Caro Geelen

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Quarantine

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toilet roll castle

During February, we heard rumours of this Coronavirus thing. We shared jokes about Corona beer and thought it wouldn't come to much. During March, it was declared a pandemic and everyone started stockpiling toilet paper. My kids got sick from a generic daycare virus, and we stayed home just to be safe. A week later, NZ declared level 4 lockdown and we were all forced to stay at home. While my friends shared "day 5 of quarantine", I shared "day 10" and they all got confused. A week in, we all recovered from our cold and stayed at home to...

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Smashing it Out

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keyboard-cat

I got halfway through a second draft the other day and then stopped, unable to think of how to go next. When this happens, I usually put it aside, let my brain do some thinking, and pick up something else. In this case: another first draft that needed a second swing. So I picked up the laptop and took that swing. My Twitter (@elgeelen) is a nice reminder of just how crazy this got, and how quickly it got out of hand. I had just anticipated a few gentle edits here and there, but WHOA! No. Within the first chapter,...

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Bread and Thunder

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beer

2007 Entry into a short story competition that unfortunately did not win because apparently short story adjudicators don't like fantasy... I hung up my oilskin with relief. It dripped on Bruce's bunyip, who scrabbled closer to the door and watched me suspiciously. I sat down, elbows on the bar, as my staff balanced itself on my knees. 'Caught in the downpour, Alan?' Bruce asked, polishing a glass. 'Doesn't often rain here,' he continued. 'Have a beer, mate.' He swirled a finger around the rim of the glass and slid it along the bar to me while the purple clouds rumbled...

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Nice Girls Don’t Bleed

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burst blood vessel in eye

I have shed blood enough to soak this dark soil four feet deep I have shed skin enough to fill a bathtub until it overflows and drips and covers the bathroom floor in an ooze of epidermals Enough of my hair fell and balled into the carpet to weave a carpet of its own I have thrown up enough to know the taste and smell of my insides should they ever reach me again Enough! Such horror Such thoughts Should be banished from the eyes and thoughts of a nice girl like me But I have seen blood be thrown...

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Underwater Lament

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coral

One day when we are all living under the ocean in coral houses because the air above cannot be breathed and we have mutated to grow gills and webbed hands and webbed feet and we fill our bellies with seaweed and shellfish and tell stories to our scaly children about how their ancestors breathed air and lived on land and even used fire to cook maybe then we will realise

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Pronouns

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amazing sky

It's international Pronoun day, and for those going through gender transitions or trying to decide what they want to be called, respect their decision, as you respect mine to be called she/her/hers. I once had a thought while watching a re-run of Star Trek Voyager that those aliens the Trek encountered were often mirrors of our own, with two sexes. Why not have more? Why not require three different sexes to procreate? And with that, why do they have to have humanoid pronouns of He/Her/She/They? So I made up some and wrote a short story. The Paonen people have three...

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Architecture

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A Plague of Dragons

Some might think that a novel should start with action, or a character. Well, what about architecture? I promise that this is relevant to the story, but at first glance the first part of my book "A Plague of Dragons" seems overly heavy on both the physical appearance of towers and the duties of a library assistant. Fun fact: I worked as a library assistant for three years during high school and nobody EVER put their books back, or if they did, it was never in the right place. Summer City was the centre of the Anidain Empire, a magical...

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Excellent Imagery

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pear

Suddenly the whole world had changed. From the dense blackness the sky on the horizon opened up, as a breeze, singing like the notes of a distant pipe, blew gently on the treacle night. The horizon greened, grew lighter, and glowed. Oranges and pinks reflected of early morning clouds, as the alien sun rose over the side of the planet, majestically reminding the trees of its existence. The trees knew, and remembered. The grasses at their mighty roots whispered to each other, and the piping breeze hushed them with caressing hands of air. The white fruits, plump and womb-shaped, swelled...

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Oh The Sickness

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slippers

[bt_bb_section layout="boxed_1200" lazy_load="yes" show_video_on_mobile=""][bt_bb_row][bt_bb_column lazy_load="yes" width="1/1"][bt_bb_text] Every author wants to write all day, all the time. But life has this horrible way of getting in the way. Three months ago I sat down with the third draft of a book about a secret service agent, a kidnapped Empress and some devious plot devices. I had time while my oldest kid was at daycare and my youngest was running around my feet bringing me plastic objects for me to admire. I got really into it. I was writing, and editing, and changing whole chapters and even the names of characters because...

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The Quick Bamboo Fence

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bamboo fence

A few months ago I was walking home from daycare with both kids in the pushchair. I took out number #1 so she could walk up the stairs and into the house, and then turned to take the baby out of the pushchair. #1 immediately turned, and sprinted for the road (as fast as her 2 year old legs would take her). We don't have a gate currently. Clutching the baby to my chest, I hurried after her as fast as I could without dropping the baby. She got to the road and I reached her two steps before she...

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