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.
covid 19, inspiration

Getting My Words In, and Getting Them Out

carolyncordon

Today I received a book in the mail – a poetry collection, with one of my poem in it. Hooray! and I also received notification that a poem of mine is going to be in an online journal, The Crow. And after having no internet since yesterday afternoon, I was thrilled when we finally got internet back this afternoon!

I don’t know why our internet connection fell down, or strolled away, but was glad that the people at Aussie Broadband, were able to help in getting things up and going again. With the current world of Covid-19 restrictions, and being ‘locked down’ at home, keeping connected feels even more important.

I managed without the internet for those hours, but gosh, I hope that doesn’t happen too often, I like to be able to get connected! A blogger without the internet? It can’t happen! I took the opportunity today in sending an email, to get the word out about the Covid-19 anthology I’m editing too, and the result should be good.

So submissions for ‘Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19, are coming in, and I’m putting them into the document, and sending out requests for ‘writer bios’ to go into the back of the book from all of those whose words are accepted. Words in, words out – it’s an ongoing thing. And of course I will be writing some more of my own words for this anthology too.

And of course, getting the word out about this project is important, and that’s why I’ve been promoting it so heavily on my blog here. This is an important project, one of historical note, and in ten years time, we will remember that mad time when there was such a big run on toilet paper, so that the supermarkets had to limit how many toilet rolls a shopper could purchase …

Mad times for sure, and it isn’t over yet. I’m still looking for more writing, in particular prose, and would love to have prose from sports minded people, lamenting the lack of sport, or from medical people talking about the dangerous times they had, working up close and personal with this killer virus, and hoping they didn’t catch it themselves.

Or political people form any of the three level, local, state or federal, something from some people there would be a great addition to the anthology. Time for me to get the word out to the politicians and mayors I know, perhaps …

Uncategorized

Wasted Words?

carolyncordon

I’ve just been looking through some bags of ‘stuff’ I have carefully stored in our house, and realise I have written so many bits and pieces over my years, scraps and scribbles, responses to workshops, ideas written down in writing groups, hand-written, and then forgotten …

If there is a certain number of words to write in a life, I suspect I’ve written all of those words, and more, but what have I done with them? As I looked, I remembered some of what had happened at he particular events, and I realised that some of those words were re-used, to become actual typed up words, and so began another life, in another form.

Some of the words I read probably are now in yet another format, that of a printed book, and surely that is the finest format there is for a book? I certainly think it is. A printed book, the kind of thing you’d find on a bookshelf, either in a home, or library, that is what books are supposed to do, hold words, ever-ready and waiting to be read …

One of our bookshelves

But if I never do anything with those thousands of scrappy hand written words in notebooks and on scraps of paper in those bags, were the words wasted? What do you think? I remember trying to drive a manual car, after learning to drive in an automatic car. Bunny hops, and stalls were my usual fate, until, finally, after much practise, I could change gears, smoothly, and the car would move forward at the proper pace, and with no stalling, and none of those embarrassing bunny hops …

And maybe it’s the same with all of those notes I have, in all of those bags. I was practicing the craft of writing, trying to ‘drive the car’, of my writing career. Some of the workshops in those notes, were workshops I paid to attend, some were workshops others paid me to attend. So in the terms of our modern life, obviously, if others will pay for my work (presenting a workshop), then obviously the words written for the workshops have worth.

And the other words? Well, as with driving, I was writing to achieve smooth writing, that moved along, a thought, a poem, as story, a book, even. There are notes which related to my book series (three of which have been published). There are notes about another book series, which has been, not abandoned, but repurposed, and when the time is right, I may get those notes, words, out again, and move them along the road toward publication too …

So in fact, those words are not wasted, they were valuable to write, practising my craft, increasing my status as a writer too, to be able to present workshops to others, and being paid for it. So even if some of my words never make it into print, they were not in fact wasted at all!

Using words brings me joy, too, of course, and that is a good thing, to be able to find joy in doing what you do, and getting money for it too! What do you think, does your writing bring you joy? Or do you think writing is a waste of time, and your words are wasted? I hope you don’t think that. Practice is a good thing!

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So the Word is Out …

carolyncordon

Today, I had a message on ‘Facebook’, the way it sometimes happens, and it was someone sort of assuming I’d do something, and it wasn’t something I really do, but it is, actually now. And because this thing seemed like an interesting thing to do, I went along with it, and said some things in reply, leading to more things back, and so it is, I am going to edit and publish, something else, someone else’s big idea thing, that is good, and community driven and absolutely fantastic, if it happens …

And part of my role is to help to make it happen, if the words come, and the story grows until the time has come for it to become a book … So it suppose it’s official, I am seen (at least by a few people) as the go to person to get a book published … At the moment, I do that as a self-published writer, doing my own thing with it all, in the best way I know how to do it.

And given I have eight books published, some self-published some not, I guess I have a fair idea about the ins and outs of publishing, in a small way. And if I wanted to make that a bigger way, not a small way, well, you learn by doing, don’t you? Step by step, doing more things, bigger things, spreading the word, and range, and bang, there you are, you’re doing it.

My first book was a bit of a joke-thing, there was an idea, and some words, and a person (Ally Hean), who was my friend, and she is a great illustrator, so we just put the words together with some of Ally’s illustrations, saw a printer and made it into a book, printing out copies of it and selling the books. After that first book, I made two more in a series, self-published a memoir and a poetry collection. I’ve had a school reader published, and two more poetry collections (the most recent one a chapbook).

Three of my books, the one on the right is the first one. “Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs”

As well as that writing, I’ve also been the editor of a newsletter for the town closest to my home, co-editing, then editing it, and getting it printed, for around fifteen years. I enjoy doing this and being involved with others to get their information out to other people living in and around that town (Mallala is the town, and the newsletter is the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle)

At the moment, I’m working on an Anthology, and am calling for submissions of poetry and prose from other poets/writers to feel a book of words about this Covid-19 pandemic. This is possibly my biggest writing project, and is already the one that involved the most people. I’m enjoying reading the various responses to this call, and am looking forward to getting it all put together and printed.

I’ve had people from my country, Australia submit work for this, as well as people from other countries. If you think this is an interesting project, and would like to be involved, send up to three poems of thirty lines or less, and/or up three pieces of to 3,000 words of prose (fiction or non-fiction), to me at kittycordo@gmail.com – I’d love to read your words, and if they’re acceptable, they’ll be included in the anthology. The title will be “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing in Response to Covid-19”.

This anthology-in-progress has taken up much of my time since I thought of the idea, and decided I wanted to do it. But now, today, in fact, a friend has asked me to be involved helping with a book project, one that sounds very interesting as well, but of a different genre … I’ll be writing some words for the book, and will be editing it too.

So yes, I’m a writer and poet, and I am definitely an editor as well. And the way my thoughts are going, I’m possibly going to become an actual publisher, rather than only a self-publisher … We’ll see how that goes. I can see this year and into the next is going to involve a lot of editing of other people’s words, as well as my own. And I like the sound of that, a lot!

Being a publisher though, will involve a lot of administrative work, and I don’t like that anywhere near as much. It isn’t anywhere nearly creative enough for my taste. Ah well, if that’s what it takes, I’ll have to do it, perhaps with others, not just myself … Life is made up of many things, and getting out one thing sometimes has to happen before a next thing happens, so it can work out well. I’m prepared for that.

Any advice about this Publisher thing though, will be happily and gratefully received!

covid 19, Cozy Mystery

Reminders of My Former Life

carolyncordon

A friend of mine offered some advice to me recently about a possible useful thing to gain information for my previous ‘big’ project, and I could barely even engage on what that was all about. On further thought, I could see what was mentioned, might well be useful, but apart from the fact that I may not actually be able to do that because of Covid-19 restrictions, thought further about it.

I’ve become a bit obsessed about this current project, in a way that hasn’t happened to me before, or not for this kind of thing, anyway. Reaching out to other writers, to collaborate on something, just me and the world, rather than my writing group, and all of Australia, or just me and a publisher, those things have happened. But this project is different, it’s big, really big.

And it’s important too, the way writing can be, when it touches on world wide issues. And at the moment, surely this Covid-19 virus is one mighty big (and frightening) thing. So putting together an Anthology about this is my big thing, and the title of the big thing, of the book I, and the poets and writers whose work is accepted will create, is “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”.

White Gold …

See, a big issue, a life and death issue. An important issue. And since I came up with this idea, and began working on it, my previous writing project, that I thought was important, has faded away to not much, and I was wondering if anything much might happen until after, when my life goes back to ‘normal’. If there ever is going to be ‘normal’, as we’ve known life to be …

But at my writing group today (we meet online now, until … Until the hotel we meet at is opened up again, and we will be able to all sit at a table together and have our meetings.) So at the meeting, we were given a writing prompt, and I immediately came up with a scene for the Cosy Murder Mystery series that I’d been working on before Covid-19 came along, and it felt strange to be in the head of my main character, strange, but good too.

Because I had been wondering a little about whether I’d still be able to get into Meredith’s head again, after working on this far more worthy project. But Meredith is definitely there with me, she’s in my head, and so I can get into hers, and this reminder of that project is a little light relief, and I know I can get back into the Anthology project again, and step away if I need to, and life goes on still …

Being at home is fine, but going out sometimes is good too, and these things are important for us all, I feel. A little shopping, connections, online if real life can’t happen, Perhaps some gardening, or housework, these things can help make life feel more normal. And having a life that feels normal is a good thing, for sure … So normal is good, and having reminders about my former life, that’s good too.

A writer writes things that seem important, when it’s important to write them, but maintaining balance is good too, because it helps to keep going, and not get overwhelmed. I may have been approaching that, I’m not sure, but I feel more centred now, and feel these projects will both have their times, some days focused on one, another day doing some of the other, and it will all work out, step by step, on and on, as needed.

My former life is still there, and after this Big Project, I can step back to that other, still big, but not so worthy, project. It’s all about maintaining a sense of balance, and I can feel that is what I have, things are going well, and I can work on both of these projects, and others too perhaps, as long as there is balance …

covid 19

Self Publishing is Fun?

carolyncordon

For my most recent writing project, the publication of an Anthology about how the Covid-19 is affecting people, I’ve had some decisions to make, and have been umming and ahhing about them. One of these decisions has involved thoughts about proper compensation for contributors to the anthology “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing in Response to Covid-19”.

Photo byĀ CDCĀ onĀ Unsplash

Some of the contributors are new to such things, and are thrilled to be having their words published in such an important book. Others are glad such a book is being printed, and are happy enough about that, with no call for compensation. There are contributors from overseas, not just Australians, and some of those overseas contributors have indicated happiness with just being in the book, with no expectations beyond just being in the book.

I’ve been pondering these matters, thinking about what I can afford, what my costs are, and how much I can afford. I’ve self published several books, so far, and have never ended up out of pocket in any major way. That is, unless I factor in my time, of course. But a writer is who I am, and writing is what I do, so I’m enjoying myself, doing the various things needing to be done.

So I’ve thought about it, and Iā€™ve decided to provide a free copy of the book to all contributors, but will ask for postage and handling from overseas contributors. I am funding this Anthology out of my own pocket, and donā€™t want to send myself broke. I can afford a certain amount, but not too much ā€¦Ā So I will cover the postage and handling costs in sending these free copies of this book to contributors who live in Australia.

So that’s that. There will be a book launch, I hope in the early part of 2021, and books will be available there for contributors, (one free copy), as well as copies available to all others there for the launch. Copies will also be available at the launch for contributors to purchase at half price, for them to keep, give to others, or sell, at whatever price they want to ask. (As long as they don’t sell them at the launch, when I’m also trying to sell books).

Copies will be available to contributors from overseas, on payment of postage and handling costs to my designated account. Unless of course they come to the book launch, when they will get their free copy! (joke there, of course!)

And there’s one really good thing about being involved in the publishing of this book – I now don’t have to think about how to spell PLAGUE!

As always, I welcome further comment about these thoughts of mine.