Tag: cosy murder mystery

Uncategorized

On Adding More Words

carolyncordon

Adding more words to a novel, especially if you are one of the panster types of novelists, can bring interesting ideas to your work, that’s for sure. And even if you have a plan, instead of opting for the ‘by the seat of your pants’ method of novel writing, the story and your characters can still bring interesting new things to what you thought was going to happen.

Today I’ve had a great day of adding a lot of new words to my first Cosy Murder Mystery book, ‘Hot Winds of Death At Talloola’, and I seem to have moved slightly away from where I thought I was going. It still feels good though, and in keeping with the pain thrust of what the story has to be.

An accident near Talloola perhaps?

This image was from a truck rollover near the rail way crossing, just south of Mallala, but I could easily use some of the details in a storyline of a cosy murder mystery story … Who was driving? How did it happen? What were the real reasons?

***********************************************

I’ve never written a novel in this genre before, but I feel like it’s something I’m capable of doing, and I love the idea of being a writer of that kind of book. I used to love Agatha Christie books as a child, and as an adult have explored other murder mystery stories, some Australian ones, and others from other countries.

The idea of creating this kind of stories, happening in a ‘village’ of my own devising appealed to me, and I’m enjoying learning more about my characters, as I write the story. Today, two of my characters began plotting something, but I have no idea what it is … They’re friends to my main character, so it should end up OK for her, but until I write about it, tomorrow, I hope, I don’t know what it might be.

Anyway, I have an idea on what it might be about, even if my amateur sleuth, Meredith, has no idea. This is what makes the pantster style so much fun, things pop into the book and you follow the path to where it leads. And if it heads off into a strange direction, well red herrings are all a part of writing murder mysteries. That, and subplots, to add depth to both characters and the story.

Today I added nearly two thousand words to the story, and that feels like a useful chunk of words. Will I write more tonight? Who knows, and will I write a similar number again tomorrow, again, who knows. There will be a few ‘real life’ things going on tomorrow, important things totally unrelated to this book. So life will go one, even if Winds of Death At Talloola doesn’t tomorrow.

Just half an hour is enough time to write, the time it takes for a forgotten cup of coffee to achieve lukewarm status, as it sometimes does, when I’m writing on my laptop, and the story is more important that the coffee. There’s always the microwave to heat up a cuppa, but those hot ideas, if they go lukewarm, may never be able to be warmed up again …

So I hope at least half an hour of my day, tomorrow will be spent on ‘Hot Winds …’ I’m enjoying the challenge of finding the story, here, very much. And if you enjoy the writing, it shows, I hope so anyway!

Uncategorized

Sharing, For a Friend

carolyncordon

A friend of mine, (Hi John!), asked about seeing some of the novel I’m writing. I value his opinion, so have decided to put a snippet here, so John, and anyone else who might be interested, can read a bit of “Hot Winds of Death At Talloola”, a Cosy Murder Mystery, my first ever. I am far more accustomed to writing poetry, and this venture into writing these mystery novels is a big step, so I appreciate any feedback I might receive. I’m only just into this book, and have many more chapters to go.

This piece is from the second chapter, and Meredith, my main character, has gone along to the Talloola Oval, to check out the preparations for the Talloola Christmas Party, to be held at the oval later in the day, and into the evening. Meredith’s job is with Talloola Council, and putting on this event, after it not being held for quite a few years was her idea, and she hopes it goes well. She has been in the job for less than a year, and hopes to get another contract after her initial two year contract is over. She is a city girl, moved to Talloola, and enjoying the change, to country life.

**********************************************

I got closer to the oval, and was sort of pleased to see lots of residents, both adults and kids, taking an early look at what was going on. It’s good they’re interested, but I hadn’t considered that aspect. Was it going to slow things down, with people wandering around the oval? I’m sure the insurance of the various stall holders would cover anything … But the actual opening of the Talloola Christmas Party wasn’t until much later today. But if these people went home and told others that things were looking good, then, yay, more people! I hope so, anyway.

If this event was successful, we might have to keep people out though, next time. I stored the thought, away on my mental agenda. The people working, looked set up to keep people out of the way of any danger , so I wasn’t too worried, not really. And then, there was Gert, with some of the CWA ladies, heading into the football club to get their tea and coffee stall set up. I gave them a wave, when they looked my way, and continued onto the oval.

I could see Tash, sitting under the big tent, and she seemed to be getting some pamphlets organised, and I was thrilled to see a most gorgeous German Shepherd with her. Dark and tan, a male, he was just beautiful. Was he the barking dog I’d heard, that had woken me up this morning? He certainly looked big enough to be the one … I kept walking and got to Tash and the dog, which was sitting, and looking at me, sedately. 

I glanced at Tash, and asked, ‘May I?’

‘Oh I knew Merlin would attract your interest Meredith! You’re such a sucker for a dog, and Merlin here sure is an impressive dog, isn’t he?’ She laughed at me, and called to the dog. ‘Merlin, ask nicely!’ she said. 

Merlin looked at me, and put out a paw toward me, seeming to beckon me over. I strolled closer, and put out my own hand, touching his big paw, and then reached to stroke him under his chin. He arched his neck and leaned into my hand, and I rubbed gently behind his ears, not surprised when he relaxed into my hand, and seemed to smile at me.

**********************************************************

So that’s a small piece, and I hope you find it interesting, and would like to read more! I’m still in the very early stage of writing this novel, and any thoughts about what I’ve written would be welcome. For instance, I just realised, as I was getting this snippet organised, that both my main character, and the German Shepherd, have quite similar names … ‘Merlin’ and ‘Meredith’… problem or no problem, what do you think?

Merlin isn’t going to have a large part in the novel, I don’t think, or maybe he will. Merlin’s owner also works at Talloola Council, as the Dog Control Officer.

I’m happy enough to change the dog’s name, if it might be a problem. The name jumped into my mind a few days ago, as I was writing the piece, and it seemed just right for him, a wise and intelligent dog …

Anyway that’s it, time to have a coffee, and get some more of this mystery happening!

Cozy Mystery, New Ideas, poetry

Prioritising Your Writing Tasks

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.

Books, books and more books!

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!

Uncategorized

Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Twenty-nine

carolyncordon

So today … the twenty-ninth of February, the final day of this fabulous month of a new writing prompt a day … I’ve enjoyed posting a new prompt every single day, and the couple of times I did it incoreectly it didn’t matter there was a prompt there, a new one for every day in February.

And speaking of writing prompts, here is the prompt for today, the final prompt of Fab Feb Writing Prompts. The writing prompt is: Prove it!
How’s that for a challenge?! Call yourself a writer, prove it, and write!

I like to be called an inspiration, by people – it seemed a little odd the first time it happened, but when I think about it, it makes sense. I’ve had some challenges in my life, and have got through them, and come out smiling at the end. I still have some challenges, but I’ve thought about them, and found the best ways to work with those challenges. I don’t personally go with the idea of ‘fighting’ against my problems, they are there, and fighting something with no cure is senseless, so I work at ‘living with’ rather than ‘fighting’ my Chronic Illness.

I pace myself, write fun things, look at what I know, and write about that, and I use humour when I can! Life is a journey, I want to enjoy the trip!

So yes inspiration and being inspirational are things I know a lot about, I am living them, and living a fine life with them. One of the things I an do, is help other people to use their writing ability, and bring creative words into the world. I do it, I’ve been doing it all of February, with people coming along to my writer blog here, and they read my prompt, and write something, or at least they think about writing something, and that is enough.

Responding to a new prompt every single day has been a big challenge, and I have to admit, I haven’t got a new poem for every single day of February, but I’ve been doing a lot more creative writing than I usually do, and I’ve written more poems than usual, and have in fact added some new poems to the poetry collection I’m putting together to get feedback on, with a view to submitting it to a publisher this year, to get it published.

I’m happy with how the collection is looking, everyone I’ve tested the title on has loved it, and I feel positive about the collection, really. Some of the poems may be weaker than others, but I have enough that I can delete them before submission time, and still have a good sized collection. I’ve done this before, and I’ve learnt more and more every time. This will work, and if my selected publisher doesn’t want it, I have back up plans. The collection will become a book, this year!

And because this writng prompt thing on my writer blog has been a postive thing for me, and for other writers, I’ve decided to continue doing it, but will scale it back, doing a new one every day has been a bit testing … So once a week seems a much easier way to go, it will give more time to get a response to the new prompt done, before the next prompt comes along.

Every Monday, before lunchtime (South Australian time), I plan to have the writing prompt for the week on this blog. I’ll be putting other things here too, and because I’ve become accustomed to doing writing related things just after breakfast every single day, I plan to get writing on my Cosy Murder Mystery books! I really want to become known as a poet, which I already am, and a writer of Cosy Murder Mysteries. And if I wish to become known as the latter of those things, I have to write them, and get them published, to prove that’s what I am!

So think about yourself, what you believe in, what you say you are, and what you can do, and prove it!

Writing

Why I Love Writing

carolyncordon

One of the reasons I really, really love being a writer, is the way an idea will suddenly burst out of my head, scattering metaphorical sparkling insight glitter over my day! It doesn’t happen every day, week, or even every month, but when it does, BANG my whole day is suddenly magical with the new idea!

I’m so thankful when these ideas come, and I try to make a note of them, so they don’t float away, like the clouds that promise rain, but take their precious moisture to somewhere else, and we miss out. I had an idea like this yesterday, and yes, I wrote it down, and I’m so glad I did.

The idea I wrote down is in relation to one of my writing projects, the biggest and most challenging idea I’ve had yet. This idea is the writing of a series of Cosy Murder Mysteries, many of them … This new idea I had today may mean a new book, when I already have titles and brief notes for nineteen different books … This is going to take me a long time to write, so I really should get started on writing the series, I think …

I don’t actually know if I’m going to write all of the books I have titles for, but I’m enjoying the whole idea of it, and I’ve written part of the first draft of the first two books. I feel like I’ve messed up a bit, though, and have to step away from the second book, and complete the first one, first, so I can set the tone for the entire series, but with hints and clues that there may be possible changes to come …

Moving from being a poet, to being a Cosy Murder Mystery writer isn’t that much of a change, words are the tools for both of these genre, and I’m a keen community member, and observer of people. The little town where these murder mysteries take place is a made up town, not a real one, but it bears a resemblance to another town I know quite well, not naming any names, though …

imag0250_1

The knowledge that I can go from poetry to murders, and enjoy them both, as well as the other things I write, non fiction, short stories, as well as blogging, what fun it is, keeping me connected with the literary world!