A Winter's Tale

            I first thought of making The Winter's Tale into a short story. It could almost be the basic for a  
           novel. How many lifetimes does a writer have? Instead, it became a poem.

The poem was first published in The Small Press Times, then I published it in my short story and poetry anthology, The Japanese Grandmother. 

A WINTER’S TALE  

They met in the rain

Outside the coffee shop.

He had come from visiting

his newborn son.

She was on her way

to collect her daughter

from ballet lessons.  

They were together in Paris.

He had an offer

Of a top job in London.

She had to return

to this antipodean city

where her mother was dying. 

He saw her to the airport.

She promised to return

but her mother

took a long time dying. 

He took her arm

And led her

into a coffee shop

across the way

and ordered coffee

holding her hand and

caressing the rings

another man had placed there. 

Silently as she cried.

He kissed her cold fingers

With lips wet from the rain. 

She gave him a last anguished look

Before rushing into the rain. 

At his feet was the cup

She had knocked from the table.

Broken in two. 

Picking up the chit

He went to the check out.

They added

the price of the cup

to his bill. 

He picked up the change

And went into the rain. 

www.smahswords.com 25% discount during July
Short stories and poetry written by Laurel Lamperd

Coming of Hippolyta

I'd read about mysterious circles in grain crops and decided to write a short story about such a happening.

Coming of Hippolyta won second prize in an Esperance short story competition and was published in ARM, another outlet for creative writers which has stopped publishing. 

Coming of Hippolyta  

Madge Kelly went onto the back verandah to empty the teapot on the hydrangea growing in an old tub by the wooden steps. In the darkness, she visualized the plant's lush blue flowers. To her, it was an old friend.

She'd bought the plant as a cutting in a jam tin from a stall in town the year she married Ern. She'd propagated it many times but the parent plant meant more to her than its offspring growing around her garden and in the neighbours' gardens.

She glanced to that part of the evening sky where the planet Venus usually appeared.

Below the planet, another bright star suddenly materialized. Madge thought it was the light of a jet but it moved too fast. To Madge's startled gaze, it grew larger and brighter while she watched and seemed to land beyond the strip of bush in the north paddock.

Ern, her husband, called from the kitchen, "Hurry up, Madge. We're waiting for our tea."

Madge backed away from Venus and tripped over the doorstep into the kitchen. "I think I've just seen a spaceship land.”

Read the rest on www.authorsden.com/laurellamperd

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Detective Matt Allenby arrives in the small town of Taylors Crossing to solve a murder then he finds he is falling in love with one of his suspects.

Creative Connections

People of Western Australia.

Looking for somewhere to go?

 Visit the Creative Connections Art and Poetry Exhibition.

Buy a painting if you are so inclined or an anthology or two of the paintings and poetry.

Or just enjoy yourself.

          I wrote this little poem many years ago after sitting on my verandah, having afternoon tea      with a friend who was visiting me.

She told me about a friend who had an operation for a cancerous breast. When it had healed, she had a butterfly tattooed where her breast had been.

The poem was published in Pandora, a women's magazine. 

Butterflies            

Creatures of sun and light

And dewy mornings.

Brilliant coloured wings fluttering

among flowers in my garden

giving pleasure

to my friend and me

as we drank tea

on the verandah. 

She had a breast removed

and a butterfly

Tattooed on the spot.

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Two British girls meet two young tribunes from the great Roman fort on the plain and their lives are changed forever.   

Are you wordy? Recognize the signs

Scan your writing for the following symptoms of wordiness:

• Being” verbs. You’ll have to use them sometimes, of course, but they often slow the pace of a sentence. Compare “still, dustgreen trees” to “trees that are a dusty-colored green.”
• Passive constructions. Passive voice, which occurs when the subject of the sentence receives action rather than performing it, inevitably clogs sentences. Compare the flies that “are killed by the impact” versus the flies that simply “die.”
• Filler words. We writers love words…maybe a little too much. Are all of our words necessary? Play a game with your WIP: take a few sentences and try to rewrite them to be half as long, a third as long, even just an eighth as long. Experiment with what words you can cut without losing meaning.
• Read the rest of the article by Sarah Baughman at Suzannah's site at wrap http://writeitsideways.com
• However. And this from me. You must be careful not to make your book into a synopsis of the story you tell and your characters cardboard people. The reader still needs to know how your characters think and feel, their despair and joy, to enter their minds so the reader becomes one with the character and to the reader that character becomes a person. 

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Download Substitute Bride from www.smashwords.com 25% discount during July.

Miss Emma Napier helps her friend escape a forced marraige. She meets Lord Desborough who is looking for a temporary wife. His lordship thinks Emma is the perfect choice.

Calamity's Corner July 2012

July's Calamity's Corner is now available. For your free download, email Calamity at calam@live.com.au

This month's author is Kim Walters who writes for Harlequin's Love Inspired series.  Kim says she considers setting is important. A good setting captures the imagination and sets the background of the story. Kim likes to place her stories in a small town setting.

I must say if nothing else, the book covers of Kim's books would sell her stories. They are absolutely lovely: so bright with colour that one just wants to be there.

Check out Kim's beautiful book covers at amazon.com

Among the book and movie reviews: Deborah Cannan considers the movie, Royal Affair, the best movie she's seen this year. The film is based on the true story of the very young English Princess Caroline who is sent to marry King Christian VII of Denmark. The beauty of the movie is added to by the sumptuous gowns and setting.

Do you want help as a writer? Check out Calamity's Resources and Promotion web links.

See how smart you are by trying Calamity's quiz. This month's theme: Distances.

Want to see yourself in Calamity's Corner? Send in an unusual event/activity. Write about your pet and send photos.

And much much more in Calamity's Corner.

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Download Journey from Walara from www.smashwords.com 25% discount during July.

Danny and Will, the two Hennessy sons, join up in 1939, leaving their father, Jack Hennessy to manage the huge Walara sheep station.

Many readers have thought this story was part of my family history. But it is fiction. I wrote it because there really were Japanese prostitutes in the small mining community of Western Australia on the edge of the desert country in the early nineteen hundreds. It spurred my imagination.

The Japanese Grandmother  

We were always in awe of our Japanese grandmother, so tiny and delicate in comparison to her great clodhoppers of grandchildren who took after the Australian side of the family. The only thing we inherited from her were our sloe black eyes.

To her grandchildren, she always remained an enigma. "Tell us about where you came from?" we'd beg her.

"I came from Japan," she said, her black eyes smiling.

"But where in Japan?" we'd cry, especially me, who had a greater interest than the others in our family history. "We know grandfather's family here in Melbourne but where is your Japanese family?"

She smiled mysteriously and fluttered a fan made from rice paper in front of her face, using it like a mask as she gazed at us over it, her eyes inscrutable in their darkness.

We tried to guess what grandmother's life might have been in Japan. Had she been a princess or highborn Japanese lady?

One of the younger grandchildren was sure grandmother had been a fairy. We bigger ones scoffed, sending her fleeing to grandmother for comfort.

"If you say I was a fairy, then I must have been," grandmother said. "Look, little one." Grandmother opened her fan with its exotic design. "See the crane contemplating the tree. What is he thinking?"

"He wants to build a nest and lay some eggs," my small cousin said, getting her genders mixed.

Grandmother folded the fan and placed it in my cousin’s chubby hand. "For you, little one." Sixty years later, my cousin still has it.

As we grew older, we queried grandmother's history less, that is, all except me. I suppose it was why grandfather left me the letter to be opened after my grandparents' deaths. He knew I would become an historian.

Read the rest of the story on my website www.authorsden.com/laurellamperd

Download Wind from Danyari 25% discount from www.smashwords.com during July.

The story of Jack Hennessy who carves a sheep station from the Carnarvon district of Western Australia