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.
Uncategorized

And So The Book Is Here, Let The ‘Fun’ Begin!

carolyncordon
This is possibly my most important book yet …

I have written about important subjects in the past, Chronic Illness, Sex Abuse, for instance, and they are certainly both important subjects, but more on a personal level. This new book I have edited, ‘Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19’ is an important book on a global level, and may well become even more important historically, who knows.

I just know that when the phrase ‘plague invasion’ invaded my mind back in April 2020, I had to do something imporant with the phrase. That important thing, was to put the phrase ‘out there’ (online on this blog, and other places online), and see what happened. What happened is this book. An anthology of poetry and prose, filled with words about this awful coronavirus.

The responses go from the silliness of nursery rhymes, to the seriousness of brutal attacks and a wide variety of ideas in between. Covid has hit us all, but we are hitting back, remembering, reporting on, what has been going on.

So I am thrilled that I have produced this book, and humbled by the way others have stepped up to help me make this important document come to life, in the form af a book, a book well worth owning! If you sent me something to go in this book, and gave me permission to include it in the anthology, would love it if you sent me a message with your postal address, so I can get your free copy of the book.

Further copies will be available to contributors at the special price of $15 Australian dollars. If you would like futher copies, tell me, and I can include those copies too.

And if your words are not in the book, but you’d like a copy, the pre launch, and Festival price is $20 Australian dollars. The price after the Festival will be $25. The ‘Festival’ is the Gawler & Adelaide Plains Festival of Words, which will run from 22-25 July 2021. The launch of this book will be at 3pm on Sunday 25 July at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler South Australia.

So if you’d like a copy of this book, please let me know, I have nearly 100 copies of the book, just picked up from the printer today, and they’re all looking for a new home!

Uncategorized

My Next Book – Copies Almost Here & Ready To Be Launched!

carolyncordon
I’m so exxcited about this book!

I’ve worked long and hard to get this book written and put together, since putting the call out for submissions for this anthology. I’d worried at the start, about upsetting people when I didn’t like their work, and didn’t want to publish it. I much prefer to make people happy, not uspset them.

But I loved pretty well everything that was submitted to me, so then I started worrying I wasn’t being critical enough, and so this book might end up being a bit of a junk heap. But I showed the book to other people, and they loved it, so I stopped worrying about that. This is a good book, worthy of attention!

And the front cover, wow, I love the work the young man I asked to work on the cover for the book, has produced. It really hits you, bang! with the bright colours, and then you notice what is in the picture, and you get a laugh – Toilet Paper, people have been totally focussed on getting toilet paper, in Australia, every time there is another lock down, because of Covid.

I started on this project back in April 2020, and was a little concerned about putting a big effort into producing a book, and then the Covid crisis fizzle out. Not that that would have been a bad thing overall, it would have been a wonderful thing, if life had been able to quickly gone back to ‘normal’.

But the coronavirus is still with us all, and while we are beginning to look on it as a new normal, it is still awful to hear about the huge number of people affected, and how it is affecting hospitals, schools, and so many other things. Covid is still there, and we much all work on staying safe, and not drop our guard against it!

Anyway, as the world tries, in various ways, to get over this plague that is doing the damage, we must do our best with going the best we can, to keep on going, helping ourselves, and others. I am hoping the vaccinations keep on keeping on, and not too many people refuse to get vaccinated, for whatever reasons they give. Keeping ourselves safe, and eveyone around us safe too, that is what we must aim at.

Uncategorized

An Idea, A Need To Do Something …

carolyncordon

Back in April last year, as Covid-19 took over our lives, we wondered how were would manage it all. My mind grabbed onto the phrase “Plague Invasion” and wouldn’t let go of it. I felt I had to do something. The ‘something’ I decided to do, was to edit an anthology, on the theme of Covid-19, the disease that was killing people all around the world, including my country of Australia.

So I reached out to my writer friends, both locally and overseas, and the result is almost ready to go out into the world. I’ve written further about the whole process – See here for me details. It’s a fine book, and I am proud to have edited it, to make it the book it is!

So I have this, my ninth book, on its way, with another coming in next year, a poetry collection to be published by Ginninderra Press, who have already published two of my poetry collections. And there is another book in the thinking about stage, which will be something quite different to this serious Covid-19 book, the fourth book in my ‘Buster the Dog’ series.

I just need to get my part of the book written, and the person who is going to join me in getting this fourth book done, getting her part written. Then there will be the images that will need to be drawn and decided on. But in the meantime, I will be concentrating on ‘Plague Invasion’!

Uncategorized

Newcomers, Trying To Learn, Can Make Mistakes

carolyncordon

The Non-Joys Of Writing, Then Accidently Deleting An Article …

Ah, it was such a great article this one. It went with a piece I’ll be presenting to the monthly writing group I attend, that I’d been asked to present a short workshop for. I knew what to do, and easily put together something, using material used for a previous workshop, for a different group.

So I did that, and then decided to share it online, but take it further, in the hope of attracting some interest, and so ultimately money. Money isn’t the reason I write though, it’s just a little bit of fun, if or when it comes. I write and share simply so others may learn from my words, or at least get something good from reading them!

This online site is a new one, I’ve just begun writing for. I’m enjoying it, and still exploring how it all works. Today I learnt how quickly one can make their work just disappear, poof! up in smoke! Well metaphorical smoke, not real smoke, so it wasn’t life threatening.

But it is so frustrating, to write something brilliant, and then lose it. It might not have actually been brilliant, but I think it was, and as it’s disappeared, nobody can prove me wrong … There was a bit of futher talk in it, about the Poetry Form I created about fifteen years ago, and there was a photograph at the head of the article, with a brand new poem in the said poetry form, about what was in that image …

But it’s all gone now, and while I have a hope it might simply be off in the online word of checking things and gaining approval, and it could appear again perhaps tomorrow, I don’t believe that to be true … Maybe I’ll put that particular image up on a blank page and try to write the poem again, or at least something like it …

Or maybe I could go back to the website, and search, looking back at what I’d been doing there, and find it again? Worth a try, right? Excuse me, I’ll do just that, and report back.

**************************

Back again and soooooooo happy! The article was there! It’s ‘awating review’, so neither in draft, or submitted. And I guess that means it will show up as being published after it has been reviewed. I hope so anyway.

In the meantime, I’ve copied the poem I wrote, and read it again. It’s is ok, but not as wonderful as I’d thought. I still think it will look nice though, printed out on a piece of A4 card, with the image. So I might do that later on, for who knows what purpose. Just to have it in that format I suppose. It could be useful if I were to do another workshop on Cordonostic poetry, which is what the workshop I’m doing Thursday is all about. Or I could print it out, and take it with me on Thursday to show, and read from then, as well as the poem on the workshop notes.

This is the seagull I took a pictrue of, that inspired the particular poem I thought I’d lost. I took the photo recently at an event I attended at St Kilda, South Australia. I’m happy with the photo, and am more than happy to share it!

Uncategorized

Launch Of Covid-19 Related Anthology

carolyncordon

Things are moving ahead! Today I saw the completed version of the front and back cover of the Anthology I’ve been working on, and it looks fantastic! This Anthology is “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”. I put the word out in various places, including this blog, and in the responses came, from may different places in the world, but mostly from my own country, Australia.

I have this book with the printer I’ve used previously for printing my own books, a printer close to where I live and travel to often. They do good work. I have a friend, a fellow member of my writing group, who also uses this printer at times, when appropriate.

I’d asked for both poetry and prose creative writing and received a large variety of different works, some serious, some funny, and others in between. The quality was great of almost all of what was received, and it was difficult to turn down most of what was received …

I’d quite early decided I was going to raise the money to print this book, and give free copies to each of the contributors. So I’ve been saving my money to be able to fund this work, which is completely a work that suits my wanting to help others, in any way I can. Doing good is a thing that warms my heart, and suits my heart and mind well …

So my next job, is to wait … But it will only be a short wait, and then, once I get the email from the printer, I will pick up these books, and gloat about how clever I’ve been, and how wonderfully good it all looks! Then after that, I will give a copy of the book to the Mayor of Gawler, who wrote the foreward of this book for me!

And then. once that has been done, there will be another wait, which will end once we get to the day this book will be launched, on the final day of the Gawler & Adelaide Plains Festival of Words (Recovery). It will be a fine day indeed, with a variety of people in attendance, including a goodly number of contributors to “Plague Invasions”. These people will be given their own copy of the book, whilst there, and what fun that will be, for them to meet with other contributors!

So 25 July is going to be a fine time to think about how we’ve been going with this pandemic, and be glad we can meet with other people again! That’s as long as Covid lets us …