December
16, 2006
We did meet here on that dark
and stormy night of December 14th. Margaret and Ellie
both said the driving was bad on their way to my place. And the
winds later that night were ferocious.
Margaret brought some calendars
from Scotland and New Zealand that she was giving away. Apparently
she receives a number each year from friends in foreign lands.
So if you want to know what holidays are scheduled in other countries
each year, try asking Margaret.
Nathaniel brought several items
to show us. The first was a flint used for starting fires before
the advent of matches. It was used to strike a spark that would
land on a char cloth, which would ignite. He also had a tobacco
box with a magnifying glass which was used for lighting tobacco in a
pipe. Another item was an 1899 atlas, showing the world as it
was known at that point in history. And the last item was a bottle
of #6 Phenol Disinfectant that he had found at the old family farm in
Saskatchewan. Printed on the bottle were all the many uses for
it, as well as instruction to imbibe a great deal of alcohol if the
Phenol was accidentally swallowed. The choice was kill or cure,
I guess.
Bob brought a book by Jeff
Shaara and read a piece from it where the author explains how he uses
dialogue in his writing. And then I read a piece from a book of
writing exercises that said dialogue is “seen” on the page, read
with the eye, rather than perceived as sound. But Nathaniel said
he reads “aloud” inside his mind, so he didn’t believe that was
true.
Margaret read another Peabody
tale, this one “The Cold Facts”. She showed us a journalist,
Harvey, on the trail of a story in England. He meets with Rev.
Arthur Peabody, an old and skeletal looking man, who admits to having
killed somebody many years before. He tells Harvey the body is
burried underneath the floorboards of the room they are in. Harvey
goes back the next day to dig up the skeleton, but the house had disappeared.
Or maybe it hadn’t existed in the first place? Spooky.
As it was still dark and stormy
out, Ellie read to us the beginning of another fantasy tale with a very
eerie beginning. Perrit senses a terrible “wrongness” of nature,
and suspects something is terribly amiss. And we learn that Caldor,
The Mage, is missing.
Nathaniel read to us a later
chapter in his book, after Alexander has seduced Elise, the wife of
his friend, Jacques. And now he wonders if his friend knows.
The Metis community, with horses and carts, is out on the prairie on
a buffalo hunt. The hunt is done cooperatively, with everyone
having a role to play in tracking, killing, butchering, and preserving
hides and meat to see them through the winter. The herd is seen
on the horizon. The Metis stampede the herd and then ride through
it, shooting and killing as many buffalo as they can. Alexander
and his horse are gored by a bull and go down. Jacques shoots
the injured horse and saves Alexander, but then says he will kill him
another time. -- This scene was written in vivid detail,
with lots of action and tension happening. We could certainly
see the stampede and the dust and the blood. Bryon was sitting
on the stairs listening, and said to tell Nathaniel he really enjoyed
that chapter.
Susan said she is definitely
re-writing “Select Availability” in first person, with no prologue,
as she feels it is a more intimate story that way. The rest of
us all marvel at her tenacity when it comes to re-writes. Amazing.
At this point, I wish everyone
a Very Merry Christmas.
Our next Meeting (Party?) will
be here at my place on Thursday, December 28th at 7:00 p.m.
Bob is bringing his Sticky Date Pudding, and I’ll put out some snacks
and some wine and cheese. And there’s no time limit on the fun.
Hope to see everybody then.
Happy Holidays to one and all.
Lisa