Geelong Bollards:

Geelong is located on the shores of Corio Bay about 75 km southwest of Melbourne and has a population of nearly 200,000 people. In “A Baby Denied” (which had the alternative working title of “The Captain’s Secret Baby”) Danielle escapes to Geelong after an altercation with Nash. A stroll along the pier and a walk amongst the bollards restores her equanimity. The bollards are large reclaimed timber pier pylons that have been painted by Jan Mitchell to chronicle some of the characters from Geelong’s past. Danielle’s favourite is the lifesaver with a black eye. I included the bollards in the story because I enjoyed walking among them. The artist has cleverly imbued each with its own personality. Research was required though to learn more of the artist and of how the bollards came to be.

Haiku

The crown of Corio Bay –
Bollards and beaches.
Geelong sparkles in Summer

German endearments

German is not one of my languages. I speak English. Over the years, I’ve picked up little bits of Maori, French, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Spanish – enough to keep us ‘fed and watered’ when we travel, as my husband would say. So, when a hunky German car computer designer walked into Jolene’s story, I had to get to work, and fast, on picking up some endearments that Karl would use. He even dictated the name of the story, “Merry Christmas, Liebchen!” (The story’s working title was ‘Mavis the Merc’.) Fortunately, Karl speaks at least five languages fluently, so we mostly just used English. “Merry Christmas, Liebchen” is a 25,000 word novella that is part of the “All Wrapped Up” Christmas Anthology. Given my lack of familiarity with the language, I limited its usage. Here’s a brief example:

‘He raised his head to look into her face. “Mein Gott, Liebling,” he muttered. “Du bist mein Schatz. Mein.” He lowered his mouth again. She truly was an unexpected treasure.’

Haiku

Jolene won Karl’s heart on cue
Mein Schatz, Mein Liebling,
And a merry Christmas, too.