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.
poetry

Working On My Next Big Thing

carolyncordon

I know I’m actually supposed to be writing a novel, but I have to admit to myself that I’m not a novelist, not really, at heart, and in my mind, I’m a poet. So that said, even though I have a partly written novel in need of further words written, and some kind of sense made of the various written sections, I am not feeling committed to seeing that novel in print, even though I’m still thinking about the characters.

I’m a poet, so these past few days, I’ve been working on putting together my next possible poetry collection. I’m still conscious of my undue haste in trying to get a different poetry collection published, and had it rejected by the chosen publisher (deservedly so, I agree). But this collection, I hope, won’t be rejected, I like this collection of poems.

Many of the poems in this new collection are very new poems, there are no poems dragged out from years ago, and I’m enjoying the idea of getting some things I’ve written in draft form, in the past year or so, ‘scrubbed up and polished’ to be fine poems, living up to my hopes when I first came up with them.

This new collection is contemporary, dealing with people, for the most part, with a few animal/nature related poems, that may or may not make it to the final collection. I’ll wait and see how I feel about that much later on. My previous poetry collection was all about the animals I’ve known in my life, from pets, to wild animals to the creepy crawlies around where I live. I enjoyed putting together that collection, titled “Tense and Still”, It would be great if this current work in progress could be as good as, or better than that one.

One thing I’m definitely going to do this time, is to have other poet friends read this new collection, to give me feedback, before I send it to a potential publisher. That’s one of the reasons the previous ‘collection’ met such an ignoble end, it was a mish-mash, a jumbled mess, that looked exactly like that, it indicated a confused person, who didn’t pay enough attention to, or care about her work and words on that occasion.

This time will be very different. I have a title I’m fond of, that others have agreed is an arresting title for a collection. I have quite a few poems I feel are exceptionally good, I have a bit of a strand of meaning running through the ideas in the poems, and I feel I will be able to hook the poems to the strand, so it flows along in good and poetic ways.

At the moment, even though I have the poem titles in a particular order, I am not set on that. My next step, after looking for and typing up another few poems I have around my papers/notebooks, is to print out all of the poems, and have a good read of them all, and make piles of related poems.

Then I’ll leave it for a day or so, then take another look, think about it all, and see if I feel I’ve got a collection that ‘works’. Then I hand it over to those few poet friends, for feedback. I’m hoping that within a year, this will be a poetry collection, written, submitted, and published, then launched.

Keep an idea here, for further news. And please feel free to ask me about this process, if there’s anything you’d like to know.

Writing

Wasting Words, or Just Wasting Time?

carolyncordon

I am a poet, a blogger, a Facebook User, I use Twitter, I’m writing a novel, I write short stories (sometimes), and I put out a monthly newsletter for my local town. I enjoy doing all of those things, and some of them I do every single day – the Social Media pieces of writing, commenting on Facebook, and tweeting on Twitter. I blog at least every coupe of days, and often post a new blog post once a day or more. I am a writer.

I’m a member of a writing group that meets once a week, and another group that meets once a month, and I will always write something new either at, or for those groups. The thing I most want to be though, I think, is a published novelist. So why don’t I write a novel?

I sort of am, writing a novel. The writing I do at the weekly writing group, is often a short piece that will go into my novel, eventually. I think on the writing prompt for the session, and think on my main characters from my novel, and about what I’ve written so far for my novel, and I write, and there is another fragment of writing for that novel I’m working on.

But is this a way to actually write a novel, I wonder? I have short pieces, perhaps 150 to 300 words, and that’s it. a week or so ago I actually managed to write a new piece for my novel that followed directly from the piece I wrote the week before. I happened to have the same notebook with me, and so it was simple to look at the previous week’s work before starting on the writing exercise for that day.

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I’ve used various notebooks for the writing exercises, and I’ve written other parts of my current work in a file on my laptop. I’ve written other pieces on my phone, other parts on our PC. If I gathered up all of those pieces of writing of that novel, I’m not really sure how many words I’d have. It may be 50 to 60 thousand words. But am I putting all of those bits of writing together? No, I’m not, I’m happily doing other kinds of writing, the blogging, the comments on Facebook, the tweets on Twitter, and the poems at other times.

I’m writing words, but as the title of this blog suggests, I’m wasting my time, if that is what my writing aim is … Or am I? Living my life, thinking about things, being a part of my various communities, these all add to my knowledge of life, and five me ideas about things. And surely writers have to have interesting things to write about, ideas, thoughts.

So perhaps I’m not wasting my words, perhaps I am writing that novel, and perhaps this novel, these characters, will finally make it out into the real world. What do you think? Will Meredith and Travis, my main characters, beat the bad guy, and then finally commit to a relationship together? What do you think?

Uncategorized

New Niche Progress Report

carolyncordon

Beginning something new can take time to get up and going, I know that and am prepared for things to move along slowly, at first, and possibly it may always be that way.  I have only posted a few things to the new niche I have begun, as mentioned in a previous post here on this blog post.

The thinking about these things in a stoic manner is the most important thing, thinking wisely and intelligently, as those wise stoics all of those years ago, and in the more modern contemporary Stoic manner, that is what I am aiming for in my stoic life.

 

I have just been wrestling with the government website to look into some things, trying top get into my own details the government has, unsuccessfully, and rather than raging at the computer, and continuing to do my head in, I will simply take my business into the real world and see real people who work quite close to where I will be going later on today, and get everything organised that way.

Simple.

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Seeing the correct people, realising I have the time and ability to do these things, and there is no need to get my head all enraged, these are good things to remember. I am not one to be angry, not if I am to show my Stoic nature, rather than simply blogging about it. The common writer adage of ‘Show don’t tell’ often applies to real life to, and not just in the writing of fiction.

So having written that, I will now step away from the computer, get myself organised, feed the dog, and then attend to my business, elsewhere. Good day to you, be well, stay well, enjoy the good things in life.

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semicascade jade

 

Philosophy

Thinking About a New Niche

carolyncordon

This year has been a good year for thinking about who I really am, and what I believe, and believe in. Writing always helps me to do this, as does reading things, that are new to me, but set off the bells in my brain, and light up my mind in new and good ways.

One of these new to me things is something that’s been around for more that two thousand, and goes back to Ancient Greek and Roman times. This olden times thing is something that resonates with many of us still, and is something that I want to look into as deeply as I can, and to bring it as completely as possible into my life.

So what is this wonderful thing, and will I make lots and lots of money from it, you may ask, breathlessly. Well, let me be brutally honest here, and deal with the money aspect first. No, I will not make lots and lots of money from it. But the more I adopt this thing, the less the fact of not making all of that money matters.

Money is a tool, a useful too, in this day and age, and of course having the money to pay for all of the bills that keep me fed, and sheltered, these are important things. And being able to move around from place to place is extremely important to me too. So, food, house, car, my current situation easily ticks all of those boxes for me.

And my writing life gives me little bits of money too, at certain times of the year, so that helps to pay for extra non-necessary things. But the thing that is firing up my synapses (metaphorically, and perhaps literally too, maybe …).

To get to the ‘guts’ of this blog post then, the thing that has been exciting me these past months is something many people consider to be a dull and boring thing. Those people though, fail to see the full depths of the idea, I feel. The Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, considered as the last of a line of great Roman emperors, firmly believed in this thing, this thought process, this way to live a good life.

So finally, here it is. The wonderful thing is Stoicism. Being a stoic, is explained well on the website that gave me these words to share with you:

“A brief synopsis and definition on this particular school of Hellenistic philosophy: Stoicism was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC, but was famously practiced by the likes of Epictetus, Senecaand Marcus Aurelius. The philosophy asserts that virtue (such as wisdom) is happiness and judgment should be based on behavior, rather than words. That we don’t control and cannot rely on external events, only ourselves and our responses.”

If you’d like to read more, the site the above description comes from would be a good one to read. I get emails from this site from time to time, and appreciate the insights I gain from the words I read. This particular part of the site gives some ideas to practise in life, to assist in achieving a more stoic attitude to the things life throws out. I was given a fantastic book for my birthday, and it told me much about how to be a stoic.

20190611_162519This is the book, and I thoroughly recommend anyone interested in Stoicism should get their hands on a copy of the book, and learn more there about it, as seen by the author Massimo Pigliucci. 

So that is what I am, or trying to be, a Stoic. I like ideas, I like philosophy, I like the idea of scaling back the ‘stuff’ in my life, and increasing the valuable things in terms of living a life that meets properly with Stoic ideals. An idea I like a lot, is to think on what it is I want to achieve in the day in the morning, first thing, and then to think on whether these things were achieved, and if not, to think on the reasons why they weren’t achieved. I’m not at that level yet, but I’m trying to get there. In small ways, both Facebook and Twitter prompt me to think on things wished for and actually achieved.

And of course, regular blogging can cover some of these ideas/ideals too, but in a rather slap dash way, I must admit. So my idea is this – to begin a new blog, focusing on Being a Stoic. Do I need to do this? Of course not. But looking at it as a stoic should, I can see this would be of assistance to me, to do regular posts about things I want to do, and then look at what I achieve. Like a diary in fact, but one that has an aspect of honesty, both to myself and others, as I put my thoughts and words up for consideration and comment, by others.

I will talk about this journey on this new blog, considering ideas, giving opinions, thoughts, and other things, always from the point of view of myself, and how I see things as I learn more about stoicism. I have thought about this plan, and can see no obstacles to achieving it.

A note to anyone not certain about the meaning of the word ‘Stoic’ or ‘Stoical’ the dictionary definition below gives clues, but doesn’t say much about the fuller truth of this philosophy:

“STOIC”

 noun
sto·​ic | \ ˈstō-ik  \

Definition of stoic

 (Entry 1 of 2)

1capitalized : a member of a school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium about 300 b.c. holding that the wise man should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submissive to natural law
2: one apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain

stoic

adjective

sto·​ic | \ ˈstō-ik  \
variants: or stoical \ ˈstō-​i-​kəl  \

Definition of stoic

1 capitalized : of, relating to, or resembling the Stoics or their doctrines Stoic logic
2: not affected by or showing passion or feeling especially : firmly restraining response to pain or distress  – ‘stoic indifference to cold’

So there you are, the word stoic is not only to be indifferent to cold, there is much, much more about it, and I hope you can learn more about it in my new blogsite!

The name of my new Blog will be “My Stoic Life”. When I have set up the new site, I will post a link to it on this post, and on other relevant places online. So please feel free to follow me on this new path in my life. And feel free to comment here, if you have anything to assist me in this journey!

 

 

 

domestic abuse

Why People Like Molly Hate Winter

carolyncordon

This is Molly:

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When Molly was young, she loved winter. She could go outside, running around in the rain, trying to catch rain drops in her mouth, and playing in all of the puddles everywhere. Then when she’d finish playing, she’d go back inside and have a lovely warm bath her mother would get ready for her.

But then, things changed. Molly would get in the bath to get warm, and wash off all the mud, like before, but her father would come into the bathroom and just look at her, not saying anything. His breathing would go funny, like he was running a race while standing there. Then he would start sweating then suddenly rush out of the room.

It took any joy out of having a bath for Molly, having her father there doing such strange things. As she got older, she began to understand what was happening, and Molly would only have a bath if she know her father was out, and wouldn’t be home until after she was out of the bath and dressed.

So that was one of the reasons why Molly lost her love for cold wet winters, having her own father staring at her naked body. But after Molly left home, when her father began lusting after her, as she realised later, she found more reasons to not love winter anymore.

Molly didn’t have a house to live in, once she’d left home. Sometimes there were houses she stayed in, when it felt safe to do that, but the best houses came with rules, and the worst houses came with men who would be like her father, lusting after her body, and doing things to her she didn’t like or want to have happen.

So if things were like that, with rules Molly couldn’t understand or like, she’s go, out on the road, and try to find places to sleep where she could make her own rules. But her own rules weren’t the proper ones, the legal ones, and Molly would often have to move on again and again. Molly didn’t like living with other people, she didn’t like talking about herself, she didn’t like the ‘interventions’ other people said she needed.

Molly got used to carrying her own things to keep herself warm no walls or heating needed. Molly lived on the streets, in holes, in empty places, staying as long as she could then moving on again when she had to, because other people arrived there to stay, or new building managers or owners came to do something with their building, fix it up, rent it out, and there was no room for Molly or others like her.

Winter with shelter in Australia, in particular in southern Australia, that is a nasty time, being rained on, unable to get dry, or to keep all of your things dry, sometimes, often really. When you’re homeless, making your own food is difficult without a kitchen of your own, and without the ability to store your food to keep it fresh. Sometimes Molly ate with others who lived on the streets, but she didn’t like it if people asked questions.

Molly had a story, but she didn’t feel the need to tell her story to anyone. She wanted to keep the shame of her story to herself. And freezing in winter, catching colds and worse, these things were part of her ongoing story. Walking around, carrying her bundle of blankets and other items she had, this was a way to get warmer, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed it. There wasn’t really anything much at all Molly enjoyed. There had been a cat, for a while, in a place Molly stayed at for a while, but the cat disappeared one day, and then Molly got scared by a newcomer, so she ‘disappeared’ too.

So Molly hates the cold and wet weather, Molly hates winter and so do many other homeless people. Winter is only good if you can get warm, and stay warm …