JANUARY JOTTINGS
Our meeting on Wednesday was a little smaller in the number of participants. Bob and Danny were both under the weather, and Ron was on Vancouver Island.
Margaret read her next chapter in “Coffin and Dye” or is that “Dye and Coffin”? Anyhow, Coffin is at the Museum with his whiskey, waiting among the wax models for the appearance of a ghost he needs to identify. Falling asleep, he has a most vivid dream of Lucy who entices him into undressing her and then she seduces him. But alas, he is caught and is being beheaded when he wakes up. Later, at the pub across the street, he tells Dye the ghost in the Museum is definitely Lucy.
Discussing Margaret’s first book, “Blow Up The Castle”, she was able to tell us she now has a signed contract with West Pro Publishing that she is happy with. Her niece, who had handled paperwork for Margaret’s sister’s published novels, had read the contract and told Margaret it was about as good as it gets. For Margaret’s sake, the rest of us sighed with relief. The book may be ready in a month or so.
Gemma was concerned with possible plagiarizing of one of her poems that had been previously published in both a magazine and an anthology, and now appeared with a few words changed in a current magazine issue. Margaret advised her that she should definitely pursue the matter, and we hope to hear what the eventual outcome will be.
Jason read Chapter 2 of his novel, which is in the process of a re-write. We see Greg awakening in his Great Grandmother’s living room, after his nightmare, and he checks his hands to make sure they are normal, and not animalistic. He overhears his Great Grandmother telling a man named Ludwig that she wants the chest. Greg sees a sword under Ludwig’s coat. After Ludwig leaves, he asks who the man was, but his Great Grandmother wants to know what he had been dreaming. Greg tells her he’s terrified of losing control of himself. This Chapter continued the suspense of the first, and we applaud Jason for what he is doing with the novel.
Jim read to us the first chapter of “High Fashion”, a romance novel he has started. It began with a really steamy sex scene that the women were shaking their heads over. We all told Jim that if he starts with the climax, there’s no reason for a reader to read the rest of the novel. As women who read romance novels, we do think there is a pretty rigid formula for this type of genre fiction. But hey, if men are to write romance and read romance, maybe the placement and significance of sex in a novel will change. But ain’t that the way? Men want the sex and women want the foreplay?
Even though Ron was away, he did send me the link to his new website at http://www.rdyoungwrites.com/ if you want to check it out. He did offer to exchange links with http://www.ramsheadwriters.ca/ which I will take him up on, as soon as Sonny comes back from training troops for deployment to Afghanistan down in the California desert. Sonny is our site administrator as most of you already know.
Thanks to Jim and his burgeoning success as a published writer, he and I both met today with Jane Blackmore and Robynn Maher, editors of Eclectica Magazine. They have been working for over a year to get their magazine up and running. It is published 8 times a year, the next issue due out Jan. 21st. The magazine is a forum for all sorts of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, recipes, artwork, etc. and submissions are most welcome. However, there is no payment to writers or artists for anything published. Anne Berrie, Jim, and I will all have something appearing in the next issue. You can learn more about the magazine and find out where in the Lower Mainland to buy a copy on their website at http://www.voicefortheunheard.com/ .
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, January 20th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you then with your latest written creations. Keep Writing!
Lisa
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Monday, December 21, 2009
THE REVIEW
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009
Our Holiday get-together last Wednesday was a great little party, and we had way too much food. Bob’s pecan tarts and the salmon & cream cheese spread Gemma brought, made with the salmon Laszlo smoked, stole the show. And there were all sorts of chocolates cookies and nibbles and cheese and crackers, and Tim Horton’s Timbits. The Muse was impressed.
Unfortunately, Anne Berrie and Ann Robertson were both under the weather and unable to join us. Hope both ladies are feeling better.
Margaret read a poem she had written back in the ‘70s when she worked as a copy writer for the Lougheed Mall. It was a takeoff on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’, but written to include the names of all the stores existing at the Mall at that time. Very well done.
Ron read a short story he had written, “A Christmas Miracle in Walnut Grove”. It told of his tennis association showing up just before Christmas to play tennis at a court that was on its last legs and which flooded regularly. He described all the various non-athletes that showed up to play and then were drowned out by freezing rain. On Christmas Day he felt compelled to visit the court and when he arrived he saw 6 new covered courts and all the players showed up to play. “Santa” was an old drinking buddy, Raymond Chan, who worked for the Christmas department of the Chinese Government monitoring the internet for Santa wishes. He had seen Ron’s blog and brought a new product in response, an instant indoor tennis court. Excellent story for Christmas.
Jim brought a printout from the International Pun Contest and I read them all, to many moans after each one.
Some of us had some wine, some had pop and some had water. Then I read Stuart McLean’s “Christmas with the Turlingtons” from his “Secrets From The Vinyl Café”. I was laughing so hard I found it difficult to keep reading. So if your Christmas is short of your expectations, be sure to read this story and re-evaluate.
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, January 6th, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you all then. In the meantime, all our very best wishes to you and yours for a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Lisa and Bryon
Our Holiday get-together last Wednesday was a great little party, and we had way too much food. Bob’s pecan tarts and the salmon & cream cheese spread Gemma brought, made with the salmon Laszlo smoked, stole the show. And there were all sorts of chocolates cookies and nibbles and cheese and crackers, and Tim Horton’s Timbits. The Muse was impressed.
Unfortunately, Anne Berrie and Ann Robertson were both under the weather and unable to join us. Hope both ladies are feeling better.
Margaret read a poem she had written back in the ‘70s when she worked as a copy writer for the Lougheed Mall. It was a takeoff on ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’, but written to include the names of all the stores existing at the Mall at that time. Very well done.
Ron read a short story he had written, “A Christmas Miracle in Walnut Grove”. It told of his tennis association showing up just before Christmas to play tennis at a court that was on its last legs and which flooded regularly. He described all the various non-athletes that showed up to play and then were drowned out by freezing rain. On Christmas Day he felt compelled to visit the court and when he arrived he saw 6 new covered courts and all the players showed up to play. “Santa” was an old drinking buddy, Raymond Chan, who worked for the Christmas department of the Chinese Government monitoring the internet for Santa wishes. He had seen Ron’s blog and brought a new product in response, an instant indoor tennis court. Excellent story for Christmas.
Jim brought a printout from the International Pun Contest and I read them all, to many moans after each one.
Some of us had some wine, some had pop and some had water. Then I read Stuart McLean’s “Christmas with the Turlingtons” from his “Secrets From The Vinyl Café”. I was laughing so hard I found it difficult to keep reading. So if your Christmas is short of your expectations, be sure to read this story and re-evaluate.
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, January 6th, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Hope to see you all then. In the meantime, all our very best wishes to you and yours for a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Lisa and Bryon
Saturday, December 5, 2009
THE REVIEW
CHRISTMAS IS COMING
Seven of us met on Wednesday, and Anne brought some chocolate brownies for us. She won’t be driving for a few weeks after surgery scheduled for Monday, so we won’t see her again until the New Year. We all wish her a speedy recovery.
Margaret read “Ghost In The Waxworks”, the next chapter in Coffin & Dye. Mr. Fox was concerned about the ghost at the wax museum at the Borough of Whistle. He wanted the it identified. He believed it was the ghost of Lucy Walter, the mistress of Charles II. Dye would only allot a week to identify the ghost. Coffin, afraid of ghosts, bought some whiskey to take with him to the Museum after dinner, where he would do a stakeout to catch the ghost.
Margaret is also in further talks with the publisher interested in her book “Blow Up The Castle”. We are all waiting to hear what transpires.
Danny read four pages talking about the time just before his breakdown. He gave us a lot of detail about group therapy, a social worker, anti-depressants, suicidal thoughts, side-effects of meds, suicidal ideation, erectile dysfunction, Viagra (and the opposite problem), girlfriend excluding him, dreading Christmas alone, and more suicidal thoughts. We were shown how thoughts of suicide were underlying everything else in his life.
Bob rewrote his fan letter to the Boston Red Sox and mailed it. We hope he gets a reply.
And then Bob read to us his account of all the electronics failures he and his wife have been plagued with recently. At various times they lost the use of T.V.s, computers and phones. A nightmare, to be sure. And Bob has yet to finish the story for us.
Anne read “Barbie Goes To The Lake”, an epic poem recounting an episode in her childhood when she took Barbie and Ken outside, and got into mischief with her friend Trish. Very comical.
Margaret and Gemma were both published in the December issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine. Margaret’s piece listed some well-known Christmas carols and then gave their history and told who wrote them. Gemma’s story, “A Christmas Present”, was about a hospital worker going home late on a snowy Christmas Eve in Montreal, to find her husband and son waiting for her with the gift of a new puppy. Very touching.
In the January issue of Eclectica Magazine, Jim, Anne and I will all be contributing authors. Jim and I have had short stories accepted, and Anne has two poems accepted. This group is doing very well, indeed.
I showed the group the anthology “Below The Canopy” which I received last week. It included my short piece “His Rant”.
Since Holidays are near, I asked the group if they wanted to have a meeting on the 16th or if they wanted to take a break until the New Year. Consensus was that we would have a little Christmas party on Wednesday, December 16th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. I’ll put out some wine, and everybody will bring something to snack on. Bob said he would make some of his pecan tarts. So be sure to join us that night and we will toast The Muse and be merry and jolly. If you have anything with a Christmas or New Year theme to read, bring it along. And I can always read Stuart McLean’s “Dave Cooks The Turkey” to give us a good laugh. Really hope to see you on the 16th.
Lisa
Seven of us met on Wednesday, and Anne brought some chocolate brownies for us. She won’t be driving for a few weeks after surgery scheduled for Monday, so we won’t see her again until the New Year. We all wish her a speedy recovery.
Margaret read “Ghost In The Waxworks”, the next chapter in Coffin & Dye. Mr. Fox was concerned about the ghost at the wax museum at the Borough of Whistle. He wanted the it identified. He believed it was the ghost of Lucy Walter, the mistress of Charles II. Dye would only allot a week to identify the ghost. Coffin, afraid of ghosts, bought some whiskey to take with him to the Museum after dinner, where he would do a stakeout to catch the ghost.
Margaret is also in further talks with the publisher interested in her book “Blow Up The Castle”. We are all waiting to hear what transpires.
Danny read four pages talking about the time just before his breakdown. He gave us a lot of detail about group therapy, a social worker, anti-depressants, suicidal thoughts, side-effects of meds, suicidal ideation, erectile dysfunction, Viagra (and the opposite problem), girlfriend excluding him, dreading Christmas alone, and more suicidal thoughts. We were shown how thoughts of suicide were underlying everything else in his life.
Bob rewrote his fan letter to the Boston Red Sox and mailed it. We hope he gets a reply.
And then Bob read to us his account of all the electronics failures he and his wife have been plagued with recently. At various times they lost the use of T.V.s, computers and phones. A nightmare, to be sure. And Bob has yet to finish the story for us.
Anne read “Barbie Goes To The Lake”, an epic poem recounting an episode in her childhood when she took Barbie and Ken outside, and got into mischief with her friend Trish. Very comical.
Margaret and Gemma were both published in the December issue of Today’s Senior Newsmagazine. Margaret’s piece listed some well-known Christmas carols and then gave their history and told who wrote them. Gemma’s story, “A Christmas Present”, was about a hospital worker going home late on a snowy Christmas Eve in Montreal, to find her husband and son waiting for her with the gift of a new puppy. Very touching.
In the January issue of Eclectica Magazine, Jim, Anne and I will all be contributing authors. Jim and I have had short stories accepted, and Anne has two poems accepted. This group is doing very well, indeed.
I showed the group the anthology “Below The Canopy” which I received last week. It included my short piece “His Rant”.
Since Holidays are near, I asked the group if they wanted to have a meeting on the 16th or if they wanted to take a break until the New Year. Consensus was that we would have a little Christmas party on Wednesday, December 16th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. I’ll put out some wine, and everybody will bring something to snack on. Bob said he would make some of his pecan tarts. So be sure to join us that night and we will toast The Muse and be merry and jolly. If you have anything with a Christmas or New Year theme to read, bring it along. And I can always read Stuart McLean’s “Dave Cooks The Turkey” to give us a good laugh. Really hope to see you on the 16th.
Lisa
Saturday, November 21, 2009
THE REVIEW
ECLECTIC
Six of us braved the storm on Wednesday and met to honour The Muse.
Bob was feeling stressed over all the electronics turmoil at his house during the past few weeks. But he phoned me since Wednesday to say his computer is up and running again and he could now receive his email. I told him he must write a story about his computer and T.V. saga of despair.
Margaret read her next chapter in “Coffin & Dye”. Dye had leased a small, shabby office over Reeds Books, for the new partnership of Coffin & Dye, Ghost Eradicators. Coffin was not impressed that Dye had signed a lease for 2 years. However, Dye had also placed an ad in the local paper and their first customer arrived, a Jordan Fox. Margaret has also sent an item to Today’s Seniors Newsmagazine, which she thinks will appear in their December issue.
Ann brought a poem to read that she said was a happy piece compared to the darker ones she had read previously. She read “The Gray Goose Goober”, a humorous animal story in meter and rhyme that illustrates the circle of life and death and also points out the need of animals, too, for familial companionship.
Jason had re-written, again, his Chapter 1 and read it to us. This time it captivated listeners right from the very beginning, portraying a frustrated sexual encounter between Greg and Jodie, and also exposing the fanciful menace that will permeate this urban fantasy he is writing. We were spellbound as he read and we all gave him two thumbs up on it.
Jim read some erotica for seniors, a short story called “Dirty Old Man” which portrays the very lusty sex lives of a married couple in their 80s and the acceptance and emulation of same by all their offspring. Jim also said his story “Janina”, about a young woman’s struggles on a houseboat during a violent storm, has been accepted by Eclectica Magazine for publication in their Issue #7. Congratulations from all of us.
Lastly, I read a new short story I wrote on Monday, “Enemy At The Gate”, a humorous account about disaster striking during the 2010 Winter Games. Everyone laughed at the end, so I think I accomplished what I wanted with it. The next day I submitted it to Eclectica Magazine and it has been accepted for their Issue #8, which comes out Jan. 21st, perfect timing just before the games. Thanks to Jim for their website address.
Next Meeting will be Wednesday, December 2nd, at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Six of us braved the storm on Wednesday and met to honour The Muse.
Bob was feeling stressed over all the electronics turmoil at his house during the past few weeks. But he phoned me since Wednesday to say his computer is up and running again and he could now receive his email. I told him he must write a story about his computer and T.V. saga of despair.
Margaret read her next chapter in “Coffin & Dye”. Dye had leased a small, shabby office over Reeds Books, for the new partnership of Coffin & Dye, Ghost Eradicators. Coffin was not impressed that Dye had signed a lease for 2 years. However, Dye had also placed an ad in the local paper and their first customer arrived, a Jordan Fox. Margaret has also sent an item to Today’s Seniors Newsmagazine, which she thinks will appear in their December issue.
Ann brought a poem to read that she said was a happy piece compared to the darker ones she had read previously. She read “The Gray Goose Goober”, a humorous animal story in meter and rhyme that illustrates the circle of life and death and also points out the need of animals, too, for familial companionship.
Jason had re-written, again, his Chapter 1 and read it to us. This time it captivated listeners right from the very beginning, portraying a frustrated sexual encounter between Greg and Jodie, and also exposing the fanciful menace that will permeate this urban fantasy he is writing. We were spellbound as he read and we all gave him two thumbs up on it.
Jim read some erotica for seniors, a short story called “Dirty Old Man” which portrays the very lusty sex lives of a married couple in their 80s and the acceptance and emulation of same by all their offspring. Jim also said his story “Janina”, about a young woman’s struggles on a houseboat during a violent storm, has been accepted by Eclectica Magazine for publication in their Issue #7. Congratulations from all of us.
Lastly, I read a new short story I wrote on Monday, “Enemy At The Gate”, a humorous account about disaster striking during the 2010 Winter Games. Everyone laughed at the end, so I think I accomplished what I wanted with it. The next day I submitted it to Eclectica Magazine and it has been accepted for their Issue #8, which comes out Jan. 21st, perfect timing just before the games. Thanks to Jim for their website address.
Next Meeting will be Wednesday, December 2nd, at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Friday, November 6, 2009
THE REVIEW
WINTER’S APPROACHING
With both the time change and wet and stormy weather, I’m afraid there’s no stopping Old Man Winter from arriving soon. But the threat of his appearance didn’t stop The Rams from meeting again last Wednesday. There were eight of us here to honour The Muse.
Margaret read first, her second chapter called “A Day Of Judgement”. Coffin has a sleepless night after Dye made him a job offer and arises with a pounding headache. He discovers a message from Dye to say he has leased office space for the ghost hunting business, and asks Coffin to meet him there. Coffin rides his bike over and is quite pleased to find the leased office space is luxurious, and has a gorgeous secretary. When Dye arrives, Coffin tells him, of course he’ll work with him. But then Dye explains that Coffin was at the wrong address. Margaret also had a picture of the Rolls Royce that Dye drives, from the 1930s.
Danny said he is going to chop his long manuscript into 2, and Book 1 will deal with the time he spent on the racing circuit. He read a section of Book 1 called “Taking One For The Team”, which details the lurid sex lives of those who traveled the circuit and congregated on the infield.
Bob wrote a fan letter to Mr. John Henry, principle owner of the Boston Red Sox, telling him why he had been a happy fan since the mid 1940s. Danny thinks the letter will result in Bob receiving some free offering for such long-time loyalty.
I read two items that I will be submitting to the anthology the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group is producing. One was my poem “Sweet Betrayal”, about a man’s obsessive love for a woman who turns on him and kills him, only “she” is the bottle. The second piece was a first person humorous prose piece about my ‘Honey’ finally going to see his cabin up in the Caribou in March one year.
Jim read a chapter from the 3rd book of his trilogy where he introduces a new character who will work for Joseph and his pregnant wife in a company that uses green technology in construction to “better’ the world. The new character is a young Aztec woman who grew up and achieved an education in spite of the racism she experienced where she lived in Mexico. Both the green technology and the issue of racism are timely topics in today’s world. And the way Jim portrayed her first day at a secondary school vividly describes the culture she came from.
Jason, when he first signed on for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, had made an appointment with an agent, but later thought that might be premature and didn’t know how to get out of trying to sell an unfinished product. However, at the conference, he learned the agent was a no-show and he was given a time slot with another agent. But at the meeting, he learned the second agent only handled non-fiction. Strange how prayers are answered. However, he did learn his particular genre is called urban fantasy. Now he has a definite pigeon-hole to define his work.
Gemma’s “Collateral Damage” is in the November issue of Today’s Senior News Magazine. Two thumbs up, Gemma!
Ron had done some research on Hungary from the 1800s and brought a print-out to show Gemma, as he couldn’t read it. It was in Hungarian, and Gemma is our official translator of Hungarian into English.
November 11 is fast approaching. I hope you buy a poppy to remember the fallen and to support the living vets.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Look forward to seeing you then. Bring your Muse, your talent and your love of the literate. I’ll supply ice water to drench all egos and cookies with calories to inflate them back up again.
Lisa
With both the time change and wet and stormy weather, I’m afraid there’s no stopping Old Man Winter from arriving soon. But the threat of his appearance didn’t stop The Rams from meeting again last Wednesday. There were eight of us here to honour The Muse.
Margaret read first, her second chapter called “A Day Of Judgement”. Coffin has a sleepless night after Dye made him a job offer and arises with a pounding headache. He discovers a message from Dye to say he has leased office space for the ghost hunting business, and asks Coffin to meet him there. Coffin rides his bike over and is quite pleased to find the leased office space is luxurious, and has a gorgeous secretary. When Dye arrives, Coffin tells him, of course he’ll work with him. But then Dye explains that Coffin was at the wrong address. Margaret also had a picture of the Rolls Royce that Dye drives, from the 1930s.
Danny said he is going to chop his long manuscript into 2, and Book 1 will deal with the time he spent on the racing circuit. He read a section of Book 1 called “Taking One For The Team”, which details the lurid sex lives of those who traveled the circuit and congregated on the infield.
Bob wrote a fan letter to Mr. John Henry, principle owner of the Boston Red Sox, telling him why he had been a happy fan since the mid 1940s. Danny thinks the letter will result in Bob receiving some free offering for such long-time loyalty.
I read two items that I will be submitting to the anthology the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group is producing. One was my poem “Sweet Betrayal”, about a man’s obsessive love for a woman who turns on him and kills him, only “she” is the bottle. The second piece was a first person humorous prose piece about my ‘Honey’ finally going to see his cabin up in the Caribou in March one year.
Jim read a chapter from the 3rd book of his trilogy where he introduces a new character who will work for Joseph and his pregnant wife in a company that uses green technology in construction to “better’ the world. The new character is a young Aztec woman who grew up and achieved an education in spite of the racism she experienced where she lived in Mexico. Both the green technology and the issue of racism are timely topics in today’s world. And the way Jim portrayed her first day at a secondary school vividly describes the culture she came from.
Jason, when he first signed on for the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, had made an appointment with an agent, but later thought that might be premature and didn’t know how to get out of trying to sell an unfinished product. However, at the conference, he learned the agent was a no-show and he was given a time slot with another agent. But at the meeting, he learned the second agent only handled non-fiction. Strange how prayers are answered. However, he did learn his particular genre is called urban fantasy. Now he has a definite pigeon-hole to define his work.
Gemma’s “Collateral Damage” is in the November issue of Today’s Senior News Magazine. Two thumbs up, Gemma!
Ron had done some research on Hungary from the 1800s and brought a print-out to show Gemma, as he couldn’t read it. It was in Hungarian, and Gemma is our official translator of Hungarian into English.
November 11 is fast approaching. I hope you buy a poppy to remember the fallen and to support the living vets.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. here at my place. Look forward to seeing you then. Bring your Muse, your talent and your love of the literate. I’ll supply ice water to drench all egos and cookies with calories to inflate them back up again.
Lisa
Saturday, October 24, 2009
THE REVIEW
IN THE DOGHOUSE
As all our male members started arriving Wednesday, I was afraid I would be the only woman present. But then Margaret and Ann both arrived and we were a total of six men and three women. What an awesome group!
I am in the doghouse for a critique I did of a rewrite Jason sent me of his first two chapters. He said I totally crushed his self-confidence and I am repentant. Since I have never read a single fantasy novel, I have no business critiquing one. According to Ann, this genre is usually written with almost its own vernacular, which I know nothing about. It is a genre I have absolutely no experience with and so I ask if any of our members have resource material for Jason, to please forward it to him. Thank you so much.
I mentioned a Vancouver Sun article about the Kindle, a digital format for reading books. One problem seemed to be that page numbers were not apparent in the application, and so it was difficult to mark how far you had read in a particular novel. Ron did say he thought use of the Kindle in Canada was still not available. Does anybody know for sure about that?
After drawing up a timeline for an anthology that will be produced by the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group, I shared the steps involved. It’s a long process from start to finish.
Margaret read her umpteenth draft of Chapter 1 in “Coffin & Dye”. This draft read extremely well and the chapter unfolds mostly through conversation between the two men, a much better way than the previous narrative form. And of course, Margaret’s detailed descriptions bring that whole place and period of history to life for us.
Danny read his latest composition for his book, trying to verify how the family dynamics and sibling rivalry caused family dysfunction. Any specific problems or incidents mentioned were very interesting, but there needed to be more of them. This piece still needs some work to delete some of the rant and analyzing, and put in more actual people and incidents to help the reader connect with parties involved.
Robin joined us after a long hiatus. He explained with writing he likes to start with poetry and eventually work it into a song. Much of his writing comes from a desire to “play”, and is often light and humourous. He read us a recent poem, “Beware! Toe Shrapnel Flies!”, a funny and very exaggerated account of what happens when he gets his wife to cut his toenails.
Jason read Chapter 4 of his novel, and this account has an angel writing a journal of events, explaining the necessary key had been delivered to the boys. This chapter evoked a lot of interest and supplied suspense. Everyone wanted to know what would happen next.
Ann read a poem entitle “Disclosure”. It is a nineteen year old daughter telling her mother about the sexual abuse she suffered from her father when she was aged 5 to 11, while the mother was often passed out drunk. The mother doesn’t believe her and accuses her of collusion with her sister, saying they are both liars. The mother tells the daughter she has to leave the home. This poem is a very stark portrayal of family trauma and is dynamic enough to win a contest, I’m sure.
Ron read the next chapter in his novel. We see the csendorseg (mounted police in Hungary) confront the protesting peasant farmers’ union. They charge the peasants and a small boy is run down and seriously injured. The policeman responsible stops in concern. The child’s father appears and is distraught. The policeman is ordered by his commander to arrest the father, but refuses to do so and allows the father to leave, carrying his child. (This policeman will also emigrate to Canada.) This was a great way to show the conflict between rich and poor in Hungary.
Jim read his first chapter in his novel “Dimensions”. This portrays a married couple with children fighting and breaking up. But as the husband is now forty, he is “pulled” out of that incarnation and plopped into another. This chapter was well written and much sleeker in the storytelling. Jim said he spent time removing adverbs and adjectives and consequently the story stands up much better.
Also, Jim has kindly forwarded to all an article on manuscript formatting which is well worth reading for anyone submitting their writing to agents or publishers. The competition is fierce, and the formatting of the manuscript is its dress code. If it isn’t dressed properly, it won’t get in the door.
This weekend, Jason and Ron are participants in the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. Hope they get as much as they hoped from it. And I did ask they bring back the free handout information for the rest of us, things like the booklet from the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. It’s always good to have the latest news from local publishers.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, November 4th here at my place at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully Jason will let me out of the doghouse by then. Happy writing in the meantime.
Lisa
As all our male members started arriving Wednesday, I was afraid I would be the only woman present. But then Margaret and Ann both arrived and we were a total of six men and three women. What an awesome group!
I am in the doghouse for a critique I did of a rewrite Jason sent me of his first two chapters. He said I totally crushed his self-confidence and I am repentant. Since I have never read a single fantasy novel, I have no business critiquing one. According to Ann, this genre is usually written with almost its own vernacular, which I know nothing about. It is a genre I have absolutely no experience with and so I ask if any of our members have resource material for Jason, to please forward it to him. Thank you so much.
I mentioned a Vancouver Sun article about the Kindle, a digital format for reading books. One problem seemed to be that page numbers were not apparent in the application, and so it was difficult to mark how far you had read in a particular novel. Ron did say he thought use of the Kindle in Canada was still not available. Does anybody know for sure about that?
After drawing up a timeline for an anthology that will be produced by the Murrayville Library Writers’ Group, I shared the steps involved. It’s a long process from start to finish.
Margaret read her umpteenth draft of Chapter 1 in “Coffin & Dye”. This draft read extremely well and the chapter unfolds mostly through conversation between the two men, a much better way than the previous narrative form. And of course, Margaret’s detailed descriptions bring that whole place and period of history to life for us.
Danny read his latest composition for his book, trying to verify how the family dynamics and sibling rivalry caused family dysfunction. Any specific problems or incidents mentioned were very interesting, but there needed to be more of them. This piece still needs some work to delete some of the rant and analyzing, and put in more actual people and incidents to help the reader connect with parties involved.
Robin joined us after a long hiatus. He explained with writing he likes to start with poetry and eventually work it into a song. Much of his writing comes from a desire to “play”, and is often light and humourous. He read us a recent poem, “Beware! Toe Shrapnel Flies!”, a funny and very exaggerated account of what happens when he gets his wife to cut his toenails.
Jason read Chapter 4 of his novel, and this account has an angel writing a journal of events, explaining the necessary key had been delivered to the boys. This chapter evoked a lot of interest and supplied suspense. Everyone wanted to know what would happen next.
Ann read a poem entitle “Disclosure”. It is a nineteen year old daughter telling her mother about the sexual abuse she suffered from her father when she was aged 5 to 11, while the mother was often passed out drunk. The mother doesn’t believe her and accuses her of collusion with her sister, saying they are both liars. The mother tells the daughter she has to leave the home. This poem is a very stark portrayal of family trauma and is dynamic enough to win a contest, I’m sure.
Ron read the next chapter in his novel. We see the csendorseg (mounted police in Hungary) confront the protesting peasant farmers’ union. They charge the peasants and a small boy is run down and seriously injured. The policeman responsible stops in concern. The child’s father appears and is distraught. The policeman is ordered by his commander to arrest the father, but refuses to do so and allows the father to leave, carrying his child. (This policeman will also emigrate to Canada.) This was a great way to show the conflict between rich and poor in Hungary.
Jim read his first chapter in his novel “Dimensions”. This portrays a married couple with children fighting and breaking up. But as the husband is now forty, he is “pulled” out of that incarnation and plopped into another. This chapter was well written and much sleeker in the storytelling. Jim said he spent time removing adverbs and adjectives and consequently the story stands up much better.
Also, Jim has kindly forwarded to all an article on manuscript formatting which is well worth reading for anyone submitting their writing to agents or publishers. The competition is fierce, and the formatting of the manuscript is its dress code. If it isn’t dressed properly, it won’t get in the door.
This weekend, Jason and Ron are participants in the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. Hope they get as much as they hoped from it. And I did ask they bring back the free handout information for the rest of us, things like the booklet from the Association of Book Publishers of B.C. It’s always good to have the latest news from local publishers.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, November 4th here at my place at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully Jason will let me out of the doghouse by then. Happy writing in the meantime.
Lisa
Friday, October 9, 2009
THE REVIEW
OCTOBER WRITERS
Eight writers convened Wednesday night to deliberate, debate and confabulate the merits of our written words. Ann Berrie was the new face in the crowd and we welcome her to this flock of Rams.
Margaret read first. She had re-written chapter one of “Coffin and Dye”, and now had most of the story told through dialogue as opposed to the former narrative style. Much better flow.
Bob has given up the idea of finishing the complete history of the jewellery business in B.C. and will now concentrate of finishing the sections he is familiar with in manufacturing and retail. He read two paragraphs about the vocation of jewellery sales people and the territories they covered. Another paragraph dealt with the number of watch-maker jewellers who took up their craft on returning to civilian life at the end of WWII and then retired en masse in the 1980s, which resulted in large chain stores stepping in and buying their inventories and locations.
Ron read the rest of the chapter he had started last time. Joseph and his friends are still in Keszthely, Hungary and walk to the monastery where they meet with the booking Agent to learn about emigrating to Canada. They are offered 160 acres of free farmland, but Joseph is skeptical and starts asking questions. What is the winter like? Is the winter longer and the growing season shorter? Has the Agent been to Canada? What are the costs? When are they due? What exactly do they cover? The Agent had answers, but Joseph was still dubious about his honesty.
I read a rhyming poem in Iambic Tetrameter, called “My Lady Muse”, which I wrote that afternoon because I hadn’t written anything else. I did read once that if you are suffering writer’s block, then you can at least write about not writing. So I did.
Jim has outlined the next 4 chapters of “Dimensions”, to carry on from the short story he read last time. He is also working on the trilogy he had already written.
Ann brought two of her poems to share with us, both razor sharp depictions of disturbing images. The first poem, which Jason read, was “From Now On” and is the distressing experience of a young girl being raped and realizing that continuing incestuous abuse would be her fate. The other poem, untitled and not ended, was a stark picture of the victims during the holocaust. These are powerful pieces that need to find a much wider audience to appreciate them.
Gemma brought her poem, “Let It Go”, to read. It is discourse between a single apple and the very old tree that produced it, with the young apple wanting its freedom, but the tree refusing to let go until the fall when its leaves were gone. Parent and child?
After the last meeting, Jim and I did a lot of emailing and online editing of his short story “Dimensions” without using any paper. He emailed the story to me, I turned on Tracking Changes under Tools, made the changes I thought it needed, and emailed it back. When he got it, he went under View and turned on Markup so he could see the changes I’d made, which appeared in red. Then he made more changes and sent it back to me and I turned on Markup and could see my changes in red and his in blue. And for every party that makes changes, another color is used. A very interesting process and good to know.
Gemma also brought submission guideline from Whitmore Publishing, a company accepting submission for standard publishing (not self-publishing or vanity publishing). You can find their guidelines at submissions@whitmorepublishing.com .
Jason was asking for help in understanding more effectively the elements of fantasy fiction novels. If anyone has any resources to share, please contact Jason. His address will be on the email I send with the link to this Review. You can find it by clicking on File and then on Properties.
Next meeting will be here at my place, Wednesday, October 21st at 7:00 p.m. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
Eight writers convened Wednesday night to deliberate, debate and confabulate the merits of our written words. Ann Berrie was the new face in the crowd and we welcome her to this flock of Rams.
Margaret read first. She had re-written chapter one of “Coffin and Dye”, and now had most of the story told through dialogue as opposed to the former narrative style. Much better flow.
Bob has given up the idea of finishing the complete history of the jewellery business in B.C. and will now concentrate of finishing the sections he is familiar with in manufacturing and retail. He read two paragraphs about the vocation of jewellery sales people and the territories they covered. Another paragraph dealt with the number of watch-maker jewellers who took up their craft on returning to civilian life at the end of WWII and then retired en masse in the 1980s, which resulted in large chain stores stepping in and buying their inventories and locations.
Ron read the rest of the chapter he had started last time. Joseph and his friends are still in Keszthely, Hungary and walk to the monastery where they meet with the booking Agent to learn about emigrating to Canada. They are offered 160 acres of free farmland, but Joseph is skeptical and starts asking questions. What is the winter like? Is the winter longer and the growing season shorter? Has the Agent been to Canada? What are the costs? When are they due? What exactly do they cover? The Agent had answers, but Joseph was still dubious about his honesty.
I read a rhyming poem in Iambic Tetrameter, called “My Lady Muse”, which I wrote that afternoon because I hadn’t written anything else. I did read once that if you are suffering writer’s block, then you can at least write about not writing. So I did.
Jim has outlined the next 4 chapters of “Dimensions”, to carry on from the short story he read last time. He is also working on the trilogy he had already written.
Ann brought two of her poems to share with us, both razor sharp depictions of disturbing images. The first poem, which Jason read, was “From Now On” and is the distressing experience of a young girl being raped and realizing that continuing incestuous abuse would be her fate. The other poem, untitled and not ended, was a stark picture of the victims during the holocaust. These are powerful pieces that need to find a much wider audience to appreciate them.
Gemma brought her poem, “Let It Go”, to read. It is discourse between a single apple and the very old tree that produced it, with the young apple wanting its freedom, but the tree refusing to let go until the fall when its leaves were gone. Parent and child?
After the last meeting, Jim and I did a lot of emailing and online editing of his short story “Dimensions” without using any paper. He emailed the story to me, I turned on Tracking Changes under Tools, made the changes I thought it needed, and emailed it back. When he got it, he went under View and turned on Markup so he could see the changes I’d made, which appeared in red. Then he made more changes and sent it back to me and I turned on Markup and could see my changes in red and his in blue. And for every party that makes changes, another color is used. A very interesting process and good to know.
Gemma also brought submission guideline from Whitmore Publishing, a company accepting submission for standard publishing (not self-publishing or vanity publishing). You can find their guidelines at submissions@whitmorepublishing.com .
Jason was asking for help in understanding more effectively the elements of fantasy fiction novels. If anyone has any resources to share, please contact Jason. His address will be on the email I send with the link to this Review. You can find it by clicking on File and then on Properties.
Next meeting will be here at my place, Wednesday, October 21st at 7:00 p.m. Look forward to seeing you then.
Lisa
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