Oct 21, 2006
THE RAM’S HEAD
REVIEW
There was a fun time here by
eight writers on Thursday night. Back from a week away on another
trip, Jean brought a delicious treat for us to share. And Susan
was de-cluttering and brought a bunch of books to give away. Of
course, we ate all the treat and then still swooped on the books like
starving vultures. Any time you want to capture a writer’s attention,
just scream “Free Books!”.
We told Margaret she could
read first since she had to leave before her turn last week. She
told us how she finds writing fiction quite difficult after a lifetime
of journalism and only writing fact. She said it’s hard to imagine
a character. So what she did was draw one, and then set the drawing
in front of her and talk to him as she wrote her story, “The Assignment”.
It was a very humourous look at a young newspaper journalist in the
1930s who was not too thrilled about a story assignment about the death
of a cat called “Duke”. The story was full of incredible detail
that brought us all into the picture, like in a Norman Rockwell painting.
Margaret says her next project is to design and have her Xmas cards
printed up.
Susan read to us both her synopsis
and a query letter she had drawn up for “Select Availability”, which
she would take with her to the Surrey International Writers’ Conference.
Nathaniel had lots of tips to share on both these items. A query
should be no longer than 3 paragraphs, and should be out of the ordinary
to catch the reader’s attention immediately. The synopsis should
be in present tense and NOT include dialogue, adverbs, adjectives.
It should be the outline of the plot in sentence and paragraph form.
Possible editors are looking for the story structure, not the cladding
or interior decorations. The query letter and synopsis have more
to do with marketing your product than with creative writing.
Nathaniel read some more from
“A Dark And Promised Land”. Lochland was weak from his injury
and wanted a day of rest, but Alexander insisted they keep moving on.
They travel through fog and mosquitoes and through the remains of a
forest that had burned the previous year. Alexander admits to
Lochland that the land around Red River is not uninhabited, that that
is where his own Indian people live, though they are not farmers.
Lochland wants to know what will become of his people and Alexander
tells him there will probably be war between the Indians and settlers.
Later, at night, Alexander shoots a hungry wolf who had been stalking
their camp, and there ensues total chaos of the startled encampment.
During the turmoil, Lochland dies. I loved the scene where the
wolf was shot. Nathaniel wrote it with such incredibly vivid detail.
Ellie read some more from her
story which the rest of us are calling “The Niam of Axenford”.
That will be the future title given to Syvald, and it is similar to
Laird or Landlord. We hear of the people not giving a name to
The Great Evil, because if they don’t name it maybe it will go away.
Syvald has been sent to find out how another community coped and found
their own measure of peace and prosperity.
Jean read an autobiographical
piece of family history that showed how she and her siblings felt ostracized
by her mother’s family because her father was Catholic, her mother
Protestant, and because her father was an alcoholic. Jean shows
us endearing characteristics of her siblings.
Bob, Lynette and I had nothing
to read, but thoroughly enjoyed being audience members.
Yesterday I met with Ann Robertson
and Robin Ryan at Ethical Addictions for coffee. Ann is just back
from visiting her daughter in Australia, and that is the home of Robin’s
birthplace. Robin had a poem to share about wishing his daughter
would quit smoking, thinking that was the big problem until she started
“bloking”, complete with picture of daughter and boyfriend.
Robin said he was thinking of perhaps tackling a novel, but he would
have to set up a storyboard with pictures and plot points and hang it
on the wall. He says if he gets into something like that it would
consume his whole life day and night. Oh, we know that feeling,
Robin. I offered to lend him some books on novel writing.
Ann read some poetry she had
written while in Australia. One piece was haunting, about a picture
she had seen in a shop window depicting the desolation of farmers during
a drought they are now going through. It showed 3 generations
of men on a church pew. The grandfather sat with a bible at his
feet, the grandson holding a football, and the middle-aged man with
the dry dirt running from his fingers. Makes me think of the dirty
thirties here on our own prairies. Ann also commented that people
in Australia speak with greater literal clarity, and their culture is
not as “dumbed-down” as ours is here due to the Americanization
of Canada. And that also bothered her immensely, that many Australians
equate Canadians with Americans and the Bush administration. Makes
me want to scream “I AM CANADIAN!”
Susan and Nathaniel are both
at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference this weekend, and
the rest of us look forward to hearing all about their adventures.
Susan usually comes back with scads of free brochures for the rest of
us as well.
The website is now up and running
and you can access it at www.ramsheadwriters.ca. If you have anything you would
like to add to it, such as a piece of your own writing, a resource link
you find valuable, or writing tips that readers could download and print,
then please don’t be shy. The development of the site is ongoing,
so you can forward things to me whenever you like, no deadline.
Next meeting here at my place
Thursday evening, Oct. 26th at 7:00 p.m. Love to see
you then.
Lisa