I finished reading the so-called cosy mystery on Tuesday evening and wasn’t overly impressed. It read more like a travelogue than a novel and the first death, from the title, didn’t happen until well after the midpoint of the book, and it was closely followed, like almost immediately, by the second death. Now I know why we’re supposed to get our dead bodies in front of the reader sooner rather than later.
Anyway, I finished it, and I do have the next two in the series (it’s an omnibus… I’m a sucker for omnibuses), but if I didn’t already have them, I wouldn’t be buying them. I guess that means I won’t be reading them any time soon either. Ah well, we live and learn, and how better to learn than by example?
I *should* have started the first of the science fiction books, and I tried to, but I seem to have this inability to go from one novel to the next right away. I have to leave it at least a day. Yet I can read short story upon short story. The poet started his first science fiction novel. This is the first non-audio book he’s ‘read’ in about two years.
We didn’t watch the Back to the Future trilogy as we want to binge-watch them all in one evening, if we can, and Tuesday evening started a little too late to do that.
Wednesday morning started with me watching Week 5 of the science fiction classic workshop. I’m glad I’ve done this ahead of the live class. I’m already picking up things here and there and it will hopefully save time when we go live. Also, sometimes I have to repeat things for them to sink in and stay, so anything that’s repeated in January will be revision. It also gives me advance warning of what they like to see in their assignments.
When I took the fantasy thriller workshop in the summer, being directed to the classic thriller workshop really threw me because I had to put aside a further day to watch all of the episodes (again, 6 weeks’ worth). And that meant I didn’t have the full, allocated time to write my third assignment. I’m hoping that watching what I can ahead of the live workshop will mean I won’t have to do it if we’re redirected again.
The next few hours were just editing. I sat in the living room, with the dog on the settee beside me, working for a 50-minute pomodoro at a time. I finished that at around 1:15pm, which gave me time to make and eat dinner before going to see the asthma nurse. I was in with the nurse for AGES, but the upshot is I don’t have asthma, which is good, and I don’t have COPD, which is excellent, so something else is triggering the wheezing.
I was furious, though, when the asthma nurse consulted her colleague on the results of my peak flow tests over the last fortnight. The asthma nurse thought I was just above what they consider asthma, but she wanted to to check what else my symptoms could mean. I heard every word of the conversation and was very offended when the other nurse said:
To be honest, I’m always a bit dubious when they come back as immaculate as this one. She’s used the same pen throughout and there are hardly any creases in the paper…
Right, so she was calling me a liar? 😡 🤬 Why would I even *want* to lie about something like that?
I wanted to go and have a word with her about that immediately, but the asthma nurse said she was with another patient by now and, to give her her due, the asthma nurse made a very good job of diffusing the situation. But when I told the poet, he was furious on my behalf as well.
BUT… I don’t have asthma, and that’s the main thing. Now we just have to try and monitor what triggers the wheezing.
By the time I got back home, it was already dark and already late, and I didn’t feel like doing any more work. So I did a few quick computery things and called it a day, deciding to catch up today. The poet has a full day on site, and when he comes home he goes straight out to band practice. That alone gives me an extra 3 or 4 hours, which is probably what I lost yesterday.
Argh!! I’m sorry that nurse had the audacity to say that!
But yes, on the bright side, you don’t have asthma so that’s good! Hope they can get to the bottom of it soon. Medical stuff is no fun!
I think they’ve written me off, now they don’t think I have anything!
So glad you don’t have asthma or COPD.
What an awful nurse.
Here in the states, the cozy mysteries are moving farther and farther to the right. It used to be that the protagonist was a misfit, but through skills and being herself, she created community and they realized that THEY needed to be more accepting. Now, more and more, the protagonist winds up conforming.
I hate that almost as much as I hate not having the first body drop early. I like it in the first chapter, certainly not later than the third. The really good writers know how to integrate the elements of the community and how the murder changes it, rather than 100+ pages of setup.
A writer I know, at one of her events, said the cozy is about the protagonist bringing the murder to justice and “returning the community to the status quo.” I disagree with that. I think the murder has to teach the community how to be better. “Status quo” is rarely a good place to be.
I’m not a *massive* fan of cosies at all, but I do like to read one when I’m in the mood although, even then, I prefer them to be a bit grittier. They do seem to be getting a bit… safer as the years progress.