Author: carolyncordon

I am an author, with seven books published. I still make sales of some of those books, in fact I sold one of them yesterday, at an event I attended. And I get book sales often of the website of the publisher of my first book published by an actual publishing company.

When I make a new sale in person, I still get a big buzz out of doing the ‘signed by the author’ thing. I proves to the critic inside my head that, yes, I am an author, you doubter! Book signing is what authors do, therefore if I am signing a book I wrote then I am a real author.

But my car has unsold copies of some of my self-published books. More copies than I’d like left still. But when the right time comes, I will find the best home for all of those books, and I will personally, and gladly sign every copy!

I know I can do a lot more than I already am, to raise my author profile, speak more in public, and be known more widely as an interesting person to hear speaking. I have many themes I have valid opinions on. I know much about living well with dogs, creative writing, finding peace in life, having a happy marriage, and about living well with Multiple Sclerosis too.

Ask me about any of these things, and many others and I can talk interestingly about them. Or if you have things troubling you, I will listen in an engaged way, and offer assistance to you if you ask for it. I know sometimes the best listener is just a caring person who will just listen, with no blame or judgement, simply listen. I have been that person on many occasions, and I know I have helped others in this way.

Helping others is a good thing to do, and that is why I do it when I can. Communities need people like that, and people like that love their community, so they are happy to play that part when they can. A good Society is made up of good communities, and good communities have good people doing the good things.

In my days of connecting with my communities, I have met many good people, and I am making a list of some of these good people, ‘movers and shakers’ in a bigger way than I am currently, and I am going to find ways to connect with these people in informal ways, with them as informal mentors, assisting me in ways that can increase my skills, and help me to be better known as someone who has opinions worth hearing.

Writing creatively helps me to work through the thoughts in my head, and I know I am able to learn more about myself and others through writing about myself, and what I see around me. I also know I am able to assist others in doing the same thing, with the thoughts they have inside their heads … simple and honest encouragement, combined with careful critiquing are fine tools to help others create beautiful words.

I have a good life, I want to use my skills to help others have good lives too.

I am a wordsmith, a writer, poet, blogger, but I also want to become known as a Public Speaker. I think about things, and I certainly feel the things I think, and the thoughts and ideas I have are worth sharing.

I have recently begun attending meetings at the closest Zonta group to me, and I am extremely interested in working with that very worthy group to assist women who have suffered sexual abuse, through the healing use of creative writing.

I have a blog, which is related to this issue, sexual abuse, especially the sexual abuse of children. Recently I have posted a heartfelt poem, dealing with the necessity of being able to speak out, by the victims of sexual abuse. This blog is named after my first poetry collection “damaged children, Precious Gems”, in which I look at my linear journey from a victim of sexual abuse as a child, to being a survivor of that abuse, and in fact a person who has gone through that painful time and is now thriving.

This is where you can see this poem, and read a little more about this. Being able to tell our own stories is so very important to us, we victims. Because of course none of us are only victims, that is not our only ‘thing’. We are women, wives, mothers, friends, and a great many other roles. We have stories and we have voices. We deserve to be heard, we must be heard.

This abuse must end. I know men too suffer in life, but I am not a man, I do not know their stories, they have to do that, not me. I have my story though, and I will tell it to anyone who wants or needs to hear it. I will also do all I can to assist others to get their story written, because I know how healing it can be to get your own story out.

Other people will tell us what our story actually is, as far as they see it, but they cannot know the full truth of that story, only the person whose story it is can do that. When they have that opportunity to tell that story, then their healing can proceed …

I’m sure I’m not the only person who has a picture book skulking around in their head, waiting for the best moment to emerge and so be released out into the world, right? I have this idea that seemed like a great picture book, but it was rejected by a publisher and it has been sitting in a drawer ever since.

I have another potential book for children in my head, in the early stages, but I haven’t really done much about getting it thought through, and have spent no time in thinking on how and where it may ever be published.

If this sounds familiar to you, you can probably understand how excited I am about the workshop I’m going to be involved with later this month. The Gawler Poets at the Pub event takes place at the P/A Hotel in Gawler South Australia, on the last Sunday of every month. The main event is the Poetry Reading and open mic in the afternoon, and there is often a workshop in the morning.

For November, there is a workshop, and it is all about making your idea for a picture book or other genre, absolutely the best it can be, and then getting it published. I am one of the presenters, the other is the writer of a beautiful new picture book that is just out. Her book will be there for attendees to look at and be amazed by, and I will have copies of my own books there too.

This workshop will cover various modes and methods of making a book beautiful, and then getting that beautiful book published. There are more methods for these things than you may realise, so if you’re in the area, why not come along! I’d love to see you there, and if you’d like to know more, feel free to contact me via email at kittycordo@gmail.com

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!