Moody Monday

25 Monday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, LOVE, MY BOOKS, THE WRITERS' LIFE, TORN

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family, friends, funeral, keening, mourning, remembering

Every day is a new day, a new chance to find happiness. I need to keep telling myself that. Today, I choose my mood to be grateful for what I have, thankful for the love offered to me and hopeful for the future.

Yes, I know. I’m more than a couple of degrees less cheerful than last Moody Monday. But, I have been blessed to know the love of so many family and friends, the kindness of even strangers in a time of loss, and I’ve much to look forward to.

Funerals are times of such heightened and mixed emotions and moods. Sober. Sombre. Sad. Bittersweet. I both dread and look forward to gathering together with those who also knew and loved my nephew, sometime soon.

Writing the funeral in Torn was heart wrenching. There are so many ways of mourning. There’s ‘keening’, the sound of a heart breaking. One dictionary describes it as “a wailing lament for the dead“. How quickly we can, at least publicly, move past keening, to talking about happier times is as individual as every human being.

Today I want to look forward as much as back. As the little ones grow up and become adults, I can remind them of those lost. Where their memories are vague and fading, I can honour those gone by telling stories about them, keeping their memories alive in my heart.

Sunday Sorrow

24 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, LOVE, MY BOOKS, THE WRITERS' LIFE, TORN

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death, despair, Lillian Darcy, loss, sorrow

When someone you love is gone suddenly, with or without the chance to say goodbye, it takes some time to come to terms with the loss. I’ve tried every day since my last post to find words and failed. Over the last month I’ve had to deal with the loss of two men. Each was very special to me in his own way. One was the loving father I wished I’d had and the other lost only two days ago was the son I never had.

From the depths of despair comes a deeper understanding of how my characters feel, act, and react when they face the tragedy and sorrow I put them through as a writer. Early in my writing career I attended a conference where Lillian Darcy spoke about the value of life experience to a writer’s work and how her success came despite her youth at the time. Wishing I didn’t have quite so much first hand experience is futile.

The understanding of what it’s like to “walk a mile in my shoes” deepens a writer’s characters on the page. I know that as a reader and I hope my readers see it in “Torn”. I trust that Mary and Liam’s feelings on being torn from their homeland and their loved ones, mirrors in some small way my own heart, ripped open by sorrow and loss.

I only hope I can mirror their fortitude and resilience in going after what they want their lives to be in the future, finding happiness after sorrow.

Is it any wonder that writers speak about their books as their children? So much of your own self bleeds into those words on the page.

What I’m Working on…

20 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, THE WRITERS' LIFE

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competition, judge, reading, volunteer

Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless. ~Sherry Anderson (Thanks, Kathy)

Volunteering is good for us. Sometimes it’s hard work and sometimes when it’s a labour of love, it is a pleasure. So, what am I working on?

Every year there are a many writing competitions. Sometimes I enter, sometimes I volunteer as a first round judge. Every time I learn more than enough to make it worth every minute. What do I learn? At times I learn what to do, at other times I learn what not to do as a writer.

It’s exciting to open an email and see Judge’s guidelines, explaining what is expected of me, score sheets and, the goodies, the entries. I make a point of always reading be guidelines carefully, have a cursory look at the score sheets and then reward myself by getting to the good part – reading.

The first pass over an entry is for pleasure, to get a feel for the words, the tone, where the story is coming from and where it is going to. It’s not unusual to be a little frustrated at this point, wanting to read more! Sometimes I never get to see any more, sometimes I’m thrilled to read a book and recognise the work.

The second and subsequent readings involve more careful reading. It helps to remember your emotional reactions to the words as you examine what works and what doesn’t work. Analyse, measure the immeasurable against a scale of 1 to 5 or similar and you’re done, nearly. Next it’s time to explain why you judged as you did. These comments to entrants on strengths, weaknesses and other feedback are optional but, as an entrant, very much appreciated, and make the entry fee an investment in your writing career.

The competitions I’ve been involved with are anonymous, with judges and entrants known only by a number. The nicest thank you cards I’ve received often come from the entrants over whose work I’ve taken the extra time to give more detailed feedback. More often those who I know will not win, those who, like me, need all the help I can get and appreciate those volunteer judges who take the extra time.

If you enjoy reading you could do the same. Go on, do yourself and your writing community a favour, I dare you. Now, I’d better get back to reading my entries. Good night.

Be a Thriver

19 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, LOVE, TORN

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Irish Australians, Irish Famine, Survivor, thriver, victim

Victim? Survivor? Thriver?

Different individuals can go through the same circumstance and come out vastly different. Even siblings in the same family can react differently to trauma. What makes one a victim, another a survivor and another a thriver?

This fascinates me. So much so that my book, Torn, begins in Ireland at the time of the Great Famine and follows Mary who chooses to be a Thriver. She survived when the rest of her family died of starvation. But she does much more than Survive.

“The victims are dead. You are a survivor.” Those words are still as powerful today as they were when I first saw them. But, is survival enough? Not for Mary, not for Liam and not for me. My characters want to live the best life they can. Mere existence is not enough.

How far would you be prepared to go to get the kind of life you want? Many Irish famine survivors were prepared to go to the ends of the earth to make a new life. The ships they sailed on were called “Coffin Ships” because of the number of victims they carried. Some victims had no chance of arriving at their destinations because of their physical condition on embarkation. Others died because of the conditions on board, the overcrowding, sickness and disease.

Thankfully, Mary and Liam are not forced onto one of those ships. They, along with their friends and some of Liam’s horses, sail to Moreton Bay, in what was then part of New South Wales. Some years later it became part of Queensland but, that’s another story.

Monday Moods

18 Monday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, LOVE, MY BOOKS, TORN, Uncategorized

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cheery, happy, Mood, optimistic, Survivors

Happy, cheery, optimistic. These are my chosen moods for today. Yes, I firmly believe I should choose my mood rather than allow external influences decide how I feel. No, it doesn’t always mean that the whole day is sunshine and roses, but it certainly helps to set the direction. When my ship gets diverted it’s a matter of resetting the sails and getting back on course.

Recently, I was asked what is the mood of my book. What a good question! I couldn’t believe I hadn’t asked myself that question before. I want to say that it’s happy, cheery and optimistic but I think I need to read it over again and check that that’s actually the case.

Some chapters are definitely darker, of course. No story about survivors who leave behind their home and build a new life half a world away can be all sweetness and light. Survivors almost always suffer at least a degree of guilt. But, as we all are required to do, Liam and Mary reset their sails and adjust their thinking to suit their new circumstances.

That, in the long run is the important thing. Learn the lessons of the past and look to the future. Yes, it’s easy to say though not so easy to do. An admirable thing in any person’s story.

What about you? Do you know someone who has done just that? I’d love to hear your views.

Sleepy Sunday

17 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, THE WRITERS' LIFE

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books, reading, sleepy Sunday

What is your favourite way to start a Sunday morning? With the alarm going off at 5:45am weekdays, my second favourite Sunday morning starts when I turn over and pick up the book on my bedside table, snuggle down in comfort then disappear into another time, another place.

Sometimes, if I’m very lucky, I can slip back into sleep to dream I am there in that world. Mostly though, I settle in to read about whatever trials and triumphs the characters are facing. Sometimes I can sneak an hour or so of reading in, other times it’s only a few minutes. But whether short and sweet or long and luxurious, reading starts my day off on the right foot.

A good book has always been my cure-all for almost anything from a bruised and bloodied heart to a broken leg. Mum used to tell me “You’ll ruin your eyes,” when she caught me standing behind a door with my book positioned to catch whatever ray of light might come in through whatever crack I could find. Reading was my escape to a place where good things happened to those who deserved them.

Sorry, it’s been a couple of days since I posted. I had a fall on the way home from work on Friday evening and those lovely painkillers the doctor prescribed have kept me a little too drowsy to dare post.

Thank You Thursday

14 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, LOVE, THE WRITERS' LIFE

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gratitude, married life, my husband, thank you

“Gratitude is the Memory of the Heart”. I don’t know who originally said this, but they had a way with words. Today I’ve been thinking about gratitude. It must be time for me to say thank you to my long suffering husband. He didn’t marry a writer. Well, not an active writer. That came later. So what am I grateful for?

He gave me a new and better name. Who could object to being Younger every day?
He is patient and even tempered even when things go pear-shaped.
He’s the renovation king, always working on something and finishes things beautifully.
When I come home from a long day at work he cooks dinner for me.
Even visits from my family visiting only shake his calm a little.
He loves me in spite of myself.

So, today after 20 years of marriage, Thank You Sweetheart.

Word of the Week: daggle

13 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, Word of the Week

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bedraggled, draggle, draggled, muddy, word of the week

Now in contiguous drops the flood comes down,
Threatening with deluge this devoted town.
To shops in crowds the daggled females fly,
Pretend to cheapen goods, but nothing buy.

from “A Description of a City Shower” by Jonathan Swift

Oh look! Last week’s word “Contiguous” and this week’s word is Daggle. What a great word! Unfortunately archaic, from the 1500s but could we bring it back? Meaning? To drag or trail through mud, water, etc.; draggle; bemire.

Draggle is similar in meaning: to soil by dragging over damp ground or in mud.

Bedraggled, now that’s not archaic, meaning to make limp and soiled, as with rain or dirt.

When was the last time you daggled your shoes or hem? Not too long ago for me. Friday the First of May this year. Record breaking “rain event” as the call them these days. Ruined my shoes, had to throw them out after a four and a half hour adventure between work and home.

Now we know exactly how to describe that feeling with a choice of three words: daggled, draggled or bedraggled.

So, tell me, if you wish, what are some of your favourite words?

Tuesday Choose Day

12 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, LOVE, MY BOOKS, SHATTERED, THE WRITERS' LIFE, TORN

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attitude, choices, courage, fortitude, smile, survive

Every day we have choices to make-simple ones such as what to wear, what to eat, or what to drink. Other choices need a little more thought such as What do I want to accomplish today? How will I get through today? One step at a time or one giant leap of faith after another?

Some days the most important and the most difficult choice is to live regardless of the black pit yawning before us. It takes effort to dig up, from within ourselves, the courage to choose survival when giving up would be so much easier. It can take great moral fortitude to stand up for your beliefs. It can take guts to choose the right reaction rather than the easy one.

At times it can take everything we can muster inside to choose to love, to be happy, to keep our attitudes positive. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to smile. But oh the rewards.

As a writer I try to give my characters that kind of intestinal fortitude, and to reward them with exactly what they deserve, just as I wish those rewards for you who read my words.

Monday Muse

11 Monday May 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, TORN

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New horizons, Survivor, The Great Famine

“The immigrant’s heart marches to the beat of two quite different drums, one from the old homeland and the other from the new. The immigrant has to bridge these two worlds, living comfortably in the new and bringing the best of his or her ancient identity and heritage to bear on life in an adopted homeland.”
– Irish President McAleese

What would it have been like to watch your mother, your father, your siblings, all slowly starve to death? What would you do if one by one you lost everyone you held dear? Your family, friends, all gone leaving you the sole survivor.

Would you stay where everything reminds you of your loss? Or, would you leave your homeland, the place where your family lived, back as far as anyone can remember? Where would you go? How would you carry on?

These questions are the seeds from which my novel “Torn” grew.

(Image Famine Statues in Dublin)