Category: Cozy Mystery

covid 19, Cozy Mystery

Reminders of My Former Life

carolyncordon

A friend of mine offered some advice to me recently about a possible useful thing to gain information for my previous ‘big’ project, and I could barely even engage on what that was all about. On further thought, I could see what was mentioned, might well be useful, but apart from the fact that I may not actually be able to do that because of Covid-19 restrictions, thought further about it.

I’ve become a bit obsessed about this current project, in a way that hasn’t happened to me before, or not for this kind of thing, anyway. Reaching out to other writers, to collaborate on something, just me and the world, rather than my writing group, and all of Australia, or just me and a publisher, those things have happened. But this project is different, it’s big, really big.

And it’s important too, the way writing can be, when it touches on world wide issues. And at the moment, surely this Covid-19 virus is one mighty big (and frightening) thing. So putting together an Anthology about this is my big thing, and the title of the big thing, of the book I, and the poets and writers whose work is accepted will create, is “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”.

White Gold …

See, a big issue, a life and death issue. An important issue. And since I came up with this idea, and began working on it, my previous writing project, that I thought was important, has faded away to not much, and I was wondering if anything much might happen until after, when my life goes back to ‘normal’. If there ever is going to be ‘normal’, as we’ve known life to be …

But at my writing group today (we meet online now, until … Until the hotel we meet at is opened up again, and we will be able to all sit at a table together and have our meetings.) So at the meeting, we were given a writing prompt, and I immediately came up with a scene for the Cosy Murder Mystery series that I’d been working on before Covid-19 came along, and it felt strange to be in the head of my main character, strange, but good too.

Because I had been wondering a little about whether I’d still be able to get into Meredith’s head again, after working on this far more worthy project. But Meredith is definitely there with me, she’s in my head, and so I can get into hers, and this reminder of that project is a little light relief, and I know I can get back into the Anthology project again, and step away if I need to, and life goes on still …

Being at home is fine, but going out sometimes is good too, and these things are important for us all, I feel. A little shopping, connections, online if real life can’t happen, Perhaps some gardening, or housework, these things can help make life feel more normal. And having a life that feels normal is a good thing, for sure … So normal is good, and having reminders about my former life, that’s good too.

A writer writes things that seem important, when it’s important to write them, but maintaining balance is good too, because it helps to keep going, and not get overwhelmed. I may have been approaching that, I’m not sure, but I feel more centred now, and feel these projects will both have their times, some days focused on one, another day doing some of the other, and it will all work out, step by step, on and on, as needed.

My former life is still there, and after this Big Project, I can step back to that other, still big, but not so worthy, project. It’s all about maintaining a sense of balance, and I can feel that is what I have, things are going well, and I can work on both of these projects, and others too perhaps, as long as there is balance …

Cozy Mystery, inspiration

Committing to Your Writing Project – One

carolyncordon

Today, I will write more of my novel, a cosy murder mystery featuring the amateur investigator Meredith Webster. I will add at least 500 more words to the first novel in the series today, and will try very hard to do the same every day, until it is all finished in first draft form, then I will have selected others read it, give me feedback, with a view to getting it published.

So, that is my stated commitment, and it is up to me, to get it done, not anyone else, just me. Of course, if other people are a=watching me, and avidly waiting to read this novel, in first draft format, and will be glad to give me feedback, that will be a good encouragement. And while I already have several people lined up for this role, getting feedback on this blog would be awesome to have too!

I’ve never written a full novel before, I have written a lengthy novella though, and I have several published poetry collections, a school reader, and three amusing books about a dog named Buster. I have read many cost murder mysteries, and enjoy them immensely when they are well done. I’ve got characters, a setting, and many ideas about the town and some of the possibilities for murder there, with potential book titles.

Talloola looks a bit like this town …

I am ready for this, all I need to do is to get the first book written. Simple? No, not really. I am letting myself get too distracted by too many other, non-novel things. So that’s why I’m putting the word up here, where others can read it,and I hope give me a nudge if I don’t report back regularly with an ever increasing word count!

At the moment, the word count is at 6,249 words, so by the time I go to bed tonight, there must be at least 6,749 words. If I get more words written than that, that will be great, but I won’t allow myself to count those extra words for the next day, I will work on writing another 500 words, every day, with maybe a day off, every now and then.

So if you are a writer, and have a particular writing project that you really want to get done, then committing to it, planning it and actually writing it is important. Life at the moment for us all, I think is different, many are in lock in mode, because of the Covid 19 virus. And this means we have far more time at home than is usual. So without making light of the real deaths that have happened, it is a time we can use to work on that writing project, and find something good, amongst the bad.

So, that is what I will do, ‘Meredith’ and I will work on “Winds of Death At Talloola”, finding out who the killer is, and getting them jailed for their crimes! I look forward to you all helping me! I aim to check back every week with a new and much bigger word count. Are you going to be on the team to help me get this done? Leave a comment if you are, and it will happen!

Cozy Mystery

Strange Times …

carolyncordon

Thinking about what is going on in the world right now, I’m wondering, is there really any point in getting concerned about what is happening in countries I’ll never visit, people I’ll never know. But of course that is a head in the sand kind of thought. Places, and people, are important. Things that happen in one place bring echoes of what occurs to other places, as people doing things in one place can link with other people in other places.

I’m not only looking at this from the point of view of a world being held in stasis, at home, trying to find new ways to live our lives … The coronavirus, Covid 19 has us all looking and hoping, grasping greedily, some of us, and sharing compassionately some others. I know of city people ‘invading’ small tourist towns, causing difficulties for permanent residents, who are not accustomed to having so many people there, out of tourist times.

As a person with a chronic illness that means I may be affected in worse ways that others, I am doing my best to stay at home, as much as possible. I go outside, often, but only outside my own house, and mostly remaining on my own property. I gather herbs, and make myself cups of herbal tea, or let our dog in and out, for ‘comfort trips’ into the backyard.

But I’m a writer, so this locked in time could be the ideal time to get writing my Cosy Murder Mystery series, but, even though I have indeed written a little bit of the first book in the series, I don’t seem to be able to settle down to getting it all written, my mind is skipping around from here to there, and I write a blog post, a poem there, and perhaps another couple of paragraphs of the novel, but not necessarily in any kind of order.

I have the TV on, mostly on news channels, seeing and hearing the same news, slightly changed perhaps, watching the numbers, worrying, and staying safe inside … If I could, I’d be like Missy, my dog, lounging around on the sofa, and not worrying about anything except having food, and getting to the toilet as needed …

Missy ‘lounging around’

But I’m not a dog, I’m a writer, and even though writing blog posts is writing, what I really want to be writing, is my Cosy Mysteries … Oh brain, please, think about the people and places in Talloola, and write more words for that first book “Winds of Death At Talloola”!

So enough of this blog post, and perhaps back to my novel-in-progress!

Cozy Mystery, Uncategorized, Writing

Locked In or Reaching Out?

carolyncordon

Even as we are (most of us anyway) in Locked in mode, keeping ourselves and others safe, by staying at home, most of the time. Many are bemoaning these scaled back quiet times, and they’re worried about not being able to work.

Not me though, and not many of my friends. A locked in life can feel like bliss, nothing you have to go out and do, the days are yours, to explore your writing options. The projects that had been put on hold, waiting for a time, when you actually had time, and suddenly, that time is now!

While many businesses have closed down, many publishers, especially small ones, are still very much at work, and they are able to go on doing their publishing thing, calling for submissions, receiving them, putting anthologies or other books together, then sending them off to be printed.

This is great news for many of us, and many of my friends are getting published, and we celebrate the good news with them, when they post the news on blogs, or on Social Media. But the sad part is there won’t be any Book Launches, where everyone comes together in the same room, words are read out, and hugs are given, food and drinks are consumed, and much chat happens.

No more. It is possible to still hold a book launch, one online, but many of the best elements are missing. There are no hugs, the purchaser is unable to watch as the writer of the book signs the new copy the purchaser has handed money over for. If books are purchased, it happens online, and there are definitely no hugs.

Personally, I’ve had two poems accepted by two different publishers, I’ve entered a short story in a competition, and I’ve written some more (but not enough) of my bigger work in progress. That work in (slow) progress is a Cosy Murder Mystery series. I have characters, and a setting, as well as many book titles and slight notes on what each book will be about. There are I think twenty books in the series. If I ever get them written, I expect I will be in my late seventies … This is not a bad thing necessarily, many authors of such books are more mature, they’ve lived lives, and know much about people, it’s all fine!

But the rate my writing of this series, I’m likely to be more like in my nineties. I sincerely hope the writing of Murder books helps to ward off dementia, because otherwise I’ll have no chance of making my way to the end of my list! Whether poetry, or mystery books, or anything else really, being locked in makes it all easier, with so much time available. Sadly, more time can also mean more things to procrastinate about.

And this crazy Covid 19 time, when there is non stop media about death rates, recovery rates, things to do, meals to make, cleaning to do, decades old boxes of ‘stuff’ to sort through, the dog to walk and feed, gardening to do, and so on. So tasks you’ve never had on your list of things to do may appear, and all of those things can stop the writing happening …

With no sense of routine, things can just drift away, things happen, but they don’t amount to much, and little or no writing is done. Where does the time go? It goes down the drain, and even though your house is clean, and dishes are done, with different recipes tried out now that time is there, sourcing ingredients might take more time than usual, and you may not be able to get those ingredients, so you have to find a different idea.

And no writing gets done … I’ve been able to get some sort of sense to things happening, by moving from breakfast table to laptop every morning, Emails read and dealt with, and then writing happens, most of the time. The writing might be a poem, a bit more of that novel, a blog post, something for the monthly community newsletter I edit, but writing. Words happen every day, and I am still a writer, just a locked down one.

My Locked in view …

If you have a plan that works for you at the moment, I’d love to read about your ideas, please leave a comment, and we can perhaps all get better at managing our time, and get some great writing done!

Cozy Mystery

When Staying Focused Is Difficult

carolyncordon

Right now, as so many people are struggling to stay safe, and to understand the crazy scary things happening all around the world, as we try to keep on top of the terrible emergency regarding the Covid 19 virus, staying, or getting, focused on our own writing is difficult, or even impossible.

I haven’t written anything new for my current large work-in-progress for a couple of days, it is feeling the relevance to life has been squashed, and the Coronavirus has taken hold of almost everything … We’re all hunkering down, and hoping, because that’s about all we CAN do, because getting ‘out there’ may bring exposure to this virus …

My writing group met at our usual spot though, and as long as the venue will be open, we will meet again next week, on the usual time, at the usual place. These times are far from usual though … The markets and the government have gone mad, in Australia, and in all of the other countries too, by the look of it. The Australian dollar is down, down and down, although up a bit at the moment, on the most recent lowest rates …

The venue for the Adelaide Plains Poets writing group. I hope they can remain open throughout this current medical emergency.

So we had our meeting yesterday, with a goodly enough number of attendees. And many of us stayed after the meeting, and we had a meal together. There were no hugs at all, while there often are at least a couple of hugs shared. We were aware of the idea of staying not too close, but I have to admit we may have been a little bit slap dash about it, obviously believing ourselves to be immune for the virus. I hope our arrogance about this doesn’t bit us badly, and kill us …

So with all of this going on, the idea of writing a Cosy Murder Mystery, hasn’t managed to cut through the media deluge, and numbers of deaths, are real deaths, not make believe ones from my novel … So yes, my focus on “Winds of Death At Talloola” is nonexistent, with apparently 800 cases of coronavirus as at 3.00pm 20/03/20 … Which is more important? Well, actually, wearing my Stoic hat rather than my poet and novelist hat, the most important thing isn’t to watch non stop news about things I can do nothing to fix, so I might as well get on with my writing, which I can do, and it would be a good distraction, and mood enhancer for me.

So why am I here? I have a novel to write, and I know being able to read my words will definitely be a happy thing for a few of my writing friends, who are waiting to read this novel, and help me to make it a better piece of writing! So novel, here I come!