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Officially a Member

I'm officially a member of the Ottawa Independent Writers now. My first event as a member happened to be the last official meeting until September. On Thursday, June 26th I went to hear readings by other indie authors.

The first man that read usually has some difficulty communicating, but it was as though he was animatedly channeling his characters and they had no trouble communicating. His work in progress sounds interesting.

Another man presented his book. It is about his journey recuperating from a stroke. After authoring a plethora of academic papers, Frank had a stroke and woke up with only 20 words to hear the medical professionals telling his wife he would likely be a vegetable and never walk again. Frank can walk. And he had a little help, but he wrote a book about his journey called, "The Stroke That Changed My Life."

Mike Young read from Kirk's Landing. I bought a copy of his book.

A lady read a book she wrote from two perspectives; one is of a cat and the other a human. She read the cat side and though I'm not a cat person (damn allergies), I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's called Mewsings/Musings by Barbara Florio Graham.

The next book, I thought was called Offstage Magic, but that title doesn't seem to exist. It was about the theatre and I found it interesting as I used to act/crew/direct/stage manage in high school. If I find it, I'll mention it in another post, or update this one or both.

Twice Resurrected by Raven Wolfe was the next book and it sounded interesting. Hey, it's currently 37% off at Chapters.

The next book, I have no idea what it was called, but the portion read was about a man leaving for the hardware store with the kids to buy roofing nails to fix the leaky roof and returning home with pet chickens. Things get crazy and his wife is not impressed.

There was a story about Thunder Bay; and a story about a war nurse.

There were several works in progress.

A man read a poem in three different languages to show how something that may sound beautiful in one can be ghastly in another.

Everyone was only allowed 5 minutes.

What I learned other than that there are some neat books out from OIW, is that writers are fascinating people. One lady read from her book in a whisper because she was less prone to stuttering. A man clenched a stuffed animal, perhaps to deal with the anxiety of being around people.

I wonder how I will be when I am ready to read from my book. Nervous? Will my mouth get dry and cause my tongue to hinder my reading? Will I mumble or be too quiet? Will I be monotone? Can I put the passion and excitement I want into the reading?

That being said, I'm probably between a third and halfway through writing the first book of my series. I *think* my series will be at least 4 books long.

I also wonder, since those that read with British accents sounded extra intelligent, if they read something juvenile, would it still sound ultra intelligent?

Tonight I'm putting the notes I have ALL OVER into Scrivener. I'm also plugging away at character definitions.

I need to consider a new chair, find a way to fluff mine up, or something else as the padding is going and making my bum numb.

Ciao
R~

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