SEVEN SCRAWLERS
Jason, Margaret, Annette, Kristi, Charity and new member, Hayden McKinnon, joined me on Wednesday for the latest Meeting of esteemed Rams. Hayden is a teacher of grade six students who writes short stories and is looking to expand his writing horizons.
Margaret read first, Chapter 6 of “Babes In The Wood”. It details her research into newspaper articles written about the murders over a period of years, but which exposed many contradictory statements she was seriously questioning in 1996. There was no logical explanation of who had committed the crime, or of how the murders of two children were really executed.
Kristi is just now getting back into writing after the hiatus she took to study for a work related exam. She read to us a scene she has written, about a young girl named Ainsley. She is exploring property she lives on, and comes across an abandoned well, that has a cold bench in front of it, and a sign that says “Take a penny. Leave a penny.” A crow joins her, but as it leaves it turns into a raven. We were all waiting for something drastically evil to happen.
Hayden read to us his short story “The Lighthouse Man”. It tells of an elderly keeper named Marlo who is barely able to do his maintenance job, and whose 40 year old son lives with him. Marlo’s health is failing, but he has emotional ties to his home by the sea, and dances as if still holding in his arms his deceased wife. Marlo is faced with the decision made without his permission to move him into a care home. There is a lot of well portrayed sadness in this story.
Charity has started re-writing “Saltwater Mermaid” and read to us a beginning chapter. It shows Persephone telling her family on Hornby Island that she has seen the sea witch. Then the story backtracks to when she had been waiting for the ferry to the island and took a dip in the ocean to cool off. When she comes out of the water she cadges a ride from the young artist, Adam, who doesn’t really like people. Otherworldly hints are dropped amid the telling of everyday life.
Jason read his next chapter about Damianos trying to escape the clutches of the giant men detaining him, and bent on torturing him to gain information from him. Damianos seems doomed. Do we root for him to overcome this situation or not?
I read another ‘Honey’ story, “Malfuntion”. It tells of a domestic electrical problem that affected the whole house, but was caused by a shorted ground fault connector outside under a giant fir tree between our driveway and the next one. In retrospect, there was a lot of humour in how we handled this problem.
Annette didn’t read anything, but did show us the brand new throwing knife she bought for upcoming competitions she is entering. She said she also had throwing axes out in her vehicle. I told her not to get pulled over and charged with weapons offences. She should be writing a murder mystery about somebody using their knives or axes for devilish purposes.
Hayden said he maintains a blog that can be found at www.frostyhound.blogspot.ca
The next Meeting will be Wednesday, March 16th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Since St. Patrick’s Day will be the following day, everyone can attend wearing something green! Hope to see you then.
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
2 comments:
I am interested with this book ‘Honey’ story, “Malfuntion” I'd like to know much about the aftermath of fire victims.
My short story "Malfunction" was about an old and dying ground fault connector that belonged to the electrical provider in our area. It shorted and caused electrical dilemmas in the house, but no fire. The story was about our humourous reactions to lights, appliances and electronics going on and off intermittently. The only harm done were a couple of broken light bulbs and a garage door opener that no longer worked. Sorry I can't be more helpful with that. But I did write and publish an ebook called "Fire" with Kobo about a series of arson fires in a large townhouse complex. Although based on some things I actually did deal with as assistant property manager, the book is fiction.
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