some, lose some. Jim says he loves writing the first draft and all the rest is just grunt work. I agree.

I read next, a short personal essay called “The Ring”, which I wrote Wednesday morning just to prove to myself I could still write. It tells of a family ring glittering with many diamonds that intimidated the first two women who wore it. But with the third generation it found a comfortable home. Maybe I’ll send it off to the Polar Expressions writing contest. If it gets printed, it ups my count of royalties paid to me by Access Copyright.

Annette read Ch. 23 and 24 of “A Touch Of Wormwood”. In the first, Alyssa tells her father of the sexual assault she endured and that she doesn’t feel worthy of wearing a purity ring he had given her. But he says her integrity is still intact and therefore she is worthy of the ring. In the next chapter she accuses Mike of cheating at cards. He goes outside, after which George West, the crime boss, comes into the cabin and tells her Mike is probably already dead. As he moves towards her she closes her eyes in terror, and then hears George screaming in pain. She opens her eyes and sees him down and clawing at the floor. None of us were very happy about how submissive Alyssa has become when there are men present. We’ve been very hard on Annette. She doesn’t want Alyssa’s anger to come to the surface and we are all trying to force that to happen.


Kristi read the beginning of a short story called “Three Suns Dance”. It starts with a naked young man and woman in a tent. Even though they desire each other, he must leave by dawn as he cannot have sex with a woman on the day of the dance. Interesting implication that a sexual encounter would not add to his stature as a man. Where is this fantasy world?

Lorelie and Jason did not read, but we thank them for listening to the rest of us. Support of other writers is always important.

Margaret Moffatt has an article on the history of Steveston, B.C. in the May issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine.

The next Meeting of The Rams will be Wednesday, May 20th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then with your collection of written words. Happy Mother’s Day to those who qualify, and if anyone goes to the Cloverdale Rodeo, don’t get stomped on!

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