Frosty Friday

05 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by Zoetic Words in LIFE, MY BOOKS, TORN

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candles, hard work, live music, wood fires

Well, winter is here! This picture speaks to me and I’ve been thinking more about hearth and home and how it was in times gone by, especially when I’m living in the world of my books. Think where we came from and how different life was for our forebears. There are both pros and cons…

They didn’t have: electricity; phones; television and internet; recorded music; hot and cold running water; washing machines; dryers; dishwashers; espresso machines; food processors; microwaves; electric blankets; refrigerators a vast array of medical specialists with skills and understanding we take for granted, and the list goes on and on…

But they did have: a rooster or two for an alarm clock; home grown fruit and vegetables were a necessity if you wanted them fresh; luxury was home grown fruit in season, a glut of which could be shared or bartered or home preserved for a special treat later in the year and animals around the house were not necessarily just pets but also contributed to the table with fresh eggs and milk and more.

Candles and oil lamps were a way of life, making every evening a romantic setting for dinner. Saving wax or oil meant going to bed early rather than sitting up square eyed watching the idiot box. Unpasteurised milk straight from the cow with cream on top which could be enjoyed as it was or made into churned into butter or made into cheese. Ice was precious and icecream was for the select few.

Think about how many more people had musical instruments and could play them! Instead of personal entertainment, there were singers unafraid of being heard and others who enjoyed playing whatever was available, right down to spoons while those energetic souls danced! People learned and recited poetry for fun and I so miss hearing a whistler. Can’t remember the last time I heard somebody whistle for sheer pleasure. Wish I could whistle.

Those were days when a pair of socks were a welcome gift, clothes were made to be worn out, not discarded when the newness wore off. Housework was really that – hard work washing by hand, if you were lucky you had a mangle to get some of the water out before hanging everything out in the sunshine to dry.

Who else remembers when water was so precious that the bathwater was shared – who went first in your house? Who got the water last, half cold and less than sparkling clean?

Wood burning stoves warmed the whole house summer and winter! When you went away for a time you didn’t have hot water for a couple of days after you came home and started the fire. In winter, everyone gathered around the fire to keep warm, maybe someone reading aloud from the precious printed ages of a well worn book.

10,000 steps a day was easy to do but who bothered trying to count them? Obesity was almost unheard of.

So, who would want to go back? What could you do without? What would you miss?

Where am I Wednesday

27 Wednesday May 2015

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

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family, food, Irish Famine, sailing, ships, shipwreck

As part of the gathering of the clans, I am up in Rockhampton, Central Queensland. People are arriving from everywhere. My great-nephew and his sister are here from New Zealand, sisters and other family arriving from all over.

My trip up was… interesting. I can’t remember how long ago it was when I flew in a propeller driven plane! It felt a little, dare I say, archaic? We really are spoiled in this modern world. So many things we take for granted. Warm clothes, cool air-conditioning, fast jet planes and more food than we could eat or than is good for us! Especially now, food has been arriving for days. I’m with my nephew and his family at the moment and she is saying she hasn’t had to cook in days!

What a different world it is, even in this age, in other parts of the world some not so far away and others not so long ago in history. Excuse me for harping on about the Irish Famine, but that’s the era I’ve been “living in” for the last I-don’t-want-to-say how many years. It hard to imagine a world without electricity for a start! Add to that the transport problems.

At that time in history steam ships were the newest latest whizz bang technology. Sailing ship captains navigated by the stars without the aid of computers and it took months to travel from Ireland to Moreton Bay off and Brisbane. Many didn’t make it that far. Shipwrecks were not uncommon either.

When I was tempted to turf Rosaleen off the “Reliance” in Africa. My critique partner wisely told me I shouldn’t. Rosaleen is, she said, was “such a good bad character”. After nearly being pushed overboard again in the Great Australian Bight, I relented and she survived! She kept trying to take over the story in “Torn” but I’m pleased to report she has settled for being the leading lady in “Shattered”, the follow on book from “Torn”.

Before I go, spare a thought for Liam’s horses on the “Reliance”. Every horse in Australia came at some time from overseas. It wasn’t easy to transport horses and it was not easy to research how they did it! But that’s a story for another time.

The Gathering of the Clans

26 Tuesday May 2015

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

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empathy, families, friends, funerals, gratitude, loved ones, sympathy, weddings

Weddings and funerals, times at which we all gather together to celebrate either the beginning of a new family or the life of a loved one who has passed away. There is such comfort to be had in the company of loved ones and the good wishes of friends, fellow writers and work colleagues. I am blessed with good friends and a large loving family. Everybody has been very supportive and kind after the recent passing of my uncle and my nephew.

Not everyone is so blessed. In the time of the Great Famine, the period in which I have lived for a couple of years while researching and writing my books. Back then there were so many in the same situation. We in our comfortable homes and lifestyles can sympathise but can we really appreciate the suffering of people elsewhere who do not have the good fortune to live in such affluence?

Going back in history can teach us many lessons should we wish to learn. How many of us have had to sell the clothes off our back for food to eat? Then to have a severe winter in which those clothes made the difference between living and dying of exposure. How many of us have had to go without so our husband, wife or children could have food to eat? How many of us have lost every one of our family members and had to go on alone?

Sympathy and empathy are each valuable qualities for each of us to develop. More valuable still is a smile and a helping hand to those in need. When we think our problems are overwhelming, there is always somebody worse off and we usually don’t have to look far.

Thank you for all your kind thoughts and expressions of sympathy and empathy. I shall treasure them in the coming days.

Moody Monday

25 Monday May 2015

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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.

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.

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)

Weekend Writing Warriors

10 Sunday May 2015

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

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Colonial Australia, horses on ships, Irish Australians, Irish Great Famine

Late for my first Weekend Writing Warriors. Humble apologies. http://www.wewriwa.com

A snippet from my as yet unpublished debut novel, “Torn”, my Irish Australian Colonial. Sailing to the other end of the earth, Mary and Liam are drawn together by concern for a horse…

“Mary barely moved except to snuggle closer to Bess. Liam, watching, felt jealousy rear its ugly head. Jealousy—of a horse? Surely that could not be! Yet his arms hungered for her warmth. He left the stall before his thoughts could run further amok. It was near enough to time for morning chores again and for once he was glad of it. There was nothing like shovelling fresh manure to lay such thoughts to rest.”