October 2008

We read Cathy's next chapter on Thursday. Hartwin, Nick and I are all enjoying its progress and can't wait to find out how all the threads come together. How that metaphor works apparently is changeable. In the 19th Century, I read recently, clues or clews ravelled to give the outcome, now we unravel a mystery.

Rowena was going to attend but wasn't able to make it. Maybe she was too overcome by her success in the Writers' Inc. competition which she won with Between Dog and Wolf (which the Rooinecks looked at in March). Set in Canada, she describes the complex relationships between three friends walking at dusk in the first snowfall of the year. The group was impressed, as is usual with Rowena's stories. You can find out how to get hold of a copy and judge for yourself here: http://www.writersinc-london.org.uk/competition.html. Congratulations Rowena. We both love Joyce's story The Dead, which ends with 'He heard the snow falling faintly through the universe, faintly falling like the descent of their last end upon all the living and the dead.' I think it's fair to say Rowena's snowfall recalls those lines.