Yes I am a writer, and have written seven books so far, with a few others planned for the future, but I, and many other writers write many things other than simply books. One of my writing roles I am the most proud of, is being the Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle. This is a monthly newsletter, which has been going since around 2005, back when I had a ‘proper’ job.
I was the ‘Mallala and Dublin Towns Coordinator’ at the time, working for the Mallala Economic Development Board, part-time, in the Mallala Council Office. It was a new role, and the duties were many and varied. There was much involvement with various community related things in both Mallala and Dublin.
I had taken the job over from someone else, which is never an ideal situation, but I tried to do the best I could, at that job, and apart from waking up and worrying in the middle of the night, almost every night, for the two years I was doing the job, I enjoyed it!
The secretary of the MEDB and I went to a community builders workshop while I was there, and we had to look at a community project we could do, and we decided creating a new workshop for the town of Mallala would be a good thing, so we worked on getting that started.
I left that job, after my time was up, and I couldn’t find more funding for the role, and the other person moved on to other things, but I kept going with the Chronicle. I am very proud of that newsletter, the way it has grown, more and more people in business are happy to pay to advertise in it. When the Chronicle began, it was two A4 pages, printed back and front, so four pages of printing. The most recent issue is I think 23 pages of printing, and it brings in a tidy some of money, when the advertising payments come in.
The writing group I’m involved with, as foundation member and President, is the auspicing body for the Chronicle, which means the writing group gets the advertising money, which is a very handy amount for a small volunteer group, which runs a few different things – a monthly poetry reading, an annual and national poetry competition, and an annual Festival of Words. I am proud of all of these things, and of the fine people from the writing group who work on them with me!
As the Editor of the Chronicle, it is my role to source material from various people – community groups, politicians, the local doctor’s office, local council people, and really, anyone with interesting things the people of Mallala might find interesting. The newsletter is created in colour, and is available online in that presentation, but the copies that are printed are in black and white, because colour is too expensive.
I feel like the mother of this newsletter, and even after over ten years, I still get a kick out of someone telling me they enjoyed reading it, and I still get a bit of a thrill from being the creator of every new issue! I collected and delivered the October Mallala Crossroad Chronicle today, and even though I managed to get a paper cut from the newsletters I delivered to the Post Office, that bled and bled and bled after, I still love the Chronicle!
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 