I’m Getting Ready!

Putting together an anthology takes more time than writing a poetry collection, because an anthology requires submissions for other writers, rather than simply writing your own work/words …

So yes, I have another anthology planned to bring into the world, and to do that I am reaching out to that world, in the hope I will again have a wonderful response from writers from many countries, beyond my country of Australia.

My First Anthology
I’ve produced my first such book, an anthology titled “Plague Invasion” that dealt specifically with the Covid-19 Virus that has caused deaths and problems around the world in 2020 and 2021, and looks like still being a problem for many into 2022 and beyond.

There may now be a vaccination against this Virus, but that is not going to completely end the problem. There are many reasons for this, economic, personal, and others. But as things move ahead, I hope sanity might prevail, but hoping and actuality are far from being the same thing.

The New Anthology
This next anthology, as I have mentioned in a blog post previously, will contain creative writing inspired by three things, three connected things, perhaps, but not necessarily. These three things are:
1/ Climate – works relating to Climate bearing in mind that it refers to a long term pattern, rather than something happening on only one occasion. So Climate is not just the weather on one day, it is the weather happening on a longer period of time, in a particular place, perhaps. Or climate may refer to a workplace, or household, referring to how they can seem on not just one day, but over a longer time. An office for instance may have a happy climate with people working there feeling glad to be working in a place they feel respected, and like to go there every working day.
2/ Change – writing about change in its many and varied ways – nappies get changed, hair styles may change, fashions, the weather changes, we change our clothes at least once a day, we change cars, houses, some people change their gender. Change your mind, change your political views, change your shoes, the colour of your roof, or walls, dye your clothes to change their colour. They are so many things that get changed, write about it, and send it in!
3/ Climate Change – are, this is the biggie, of course. The climate is changing at a faster pace than ever before, according to the ones who’s job it is to know such things. For this section of the anthology, I am looking for opinions, thoughts, ideas, theories about how and why Climate Change is happening, and what can be done about lessening the terrible consequences that can occur.
The weather is changing, the oceans rising, the seasons are bringing more extreme weather, and the consequences more damaging. Hot days can be even hotter, tornadoes worse than ever, bush fires turn into infernos that are totally uncontrollable.

Steps To Make It Happen
Putting the word out, as I’ve begun doing, is a necessary step to make this project happen. I’ve also started thinking about what I will write to go into this anthology, and have in fact written a poem about Climate Change. This is that poem:

Profits Before Prophets?
Scientists’ words telling us
what is on the way,
are ignored

Waters rise,
temperatures too
at speeds faster than before,

and as the world ignores it, 
some people will die,
are dying.

The world warms
while people’s profits
rise faster than rising seas – 

Their bloated bank balances 
more interesting 
to them all

than prophets
of climate change doom,
whose warnings go unheeded

People die, when they could have
been saved, if only
if only …

******
I will be promoting news of this new book in local media, and online, as well as to writers I know through groups I’m involved with. I welcome news of this project to be shared widely with other writers, of people with strong interests in any of the three writing prompts.
I don’t expect there will be much to write about changing the baby’s nappy, but would welcome something funny about such a subject! Even though these are serious subjects, a bit of humour can lighten the sombre ‘climate’ of such a book!

Call To Action
For this anthology, I’m calling of writers to contribute their creative writing, in either poetry or prose, fiction or non fiction, with the same ‘rules’ I used for “Plague Invasion”. That is up to three poems, and three prose pieces, with the poems up to thirty lines, and for the prose pieces, up to 2000 words.
Again, there will be no payment for accepted works, but as with the other anthology, those whose work is accepted will receive a free copy, and will be able to purchase further copies at a lower price than is offered to the general public.
Writers can write about any or all of the three writing prompts. If a writer puts all three of the prompts together in the one piece, I ask that they indicate which of the three they consider to be the most important thing for that particular item.
As you can see, when you read my poem, I wrote about Climate change, and so my poem would go in the Climate Change Section of the Anthology.
It is planned that this anthology will be launched at the 2022 Gawler & Adelaide Plains Festival Of Words (Imagination), which is expected to occur in late July 2022, so to have the anthology ready by then, the closing date for submission of work is 1 May 2022.
I will be accepting submissions for this anthology from now, with such submissions to be emailed to me at this email address: kittycordo@gmail.com – Please put Climate/Change, Climate Change as the subject

If this interests you, I welcome comments and questions, please leave them in the comments section below.