A TEENAGE GHOST, A TEXAS TART AND MEMORY LOSS
Fabulous Meeting of The Rams last night. Charity, Luke, Annette, Chris, and Jim Williams joined me and contributed to a writer’s feast of storytelling.
Jim read first from his now published Young Adult novel, “Haunting Of The Wired Monk – The Coventry Ghosts Book 1”. In the prologue we see teenaged Leanne killed in front of a coffee shop where she wants to stay to thank the two ladies who tried to save her. Then in Chapter 16, we see the kitten Sara die and decide to stay with Leanne. The two ghosts become the haunts at the Wired Monk coffee shop, in ghastly, ghostly cahoots everafter.
We learned from Jim that this book has been published as an eBook at www.divinedestinies.com and is available at all eBook retailers. It is also available as print-on-demand at Amazon. Jim also has a romance being published by another imprint of the same company. It is “Quadratic Equations” published at www.extasybooks.com with an estimated publishing date of January 26, 2018.
We wish Jim continued success with his writing career and thank him for his time sharing his experience with us.
Luke read more from his novel, and we see Goren and Galeena (who doesn’t remember her real name) leaving the river and trekking to his home. Along the way, Goren realizes she is not from the same tribe as him, and he keeps trying to determine what tribe she belongs to. Sometimes she’s childlike, and sometimes like a stealthy hunter. This chapter is being used to help build the world that Goren inhabits.
Annette read Chapter 10 that shows Maxine back in Jarod’s hospital room now that he has regained consciousness, but he ignores her. His jaw is wired shut, so he is asked by the nurse to use eye blinks to answer yes or no questions. He answers no when asked if his name is Jarod Foster, yes when asked if he remembers the motorcycle accident, and no when asked if he remembers Maxine. Maxine fumes at being so easily forgotten. Maxine is dealing with a lot of emotion in this chapter.
Charity read the next chapter in “Trixie Trouble”. Trixie enters the town of Shaughnessy at night and then collapses in an alley. A tart tries to go through her pockets and belongings, but Trixie awakes and challenges her. She asks the woman to get her a room, a bath and a doctor in exchange for a gold coin.
Chris read Chapter 2 from “It’s Hot And It Burns”. His male character with memory loss goes through the brown paper bag as the SUV that dropped it off disappears into the desert. Inside the bag he finds enough rations for another day, and a pencil and notebook with “Konfessions” written on the first page. Also in the bag is a roll of toilet paper, which seems ludicrous as he fights against the sudden, overwhelming need to defecate, trying not to spoil his only clothes. His war within seems excruciating and hilarious. We could all see him standing stiff-legged, all alone in the middle of the desert.
I did not read anything last night. My thanks go out to Wendy Francis, another Ram who is unable to attend our Meetings, who graciously did an extensive edit of “Honey Signed The Waiver” for me. She caught all sorts of things that needed correction, such as repeated use of distinct words in the same story, an inconsistent number of cats attributed to my household from story to story, and changes needed from present tense to past tense. I think she spent a lot of hours doing this for me and I am extremely grateful. It’s amazing what another set of eyes can see.
The next Meeting will be Wednesday, February 7th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then and may The Muse haunt you like a wanton woman so you won’t forget how much you love to write her words.
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Thursday, January 4, 2018
THE REVIEW
OFF TO A NEW START
For the first Meeting of 2018, Kay, Roger, Annette and new member Chris Wnuk joined me last night. We started with my handing out some printed reminders. One was the definition of story structure contained in one paragraph which succinctly condenses the mythical story structure for easy reference. The other two handouts were about critiquing and all the elements of story to consider both as a reader and as a writer. It’s sometimes helpful to remind ourselves of what we should pay attention to in our writing.
I also read a short, short story of mine which is about an actual phone call I received from a woman asking about the writers’ group. She was a teacher of creative writing and was disgusted we were mostly a support group and then she hung up on me. I had written the story many years ago, but some points in it are worth looking at again. And I do say that everything that happens can be fodder for a writer. The bumper sticker on my filing cabinet says “WRITERS HAVE THE LAST WORD”.
We also looked at writing goals for the coming year. Kay said she wants to be done production of her screenplay by summer and hopefully see it marketed, and she also wants to finish her second script. Chris is aiming to find an agent for his novels. Annette wants to finish her current novel and work to getting it published. I want to find a publisher for “Honey Signed The Waiver”. And Roger said he wants to find a publisher for his novel and get a sizeable advance for it. We will look back at our goals next January to see what we’ve accomplished.
Kay talked to us about the use of culture and cross-culture in her script for “Porcelain”. She wants to portray how diverse the cultural backdrop of Vancouver is without her story being too “busy”. We had an interesting discussion on how culture is portrayed in different movies and TV shows.
Roger read from Chapter 1 of his literary novel (as yet unnamed), which he said has been a 3 year project so far. He asked for feedback on the development of the two characters in this chapter, and their interaction with each other. We commented on the sexual innuendos in their meeting, and the male character seeming egotistical while the woman seemed to take charge. I thought the male might be bi-polar. Kay and Chris both asked for more visual description of the male character. I asked for a time frame for the story. Roger said the chapter title included the year, so that provided the time of the story for any reader. The personalities of both characters were very evident in this chapter.
Chris read the first chapter of his comedy/thriller novel “It’s Hot And It Burns”. We see the main character waking up alone on a flat desert with only a tarp shelter, military cot, and one bottle of water. He has no memory of who he is or how he got there. This story is first person, present tense and the tension is palpable right from the start. This chapter grabs the reader right from the start and then also ends with a hook.
Annette didn’t have anything to read. She was tired after a stressful week over her husband’s ill health.
Charity said she was unable to attend last night as she had a cold. Carolynn said it was her husband’s birthday but hopes to attend later this month.
At our next Meeting, Wednesday, January 17th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place, former Rams member Jim Williams will be attending and reading from his newly published YA book “Haunting Of The Wired Monk – The Coventry Ghosts Book I”. Jim also said he’s willing to discuss the steps in the publication process that he went through with our group as well.
Hope to see everyone on the 17th. Take care and stay healthy and may all your goals be met this year!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
For the first Meeting of 2018, Kay, Roger, Annette and new member Chris Wnuk joined me last night. We started with my handing out some printed reminders. One was the definition of story structure contained in one paragraph which succinctly condenses the mythical story structure for easy reference. The other two handouts were about critiquing and all the elements of story to consider both as a reader and as a writer. It’s sometimes helpful to remind ourselves of what we should pay attention to in our writing.
I also read a short, short story of mine which is about an actual phone call I received from a woman asking about the writers’ group. She was a teacher of creative writing and was disgusted we were mostly a support group and then she hung up on me. I had written the story many years ago, but some points in it are worth looking at again. And I do say that everything that happens can be fodder for a writer. The bumper sticker on my filing cabinet says “WRITERS HAVE THE LAST WORD”.
We also looked at writing goals for the coming year. Kay said she wants to be done production of her screenplay by summer and hopefully see it marketed, and she also wants to finish her second script. Chris is aiming to find an agent for his novels. Annette wants to finish her current novel and work to getting it published. I want to find a publisher for “Honey Signed The Waiver”. And Roger said he wants to find a publisher for his novel and get a sizeable advance for it. We will look back at our goals next January to see what we’ve accomplished.
Kay talked to us about the use of culture and cross-culture in her script for “Porcelain”. She wants to portray how diverse the cultural backdrop of Vancouver is without her story being too “busy”. We had an interesting discussion on how culture is portrayed in different movies and TV shows.
Roger read from Chapter 1 of his literary novel (as yet unnamed), which he said has been a 3 year project so far. He asked for feedback on the development of the two characters in this chapter, and their interaction with each other. We commented on the sexual innuendos in their meeting, and the male character seeming egotistical while the woman seemed to take charge. I thought the male might be bi-polar. Kay and Chris both asked for more visual description of the male character. I asked for a time frame for the story. Roger said the chapter title included the year, so that provided the time of the story for any reader. The personalities of both characters were very evident in this chapter.
Chris read the first chapter of his comedy/thriller novel “It’s Hot And It Burns”. We see the main character waking up alone on a flat desert with only a tarp shelter, military cot, and one bottle of water. He has no memory of who he is or how he got there. This story is first person, present tense and the tension is palpable right from the start. This chapter grabs the reader right from the start and then also ends with a hook.
Annette didn’t have anything to read. She was tired after a stressful week over her husband’s ill health.
Charity said she was unable to attend last night as she had a cold. Carolynn said it was her husband’s birthday but hopes to attend later this month.
At our next Meeting, Wednesday, January 17th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place, former Rams member Jim Williams will be attending and reading from his newly published YA book “Haunting Of The Wired Monk – The Coventry Ghosts Book I”. Jim also said he’s willing to discuss the steps in the publication process that he went through with our group as well.
Hope to see everyone on the 17th. Take care and stay healthy and may all your goals be met this year!
Lisa A. Hatton
Author
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