Welcome to the bar at No Facilities. We have a special guest with us today, so I’ll add the necessary disclaimer. Although I am writing this in an SoC style, as we try to handle Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness prompt, quite a bit of planning was required.
“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘drive.’ Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!”
If we were having a beer you would be eager to meet our guest.
“Where is she, Dan?”
“She’ll be here soon, David, she’s coming from South Africa, it’s not like she can hop in the car and drive.”
“Are you guys having a guest today?”
“Yes, Skippy. Roberta Cheadle will be joining us shortly.”
“Wasn’t she here when you had that party? I hope this isn’t another day like that, that ran me ragged.”
“Skippy, a two-beer order on the patio runs you ragged. I’d like a John Howell’s Special, I’m sure Dan would like a Corona, so off you go.”
“I think our guest has arrived, David.”
“Hi Dan, and you must be David. I’m Robbie.”
“Dan mentioned that you were coming, Robbie. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“OK, bourbon, seltzer, ice, Corona, lime, cherries. You guys really need to tone this down.”
“Skippy, Dan’s lime slice is in my bourbon.”
“Sorry. Ma’am, can I get you something to drink?”
“Why yes, Skippy, is it? Do you have any hard Apple Cider?”
“We have ‘Wild Thing’ from the Artifact Cider Project in Springfield, Massachusetts.”
“That sounds interesting. Let’s go with that.”
“Robbie, you must get this question a lot, but you work for a firm that I used to work for. Unless they’ve changed, and it doesn’t seem like they have, it’s a demanding job. How do you find time to write and read and bake and raise a family?”
“I do get this question often, Dan. Corporate finance is very demanding, but it is also a feast or famine type of job. You are either killing yourself working long nights and weekends, or you are doing administrative stuff and proposals. My work arrangement is that I work a 30-hour week. Of course, during the busy months [about 8 months of a normal year], I work 45-hour weeks and longer as weekend work is often required, but I get to ‘take’ these extra hours back as leave days instead of bonuses. This arrangement works for me as my time is precious and I am horribly bad at administration. It is much better for other people to do the administrative parts of my job and leave me to write my publications, articles, and books.”
“Here’s your cider Ma’am.”
“Mmm that is nice.” Thank you, Skippy.”
“No problem.”
“Robbie, since Dan said you were going to visit, I did a little homework. You write in a wide variety of genres. Do you have a favorite?”
“I have a busy mind, David, and restless spirit and I am happiest when I am completely absorbed by a complex and time-consuming project. It is for this reason I write. Writing is something that draws me in, completely taking over my mind and free time. It is for this same reason I write in a lot of genres. I love to learn and enjoy interesting research. I am always finding new research passions and these interests manifest themselves in my books and stories.”
“I should mention that I even bought one of your books, ‘While the Bombs Fell.’ I have a good friend in Ipswich.”
“Thank you, David. While the Bombs Fell was written by me but told my mother’s childhood stories. My mother did have a lot of veto rights with that book and exercised them frequently. I didn’t mind and writing this book with her taught me a lot more about her life as a girl and also her family.”
“Robbie, you say in the poem, ‘What Drives me to Write’ that ‘It’s my personal attempt To make some sense of this world.’ – Is that working?”
“I do believe it does work, Dan. When I write, I have an opportunity to sort out my thoughts, emotions, and experiences in life and translate them into words. It certainly helps give me greater understanding. The books you see, except for my poetry which is raw emotion and thought, have been through an extensive editing process and a lot of my strong opinions end up being removed. That is a good thing; ‘killing my darlings’ results in a more balance presentation and a better book, but the process of the initial writing and flood of thoughts and emotions is healing for me.”
“Speaking of that raw emotion, your poem ‘Sudden death’ captures in a very few words the emotion and sadness that literally could fill a book. It’s a very powerful poem. Would you share the backstory?”
“Sudden death was written about a few deaths that I experienced within a six-month period. One of my work colleagues, an up-and-coming young man of great potential, was murdered in a police station in Alexandra Township in Johannesburg. He had taken his young niece there to lay a charge against her abusive boyfriend who was an ex-policeman. The boyfriend followed them to the police station and shot and killed our colleague. It was a tragedy and waste of life.”
“That is a tragic story.”
“Around about the same time, the only son of a client of mine was killed in an aeroplane crash. It was a small private plane and the young man, and his colleagues were going to inspect a factory for work purposes. The father was left with no heir, and this was also a great tragedy.”
“I’m going to share one particularly sad stanza, and then the end of the poem. It might help David understand the poem.
A drug addict’s child
always left alone,
of starvation dies
he’s skin and bone.”
…
At first a death is so surreal,
it’s permanency so unreal.
The first few days they go so fast,
the funeral in a flash it’s past.
Harsh reality
when people leave,
and left alone
your loss you grieve.
Life is fragile
not guaranteed,
make sure each day
is gladly received.
“The stanza about the drug addict’s child was also a real case but the baby survived and was adopted by a friend of my sister.”
“I am glad to hear that. Thanks for sharing the end of that poem, Dan. You’re right, Robbie, life is fragile.”
“It is, David. I realised then, and again recently after experiencing a few deaths in my community, that once the first shock of death has passed, most people move on with their lives very quickly. It is not in the immediate aftermath of a death the family need the most support, it is afterwards, when its permanency sinks in.”
“Skippy.”
“Yes, David.”
“I think we could use another round; I know I could.”
“That’s a good idea, David. Robbie, I don’t mean to focus on the dark aspects, but you have several poems about poverty. Hartford, about eight miles south of this bar, is the poorest city in Connecticut, so we hear a lot about poverty and your poems spoke to me. I’m sure, as here, the pandemic made the situation in South Africa worse.”
“Certainly, the pandemic has increased poverty in South Africa. The job losses here have been terrible, and the government aid is limited by funding constraints. Education is the only way to uplift people and the lockdowns impacted heavily on schools and learners as many South African children don’t have access to technology at home so on-line learning was not an option.”
“Is there any hope for these people?”
“There is always hope. I am part of my work department’s Community Service Initiatives team, and we organise donations of money, physical items, and time to aid various identified early learning organisations. At the end of last year, our small department donated 100 school bags, stationary packs, and sweet packages to children at one school who were going into grade 1 this year. Michael and I also donated 100 of our Sir Chocolate books to this initiative.”
“Before Dan drags us into needing yet another round, I have a general question about writing.”
“What would that be, David?”
“Poetry seems to me to be a very precise form of writing. Do you find it easier or harder to write poetry than historical fiction?”
“For me, writing poetry is a strong emotional reaction to something I see, experience, or hear about. My rhyming and freestyle poems usually come to me in a wave of words, and I just grab a pen and write them down. My poetry is intense and heartfelt, and I rarely change it extensively during an editing process. In my opinion, my poetry is best left in the initial presentation of that strong feeling and not messed about with through too much editing.”
“That’s interesting, sort of a burst of emotion. But your historical fiction must require a good deal of research.”
“I finished A Ghost and His Gold, which at one-hundred-fifteen-thousand words, many of which are historical, required enormous research and effort.”
“Do you enjoy the research?”
“I am fanatical about my research and check the facts to many different sources. When researching A Ghost and His Gold, I discovered a discrepancy in the way the Second Anglo Boer War was perceived and recorded by the British and the Boers which is why I had two ghostly soldiers, one from each background and persuasion. This tool allowed me to present both points of view through the eyes of my characters, Robert, the British solider, and Pieter, the Boer farmer and patriot.”
“Robbie, I enjoyed reading ‘Open a New Door’ and your entries in the collection ‘Poetry Treasures.’ Will you be continuing to publish your poetry? Are there other projects you’re working on?”
“I’m glad you enjoyed my poetry, Dan. I do like to write poetry although it is not something I do consistently. I must be moved emotionally in order to write poetry. I have been living quite an isolated life lately due to covid. My parents live with us, my in-laws are elderly, and Michael is high risk, so we stay at home most of the time. This means, I haven’t seen the things that inspire me to write poetry. I have, however, been inspired to write some darkly humorous twisted nursery rhymes and limericks about covid and pollution/global warming. These poems, together with some poems about my family, death, and my favourite topic, corporates, will be published soon in a small collection of unusual poems called Behind Closed Doors.”
“Now, ‘darkly humorous twisted nursery rhymes’ sounds like poetry I would enjoy.”
“I hope you do, David.”
“Are you working on any other books?”
“I am currently writing a book about the fourth industrial revolution and climate change. I had started this pre the pandemic and have given it an overhaul to bring in the changes and anticipated changes caused by the pandemic and lockdowns. This book is essentially dystopian fiction. I am planning two sequels for this book.”
“I’m looking forward to those. Robbie, I am so glad Dan invited you to join us today. This has been fascinating.”
“Thank you, David, and thanks Dan, for this wonderful opportunity to chat to you. I rarely drink because alcohol loosens my tongue and I talk far too much as I have done today.”
“Well, we enjoyed this.”
If you are interested in purchasing any of Robbie’s books, you can follow the specific links in the post or you can visit her Amazon author page, here.
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