Author: carolyncordon

Wife, mother, Poet, Writer, Art Installationist, Stand Up Comedian, Dog Enthusiast. Spending most of my time being creative in a variety of sometimes quirky ways! I have suffered in my life, I have had wonderful things occur in my life. Concentrating on the wonderful things makes it easier for me to live a great life.
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When Writing One Must Always …

carolyncordon

No, I’m not going to give sage advice about anything related to grammar, or reader engagement, or using correct tenses, or any of that doubtless important stuff. If you’re hear reading this you quite likely already know about such things.

No, what you must always do when writing is to hold your sense of wonder, and the idea that one day the Unicorns may arrive, and you should be prepared to adore them when the come …

Your sense of wonder can lead you and your writing to places no other writer has ever been before, and you can then truly write words that can connect to those who will be prepared to follow you, and your words, and any Unicorns that show up, and Good Things may surely come of it!

When you think your writng is rubbish and no-one will want to read what you’ve written, take a short break, smell the roses, check out the sky and see the clouds, hunt for dragons in the clouds, and then back to ground level look for Unicorns hiding in amongst the trees.

They’re all there, if you’re prepared to look, and your writing, while not perfect, isn’t ever rubbish. The first draft is what you have to write before you can begin to fix it up with careful editing, or before you go on to writing that isn’t rubbish at all.

Read good books and articles, think about what made them good, write more share your writing with others who’s opinions you respect, listen, think, speak, learn, and write and write and write, reading in between, always.

And dream, imagine, make up silly tales, imagine mythincal creatures, and hold onto your child-like sense of wonder that is still there inside of you, no matter your age. I’m 63, I write poetry, flaff around in the garden and I remember how magical it was when I bought my first Unicorn around fifty years ago. Magical!

Remember the magic already in your life, and work with it to bring magical things to the world through your writing. Magic in Economics? Sure why not? Life is magical, even economists breathe the same air we all breathe, and they can see the magic in the numbers they work with, I’m sure. There is magic in the idea of Universal Basic Income, that’s for sure!

So when writing, one must always look for the magic that’s all around and inside of you, work with it, play with it, show it to your readers, through your words!

And when you next see a Unicorn, please give it a pat from me!

New Ideas, poetry, Public Speaker, Writing, writing prompts

Stand Up, Sit Down and Write, Move, & Write Some More!

carolyncordon

The title is a list of what I do, or want to do in my life. My Stand Up career is not actually a thing I’ve ever done for money, so not a career at all, not yet anyway.

This image is of me, getting in touch with the character I ‘am’ when I do my Stand Up Comedy act. Her name is Nanna Carreau, she’s considerably older than I am (twenty years or more) and I love acting as her, it’s so much fun to think about what she thinks about things, and to ‘be her’ sometimes, and making peopl laugh when I do it!

My Writing ‘career’ though, that is something I do make at least some money from. Not enough pay our household’s bills, but at least enough to be able to pay for my coffee and meals when I go out. Book sales, and an annual Government payment cover that …

That Government payment is called the Educational Lending Right, and is a payment to writers who have a book in a school library. It’s a fine payment, I love it, I write the book, do the necessarly things, and it goes on this program, to be looked at every year, and paying out the relevant amount to me, straight into my bank account! Money for nothing, to some extent because books in libraries can last for more than one year, so those books will bring in the money for more than just one year – Bonus!

If I were to tout myself as an interesting Puublic Speaker, talking about my books and a variety of other important things in my life, that would be a good money-making option for sure. I haven’t done that much at all though, and while I have in fact done that, it’s mostly been when doing presentations with my writng group, where I have a voluntary position as the President, and as the group is a not-for-profit group, members are unable to be paid.

When I’m doing that kind of thing, I make sure I look far better than do when ‘being’ old grumpy bum Nanna Carreau!

So what’s next? Ah, Move … The image shows my canine walking partner, Lenny. He’s our dog, and my husband and I walk him at least five times a week. We don’t cover as much distance as Lenny would have walked or run as a racing Greyhound, but it’s usually more than one kilometre. And doing the things good dog ownes need to do means more moving.

And I like getting outside regularly to be with nature to look at the sky as well as our trees and other plants, and other trees, crops, and other people’s gardens when I go for a walk. I’m usually looking at the birds out and about as well, I’m an interested bird watcher for sure.

And seeing things that interest me can give me ideas to write about, and I in fact have written poems that have then been published. Having my poetry in books, whether self-published or published by others, well that’s a good thing, for a writer!

Nature, Life, and Thinking About It All gives me plenty to write about, and I love it! If you enjoyed reading this blogpost, why not have a look at what else I’ve written?!

Thanks, maybe you have your own things in your life you’d like to tell us all about, if so, leave a comment!

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What Am I Going To Do Next?

carolyncordon

I more or less ‘retired’ from the nine to five working for someone else world back in 1993, when I quit my govenment job to be a ‘stay at home mother’. My son is now almost 33, and living a good life, so I must have done a good job at being a mother.

He has moved away from home, living a good life, in his new home he had built, and married to the love of his life. I love visiting him, aor having him visit my husband and I, but both he and I have the things we love to do, that are apart from our wider family unit.

Family life is important for sure, but there is far more to what I I want to do in my life than simply ‘family’ things, no matter how important that aspect of life is.

I’ve been exploring ways to keep myself interested and doing ‘stuff’ ever since my son started school and then moved away, trying things out, working on the things that seemed interesting, and doing them, while moving on from those of less interest.

Some of those things have been paid jobs, but those jobs were either only short term options, or were not wanted I enjoyed, or wanted to do.

Making money is not the thing that fills me with interest, it’s merely a side benefit. The things that light a fire in my inner self are creative things, particularly those with a literary edge, such as poetry and writing, and being in contact with others also interested in those same things.

I have have a variety of things to show for my efforts. Books and poetry written, and published either by a publisher, or self-published. With those books, I have never lost money over publishing them, breaking even, ore even better than that.

Money isn’t a problem for me, so that side of things is under control, I’m not having to sell my soul to a boss who doesn’t understand what I need in life to feel complete! I’m currently living a life that meets my needs for creative expression, with more than adequate finances available to me.

I’m enjoying life, without having a business or job, so I’ve now come to the conclusion that I may as well go on as I currently am. I’m not only doing that though, I’m always open to new things, new says to spend my time. Trying things out, meeting new people, fun times for sure!

Looking at what comes next, in calendar of things to do, and finding interesting things that look like fun, that is how I see myself spending the rest of my life, and who mightn’t want to life their own life in a similar way!

The other creative things I’ve been enjoying lately is the Art Installation I’ve created, and am curating – the Redbamks Rust & Found Art Installation, which is my front fence with a great many rusty items on or near it. These days, I’m often looking for new old things to put on display, such as those in the photograph below!

That is a small selection of the many items on display, and every time I’m out, I may find another to add, fun!

Finding the fun in life, what a blast that is!

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My Creative Life

carolyncordon

Should I Do It For Fun, Or Make It A Business?

I’ve been slowly moving the things I do because I enjoy doing them more into a business, and while I’m definitely keen to ‘widen my horizons’ so to speak, and one day actually make a profit from it all, I’m not so keen about whether or not to get that serious about it.

One day I feel ‘Yes, I’m ready, bring it one’ another day, it’s ‘Oh, but I’d have to actually do work with tbe boring paper and accounting things … Yuck.’

So two sides of the coin, being a Creative, and creatively coming up with ideas to not do what serious side of my wants to do, because, hey, who doesn’t like making money from what they do? I had a book launch recently, and while I gave away books to those who’d provide me with material for the book (an anthology), I also sole copies of the book, so I had actual money in my hand from selling that book.

I liked that, but I also liked talking with people about what the book was about, especially where it connects with another important part of who I am and what I do. So yes, I’m a writer, but I’m also an Art Installation Creater and Curator!

There are other parts of who I am, and what I do I could potentially make money from too, especially the Stand Up comedian, and Publisc Speaker side, which I feel I’ve barely begun to explore, but still feel very much what I want to do more of, lots more!

Or I could just go on with my writing group friends, writing things, thinking about books I might write, or creative writing I want to do, and maybe doing itl if I fell like it …

Decisions, decisions. I’m not young, but I’m not so old I can’t still move into business, plenty of others have done that at the same age I am, early sixties … So Yes? or No?

I welcome any thoughts about this -please leave a comment to let me know how you think I could spend the rest of my life! Twenty more years, if I’m lucky, plenty of time to become rich, or to simply have the ‘funnest’ life possible!

Cheers!

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The MS May 50K Fundraiser

carolyncordon

For all of May this year and the previous two years I’ve spent some of my both walking, and raising funds for The MS May 50K, where people are encouraged to run, walk roll, or whatever method they use to get around under their own steam, to cover 50 kilometers in May.

The funds raise go toward reserearch into finding treatments, and other ways to help those of us who hae Multiple Sclerosis.
https://www.themay50k.org/fundraisers/carolyncordon/the-may-50k

I’ve like walking, and I have MS and have definitely benefitted from research into medicatins to helps peple with MS, and the proof of that is I’ve almost walked 100k so far and am going to go on walking for the few days remaining in May, and I’ll have my collection tin with me too, for people to pop in some money if they can!

If you click on the link above, you will see my fundrasing site, where online donations can be given. Even the price of a coffee and cake deal would be great, every little bit helps!