Month: October 2019

poetry

Real Friends Help Out

carolyncordon

When things go pear-shaped, life makes a strange turn, and life is suddenly nowhere near as rosy as you’d like it to be, that’s when you might discover new things about people you’ve known, but not really known, for a long time.

This was certainly true of the person in this poem, both of us knowing each other through our children, and our children’s primary school years. The friendship there, always, but not deep, until the sudden need, brought on by my accidental fall, and ensuing incarceration in my own home, unable to get outside of the house by myself.

Sharon stepped up, willingly, and ably assisted me, using her work skills in a far less formal setting, and I am very grateful to her for what she has done for me, and further, for what she has indicated she will be happy to do, whenever its needed in the future. That’s what friends are, people who step forward and say, yep, I can help with that, no worries.

In small communities there are many people like this, sharing stories, helping out, swapping garden tips and cuttings, sitting together for coffee and chat, or sight seeing the town looking at the flowers. There will always be someone who’ll say, ‘I can help you with that,’ and connections strengthen, bringing good things to everyone involved. Life is good, even with a broken ankle!

 

 

Female Friends – for Sharon

Speaking of my breasts to my friend

a natural progression of our conversation

nothing tawdry, or lewd, merely an odd thing

a symptom of something, and not a sex thing … 

Apparently being overmuch at rest, skin on skin, 

causes such things, red rash, no itch, but odd.

‘I’m putting something on it’ I say, cortisone

she nods her approval, conversation drifts 

and we both agree that we really should 

do coffee and chat more often, whether or not

my ankle is broken, and I’m in need of company,

keeping sadness at bay – depression known to us both.

Friends with knowledge of life, of nursing, of what

things really are all about, they’re the best thing

a woman can have, when times are troubled

and you need a lift, in the car and in spirit.

© 2019 Carolyn Cordon

Cozy Mystery, Uncategorized

Promoting Interest in Book-to-be

carolyncordon

A writer friend recently suggested to me that I might do well to publish an excerpt from my current work in progress, a Cozy Murder story, called “Kissing Cousins At Talloola”. I’d mentioned that my initial strong interest in this project had waned for me, a little, and the friend (John Malone) felt getting some feed back on what I was doing, may be enough to re-pique my interest.

The fact that I recently fractured my ankle, giving me lots of time, but little interest in doing much that seems like hard work (as writing a series of Cozy Mysteries feels right now), this is probably part of the reason the “At Talloola” project has slowed down. I’m more interested at the moment in Social Media (Facebook and Twitter), rather than novel writing.

However, I feel that John’s idea certainly has merit, so here is an excerpt from chapter one of “Kissing Cousins At Tallola”, which will be the second book in the “At Talloola” Cozy Mystery series, of which there is proposed to be at least eight books.

“KISSING COUSINS AT TALLOOLA

Chapter One

The museum seemed to be closing when I arrived, even though it was still too early for that, as far as I knew. People were milling around the entrance, or walking toward the cars parked alongside the museum, or judging by the direction they were headed, maybe to the Talloola Hotel. 

Closing time for the museum was five o’clock, two until five, every single Sunday, no matter what, as I’d been told by one of the museum volunteers recently. And if anyone should know those details, the museum volunteers certainly should, I mused, to myself. I’d presented a brief presentation recently in Talloola, on the “The Importance of Getting Out the Most Important Thing”.

It was certainly an important thing with the museum volunteers, going by the answers at the workshop.

Surely, if there was something special happening at the Museum, they would have let me know? I felt a little miffed at missing out on the news of something happening, I should have been the first to know …

Usually, people leaving the museum would be chatting about the interesting things they’d seen or found out about, but most of the people here, looked like been told some very bad news. I figured I’d better take off my “On Holidays” hat, and put my “Community Worker” hat back on, and find out what might be going on.

And if I wanted to know what was going on, I was in luck, there was Gert, she’d know for sure. I picked up my place a bit, and strode toward the Museum entrance, and waited while dear Gert gently ushered out Museum visitors. I couldn’t catch everything Gert was saying, but as I got closer, I picked up a bit of the words.

‘Yes, it’s shocking, never seen it here before,’ Gert told a woman I didn’t think I knew. ‘Not since, when was it? Fifty-five? No, ninety fifty-six, I think it was. Now you drive safely, and keep safe. And please mention my name to your dear mother, and let her know I fondly remember her orange sponge cake.’ Gert reached up and patted the woman on the shoulder, and closed the door, with a heartfelt sigh.

I walked over to her and was again amazed that such a tiny person could hold so much knowledge and energy. ‘Hello Gert, how’s things going?’ I asked her. ‘Is everything OK?’

‘Oh Miss Meredith, I hardly know how to start telling you,’ Gert said. ‘Can you come with me to the Hotel, or perhaps not,’ she corrected herself. ‘It’s got too busy there, come to my place, this needs a good strong cuppa! Follow me. I’ll get the machine going, and we can gave a good long talk about it.'”

 

So, there it is, if you think it sounds interesting, and you’d love to know more, please leave a message. Or really, any feelings you have, whether you like it or thing it needs work, please let me know, I definitely want to get back the sense of excitement I had about this project at the very beginning.

I have around 8000 words of this book written, and also have book titles and ideas for at least eight books or more for the series. If I can get my headspace back into this, I can see it becoming my life’s work, but if not, I can go back to being a published poet, no worries, not really …

The Cozy Mystery genre though, it is certainly calling to me in some ways, more strongly than the thriller genre did, when I first created the characters which are now moving into the Cozy Mysteries instead. So if you have any thoughts about this, please leave feedback, y main character Meredith would like to have more of her stories told!

Thank you!

 

Uncategorized

My Writing Group

carolyncordon

I firmly believe that being a member of a writing group can give a writer a huge boost. When times seem to drag a writer down, when nothing seems to be working for you, being a member of a writing group means there’ll be people with you who truly do understand.

And when your writing feels flat then your writing group may give you some feedback, or a new idea, that leads you and your writing to a fresh and exciting place. My writing group is certainly that group for me. The Adelaide Plains Poets is the group I began, with some other writers, and I’m proud and happy that group is still going, around fifteen years later.

The members of the group have changed, some move further away, some lose interest and move only other things. This is fine, the nature of groups is they change and grow, or scale back in size, or change focus. My group has increased in scope of what we do, and the group size is just right for the place we usually hold our meetings.

The reason for meeting at my place is because I can’t attend meetings at the moment, because I’ve fractured my right ankle, and can’t put any weight on that foot. I also can’t drive, not for at least a month or so from now, at the earliest. So I’ve had some time in hospital, to have an operation on the ankle, and now I’m resting and rehabilitating. I keep my right foot up a lot of the time during the day.

20191022_104035

This could have been a totally boring time, so I was thrilled to learn that the group wanted to meet at my place, once a fortnight, so I didn’t miss out completely. (The group meets every Thursday afternoon). So I do my homework every week, and get to read it out to the other group members, if I want to. This is a great way to keep on writing, in a creative way.

I could have been writing more of my current work in progress, of course, but at the moment, but head doesn’t seem to be thinking that way. I hope to get back on my cozy mystery series sometime again, but while I’m stuck at home, with Facebook and Twitter close at hand, they take up lots of time …

When my head finally decides it’s time to get back to my mysteries, I hope I can really get going with it! Do you have times like that too, when the time doesn’t seem right for a particular project? I’d love to know how it went for you, please feel free to leave a comment here!

 

Cozy Mystery, Story Ideas

Being Cozy with Writing Cozy Mysteries

carolyncordon

I have to admit that my recent injury and hospital stay, followed by recovery at home, has slowed down the writing of my next writing project, a Cozy Mystery series. But with action on the fractured ankle front happening tomorrow, with more to follow the next day, I’m back to being interested in this project.

If you don’t know what a Cozy Mystery novel is, this website has lots of information to tell you about it. You could also take a look at this earlier blog post of mine on the subject, and continue reading this post.

Today I have taken a look back at my files on my laptop, where I have written some early notes for some possible books in my proposed series, as well as thinking harder about the first couple of books, what has to happen, and whether and what still needs to happen, to make it ALL happen!

A series of books, each having 28 chapters, is a big thing, but I feel that if I can get the first two written, and written well, it can happen the way I want it too. Cozy mysteries feel right to me, while the thriller I was going to be writing didn’t sit so easily in who I consider myself to be. If I’m going to be killing people, I don’t want to see the the blood and guts!

At the moment, I thinking about Who I’m going to kill off first, and How I’m going to do it. And Why of course … If I’m going to begin murdering certain townsfolk of the town of Talloola, there had better be a good enough reason for it to happen! Talloola only has around 500 people living in and around it, and while I’m sure some out-of-towners will be victims, some residents may have to go too.

I plan to write at least twelve to fifteen of these books in the series, if it works out, so I’d better hope Talloola can get a good tourism industry going, or maybe some industry, so the numbers of people there won’t ‘drop off’ too much!

Given my recent injury (I fractured my right ankle on Grand Final day), I had an idea that one of the football players, might also suffer from a fractured ankle too. After all the experts say you should write what you know, and I know know quite a bit more about having a broken ankle now, that’s for sure.

I really do feel like this is the correct writing genre for me, and I’m excited about making it happen! The writing, of course is the hard part, but I’ve enjoyed doing the actual writing of it so far, and have over 8000 words written on on book. There’s still quite a few more words to go, but it feels good to write it, so it’s a blessing, not a trial. I hope tomorrow a good few more word will come to being!

If you know anything about the Cozy Mystery genre, I’d love a few hints and tips! Many thanks, and goodbye.

 

Cozy Mystery, inspiration, Uncategorized

Talk to your Character

carolyncordon

A dear friend of mine, Martin Christmas, is a fine poet, and even finer human being. He is a doer, an encourager, and as I said, a dear friend. Martin knows of my current troubles (a fractured ankle), and he is making sure my brain is still good, even if my ankle is busted.

I appreciate his effort, and his ideas that it might be a good chance to work on my written work. I agree that is should be a good chance for that, I’m comfortably seated, my laptop on my lap, with plenty of power available. So why is there no action going on with my proposed series of Cozy Mysteries, featuring Meredith, my main character.

I want this to happen, this series of books. I did lots of work on them earlier, perhaps when I was in hospital? Or it may have been before that. Hmm, before, I think. My mind is a little befuddled with all of the pain relief I had been taking, over the past fortnight … but anyway, I did manage to have a Talloola township thought while in hospital. I thought that I had to have a hospital in my town in my books, Talloola, and there had to be a murder in the Talloola Hospital, for Meredith to solve that crime.

I haven’t got much further than that thought, consciously, but I hope my subconscious mind may have been fiddling with the idea. To that end, I am going to do some free writing, chatting with Meredith, and see where (or if) things go. Meredith and I are good friends, she is a bit like the me I’d like to be, taller, prettier, a working woman, with a hunk of a football player as her love interest. (that bit is not me, my love interest is the wonderful man who is looking after me at the moment (and always).

So excuse me, while I go away and talk with my main character. If anything happens, and I sincerely hope something will happen, well, I’ll come back here and talk about it! I am very grateful to have Martin as a good friend, am hope I can live up to his (and my) expectations of what I am capable of doing!

Writing a whole series of Cozy Mysteries was a big project, but if I can live through a fractured ankle, and do it well, there’s no telling what else I can do, Ciao!