THE REVIEW

WRITING ROUNDUP

Charity, Jason, Luke and new member, Pat Burnett, joined me last night for a great meeting of The Rams.

I started the meeting by handing out some things I had copied. There was a one page plan for writing a book, one page for a character chart, one page of writing tips, and one page on points to consider when critiquing.

Luke read a middle chapter from his novel, “The Heart Of The Earth”. The main character, Goren, and his two bodyguards are seeking information. They take a trip to the underground archives of the library, and we are shown a setting where they are not allowed to browse to look for the information they seek.

Pat read the prologue from her novel “Black Caul”. It was a short scene showing a girl experiencing either terror or an anxiety attack in an underground parkade. The scene was riveting and would definitely hook the reader. Then Pat read some research she had done on Bowen Island during the 1940s and 1950s. We asked her if there had been a blackout required of ferries visiting Bowen during the war years, but Pat didn’t know and said she would look that up. If any of our members remember about that, please let us know.

Charity read the next chapter from “Trixie Trouble”, entitled “A Lick And A Promise”. We see Trixie and the preacher’s son, Donovan, still bickering after their fight is broken up by the preacher. Trixie is sent indoors to clean up and is shown to her room by another rescued girl named Charlotte. Trixie is bothered that she doesn’t know where she belongs, and even more so when she sees a black mourning dress she is expected to wear.

Jason’s next chapter shows us Kwen walking through the soldiers’ encampment, on her way to find Damianos. She is accosted by the young soldier, Tement, who blames her for the deaths of four soldiers. She is the only female warrior, but can still defend herself against him, even with her injured shoulder. When she gets to the tent where she expects to find Damianos and her special coin, they aren’t there. This was a well written, edgy chapter. But we did tease Jason about using one humdrum cliché (getting sick and tired of it) when his writing is almost always descriptively unique. He never uses clichés. Beware the cliché, for the Rams will pounce on it! And again, Jason used ‘passed’ when it should have been ‘past’. Examples of use would be: The football player passed the football to another player, who ran it past the goal line for a touchdown. The years passed quickly until they were all in the past. But I’m still working on who’s and whose.

I read another ‘Honey’ story, “Rodeo of Fabrics”. It was about Honey wanting me to sew him a cowboy shirt and his having trouble choosing proper fabrics to make one. This was a very short story, around 300 words. Luke said he was waiting for the story to continue and tell him about actually making the shirt. I’ll have to think about that.

Kristi was unable to attend. Margaret F. said she was up at 3:00 a.m. and then would be working a long day, therefore in bed about the time we started the meeting. Annette said they were doing a lot of yard clean-up. And Hayden said his wife wasn’t well and he needed to stay home for her and their daughter. We missed all these writers.

The next Meeting will be Wednesday, April 20th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then.

Lisa A. Hatton
Author