SVA meeting at Izzie’s, 8th January 2013.
Blogger: Izzie
The group were subjected to chocolate lolly pops and
Mrs Crimble’s coconut rings.
News
Chris had nothing to report after suffering from
‘Man flu’ over the New Year. (Sorry Chris).
I have been trying to set up a blog. There is more
work involved in this than I had originally thought and so I have enlisted expert
help (my husband).
Rob originally had nothing to report, but then let
slip that he had picked up his book again and was busy changing the theme to
guilt and destiny.
Annie has been working on ‘Auntie Faye’s Beach
Café’ and reported that her rhyming was unravelling, it was going horribly
wrong, but progress was being made.
Tony announced that he’d had an article printed in
the Shrewsbury Chronicle and the South Shropshire Journal. Unfortunately there
was no payment for his efforts, but he did receive a Thank you note from Malcolm
Saville’s daughter. He has also entered the Commonwealth Short Story
competition.
Linda has also had flu, although hasn’t suffered as
much as Chris (obviously). She reports being a quarter of the way through a
re-write of ‘A Head Full of Budgerigars’ and is planning to submit around
March/April time.
Linda read Chapter 26 from ‘A Head Full of
Budgerigars.’
Chris thought it was well-polished and liked the
liberal sprinkling of French throughout. He also queried the use of a hyphen in
Prussian blue. The group were split fifty-fifty on whether or not this was
required.
I thought it was well-written, but felt out of the
loop coming in at Chapter 26. I queried whether, or not councils were referred
to as such in France and whether or not, a comma was required in line 146. More
to follow on the comma…
Rob queried the use of ‘Alcoholic ether,’ but the
general consensus from the group was that it was quite acceptable and that we
could almost smell the fumes. Rob was also uncertain about the phrase ‘Smile as
wide as Woking.’ It was suggested that it might be better to insert the name of
a French location beginning with W instead, to avoid potential problems with
translation when Linda’s book goes global.
Annie loved the descriptions and in particular the
rhyming line, ‘He must have left his head in the shed this morning.’ There was
much discussion about the comment, ‘He must have been born without pants,’ more
to follow on this too.
Tony loved the poetic language that never stopped
telling the story and queried the use of ‘clenched fists and fish eyes,’ to
describe Malcolm.
Linda agreed that there were too many animals used
to describe Malcolm’s character and explained the famous Greek phrase that was
puzzling everyone. Apparently ‘He must have been born without pants,’
translates quite simply to ‘He’s an idiot.’
The Prussian blue argument was eventually resolved
by the dictionary. Apparently if used as a noun it isn’t required. When used as
an adjective a hyphen is required. It would be unfair to list those members who
were in the wrong on this, especially as I was one of them!
The following paragraph is entirely for my benefit,
so feel free to skip it. Vocative commas are placed before, after, or around a
noun or pronoun used independently in speaking to a person, place, or thing.
E.g. ‘I hope, Izzie, that you will remember this.’ Several members of the group
claimed to not knowing about vocative commas before joining the group, although
this may have been said to make me feel better.
For those of you who are interested in the Prima
short story competition, here are the details. Email your entry, which should
be no longer than 300 words to: yourwinningstory@hearst.co.uk
including your name, age, address, phone number and a recent photo. This is a
monthly competition and the prize is typically an eReader with magazine
subscriptions to Prima for the runners-up.
The next meeting will be at Rob’s house on 22nd
January. We are all looking forward to testing out Rob’s baking. Tony will be
reading and Rob will be blogging.
