March 2020 – Page 3 – Carolyn Cordon

Op Shop Inspirations

March 7, 2020March 7, 2020 carolyncordon

I’m heading off to my local Op Shop today, in Mallala, coffee, cake and Op Shop, all in one, allied with one of the local churches … What stories will I find there, I wonder?

Each item of clothing has a story, they’ve been around, travelled, to who knows which places? Today I’m wearing a combination of clothes, some Op Shop treasures, others new. I tend to buy new underwear, but outerwear often comes from an Op Shop, and I love each piece!

I tend to stick to one palette of colour, the Autumn range, so when I look for clothes, I tend to concentrate only on those warm green colours, as well as burnt orange, mellow yellow, cream, and so on. Red is on option, too, but a sombre red, rather than super bright one. Dusky pink is one that goes with these colours too.

I’m excited about this little trip, meeting up with a friend, and even if I buy no new clothes, I will find much to inspire me, simply by being out in my community! There is inspiration in so many things in life, and I try to make the most of every opportunity I have, to be inspired!

This lovely dress, $79.00, marked down to $39.00, never worn. Now could have been bought as part of a full bag for $5

What was the story about this dress, I wonder … bought for an event that never happened, or hoping for a drop in size, that wasn’t reached? Who can ever know? Not me, but I can imagine the story, be inspired by the ‘could have beens’. Every item of clothing at an Op Shop has its own story, for sure!

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So the Op Shop visit is over, and we weren’t in time to get a coffee and cake there. Instead, when Sharon and I had snaffled our bag of beautiful things, a bag full, for each of us, and only $5!, we headed off to the Mallala Hotel for our coffee. We asked if there was any cake available (there wasn’t) instead, our coffee was served with an Allens Snakes Alive snake, clever work there – Troy from the hotel!

And this is my great haul of clothes! I have no idea where I’m going to put all of these clothes … Some of the things already in my wardrobe and drawers, may have to go … I’m very happy with the various possibilities there, in this range of new things, and all for the tiny price of $5 for the bag full!

I think there are 12 different items here. a scarfe, a pair of pants, and lots of tops.

I saw the ‘Corona Beer’ T-Shirt, and bought it, as a sick joke, really. Boy, the stories that could be told about the related, corona virus …

I’m very happy, as I said, with this haul of clothes. The pants may or may not fit, and if they don’t fit, it doesn’t matter, I’m more than happy to take them back to the Op Shop later, and I’ll still be totally satisfied with what I got! Lots of tops, all in colours that go together well! And there are chances to go wild with the mixing and matching, with tops, over leggings, or tone it all down with a black cardigan type bought at a previous Op Shop adventure somewhere else …

I’ve been to quite a few different Op Shops in my time, and don’t remember which clothes have come from which shops … So many clothes, so few dollars paid!

Happiness can come, as inspiration can too, from adventures with a friend. Thank you Sharon for this great time! We’re going to do it again some time, perhaps when there will be more winter clothes, jumpers and snuggly jackets …

Cozy Mystery, Writing

Life Experience

March 5, 2020 carolyncordon

Fiction writers write fiction, there’s no doubt about that. But that fiction it it’s going to be read and appreciated, has to contain some kind of ‘truth’. If you have a character who has a certain job, for instance, you, as the writer, has to know enough about that job to make it seem ‘real’.

So learning about things, gaining a broad range of different life experience, it seems to me, is an important thing for the writer to do. Having an open mind, seeing various different points of view on many matters, these are important things as well. Remaining open to what life is all about, this is a good way for a writer to be, in my opinion.

What do you think I was up to in this photo? I was getting ideas to write about!

In my fiction, I plan to be writing about a small town, and things that happen in that small town. One of the important places in the Talloola, the town, is, or at least used to be, the bowling club. The Talloola Bowling Club is now the Talloola Bocce Club, and there was a lot of small town politics that happened there.

Small towns have many stories, and I intend having fun with Talloola, exploring all of the incidents that go on, those small town political things … My main character, Meredith, is new in town, and she and I will be learning all about what makes a town like Talloola tick. Oh, and there will be murders …

I’m writing in the genre of ‘Cosy Murder Mysteries’, so of course people will be killed, and the killers be brought to justice. Meredith will be the person to do that, assisted by her sidekicks, Gert (the oldest person in Talloola), Travis (the deputy mayor), and various dogs around town.

Meredith has a special connection with dogs, an eerie understanding and connection. Dogs know and trust Meredith, she knows and trust them. Dogs are great at helping to sniff out clues, dig for evidence, and bring down those who would runaway from justice!

Don’t worry, the cops are onto it! Or are they?

Writing these books will draw on my experiences gained in my almost 57 years, about small towns, and bowling clubs, dogs, and people, as well as a great many other things that happen in a well rounded and open minded life … I’m looking forward to getting stuck into this series of books – I have many titles and short descriptions written down, as well as around 10,000 words written.

I’ll need a lot more words than that though, so getting stuck into it will have to happen, if I’m to meet my goal of becoming known as the writing of excellent Cosy Murder Mysteries!

If you love this genre, please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

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Writing On Topical Events

March 3, 2020March 3, 2020 carolyncordon

When you’re a writer, do you look to the things that are happening inside yourself, or outside of yourself? Or do you, and should you, do both? Beginning writers often start out writing about themselves, and this is certainly not a bad thing. Eventually, as we mature, we can begin to feel ourselves capable of forming thoughts, and responses to the things happening ‘out there’.

We write, share our words, get feedback from others and gain respect for what we write and say, and we realise we can help to influence our world, using our words and the gravitas gained from sharing them. So when we reach that stage in our writing career, surely it’s time to look outside of ourselves, and to write about topical things, events happening ‘out there’ in the real world.

Gaining respect, utilising your mind, and talents with words, gives you the chance to work at helping to make a difference, to assist in opening up the minds of other people. It’s possibly true that you don’t feel qualified for this role, but step up and do it anyway. There are so many people using their words, but they’re using them for selfish reasons, not the good reasons you would be doing it for.

Step up, reach out, write, and read out what you have written, bravely, and without fear or favour! Your time has come. I am always humbled when people tell me they find me inspiring. Yes I’m humbled, but also excited, that another person has seen what I can do, and they can begin to think they can do these things too.

I’m not anything extraordinary, I’m just one person, punching above my weight perhaps, but using my talents to do all I can, to do good, in the ways I’m capable of doing. Writing, and authentically connecting with others, are my major skills. I use those skills when I can, reaching out to others, writing on things that seem important to my various ‘communities’. Friends, family, others, writers, community-driven people, working together, bringing a greater good.

When you have opinions on topical issues, use your words and your mind, to explore the issues, write, think, write again, and share. Words help you to gather together your opinions, and once you’ve gathered those opinions, send them out, poetry, prose, however you can, get it down, then get it out, into your greater world. The writers/thinkers, the creatively minded ones will be the ones who can bring us all together, fighting for a common good.

We must do this, and connect with other people to do more of it, otherwise we are likely to be overtrodden, victims of ‘the market’, and the lack of vision that seems to be overrunning so many things at the moment. Politicians don’t care about people, their care about votes. But we, the people, are the voters, our vote, and our word, is what the politicians should fear, not want. Speak out, so the government realises they must pay attention to what we, the people, have to say!

Don’t be docile, grazing in the field the government wishes you to remain in, crash through, or you, we all, will crash, victims of lack of proper thought, and lack of true Vision. We can do this, with our words, and our heart and minds. Together. Are you with me?

Cozy Mystery, New Ideas, poetry

Prioritising Your Writing Tasks

March 2, 2020 carolyncordon

OK, that mad but fabulous month of daily writing prompts is over now, so that means I’d better get stuck into doing some proper writing, I think. And in fact, today I’ve produced some more words to go into my most important work in progress, the first of my Cosy Murder Mysteries. Or is that actually the most important? Maybe the poetry collection is more important? Oh dear …

Actually, it isn’t an either or thing at all. The two different things are different genres of writing, and are both at very different stages of completion. One is almost ready to hand out for possible first reading, and feedback, the other is barely begun, and many, many months from having anything to give to others for a first read. I can work on both of these things, one in the morning, the other later in the day, perhaps.

I have almost enough poems written for the poetry collection, because February was a full on prompt wriitng and responding to prompts month. I intend going through the list of prompts I posted on this blog every day in February, and I will write new poems, for any of the prompts I haven’t yet written anything in response to.

If I was asking others to respond to my prompts, I should put my money where my mouth is and respond too, shouldn’t I? Yes, I think so! And for anyone interested, this is the full list of my Fabulous February Writing Prompts. If you missed it last month, you can have a look, and use it as a resourse the next time you need a writing prompt!

My Fabulous February Writing Prompts
(one for every day of February 2020)

1st Rush

2nd Star

3rd Maybe I will, or maybe not …

4th Next

5th Never

6th After

7th Yesterday

8th Because

9th When the time is right …

10th Mine

11th Asleep

12th Trees

13th Superstition

14th Some things I love …

15th Knowing is one thing …

16th Senses

17th Could you ever?

18th Friendship

19th It’s getting closer! Are you ready?

20th Underneath

21st Philosophy, finding meaning for being

22nd Vision – looks can be deceiving

23rd Inklings – much in small hints, and intuition ? maybe …

24th Reasonable action, beats thoughtless reaction

25th Lies

26th Open or shut

27th Worthy or worthless?

28th The American Sentence – read about it for this day –

29th Prove it!

So I thoroughly enjoyed February, with the fun of the prompts, but I’m going to get some real writing done in March, in both my Cosy Murder Mystery series – (the first book), and my next poetry collection. If I keep on with as much passion and effort for these two things, as I put into the Writing Prompts in February, there’s no telling, what I can achieve! Good things though, I’m sure about that.

And about the Cosy Murder Mystery series, I was listening earlier today to a webcast seminar thing, which indicated there was no point talking to an agent about a piece of fiction, a book, until you had written it, and tidied it up and made it as shiny and bright as you possibly could. That kind of put a dampener on my enthusiasm, but not for my book, but for the thing I was watching and listening to.

If I have to get the book written, I was wasting my valuable time, listening, and instead I actually wrote a bit more of that Cosy Murder Mystery book. This felt like exactly the correct way to spend my valuable time! So from now on, every morning after breakfast will have some time put toward one or the other of my book projects, and all will go well. That’s how it feels to me, anyway!

Do you have any thoughts about any of this? Feedback is always welcome, that way I don’t feel like I’m talking to no-one! I love receiving comments!

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Prompt for the 1st week of March

March 2, 2020March 2, 2020 carolyncordon

The prompt for this first week of March is actually the choice of two words, similar looking words, but quite different things. Or you could put the two different things together and write something a bit ‘quirky’ and fun!

There’s only a letter difference between these two words … So what are these words? The words are ‘Desert’ and ‘Dessert’. Interested? I am, I’m thinking about the difficulties of keeping icecream from melting in the hot sun, and keeping dust out of the icing on cakes …

How about something like “Pavlova, Queen of the Desert”? Fabulous fun! But just focusing on one or the other of the prompts would be fabulous too. Deserts bring to mind lack of water, no trees, animals hiding from the blazing sun, scaled back everything, looking for shade, death for the unwary …

Photo by **Ihsan Aditya** from **Pexels**

Desserts, on the other hand bring ideas of opulence, joy, celebration, plenty of everything glorious, and a full tummy of yummy food!

So I hope you have some ideas for writing happening now, and I’ll be back with a new prompt in the second week of March. I’m thinking about silly ideas of desserts in deserts – Sundaes on the sands …