Guest Blog Wednesdays with... Colleen O'Grady

This week on Guest Blog Wednesdays at The Australian Bookshelf we are joined by Australian writer, Colleen O'Grady. Welcome Colleen!

Colleen joined us a month ago to discuss a writing dilemma and here she shares some more thoughts...

I’m an author, a writer, but when one is not feeling well, the head is thick (thick-headed takes on a new meaning ha!). But I must do something. Last week I wrote of a writer’s dilemma, this week I’m writing of a writer’s health....umm...well something like that

Everyone thinks that Queensland sun is had.

Great balls of fire! They must be mad!

Hardly the sun we’ve seen this year,

For always the sky is dropping a tear.

Spare me days! It’s getting hard to think

Cannot even find the pen and ink.

Nose is all running – I tell you true.

Get it together Colleen, what’s the matter with you.

Does anyone out there have days like that?

Think I’d better go and cuddle the cat.

Puss doesn’t want me. Now I’m in a stew

For goodness sake Colleen, what’s the matter with you!

Head is all fuzzy – where’s the written word?

A Wilbur Smith –  good writer you’ve heard.

Not interested in following the African spoor.

Wind is so cold, shut the ruddy door!

So many tears are falling from the sky,

Its about time Someone wiped it dry.

Where’s the sun? Nobody knows.

Oh! Better go wipe my running nose.

Oh dear. I am sure there are others who suffer the same fate when faced with a cold. The Wilbur Smith I mentioned in the poem is Birds of Prey, and for the first time I was not enthralled by his writing, even though this is the story of the beginning of the Courtneys in Africa.  Some writers try to cash in on their material that proved so popular, but fail to come up to standard. Perhaps they wrote in haste. Maybe it is something we all do.  I have a book called Freedom’s Land by Anna Jacobs. Its not a well-written piece of work. This tells the story of settlers during the 1920s and the traumas one woman and her daughter found and how that daughter turned her life around. That gives the story charm. Birds of Prey faded into insignificance against the tide of life written by the popular novelist Anna Jacobs. Sorry Wilbur Smith. Must go and deal with my nose

Thank you for your post Colleen.

If you would like to feature on Guest Blog Wednesdays at The Australian Bookshelf- whether you are an author, reader, writer, blogger- drop me a line at jayne.fordham(AT)live(DOT)com.au and tell me a bit about yourself. Regards, Jayne.