THE REVIEW

COOLER HEADS PREVAIL?

Now that the weather has cooled down and the smoke from the wildfires has abated, we had a great Meeting here on Wednesday. Luke, Charity, Annette and Kay all showed up and the Meeting kept going till 9:40. Awesome!

Luke said he had written a short story that was accepted for a podcast. It is entitled “Fly-by Corn Thief”. He read it to us and it is a humorous account of a farmer reporting his stolen corn and telling the attending female officer the culprits were aliens in a UFO, because he saw crop circles in the cornfield. Congratulations to Luke on his success with this story.

Kay gave us an introduction to scriptwriting and said one should aim for playtime of between one hour, thirty minutes and two hours. Suggested length would be one hour, 45 minutes. And because so many screenplays can now be hacked, and are vulnerable the minute any interest is shown for a particular work, that it is strongly advised to copyright your script. Good to know.

Charity read the next chapter about Trixie. After having passed out from her injuries and exhaustion, Trixie awakes in what she calls the broken arm gully, a hiding hole her father had found. It has a cabin he had built, with supplies of food, ammunition, and bandages. After bathing in the pool, she finds a gold coin she knows her father probably dropped and it gives her hope of survival. As she cleans herself, and dresses her wounds, she remembers how her Ma had been a bad influence in their lives and was probably the cause of her father getting caught and hung. She breaks down and cries, finally allowing her grief to overcome her. There was lots of background info in this chapter revealing the stress she had experienced with her parents.

Annette said after comments I made at the last meeting, she rewrote the chapter about Maxine in the cafeteria at the hospital. Now as Max is wondering if Jarod would be there for her, an older woman asks if she needs someone to talk to. Claire sits down at the same table and proceeds to tell her how to have the cafeteria provide fresh food to specific requests. She tells Max she and her husband, together for forty years, had to learn to communicate with each other, and give voice to their expectations. Claire tells her that her husband is going home, but then reveals he is dying. Max thinks the woman is crazy. This chapter grabbed attention and works much better than the previous version.

I read a short piece called “Not Done Yet”, about an 83 year old woman looking for another man after the sudden and quite recent death of her partner. In between bouts of grief she is on the lookout for her next romantic interest.

Chrystal said she was called into work on Wednesday at the last minute. Lorelie had planned to attend, but had unexpected visitors. Margaret F. had emailed me earlier from the Island and said she hopes to be able to attend in the fall. It would be good to see all three of them.

The next Meeting will be Wednesday, September 6th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Enjoy the rest of your summer. Keep writing. And I look forward to seeing you September 6th!

Lisa A. Hatton
Author