In writing, as in life, gaining encouragement is an important thing to help a person keep going. Of course, we must encourage ourselves too, because the internal messages we tell ourselves can be crippling, and easily kill off an idea, no matter how good it is.
So I say thank you, to the people who have let me know they’re following along with the progress in my Cosy Murder Mystery novel, the first in the proposed “At Talloola” series with amateur sleuth Meredith Webster. Having you with me, as I work my way through this first book is certainly greatly helping me!
Books take time, particularly when a writer is used to writing poems, and is accustomed to being able to get a poem written, edited, and done within a day, when it goes well. A novel, no matter how good it’s going, is going to take at least a month.
Anyway, thanks, and I can promise you, a novel will happen. By the end of 2021, Winds of Death At Talloola, will be written, and if not published, at least available to be read in pre-published form.
As a so-called ‘novelist’ I am not writing my current novel every day. I’m not even writing more of it every second day … Life, as the title suggests, is a pest, and gets in the way of my novel writing. But life is certainly a pleasure too, and it gives me things to write about.
Any kind of writing is useful for a novelist, or wannabee one, which is a more truthful title for me, I’d think. I have part of a novel written, a third of it, and that’s it. So I am a wannabee novelist, or I could say I have a novel in (slow) progress. I am only human, and being only human is a good thing to be, for a novelist, because of course, humans, that’s what I must write about.
Whether my characters are aliens, dogs, or cows, they are really humans in another form. In my novel, there are definitely humans. The dogs in the story are dogs, not humans, although I can only give my human interpretation on what the dogs may be thinking, or with the reasons for what they are doing …
Anyway, life, that is the main reason for the slow progression of my novel-in-progress. Or really, to be truthful, I suspect the desire isn’t strong enough to break through, and I allow the bits and bobs of life interfere, and I do those rather than settling down to write more of the novel. Am I lazy, or am I just easily distracted?
Hmm possibly yes to both of those things, at times anyway. Or it may be I am afraid that I can’t actually write this proposed book, a Cosy Murder Mystery, a genre I haven’t written in before, until I came up with this idea for a series of such novels. Since then, I have written several short stories using some of the characters I’ve come up with, and using the same setting too.
I like these people/characters, and I like the town I’ve come up with. It’s fun writing about them, I just can’t get stuck right into getting this novel written. I have people who want to read this first novel, and I don’t want to let them down, but by not getting the first book written, of course I am letting them down, and I’m letting myself down too.
Boo hoo to that, poor me … But by confessing to my ‘sins’ regarding this, can I maybe shame myself into just getting the writing happening again. Well no, I doubt that is the way I should go, I need to be happy to be writing the best book I can, and I know when I do actually get some more of this novel written, I enjoy doing the writing.
And of course, I do have other things I have to do, and today, earlier, I was working on the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, which is a newsletter I put together and publish every month. This newsletter and producing it, are things I am rightly proud of, I have been told many times by those I respect it is a good newsletter for the town of Mallala.
And I live in my house with others, my husband and our dog, and both have things they need from me, if I am to be a good member of the household, which of course I want to be. Because, as the headline for this blog post indicates, life is a pleasure as well as a pest. And being a good person is a huge pleasure, whereas being a good novelist is an unknown possible pleasure …
One of my reasons for wanting this Cosy Murder Mystery novel to work is because I like the idea of being well known as the writer of such a series. But of course without even having the first book written, I can’t be famous for writing such a series. And as I’m typing these words, I’m aware of the other things I want and/or need to get done today … Pest or pleasure, life and living have needs, chores, fun things, and responsibilities.
That is enough self-analysis, time to get back to one of my other things I need to do, and there will be a pleasure there too, as I’ll be getting myself another cup of coffee, to help me get on with the December issue of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle … I’ve done the front cover, and many of the other pages are in their proper place, and it’s looking good, with Santa and the local Mallala Lion members from their recent Christmas dinner.
And on that note, I offer my readers greetings of the season, stay safe, stay well, and have a fine time!
As I noted in my previous blog post, I’ve been working on getting the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle newsletter put together, printed, and distributed around Mallala recently. This is a good thing, good for me, and the community of Mallala, for sure, in many ways.
Unfortunately though, the writing of my novel, that is one thing my focus on the newsletter has not been good for, not at all. I’ve only written two small pieces of writing in relation to my novel, and so my poor characters are standing around, waiting for me to get down to some serious narrative happening!
So if I’m going to call myself a novelist, I have to get a novel written, and published. And for that to happen I have to write that novel, so what do I need to do? I need to focus on the novel! I love my characters, I love the town they live in, I want this first story in the series of Cosy Murder Mysteries happening in the town of Talloola to be written and published.
So once I post this blog post, I am going to get stuck in and write more of the novel! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Full coffee cup, novel writing here I come!
So I’ve just gone and made myself a cup of coffee, my best novel writing tool, and now I’m going to post this and get focused on novel writing!
I finished off this little piece of writing today, and I’m quite happy with it, so I’m showing it here. It was written partly in response to a writing exercise prompt, so thank you Alex from my writing group for that.
This short story uses the main character, and the setting of the novel I’m currently working on, at times … My novel is a Cosy Murder Mystery, the first in a series, and my idea is to ‘whet the appetite’ of potential readers of the novel, by sharing short stories based in the same (made up) town, and using characters from the series. These short stories will be published together in a short story anthology.
Christmas Party at the Talloola oval?
I don’t know if any other writers have gone about getting a book published like this before, but it feels good to me, I’m happy to self publish copies of this anthology, and even if nothing much comes of the anthology, I am certainly learning a lot about mt characters, and the setting of Talloola. There are secrets waiting to be discovered, and who knows what may come out, in the stories of the anthology!
I’m currently nearly a third of a way through this first novel in the series, and I have the titles and a basic idea for around twenty novels, so if I get right into this, I know what I’m going to be doing for most of the end of my life! I’m hoping to get right back into pumping up my word count of the first book in the series, “Winds of Death At Talloola”. I have a friend, thank you Cathy! who is feeding me some great story ideas, and I will use those ideas and others of my own to write the material for the anthology.
I’m going to give credit to both Alex and Cathy for this novel, and the anthology too, for their inspirational prompts and story ideas. The life of a writer goes along so much easier if they have great friends who can inspire them in their own ways! Thanks guys.
Another of my great inspiring of story writing idea friends is Matt Potter of Pure Slush, who has just today called again for pieces written on the theme of Birth, the first in a longer series of twelve volumes, all based on lifespan. Further details about this are available below:
Anyway, here is that short story I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post. It ended up being much longer than I thought it was going to be. I had no real idea where this story was going to go when I began writing it, and it was more an exploration of ideas, rather than a story, in some ways, because I was learning things about Talloola and the history, as I wrote. I don’t know if it really works, and that’s why I definitely want and possibly need feedback from everyone who reads this blog post, and especially the story below!
Please leave a comment, I need to hear what others can tell me about this!
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This Means War!
Was there really a war between these two towns, I wondered, and if so, why? One river, the Brien River, runs between them both, closer to Talloola than the rival town, Wellston, but to my eye, the little ‘sometimes’ waterway held little of value within its banks.
But as a newcomer, and one who would do best to stay sweet with as many in the nearby towns as I could, I knew better than to ridicule the little river, though personally I would name it a creek rather than river. I suspect a geographer may supply reasons to inform me of those reasons, and showing be to be an ignoramus, I’m not sure. I’ll hold onto that question, and revisit it sometime later, perhaps. Or there may be something special, about the local waterways … that explains why the water rarely makes it the 15 or so kilometres further west, where it sometimes apparently travels under the bridge, near Talloola.
I was at a meeting with the Mayor of another Council, further east of the Talloola, up stream, and he assured me it sometimes was so overfull, the water went over the banks and drenched nearby land, and properties. I shuddered at the thought of that – I’ve always preferred trees over mud, and the idea of having my own place being flooded out? Yuck. That man didn’t seem to have similar ideas about it.
But that town’s mayor is Mayor O’Brien, and I have a sneaking suspicion the river is named after his family, from years gone by … Of course none of these thoughts gave me any insight into why the two towns were ‘at war’ as the local paper sometimes seemed to imply. Maybe I could chat with Mavis, my reporter friend from that paper, about it. She’s been around this region far longer then my own year and a half …
But thinking about these apparently warring towns, Talloola and Wellston, it seems, judging by the honour boards in the sports clubs in both towns, there is certainly a strong rivalry there, whether it be football, netball, tennis or, I’ve been told, lawn bowls. There was some story about that latter sport, the reason why the sporting venue that backed onto the side of my house, had been remodelled from a lawn bowls venue, with two rinks, to a bocce club, with a small forest kind of place, built to attract more birdlife to Talloola, apparently. This is from over twenty years ago, and who knows what the true story is …
In the rest of the region I’m currently living, and staying in forever, if I can, lawn bowls is a major summer sport, for many, not just the oldies. But something happened, nobody talks about it, and bang, along came the Talloola Bocce Club. Personally, I’m definitely glad about it, because with Bocce taking up a much smaller space for games, one of the former lawn bowls rinks was given by Talloola Council, to a birdwatching group, who did a tremendous amount of planting of trees and shrubs, creating the perfect habitat, and along came so many beautiful birds, both native, and others. If there are people who don’t like the bird life in Talloola, I haven’t met those people yet, and really, I doubt I’d like to meet such sad-sack people!
I admit, I’ve had to put a shade over my clothesline to stop the bird poop, and I’m grateful I was warned about that, but that was easily done, at the cost of less than twenty dollars, so easy-peasy there. And an added benefit, is my clothes don’t fade as much, because they have the shade keeping lots of the sunshine off them. Sure, they then take slightly longer to dry, but if I do the washing in the evening or morning, and hang it out during the day, it is always dry by the time I get home from work, barring rain, of course. So that negative is only a tiny one, and is a plus instead, in terms cost of replacing faded clothes!
If you want to have lots of birds (which I do, for sure!), you have to be prepared to put up with a bit of bird poop! And some people say getting your clothes pooped on by a bird can bring good luck, and who doesn’t want a bit of good luck, sometimes? Anyway, enough people in Talloola decided they wanted more birds in their town, and judging by the birds I spot on my walks around good old Talloola town, that idea is definitely working.
The town doesn’t promote the wonderful birds the town has, and i feel they’re wasting a huge opportunity. Perhaps it’s time to push the idea of Talloola being a fine place to visit for keen bird watchers. That way even that bird poop on your washing will be forgiven, if Talloola becomes a town for international bird lovers, wanting to stay, and spend their money in town. When I meet with the relevant Council person, I’ll mention it …Promoting tourism for Talloola is on the list of my job responsibilities, but I haven’t been able to do as much of that kind of thing as I want to. The Council officer I’d have to work with on this has been off on leave, so nothing much had happened. He’s back at work now, and the Talloola Lions have done a heap of work on the Talloola Campground, so I say, there’s plenty to see, tell everyone about it, and bring on the tourists!
Talloola is a fine town, with a few different dining options, lots of sport, and a haven for a huge variety of birds! So it’s my job to spread the word about the great things in Talloola. These lovely birds, that’s certainly a thing that makes Talloola different to, and in my opinion, better than Wellston. In Talloola the trees and flowering plants stand out, beautifully. In Wellston, with its hundreds of brand new homes, but smaller building block sizes, there are far fewer trees and flowers, because there’s not room for them. The gardens there are small, tiny even, and tend to have fake grass, and the kinds of plants that don’t require much water. So there are succulents instead of lovely showy flowering bushes (with nectar for birds), and Yuccas instead of Eucalypt trees.
Talloola has plenty of natural beauty, Wellston has plenty of tacky and not very interesting houses all jammed in together … That’s how I see it. I don’t want to start a war, but I do have my opinions … So while I have to be careful not to bag Wellston too much, because we’re both part of the same Council, I say, personally, give me a Eucalypt tree, some flowering native bushes, and lots of birds, any day! And if you don’t like it? Well we may have to beg to differ on that, but I know I’m right, and you’re wrong, it’s honest truth!
Yesterday was ‘one of those days’ and I didn’t get around to doing much at all regarding my blogging life … I did get some more of my current work in progress though, so I’m happy with that. I’m hoping I may be able to find a way to sneak this writing prompt I’m going to put up here, into my Cosy Murder Mystery, “Winds of Death at Talloola”, which is that current work in progress.
So here is the prompt, do with it what you will! What on earth was that?
So, I’m sure there’s a lot I could do with that writing prompt, given my current work in progress is a Cosy Murder Mystery … Things that go Bang! in the night anyone? My main character (Meredith) is at the moment beginning to wonder about the large number of deaths in her new little town, that she is beginning to call home, and falling in love with. But the local copper doesn’t like her, and doesn’t like her friend, Gert …
But Meredith is also friends with Mister, the dog who lives next door, and she’s going to use him as a warning system, in part, because she and Mister (and other dogs too, it seems), have some kind of an understanding … If Mister doesn’t like someone, Meredith will know to watch out for them too. And Mister is going to show Meredith that her initial distrust of this police officer was wisdom indeed …
This is Mister, a red kelpie something cross, former sheepdog, now, lounger around on the grass, and a fine judge of character in people, helping Meredith to stay safe …
Mister may look a little grizzled (or quite so, actually), but he, like Gert, still has all of his marbles, even though some around town may doubt that. If Mister doesn’t like you, you’re probably not a nice person, not at all.
So in my novel, perhaps Mister is going to help Meredith when there’s a big Bang in the night, and she goes out of her front door to see what caused the sound … I haven’t written any of that yet, but the prompt was there, and it seems like it will fit in well, for my story …
That is the thing about writing prompts, the best ones will have a connection with what is already in your head, or written down, and will, ideally, prompt lots of other useful ideas too. I sure hope this is going to help me to get lots more words written down. Writing a Cosy Murder Mystery series, as I am, seems like a grand idea, and with luck, bit by bit, I will eventually get to ‘The End’, and ‘Winds of Death’, book one in my “At Tallola” Cosy Murder Mystery series will be done. And then book two will be my obsession, as well as getting book one published, of course …
Carolyn Cordon - Writer 