We met at Izzy’s house. There were only the four of us, as
Rob was otherwise engaged with some old friends and Tony was in Bournemouth.
Linda and Izzy have both been busy with life in general and
so had no writerly news to report. Chris had given a talk and sold nine books.
I (Annie) have totally reworked Polly Poodle and am pleased with the way it is
progressing.
Chris read an extract from ‘Karl Marx and Careful Driving’.
Izzy was astounded by the depth of Chris’s knowledge of periods of history that
are not mainstream or even in our psyche. Izzy also enjoyed the playlist that
punctuates the story with the switch from Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ to Mozart’s
clarinet concerto as Chris and his armed security guard take it in turns to
hear their preferred music during the trip.
Linda thought it a brilliant read and was absorbed by it.
She found the history parts fascinating and enjoyed the punctuation provided by
Chris’s lighter observations about life on the road. Linda also paid homage to
Tony. At SVA we each have our part to play. Rob is the patriarch, Linda the
matriarch, Izzy the techno queen and Chris the brains. But Tony is the hyphen
police. Stitching words together where they have been pulled apart. But something
exciting happened in his absence! Linda spotted a hyphen that had been included
and needed to be removed! Cumulo-nimbus to cumulonimbus.
For me the piece was a good balance of history and more
mundane, trivial matters such as how to avoid getting shot by armed bandits.
The relationship between Chris and Vladimir is developing well for the reader
if not in their reality. The links between sections were subtle with Chris
stopping at a bakery to buy bread shortly after musing about bread rationing in
the Soviet Union in 1934. I did challenge Chris when he asserted that ‘everyone
has common sense.’
Keep going, Chris! I remember how mentally exhausted I was
once with a 10,000 thesis so I can only begin to imagine the magnitude of this
project!
The next meeting is July 13th at Tony's house. Rob is submitting.
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