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.
The idea of Social Distancing has taken over our world at the moment it seems. The Government of Australia, and others, have taken on the idea of it, and are punishing people who get too close to others. And so somehow, giving a friend a hug has become a crime.
I can see the reasons for this, in this Covid-19 time, but oh, I so miss those hugs from friends. Getting too close to others could lead to catching this virus, with possible fatal results. I can see that. But I’m also aware that not being able to catch up with those we love, our family or friends, can lead to a progression to feeling low, to depression, and worse.
Human beings need social contact to be who they are supposed to be. Unless they have awesome mental abilities, and can step beyond that social need, and reach something higher. But for most of us, social interaction is a needed thing. We join in, we go to meetings, coffee and chats with friends, we visit, we hug each other, oh yes, we hug each other.
Surely, this distancing thing is far from social. Yes, I know it is needed right now, but I hope that need is safely over soon. I want, and need to see and be with my friends.
“Plague Invasion ” – It began as a short phrase in my head, and my poetry brain loved the assonance of the phrase and wanted to do more with the words. That ‘a’ sound in the two words seemed important, and worthy of something, something big. I could have written a poem, an important and worthy one. But I wrote something else, I wrote this blog post, and so it all started.
“Short poetry forms give the opportunity to share more thoughts, because four haiku will fit easily on one page ā¦ and so one ‘suite of Haiku’, can count as one poem. This may well mean each contributor will be able to share some more of their thoughts, poetically than for instance, on three lined Haiku, they will be able to submit for of them all on one page, as I did in this blog post, previously.
Hmm, I’ll write a post about that, and perhaps will received more small poems to showcase in this book. Haiku and the related Senryu, Clerihew, Tanka, Clerihew, Limerick. An A4 page of one of each will be one submission regarding poetry. The Editor has spoken!”
This was a comment on that previous blog post titled ‘Lines While in Lock down’. The comment was from John Malone, a friend and poet, who is again going to write a back blurb for a word related book for me, this book, . John is a regular commenter on this blog, and I value his thoughts. They often add value to what I have written.
John writes poetry, with a particular skill with short and pithy little poems, which he shares on his blog. In John’s small poems can be much that is important to think on. And isn’t that what good poetry can do, scale back the huge truths that are there, and present it to you, in a neat little package your mind can then unpack and think further about …
So, given all of these thoughts, the upshot is that I, as the editor of this worthy book, “Plague Invasion”, will accept submissions of a page of short forms of poetry, as one ‘poem’. So a ‘suite’ of five Senryu, for example, will count as one submission of poetry. I hope this is understandable, and if you need further clarification, post a question on this blog post, and I will do my best to answer any questions regarding this.
If you want to be involved in this, send poetry and/or prose to kittycordo@gmail.com – up to three poems of thirty lines or fewer, and/or up to 3,000 words of prose in up to three pieces. I will consider your submission, and let you know if it is accepted for this anthology. Contributors whose work is accepted will receive a free copy of the book. If they are Australian residents, the book will be posted to them, if they cannot attend the book launch.
People residing outside of Australia will receive a copy of the book on payment of the cost of postage and handling, with will be advised at a later time, when the costs is known. Stay well, write about what you’re experiencing, and we may meet up at the launch of this book. In the meantime, stay in contact here, on my blog, it’s my home away from home, at my home!
I value any feedback, please leave comments here, we can discuss things further.
From child to adult, from single to married, from childless to raising a family. Further, not having a job, to being a worker, and from worker to retired person, and many nuances of life in between. On a more ‘right now’ basis, there is not having a dangerous virus to stay safe from, to being here, now, with Covid-19 threatening our lives, our livelihoods, and our lifestyles.
These changes are what I am hoping to capture, with the anthology I am editing, and looking for submissions to. The title for the anthology is ‘Plague Invasion’, with the subtitle of ‘Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19’. In the book are poetry and prose responses to this odd, weird new way of being.
The closing date for submissions is 31 July 2020. but it may have enough words in the book before then. I’m hoping for a good sized book, whatever that means – more than 70,000 words for sure, and up to, I’d say 140,000 words, although that higher number seems a little overly optimistic, but who knows …
I’m asking for up to three poems of up to thirty lines, and had previously been asking for 2,000 words of prose in up to three different pieces, but thinking about that word count, I’ve decided to raise it to 3,000 words. This will assist a couple of contributors, who have written more, great words about the theme, and it will assist in raising the overall word count for the anthology. I like the way this stays with the overall number ‘three’ in there too.
And to be brutally honest, I’m one of the contributors who would have to cut some of the word count of one of my submissions to this project, and I can’t see how to do that, without making one of my prose pieces a lesser thing.
If that is selfish, so be it. This is my project, opened up to others, for sure, but still mine. The more words that are in there, and the better the quality and wider the range of works there, the better it will display responses to the time we’re currently living in.
Responding to change is how we can grow in our lives. Things happen, we react, and we learn now and hopefully better ways. If they turn out not to be better, then we change again, holding onto the best, and moving forward with the new. So 3,000 words for your prose, not 2,000 in total. Editing is a good thing when you write, but sometimes the editing process takes out needed things, and that is bad.
If you’d like to be involved in this project, send your words to me at kittycordo@gmail.com with the subject of ‘Plague Invasion submission’. All contributors who have work chosen will receive a free copy of the book. Australian residents will have their copy posted to them free of charge, others will need to pay the postage and handling costs. Thank you!
My time has been spent at home, most of the time, I’ve only been going out to visit my Mum on some Fridays, when usually, pre-Covid-19, I visited her almost every Friday. a phone call has filled in for the visit, but it’s definitely not the same. No hugs with a phone call … But when I am able to visit her, that usual hug is even more precious …
So I’m staying at home, not doing as much moving around as I know I should, and could do, if my mind did the right thing by my body, and was able to convince me to do it … But my mind is busy doing other things, so I can’t be too hard on myself. I have a writing project, which I’ve spoken about quite a bit on this blog, and on Social Media, to get more interest in it, and so improve the project enormously.
That project is to create a book, an anthology, containing words written about this Covid-19 crisis we are all going through, in our various ways. So I’ve been collecting the words sent to me, having written some of my own to go in there too, but my own creative writing has been going slower. Yesterday I decided I might mend that, and wrote a Haiku. But I decided if I was going to put my Haiku into the anthology, I should have more than just the one Haiku poem, so earlier today, I wrote some more.
I’m not sure if they’re good Haiku, or the best I’m capable of, but they’re Haiku, and they cover some of my thoughts about Covid-19. I thought before I put them into the “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19” Anthology, I’d share them here first, to show some of my own ideas about it all, and to give ideas to any readers who pop by, to think on what they may write, and submit their words to me – up to three poems of up to thirty lines, and/or up to three pieces of prose of 2,000 words in total.
Sent them to me here (kittycordo@gmail.com), with “Plague Invasion submission” in the subject line.
So here are my Haiku responses to Covid-19, on this occasion I have stuck to the westernised 5 7 5 syllable count for the Haiku, there are other acceptable formats elsewhere:
Kitchen greenery
The herbs coming along well –
Food security?
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Giving cyber hugs –
Safe perhaps, but not as good …
I’m missing my friends.
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Medical visit –
Outing, and safety challenge.
Docās mask hides his smile.
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My window view, birds
swish themselves clean in bird bath.
Stuck home, not alone …
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Some of my herbs growing in kitchen.Just me, the TV and my laptop …
If you are inspired by my words here, please think about getting involved. All contributors whose work is accepted will receive a free copy of the book (postage and handling must be paid for, if not an Australian resident). I hope you’re feeling inspired by this, and want to take part. The book will be launched in early 2021, if things go well. further details will be announced on this blogsite, when known.
Thank you, I look forward to reading your Covid-19 submission!
When you first get an idea for something, a thing that feels important, and exciting, your whole self can buzz with the thrill of it all, and your mind focuses on that thing as it becomes the most important thing ever, for you.
This is how this Covid-19 anthology felt for me, back around the middle of April, when I first got the idea for it, exciting, and feeling like it was almost a calling, something I had to do for the greater good, kind of thing. So I put the call out for responses to Covid-19, and have received enthusiastic comments, which told me I was definitely onto something big. And then the amazing words began arriving.
So, certainly, the beginning of this has been fabulous, the writing received so far has been pretty fabulous too. There’s still plenty of time for more great writing, both prose and poetry, to come to my inbox, and surely the anthology will be a fabulous thing indeed, won’t it?
Well right now, it looks that way, lots of pieces of writing are making there way to me, and I am gradually putting them into a document that will become the book. I have various bits of writing promised to me, and I am continuing to promote this anthology and requesting submissions. And this morning I had a phone interview with the editor of one of the local newspapers, and I have hopes that that may well bring me more words to help to fill the pages.
The sky’s the limit!
Yes, the sky is the limit, the world is out there, the whole wide world, and people all over the world are living with this virus. And they’re thinking about it too, as I am, and some of them are writing about it, for this anthology. I thank them for that, and hope that the writing brings them some feeling that they have some kind of control over things, even in this strange world we have right now …
This will book number nine for me, and my first book that may become an important historical book … I have written non fiction before, but those were more personal books, while this anthology is something that reaches out far beyond me, and my life. I hope it might become a record of the time the word slowed down, went slightly mad, and then settled down to think more deeply about life, what it was, what it could be …
I’m sure many books will be written about this time, and I would love this anthology to become one of the most important books of this time, an anthology containing the various stages of this pandemic, the ridiculous parts, the scary parts, the boring parts even, and many other phases.
Don’t try to understand me by the books you can see here, only some of them are my books …
I put that photograph there to show the reality of my world, there are lots of books in it … Books are excellent things to have in your life, whether or not you read each and every one that is there with you. Glancing at them, flicking through them, or merely existing in the same room with them, they are all important things. I certainly hope the book I’m currently working on, the anthology “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”, becomes a book that many people have in their homes.
Whether put away neatly in a bookcase, or piled up on a table near the sofa, having this book in your home will be a reminder about the time all of us went a little bit crazy in a variety of ways. Whether it was binge buying toilet paper, or locking ourselves away, barely ever venturing out, of deciding to invite the whole world into their life (to join together to write & anthology), madness hovered at the edges, at least, of our closed in Covid-19 lives …
At this stage, this idea is still very much at the forefront of my mind, feeling fabulous. The actual book is getting more and more words added to it, from the wonderful people who’ve responded to my calls for submission of words about or in response to Covid-19. And you know what, with all of the awesomeness there’s been so far, even if the book didn’t get printed, it wouldn’t be a flop.
And given the simple way it’s being put together, and knowing I have enough money to print, and send off, enough copies to get a copy to all of the contributors, well that means it an’t not happen, unless I for some reason was unable to get to my laptop. And even that wouldn’t make the whole thing a flop, because if I couldn’t get to my laptop, that would have to mean something fatal had occurred … so the options more truly are fabulous or (shh) fatal … And we don’t want to think about that option.
So fabulous, that’s what this book is going to be, absolutely fabulous! Thank you to all of the wonderful people who’ve been along this journey with me, it’s fun, and I hope to catch up with, or meet, many of you at the launch of “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19” – that event, planned for early 2021, will be absolutely fabulous too!
