Our Critique Group
By Terry Redman, Writers of Kern
“The story is a long-held fantasy of mine to write a murder mystery about a critique group and I finally did it. Murder is frowned upon in polite society so all my kidnapping and homicide takes place in fiction.” – Terry Redman
“Amateurish at best,” Catherine Hopkins crowed, identifying passive verbs and sentence fragments in the draft. “Roxanne, proofread before submitting material to the group.”
We meet twice a month, to mark up each other’s writing while sharing coffee and cookies. The meeting on the first Monday in November was especially trying. Tawny Jenkins tried to be a good host but Cathy insulted everyone.
Roxanne Young’s mystery novel revealed a clever plot twist admired by everyone else in the group. Brian Chan’s fictional account about one of his ancestors who quit the British army to join Washington and the rebels is filled with humor and tension. “We cannot invent history to suit our purposes,” Catherine pontificated.
Tawny’s erotic romance included time travel and graphic scenes. Catherine glared at Tawny. “This is hard to believe. Who would ever go to a cemetery for a rendezvous with a man dead 200 years?”
Cathy detested science fiction. “The stuff of comic books and idle minds. Really, Clay, you should find a more mature genre.”
Catherine rebuffed all suggestions we offered. “I would remind you I have three published books.” She meant self-published novellas.
“Another good chapter, Cathy,” I said.
“Clay Hamilton, my name is Catherine!”
A few days after Thanksgiving Roxanne and I met for coffee and our conversation turned to the critique group. She stirred her coffee and murmured, “I’d love to outline a murder in a critique group.”
An interesting idea! “Need to wait for a funeral.”
“Imagine it, you’re a writer.” She winked over her cup.
“Explain please.”
Roxanne leaned in. “We create a plot to kill Cathy.”
Maybe too interesting. “Did you say ‘We’?”
She nibbled on a half-eaten croissant. “You track her insults and compliments on that balance scale you have.”
I blurted, “Call the pans Death and Mercy, and I’ll use quarters.” The scheme was sealed with a kiss and her promise of more intimate benefits in the future.
Roxanne wrote the outline and we met a few times to share ideas on how to, “kill Cathy.” By the end of January we had a winner—Death. Before disclosing her outline, my lover confronted me, “Truth or Dare?”
“Dare.”
“We do it,” she hissed through a wicked smile.
Chilled to the bone, I protested, “We can’t really kill her. I’m out.”
“No Clay, we’re in. I recorded you helping me plan this and that’s called conspiracy. Roxanne has the recordings, I have the outline and neither of us can tell the police.”
One evening we grabbed Cathy walking on the bike path, strangled her and drove into the desert. She sleeps in an abandoned mine shaft in the Mojave Desert.
Todd McKinsey writes young adult adventures and took Cathy’s place at the critics’ table. Roxanne is writing a mystery set in the 1920s and I finished the first draft of Racers from Anselm. Our group has gone on as before but with better snacks and more harmony.
The author is a happy member of The Classic Critique Group,
one of several such groups in The Writers of Kern.
There is no model for Cathy Hopkins and all characters are fictional.
Any similarity to real persons is unintentional and coincidental.