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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Why Am I So Thrilled?

carolyncordon

Why, I’ll tell you why I’m so thrilled – I’ve only just put out the word about the new Anthology I have begun working on, and the submissions have already begun arriving!

The theme of my first Anthology was Covid-19, a bit theme for sure, but the combined themes for this next anthology is possible an even bigger one, even if it may seem to be distant, to some people. But with a theme of Climate Change, and Climate, and Change separately, well that takes in Global Warming, and with the seas rising up and trying to swallow up island nations, this theme is one that also has potentially deadly effects.

So, while this anthology is about something I’m not thrilled about happening, I AM thrilled to process of raising concerns and sharing ideas about these matters has begun, and will result in the publication of a book that brings discussion of important notions into the world.

So the stated themes for this anthology are these: ‘Climate, Change, and Climate Change’. Three different things, but perhaps with many possible connections between them. I leave it to the contributors to this call for works, to make any connections, or simply focusing on one single theme, Change perhaps, and make no connections from that to anything larger or more global that the changing of a light globe.

But is even that process of change as simple a thing as seems at first. I remember when light globes were cheaper than they are now, and why did we so easily make the change to the new, more expensive kind? The change to low-energy (LED) light bulbs came in in most countries, and the people have had to make the change, because they were the main option available.

Low energy means less carbon in the world, and that is a good thing, good for the planet, which means good for all. And the higher cost is off set by the fact these LED lights last much for longer than the old incandescent ones we all had in 2006 and earlier. So better for us, and better for the globe yet again.

And of course climate – the prevailing conditions occurring over a long term in weather, or in opinion, etc, this is another important theme to write about. If the climate of opinion on something is that money is the most important thing, what kind of a world does that make for this living at that time? What if the climate of opinion was that the betterment of conditions for all was more important than filling the pockets, of a few?

So these and many more ideas will suit this anthology, and I look forward to reading works that arrive!

Submissions are to be made via this email address: kittycordo@gmail.com and the submission period will go on until 1 May 2022, with the anthology planned to be launched in late July 2022.

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I’m Getting Ready!

carolyncordon

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.


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Back To My Blog Again, It Feels Good!

carolyncordon

I have a new project, another anthology I want to edit, calling for submissions, receiving them, putting them together, then getting the book printed, and launching it.

This will be my second anthology, and I hope it can be as well accepted as my first. The theme for that first book, “Plague Invasion” was deemed by others to be an important historical theme, that would be a reminder of how things were at that particular time/this time, in fact, as we still battle through the trouble the Covid-19 Virus has brought to the world.

So now I’m thinking about another big theme, one that is devastating some areas of the globe, particularly island nations who are facing possibly terrible consequences from their homes disappearing under the water, as the results of Climate Change threaten them with flooding.

This is only one problem Climate Change may bring, there are many, and that is what I wish contributors to explore in their submissions to this new anthology I’ve begun working on Medium – see here: https://kittycordo.medium.com/ my blog and other forms of my writing are missing out, to some extent.

But I have the fire in my belly again, and this new anthology is going to bring me strongly back to my blog, and my own creative writing that is likely to end up in an actual book, not something online, out in the ether, and perhaps unseen to most …

So if you’re reading this and you have any thoughts about Climate Change, or Climate in general, or about Change, why not check out my previous blog post here, and submit something to me for my next anthology!

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One Project Done, What Comes Next?

carolyncordon

After the editing of an important book with submissions from around the world, I wondered, what can come next? The project I took an as a bit of light relief, while of some interest, hasn’t completely engaged my attention. I felt I needed something meatier, to really engage me with my major writing project. Having that other anthology go well was a bit of an encouragement to do it again, to see if the success can be repeated.

This is the successful project: I’ve written about this book, the creation of it and so on, elsewhere on this blog, feel free to look around to see what has happened.

Plague Invasion is an anthology of creative writing written in response to the prompt of Covid-19, and I received fantastic responses in both poetry and prose in response to this prompt. As the Editor of this book, I put it all together and had it printed, then organised a launch for the book, and advertising of the book and related information, online and via print media.

That was certainly a big, and important issue to write about, as shown by the writing received, but also a broad enough subject to receive a wide range of responses. Even when responses followed similar paths, they were still varied enough to maintain interest.

I had never done something as ‘global’ as that anthology, and so when I realised the similar importance of another issue of widespread through the world, and as important, I decided to take another look and work toward creating another anthology, one of extreme importance …

That important theme, if you haven’t worked it out already, is Climate Change. When you consider how many people are possibly to be made homeless, or even killed by the effects of Climate Change, you realise just how important it is that we, the whole world, think about the climate, and the way it is dangerously changing …

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

For Plague Invasion, it was the name of the book that sparked my interest the most right at the beginning, in April 2020, when Covid-19 first hit, That and the feeling I must do something big, in reaction to this virus that was causing so much trouble. The title grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go.

But with this new project, the title, at the moment anyway, is just a working title, and I don’t know if that title is likely to hold out until the book is ready to be printed, and then launched.

This website has lots of information about Climate Change and Global Warming that is the reason why these changes are happening so rapidly, since the world changed in the 1950s and continues to change, with more and more things occurring in response to humankind, and out effect on the world …

My idea is to have three sections in this anthology, each split into two parts. The two parts, as with Plague Invasion, are the split between Poetry, and Prose. The three sections? Well, the working title what they will be. The working title is Climate/Change/Climate Change and so there will be a section about Climate, another about Change, and then the final section will specifically be about Climate Change, the biggie that is causing Global Warming, and looking to drown islands in the the Pacific Ocean, and causing massive changes in our weather …

So there it is, those who wish to be involved are to write in either poetry or prose, or both, about Climate, or Change, or the big one, Climate Change. By Climate, the reference is to the trends of what is happening, rather than just one day, and can refer to weather trends, the ongoing feeling in a workplace, or a marriage, or an educational facility, a sporting club, and so on.

Change covers a large variety of things, changing jobs, changing a baby’s nappy, changing gender, changing cars. There are a great many other things that get changed, you might change your clothes, your mind, the colour of your hair, your friends, the kind of pet you have, and I could go on and on, again …

And with Climate Change, I am looking for references to this global force that is the cause of so much damage going on all around the world. Weather is being more destructive, more often than anyone alive can ever remember. and as the NASA site linked here mentions.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

So, now we get to the nitty gritty details on what I actually want from you, the potential submitter to this anthology.

I will accept up to 3 poems of up to 30 lines, and up to 3 pieces of prose (fiction or non fiction) of up to 2000 words based on one, some, or all of the writing prompts. If in the writing of your submission you make reference to more than one of the three writing prompts of the working title in a single submitted piece, please indicate in your submission which you consider to be the most important/relevant prompt.

My intent is to have this anthology ready in time to be launched in late July next year, during the running of the 2022 Gawler and Adelaide Plains Festival of Words (Imagination). To allow this to be ready in time, the closing date for submission of works for this anthology is 1 May 2022.

So there it is, an important anthology with submissions open to all in the world who wish to be involved in talking about important things … I look forward to receiving your submissions to the Climate/Change – Climate Change anthology.

Submissions online only please, to this email address: kittycordo@gmail.com

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Adelaide Plains Poets Poetry Competition

carolyncordon

The competition has been held, the poems entered judged, and winners announced. Now it is time to show the judges’ reports, and details released to the public.

Judge’s  Report  Open Section  Adelaide  Plains  Poets  Inc  

Poetry Competition  2021  “Recovery”

Our competition topic has proved to be very relevant to our nation’s circumstances today. I was very impressed with the high standard of the 50 entries received. The poems entered expressed the idea of recovery from quite a variety of troubles and misfortunes.

It was not easy to choose the finalists. In the end I looked for poems that were emotionally or intellectually moving. I also looked for good descriptive writing and positive messages about recovery. I have to say that there was not much between these poems and I congratulate the authors on their excellent writing. With these factors in mind, I have chosen the following place getters and commendations: 

First Place;  Salvation   by David Campbell

I was impressed by the use of “needlepoint” as a metaphor for the process of recovery. It describes a deeply personal recovery from great suffering which has much relevance to life for far too many people in the present day.

Second Place  .An Honest Man   by James Kent

This poem I felt would easily bring a tear to the eye of many a reader of this well-told story. Although set in our past times, it encourages the present-day espousal of such values as honesty, kindness and compassion in the process of recovery.

Third Place  Healing   by Shelley Hansen

Although short, this is an excellent portrayal of the need for patience and the giving of comfort in assisting in a person’s recovery. I was impressed with the form of the poem.

Commended

In addition to the above awards, there were four poems which deserve commendation, but not listed in any particular order.

Determination:   by Claire Watson. A great story describing personal determination. Well told. 

Asperger’s Eyes:  by David Campbell. Excellent portrayal of a deeply personal story.

The Stranger: by Nathan Curnow This prose poem has such a positive message about showing care and concern in providing assistance in a person’s recovery.Raindrops:  by ‘Toni Brisland, nee Antonette Diorio.  Good use of metaphor to describe the transformation of a city as it recovers from lockdown.

Judge’s  Report  Student Section  Adelaide  Plains  Poets  Inc  

Poetry Competition  2021  “Recovery”

I don’t think I can ethically nominate a secondary poem winner. They all spoke of pain and tragedy with a time mention at the end of recovery, but didn’t speak of actual recovery or that process. 
My primary ones were  ; 1st prize Emily McCarthy as it was unique and quirky : 2nd prize went to Isha Mittal and Sophie Dowsette as commended