Month: July 2019

Uncategorized

Putting on a Festival

carolyncordon

Six years ago, if I’d been told that I would run a successful Festival about writing, with a teeny tiny sub-committee of people, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are, 2019, and Adelaide Plains Poets, the writing group I’m the President of, has just finished putting on our 5th Festival of Words.

This event, on the theme of Location, took place mostly in Gawler, with one event happening in Mallala, and a train trip from Gawler to Adelaide and back. There were workshops, various people speaking, a visit to an art gallery, a yarning circle, and an exhibition of photographs, with the photographers speaking about their images.

Some of these events have been the same from the beginning, some are new. The main program remains the same as the first Festival, but there have been changes, to fit better, have a better venue, enable more people to be involved in all of the events – all improvements.

And so with Five Festivals successfully run, all financially viable and fun for an increasing range of writers of various genres, and writing experience, we can proudly say, yes we’ve done that. But now is not the time to rest on our laurels. Just because we’ve done it five years in a row, definitely doesn’t mean we don’t have to do it again!

We enjoyed ourselves so much more this time, the sub-committee, and we’re keen to get the planning started for the next Festival. I have many ideas for the Festival next year, and I hope I can get the other people involved keen to look at my ideas, and make them happen!

20190728_111352

Puss in Boots enjoyed going on the train ride again this year! He may not have written any poetry of his own, but he enjoyed hearing it being read out, as we travelled on the way back to Gawler from Adelaide!

I’ve thinking about words in many ways, from books, to people speaking and to people writing new words. But we’ve always had these things, I want to see words being done in new ways, in different places, and with more and different people too. Bring a diverse mix into the Festival for 2020 will be my plan for the coming year …

 

inspiration, poetry, Story Ideas

Running a Festival of Writing

carolyncordon

My writing group is right in the middle of a writing Festival at the moment, the Gawler and Adelaide Plains Festival of Words (Location). Today we had a visit to a small town in the Adelaide Plains, Mallala, which is home to both a fine country pub, the Mallala Hotel, and also to the Mallala Museum.

The Festival was launched on Wednesday night, followed by a talk about the importance of Oral History, by a member of the Gawler Oral History Group. This project is very focused and is intent on recording histories before the people involved are no longer able to tell their stories! This is such an important thing, so that history is not lost, but remains available to all.

Today’s event involved having lunch at the hotel, then going to the museum to explore the interesting historical exhibits on display. We then went back to the hotel to write about what we had seen at the museum, or to think about some other Festival event inspirations from the previous day’s event, which was a photographic exhibition, with five selected images each from three fine photographers.

At the event today, I put out the idea to those present that we could possibly put out an anthology containing both the words written, and the images that had inspired some of the words that have been written during the festival. Combining words and images has a long history, and many different kinds of writing can result, poetry, prose, novels, articles perhaps, who knows, inspiration is a many coloured thing!

So the actual Festival is branching out in interesting ways, connecting different people and groups, so that the appeal of it will broaden out in many directions! Inspiration, people, ideas, and enthusiasm, all coming together in the Gawler and Adelaide Plains region!

Tomorrow we have the great science fiction writer, Sean Williams, teaching us how to write for young adults, and then giving a keynote talk about ‘location’ in writing. Then there’s a yarning circle to talk about some important issues based around location, and going, who knows where. After that will be a talk from esteemed publisher Michael Bollen from Wakefield press, talking about location, and then another workshop by Katie Lowe (Fraser).

And that’s not all, there will be a forum with some writers talking about the importance of ‘location’ to them in their own considerations. Michael Bollen will be there to talk with writers about their current writing projects, if they wish to ‘pitch’ their book-in-progress, or book idea to him. A chance in a million, all at a lovely historical hotel, where wonderful wordy things happen, often!

And wait, there’s more – on Sunday, we will all meet up at the Gawler Community Gallery, to look at their work on exhibition, and then catch the train all the way to Adelaide and back to Gawler, writing creatively and perhaps reading out their brand new ‘ekphrasitic’ writing piece.

Then it’s another lovely lunch at the P/A Hotel, followed by the announcement of the winners of the Adelaide Plains Poets poetry competition with several of the awarded winners of the competition reading their winning entries. Then it will be time for the rest of the usual Gawler Poets at the Pub Poetry Reading, which takes place on the final Sunday of every month.

Sound interesting to you, it sure sounds interesting to me. I am proud to be the President of this small group of dedicated and creative writers, who help to get this wonderful Festival off the ground, and running well for it’s fifth year now, and the sixth year already being worked on!

I’m sure the crash will come on Monday morning after all of this, but I’m having a fun and fine time with words, and feel that everyone else involved is having a great time too! Writing doesn’t have to be a solitary thing, getting out there, involved with other writers is a wonderful thing!

 

 

 

poetry, Uncategorized

On Poetry Competitions

carolyncordon

The writing group I am the President of, has been running an annual, national poetry competition right from the time the group began, back in mid 2005. At the time, I was working part time for my local council, as a community worker.

My role was to try to bring about aspects of economic development to the community, and the poetry event competition was all a part of an event taking in the whole of the region where I live, with many towns being involved.

I now longer do that job, the funding ran out, and I moved into the volunteer realm. I enjoyed doing what I did for payment, for sure, but found some of it stressful. Now I’m doing similar things as a volunteer, the pressure is very much lessened.

So poetry competitions … The number of entries my group,  the Adelaide Plains Poets receive, is on a steady rise, in the main, and the overall quality is going up and up, in the current three sections – Open, Secondary Student, and Primary Student. This year, we have a larger entry for the Primary Student Section, because of work done in particular with one local school. This is certainly a good way to increase poetry submissions, if you talk to students and teachers in their schools, they will feel more willing to get involved.

I think we will do more of this, perhaps getting started on it earlier next year. Connecting with schools is fun, for many people. I certainly enjoy talking to a class about poetry, because I love poetry, and I’m working to increase the level of love of my favourite writing genre! If I can engage students, and help them to love poetry too, then I’ve done a good job!

Some people don’t have a lot of money to spare for fluffy things like poetry. That is why our group doesn’t charge for students to enter our competition. We also have a low charge for the Open section, and the fee is structured in a way that encourages a higher number of entries, without sending anyone broke.

We currently charge $10 for the first entry, then $5 for any subsequent entries. This is for the Open section only – students are limited to only one poem each. There has been a lot of variety in the way poets have interpreted the theme of this year’s competition. This is important for a poetry competition, a broad theme will engage more poets, as they consider how they think on the theme.

I have been able to speak to some of the people entering our current poetry competition and have been happy to find so many lovely people who thank me for providing them the opportunity to ‘have their say’, about something important to them. This helps to make this task even more enjoyable.

Then, when the winners are announced we will all find out which poems struck the judges as being ‘the best’. I spoke with both of our judges today, and was pleased with the things they both said. This is the first time we have had two different judges, one fo rthe adults, one for the youngsters, and I feel this has been a good move. It is a different task, judging the poetry of Primary or Secondary school students, compared to judging the poetry of adults, after all.

Finding out who the winners are, and hearing their words will be an exciting thing indeed! If you have ever thought of entering a poetry competition, I say go for it, as long as the entry fees aren’t too high, and the possible prizes are suitably high. Poetry is a fun thing to write, and these competitions could potentially be very rewarding, if you’re good enough! Comparing your own poem, with the winning poems may be just the impetus you need, to make your own poetry shiny bright and perfect!

But beware, there are some ‘competitions’ that are blatant rip offs. The fees we charge are reasonable, but some competitions have far higher fees, for very little possible recompense. Leave those ones well alone!

If you have anything to say about poetry competitions, leave a comment, I’d love to read your thoughts!

 

Public Speaker, Writing

I have Transferable Skills

carolyncordon

Dear Sir/Madam,

As a writer, I have many skills. I can type on a keyboard, faster than your average trained monkey, and my spoken language skills are infinitely superior to any parrot ever, living or dead.

I have written and read more and better poetry and short stories than probably any current member of the Australian Government. I know how to harness a pacer (harness horse), and how to prepare a Standard Schnauzer for the show ring.

I have a strong feeling for what makes a fine haiku or tanka, and am even able to write them as well! I can write a villanelle, a clerihew, and I am the person who first invented the Cordonostic Poetic Form (Google it).

My skills as an office worker were second to none in terms of slacking off whilst appearing busy, and I am proud to tell you that my Friday night drinks results surpassed what any man has probably ever achieved (my husband of over thirty years is offered as proof – his super pension is probably more than you are currently paid as a full time worker!)

All of the skills mentioned, are what are called transferable skills, and if you employ me, you will be amazed at what I do!

Yours sincerely,

Carolyn Cordon, Poet, novelist, short story writer, blogger, monthly newsletter editor, and so on …

I’m also as funny as a smelly fart in a crowded lift!

poetry

Multiple Copies are Great!

carolyncordon
I had an accident today, and deleted all of the poems in the file n my laptop that is my poetry collection that I want to send off to a publisher soon. My intention is to have some other people read the collection, and give me feedback. If I couldn’t get give them the poems, they wouldn’t be able to do that. I wouldn’t be able to send it to a publisher, either.
 
I nearly freaked out, but I took a deep breath, got myself a calming (?) coffee and searched my laptop, for help. I found some of the relevant poems in emails I’d sent to myself, and that worked for finding some of them, and then, hooray, I found another copy of the file, on my laptop, an earlier one I’d emailed to our PC, to make a photocopy,  that had almost all of the poems in it, phew!
When I say ‘I nearly freaked out’ it isn’t true, really. I did take a big breath, and get that coffee, but I would have looked calm to anyone present. I methodically considered my options, and worked away and cutting and pasting, taking poems from various places, and putting them in a new file.
Did my work with looking at Stoicism help me with this? Hmm, I think it may have. I felt quite calm, once the initial ‘oh no!’ feelings calmed down. Once I was sitting again, coffee and laptop present, I worked at it all afternoon, and got it done. I went outside, let the dog out and back in, and she and I both had lunch, but I did a good afternoon of work on it.
IMAG0306
                 Missy slept through most of it, she’s calm like that, most of the time!
It was an interesting chance to look at these poems again too. I did some editing, making several of the poems better, and I added two new poems, and took out two other poems that I felt were too weak. So this ‘disaster’ was actually a good thing after all. I will remember that, and keep calm and work methodically if I ever need to work like this again!
This laptop is still new to me, and I’m very much in the learner stage with it. Using the home PC is easier for me, but of course, I can’t take my PC with me anywhere, and I can’t sit on the sofa with the PC comfortably on my lap!
So now that I have the poetry collection put together in the one file on my lap top, and the other copy there too, marked as Do not delete, it should all be fine. I’ll send that document to the PC tomorrow, and then hand that hard copy on for the review of others.
I’m so glad I found those versions, that’s for sure. And I think this collection is looking far more publishable than my most recent one, that was rejected. When I looked at it again, once I was over the hurrumphing angst of rejection, I could see that it was a bit of a mess, with little to say. Some of the poems were ok, but that isn’t enough, just some …
In this new collection, all of the poems have interesting things to say, and they blend together in good ways, in my opinion. I hope my readers will back up my thoughts on that, and if they don’t, that they will be able to give me pointers about where any failings are.
Giving a poetry collection to others feels like giving your newborn to a stranger, in some ways, but of course, that is something that all writers have to do, if they want to have their words read. And only a strange kind of writer wouldn’t want to be read by others, surely?
What do you think? About having readers before sending off to a publisher, and about how it feels to let your ‘babies’ go? Please leave a comment, if you have something to say about this!