More than Writers

  Image of a 'cosy space' from Pixabay I had to look twice when first seeing the word Cosy Crime, wondering how a murder story could be seen as cosy. But apparently, it’s a lovely subgenre, one I enjoy reading a lot. I even accidentally started writing one a couple of years ago, prompted by a course on Writing Funny by Fran Hill. Not long ago, the wonderful History Writers group led by Wendy H. Jones had a guest speaker in talking about Cosy Crime, a brilliant and inspiring talk. I had no idea what classed a book as cosy or not, but apparently lack of gore, not focussed on the police procedure but rather, on the main characters who figure out the whodunnit. The main characters are amateurs, ideally, and there should be a good dollop of humour in the story. I decided to start another short story, using the cosy crime idea and set in early 1800s, but within the first few paragraphs, I began to worry. It didn’t feel very cosy as my main character slithered along a wet path thr...

  (Pixabay Image. I don't have the patience to build something spectacular like this.) Do you enjoy simulation games? One of the very old computer games that I had on my first computer was Prince of Persia. In brown and black... the tension as the poor lad hopped along, climbed ladders and was confronted by sword-wielding men left you drained for ages. My favourite is The Sims. There are a lot of versions, and at the moment, with a new girl from our church, I’m playing Sims 4. It’s very emotion-driven, more than the other versions. The women in the game are not very fortunate. My first set-up family was a single teen mum, with her toddler sister. That was what we had decided to play, so I started there. Of course, the emotions weren’t very happy, although she perked up by the time her daughter was a teenager. The daughter married, and had six children, as teenagers can help to earn money towards a better house. Unfortunately, her husband was older, and he died, leaving her a si...

Here’s some great advice for you today: Never say never, always avoid always. I’m writing this, sitting in my lounge, dreaming of my lovely study, but watching our puppy sleep, listening to her snoring and giving little barks in her sleep. Goldie is a Labrador puppy who never (!) barks, except for in her sleep. Clearly, her dreams are a lot more exciting than her real life is. I like dogs, but with four kids, I said no for years, definitely in the Never line. Seeing my children with a therapy dog convinced me, and soon after, we collected our furry creature. She’s very sweet, sleeps well, plays well and being a Labrador, eats well. It reminded me of saying never and how we can limit ourselves or our expectations of blessings that might come our way. Like, I could never write a novel. How do you know? What if God gave you a storyline and plenty of free moments to tell your story on paper? You might be surprised. I didn’t think I could write in English, and plenty of relatives are st...

  Being an evening person, the Spring time jump has definite advantages in the evening. Until my alarm clock goes in the morning, telling me that maybe I should go by what the clocks say in the evening, rather than explain to my head that it’s only ten thirty, so plenty of time to start reading a new book... My children only seem to need a day to adjust to the new time, rather than the week or so I need to accept the new times. Waking up early or lack of good sleep gives me a migraine. Making it hard to eat, leading to another migraine later that day... Going on holiday in different time zones has the same effect. We stayed in Crete as a family for the second time and we vaguely remembered the clocks moving one hour forward, instead of two... We only found out after a week, because we missed an outing we hoped to go on! I wonder how often that happens? Judging by the poor woman’s reaction, we were definitely not the first tourists to get it wrong that season... Time is a fu...

  I love reading. But I love reading my books, or rather, my kind of books. I would devour books at top speed, but if it was a book issued by school, it would be left at the bottom of the pile. Only because I had been told to read it. Isn’t that odd? Sometimes I would regret shuffling it down the stack of library books, for the book turned out to be a lot better than I thought. Did that help the next time I was told to read a particular book? Not at all. Even now, particular people telling me a book is a must-read, waving it at me, makes that book drop down the TBR Pile at alarming rates. Even if I had been planning on reading it some time anyway. Now you know my stubbornness, you might be surprised to know that I review for three different Book Tour companies. “Doesn’t that count as someone telling you what to read, and even when to read?” You would think so! But I get to choose what I read, and in what month. So maybe that is what makes the difference? The Nature of Small Bir...

  Writing has been an interesting ride. I started with a fictional blog, and found some kind people who lapped up the blog, interacting and adding to the stories. That led to writing a novel, which brought me to ACW. I felt so welcomed and accepted, even though I had no idea what I was doing, apart from having a wonderful time dreaming up stories. My nervousness about walking into ACW meetings only lasted a few minutes. Standing up and reading something out was scary, but again, the feelings lasted just a few minutes. Being accepted and encouraged even when people correct your writing is what I enjoyed so much. It is great to have that feeling of belonging. When the first Lockdown started, I enjoyed the weekly Wordy Chats. Talking to others, getting to know each other as well as sharing wild ideas was just what I needed. I love writing in my quiet evenings, by myself in my little dream world. Writing with others is different, so when Wendy invited me to be part of her new book,...

...and the rain came down and the floods came up... My kids love music and singing, so whenever we travel or I do stuff in the kitchen, there will be music. They love Bible songs especially, so whilst howling along with some songs the other day, it made me think when I sang about the floods coming up and the rain coming down. One of the worst affected small towns in the recent floods in Germany is called Schuld. I immediately thought of the Bible question about the fifteen on who the tower of Siloam fell, as Schuld means Guilt. Were the people in Guilty more guilty than those living in places like Glückstadt, Lucky City? Singing along with the wise builder, it suddenly struck me that the circumstances were the same for both builders. They both had floods coming up, rain coming down on what might well have been similar-looking houses. I always imagined the sandy builder to be rather smug, knowing he had cut corners but probably saved himself a lot of money and time. How do we writ...

 As those of you who join in with Wordy Chat know, I went camping last week. Just me and the kids. Camping itself is an interesting experience. It’s a bit like publishing a book for the very first time. Before you even start writing you think, “Wouldn’t it be fun to write a lovely story?” So you sit down at your laptop and start. Halfway through the first chapter, you realise that some planning would be a good idea. But it’s still looking relaxing and fun. Just like booking a campsite, getting the tent down to see if the pegs are still in the right bag. The first few chapters just roll off your fingers, but it’s getting harder. We’re on chapter ten, and the end of the story is nowhere in sight. It’s going to be harder than we thought. The campsite provides all kinds of people at that stage. There are the kids, who sat in the car with long faces, fear having stolen their joy. What if... What if camping isn’t fun after all? What if the tent falls down? What if we have nothing to ...

  I don’t know about you, but I loathe running. The only time I run is to catch a bus, which is why I don’t use public transport. Once I have been for a run, it’s a different matter. I almost convince myself how much I enjoyed it. Especially if I manage to do it on a treadmill whilst listening to a podcast. It’s the same with getting fit. I love the idea of being fitter. I love my online exercise programme once I have had a shower. Unless I have an aim, a reason to do something about the fact that walking to my car makes me out of breath. I should work out and get fitter. Tomorrow. Writing can be a bit like that. It’s why I love NaNoWriMo. (anyone else signed up for Bobbie’s Facebook group?) It gives me an aim, a reason to sit down and bash away at my story. I love my stories, writing is a wonderful place to be. But that is once I sit down, open up my laptop and type, Chapter... That’s where the fun starts for me. My goal is to reach the end of the story. That is a goal I don...

  Are you well-liked? How much energy should be spent on being liked? That was the question I chatted about with my daughter. Early Years trauma has elevated and warped this question for her, which would be food for five blogs at least. How far would you go? And why? As we talked, we found that you can’t bribe people into liking you, just as you can’t pay a friend to like chocolate or force somebody to like your hairstyle. We concluded that as God made us, whatever colour top we wear is probably not going to matter after all, for God wouldn’t change His mind on us, just because of a wardrobe failure or bad hair day. I was thinking about this and then I thought about writing. I love writing, I enjoy it, and by the time I publish a book, accidental or not, I’m pretty pleased with the experience and feel I have my money’s worth of fun out of it anyway. Being Dutch, that is really all that matters. Where is your worth found? Until someone writes a kind review. Every time I get a ...

I just sat there, staring at the screen, where an unnamed platform told me in cheerful letters that my book was now LIVE. I gasped, bashed on all kinds of keys, refreshed, did what I could. Nothing changed. My novella was officially launched upon an unsuspecting world. My first proper thought? “Thankfully it was only a novella and not a real book.” Of course, by the time I receive a copy of Viking Ferry, it will look like a book. It has letters on the spine, that’s how real it is. It has an ISBN on the back. But in my mind, it’s not a real book, ‘only’ a novella. The same way I’m not a real writer, ‘only’ a mum who writes when not sorting out sibling squabbles or missing socks. Are you like that? ‘Only’ a part-time writer? Only someone who writes some poems? Maybe I’m the only one who brushes off what I do. “I like to sit down and write stories, just for fun, you know.” This time, bringing out a book is even worse. As soon as I published it, I thought, “Why didn’t I make it into a pro...

This picture is one of the very few detailed pictures that I have taken. I usually take pictures of a pretty bush, an old building. Having been inspired by others, I took a picture of a pretty, frosty leaf. It reminded me that God is in the details; it also told me to maybe have more of an eye for details too. I don’t really do details when reading. Long descriptions of stuff make my eyes glaze over. I read every word, of course, skipping bits in a book is sacrilege in my view. But I can move my eyes faster along the lines, can’t I? My wild imagination is happy to fill in the blanks, even if that means the main character wears silk rather than velvet. It was luxurious material, that’s all that counts. When I’m writing, I need to remind myself to add detail. Not all the time, but a splash of colour here and there. I can picture the scene perfectly, but it’s writing it down in such a way that others can see it too, without nodding off. When I write, I literally tell myself the story...

  Being in the Netherlands made me think of expressions used in different languages. Personally, I do like clichés, one of the reasons being that some new expressions are clearly made up to make the writing more funny. It makes me smile when watching Little Princess (the annoying cartoon girl, who’s rude, bossy and a bit whingy, not the literature one), and the old guy gets his sayings mixed up (I feel it’s a ploy to keep the parents smiling, allowing their kids to keep on watching.). A lot of expressions seem to be based around money. “ Spending a penny ”, well, on the Continent you will need more than a penny now. Clearly the extra cleaning measures need to be paid for, so sending hubby and child off with the usual coins didn’t work. “ In for a penny, in for a pound ”, one that I don’t get. I mean, the difference between a penny and a pound is quite a lot! Part of writing fiction, especially when making up worlds as well as stories, is the fun of coming up with new expression...