Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 12:56 PM
Subject: The Ram's Head Review

Hi Gang:
 
Hope everyone is enjoying their Canada Day long weekend.  Gemma's poem about Canada was published in Friday's issue of the Langley Advance on the opinion page.  Way to go, Gemma!
 
Five of us were here Thursday night.  We started by viewing Lynette's pictures from her trip to her family's property in Modoc County, Calif.  She had brought pictures on CD and once we figured out how to use the DVD player to view them on the TV screen, we had an awesome slide show.
 
Susan read us Chapter 17 of her novel, where Barley and Phyllis and Stanley head east to Golden Ears Provincial Park, looking for the next cache.  There they have an encounter with a mountain lion, and Stanley, the Great Dane, is injured and has to be taken to an animal hospital.  Lots of suspense in this chapter, too.
 
Ellie read more of her story, where Brekken, Nadika and Meron encounter the Literasians, the short people with strange looking beasts of burden.  Their leader tells Brekken the road ahead is better, with an inn and water just an hour ahead.
 
Gemma has written an autobiographical piece that she plans to submit to Cup of Comfort's request for submissions of stories about writers.  Gemma tells us she started to write as a young child, and she was reading the classics like War and Peace by the age of 12.  She wrote her first love poem in grade 5.  At 12 she had a diary with a lock.  In 1956, she and her husband and child became regugees, fleeing the Russian invasion of Hungary.  They came to Canada, had another child.  She kept writing, sending long letters home about their life in Canada.  Later they migrated from Montreal to the West Coast.  The difficult years she lived through were always an inspiration to write.  But Gemma did admit most of her writing has been in Hungarian and she is still sometimes unsure of herself when writing in English.  It comes across just fine to the rest of us, Gemma.
 
Bob hasn't written anything lately.  I had spent the afternoon re-writing "Sin-dication?" but lost it completely trying to save it when it was time to cook supper, all 926 words.  Never had that happen to me before.  Very frustrating.
 
Susan is leaving Tuesday for Edmonton, Calgary, Nfld. and won't be back till about the 20th of August.  Lynette will be away this upcoming week, but back the following one.  No word from Robin Ryan.
 
Next meeting here at my place on Thursday, July 6th at 7:00 p.m.  Hope to see you all then as long as all this sunshine hasn't addled our cranial hardrives.  Stay cool, my friends.
 
Lisa