Sunday 9 June 2019

I'm back

Hello, Yes I am back.  The trip was lovely.  I met some wonderful people. I was the youngest on the trip.  The eldest were 91! Wow!  They were, are a lovely Dutch couple. Riki and Gerry. The weather was good.  Sunny days, cold nights.  Saw many new places.  Made lots of notes and took plenty of photos. Thinking of using some as ideas for stories.  Or as parts in the novels.
Now its home and back to working on my writing. I have just downloaded Scrivener and am learning how to use it. Its software for writers, designed by writers. It seems to be a helpful program. I had to buy a book about it to help me work t out.  So I got a dummies book.  They seem to be the simplest kind of book to use.
At the moment I am trying to get through a bout of flu. So it is putting a bit of a halt on writing.  Its hard to type while sneezing and coughing.
Please be patient and I will be back soon.

Keep smiling :)

Cheryl

Monday 20 May 2019

At last the website is up.

Hello I hope that you are well. As the heading says my small website is up and running. You can visit it at cherylngregory.com. It has a link back to this blog as well as my LinkedIn account and a new Facebook page. I have a personal Facebook page. But thought that I should make a new one dedicated to writing.  I will have to dedicate time and effort into promoting it as well as this blog and the website. Please feel free to comment or make a suggestion about any of these sites. I feel like a fish out of water in regards to working online like this.

This weekend didn't give me anytime for writing as my God parents (Noeline and Trevor Pitt), who I haven't seen in over 30 years came and stayed with my parents and myself. They have known each other since my father was 14.  He is now 80. A long time. Many memories, history. My Godfather Trevor Pitt has dementia like my father. But unlike my father still gets out and about and loves talking to anyone and everyone.  Its very sad and hard to watch someone slowly disappearing before your eyes.  Though their body; the shell of the person, is still there.

Recently I bought Stephen Fry's An Ode less travelled. Unleash the poet within.  so far it is very interesting. I have never tried to write poetry. Well not since my English class at school many years ago. So poetry will also be added to the mix.

This Sunday I leave for my holiday to the mid north coast of NSW. I return on 1 June. Which happens to be my birthday. My 55th. I will take pictures and make notes about the trip. And who knows the trip may inspire a number of stories, characters, plots.

Well time for much needed sleep.

Back soon

Keep smiling :)

Cheryl



Tuesday 14 May 2019

A Short story the Old Goat Lady




There once was an old lady who lived in the old green fibro house down the road from my house. She had an old male pet goat or as they are called a whether. I think that it is a funny thing to call a goat. She called him Bob and she could be heard talking to him as if he was human.

Every morning she would get him out of his little tin shed in her backyard and take him around to the front yard and tether him to on an old car wheel on her lawn.  She would then give him water and some green vegetables, before sitting down on her veranda and read the morning newspaper to him.  You would swear that she was talking to a man, the way she carried on.  She would comment on a story or article and then it was as if the goat had made his own comment because she would answer an unheard question or give an explanation.  But no one ever heard the goat make so much as a sound.  If you forget the crunching of food and the odd stamp of a hoof.

The last winter that anyone saw either of them again, was a bitter, cold one.  Some were even saying that was the coldest on record.  Even the old goat lady found it hard.  She stopped talking to Bob and she didn’t stay outside to read him the newspaper.  That winter seemed to last forever.  The rain and wind was never-ending.  The old goat lady was getting around slower and slower.  Poor Bob was left with no one to talk to.

One day there was this terrible noise coming from the old goat lady’s backyard.  Bob was crying and kicking the sides of his tin shed.  He went on and on for hours.  The next day the police and an ambulance arrived outside the old lady’s house.  Poor Bob was still crying and kicking.  One of the police officers gave him fresh water and some food, while the other forced open the front door and went inside with the ambulance officers.  They were only inside for a short time.  The ambulance officers were seen pushing a trolley with a long plastic bag on it.  We were told that the old lady was in the bag and that she died in her sleep from, what the officers believed, was a heart attack.  We stood in the street watching as they placed the trolley into the back of the ambulance and slowly drove down the street.

 What was going to happen to Bob? We all wondered.  The police told us that they had arranged for him to be picked up and taken to a goat farm just outside of town.  Then sure enough an old Holden ute towing a trailer pulled up outside.  The trailer was full of goats.  The man from the ute talked to the police who then show him around to the backyard.  Bob could still be heard crying and kicking.  The man returned, leading a stubborn Bob.  Bob saw the other goats as he got into the trailer. 

The police helped the man put Bob in the trailer.  The man thanked them then drove down the road and out of sight.  Some of the old residents in the street cried softly into their hankies.  Everyone else just slowly and quietly walked away.  Back to their own homes.


Tuesday 7 May 2019

Another step taken

Hello on this fine, sunny autumn day in May. I have just got my domain name sorted and I am in the process of building my website. I have also organised my business cards, just waiting for them to be delivered. And it is soon time for my first ever solo holiday. I will be away for a week, going up to the mid-north coast on New South Wales. Of course I am nervous and a bit anxious but at the same time excited. I am sure that I will come back with many ideas for stories or articles.  So as they say... "Watch this space".
My writing is slowly coming along and I will be posting samples of it on here soon and on my site. So please feel free to let me know your thoughts and any suggestions. Small steps are for me, the way to go forward. These steps, setting up this blog, getting business cards, domain name and building the website are all helping me get into the correct mindset that I need to be in in order to write.
I know that some people, my parents for one think that I am too old ( at almost 55) to start on a writing career. But I think in all fairness, that they, mum mostly(as dad has dementia and most of the time doesn't know what day it is) are worried for me.  As mothers do. But I am realistic. I may never be as good or famous as people like Elizabeth George, Agatha Christie, for example. I will give it my very best shot at it.
Time to go for now. I will be back again next week and I will be posting some of my writing by then.
Keep smiling :)

Cheryl

Monday 29 April 2019

My first ever blog post

Well here I am. Nervously writing my first ever blog. You would think that at almost 55 I would not be nervous of much anymore. Well I am nervous. Very nervous. After years of procrastinating I have decided to take the plunge and start my writing career. Recently I joined Rob Parnell's Writing Academy and completed a couple of his courses.  They have inspired me to take up the pen, or in actual fact tapping the keyboard. I know that I have a great deal to learn and that I will make mistakes. So I hope you the reader will be patient with me and even share your thoughts with me.

I suppose I should share a bit about my self with you. I live in the western suburbs of Sydney Australia, with my elderly parents and Tonkinese cat, Cleo. My last job was a disability support worker. Which I had to leave after suffering an injury. I have written on and off for about 20 years or so. Even completed a short story course. But as always seems to happen life issues got in the way of me pursuing my writing. Now that life is so much quieter and slower, I can now devote the time and effort needed. Also with the help of Rob's courses I will learn about the craft of writing and hopefully make a reasonable living out of it.

With this blog which I will be writing on it at least once a week, I will put examples of my writing for you to read and give me your opinion about it. Together we can learn from one another. Well, time for some much needed sleep.

Till next time.

Keep smiling.

Cheryl :)

I'm back

Hello, Yes I am back.  The trip was lovely.  I met some wonderful people. I was the youngest on the trip.  The eldest were 91! Wow!  They we...