Author: carolyncordon

If you’ve been looking for something to do, during these crazy Covid 10/Coronavirus times, obviously writing is the perfect time to write. Some of us are contemplating our own lives, as we wait at home, avidly watching, or strongly avoiding, the talks on the media about death rates, and such things.

When you have to stay at home, to keep safe from this virus, sit down, think about your life, and the things you want to be remembered about what that life has been, what you’re realised, what you’ve achieved, or wish you’d achieved. Or maybe now is the time to write silly little ditties, to get, and give a few giggles, in these serious times.

Or perhaps now is the time to get stuck right into that novel they’ve been thinking about writing. You’re stuck at home, and there’s only so much dire TV reportage a person can face, so why not write that detective story, or romance, or Science Fiction book, now is surely the time! If there is an explosion of new fiction, we can all read our way through our lock down times …

Poetry, a poem about this, and that, and there are many ways to share our poetic words with others, other than being jammed into a small room, reading out, or performing our poems. We all have phones these days, and laptops, and can easily record ourselves ‘doing’ our poems, and post them online. I saw such a thing live earlier today, and it was great! (thank you to my friend Martin Christmas for the heads up)

Or you could record yourself performing poetry written previously, keep on practising until you get it just right, and then put it up, ‘out there’ on your blog. Or if you don’t have a blog yet, now could be the very best time ever to do that! Blogging is the perfect way to keep connected with others, doing the things you love doing,

And of course, your garden is always out there, waiting for you to go out there and smell the roses, or the rosemary, or whatever it is you have growing outside. Good times, even in these worrying times. Do the best you can, and keep safe!

When life becomes more threatening than what I may write in a Murder Mystery book, I have to admit I’m finding it extremely difficult to get any words of my Cosy Murder Mystery book happening.

Today is a new day, and still there are no new words written for my Cosy Murder Mystery … I’ve toyed with and then dumped any idea of putting details of a mystery virus causing havoc in the town of Talloola, where my Cosy Murder Mysteries are set. Although, hmm, maybe? Or no?
Any thoughts about this would be welcome, is it too soon to use Covid 19? Or simply nowhere near a ‘cosy’ thing to put into such a novel?

I might have a go at writing a piece of flash fiction, set in the town of Talloola, where my cosy murder mysteries are all going to be set. I was thinking about what is happening in Mallala, the small town closest to where I live, as I was there, catching up with a friend, and visiting the Op Shop and Cafe there.

Things are not quite as usual, the cafe has moved outside, and we were all sitting further away from each other than is usual. These are certainly challenging times, and while we’re all washing our hands often, and definitely not hugging, ‘to keep safe’, we can only hope that scientists will come up soon with a solution to this killer virus.

Thinking about lots of things, and pondering the mindset of some people, whose reaction to potential disaster is to buy up toilet paper in an effort to make their fortune off the misfortunes of others. The price of toilet paper is going through the roof, as supplies are quickly snapped up in supermarkets, and the government tries to keep it all under control …

And in the midst of this kind of toxic capitalism, there are many beautiful acts of kindness happening, where neighbourhoods join together to help each other, and needed goods shared, where they can be spared. This is the kind of world I wish to live in, not the nasty ‘snatch it up, it’s mine!’ kind of world. These kinds of ideas are suitable to think on for me, whatever kind of writing I’m doing.

One of my writing-related roles is as the Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, and I was certainly thinking about these kinds of thoughts, as I was writing the front page of the March issue, which is due to be published before the end of March. Mallala is very much like Talloola, and who knows how much of this current challenging situation might one day leach out into fiction?

One of my writing group members is writing a novel, set slightly in the future, and her current work is eerily putting out story lines that are now coming true … Can she see into the future, I wonder? She certainly makes no such claims, but I wonder … Or is she an intelligent listener and reader, who thinks a lot, and makes conclusions based on the evidence presented …

All of these thoughts are bouncing around in my head, and I wonder when, or if, things will ever feel ‘normal’ again? But writing,in various forms, will go on being written, and as performances of many kinds are being cancelled, due to this coronavirus, books will be written and bought, perhaps online though, rather than in shops. Time, as they say, will tell. What do you think?