Category: covid 19

covid 19

Step By Step, Inch By Inch …

carolyncordon

When you have the time, no looming deadline, you can afford to allow things to move along slowly, with the idea that they will move smoothly, and well. That’s how things are travelling along at the moment for my, with the Covid-19 focused anthology I’m putting together in the final stages, before I send a copy to an interested publisher, and then to talk to them about how we can possibly work together to make this book a best seller!

I need interested people to tell me exactly how interested they are is seeing this big idea of mine turn into an even bigger idea, and then an actual book, with nearly 120 pages! And that’s just at the moment, that page number. I’m still waiting on two, no make that three things that are definitely on the way, and another page that is a maybe.

And there are probably one or two more things right now in my email inbox, waiting for my to look at and decide on. Putting together an anthology like this (a phrase I love, big idea, idea grows even bigger, other people get excited, and join in, and then an editor of a publishing house I know and admire gets involved too, and BANG, this is potentially huge!

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

I’m back again, and yes, there was an interesting email there, which has given me two great poems, and an idea for a possible new work role … I’ll talk about it in another post soonish. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday or Tuesday. It seems to be a role I’m quite good at …

So the foreword is written and will be sent to me soon, there are more things, as I said, on the way, and who knows what tomorrow may show, when I log in to my email inbox tomorrow!

Life is going well, for me, but I’m intensely away of how it’s going badly, terrible badly, for others. So stay safe, friends, and stay as well as you possibly can.

covid 19

The End Approaches

carolyncordon

Very soon, we will be at the closing date for submissions of poetry and/or prose for the “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”, and once we hit that date, that will be it. There will be no more submissions accepted.

And how does that feel? Well, it means that part of the work will be over, and it will be time to get stuck right into the next part. I have around 110 pages of the book almost ready to go, still a few little things to add, once I put the word out, asking for them, and they arrive. It’s been a great time putting all of this together, and I thank all of the great poets and writers who have sent me their work for possible inclusion in this anthology.

Oh course, when I wrote that title for this blog post, well, it’s not the end of the whole thing, there are still a good few steps to go. I’m still waiting on those other things I mentioned, and once they arrive, I need to place them in their correct place in the book. I still don’t have either the front or back covers, but they are more or less on their way. Once I get them, and everything else, I will have to finish off the pagination for the content section. There are ways to get this done for me, by my lap top, apparently, I’ll have to look into that.

Once that’s all done, and ready, all of the bits and pieces where they should be, I will need someone to read it, let me know of anything that needs more work on it. If they see any flaws, or work to be done, I’ll have to attend to that. And once that is all done, and good, Time to decide how many copies I will need for the book launch, and beyond, how many needed for sending copies out to all of the Australian contributors, and getting their postage addresses if I don’t already have them.

Some of the out of Australian contributors will be wanting copies, so I will get those copies printed too, and extra copies as well to have on hand if and when other copies are needed. I’ll have to send a copy to the National Library, and the State Library of South Australia too. Once I have the numbers of copies needed, then I head off to see the printer, and there the file is worked on to get it ready for printing, and then yes, the book gets printed, hooray.

I have to organise the book launch then, and get together a list of the people to invite along for that. I love book launches! I know where the launch will happen, and that part of it will be easy to organise. I know the venue well, and the people there know me well too. Exciting times.

Will it happen this year, or next? I don’t know yet. But the launch will happen on the last Sunday of a yet unknown month. It can’t happen before September, and that gives me plenty of time. If it happens next year, that might be better, in terms of people who can actually get there for the launch, I hope. And of course if there’s no halt to this Covid-19 crisis, there will be a limit on the number of people who can actually attend the launch anyway …

Who knows when the end for that might come?

covid 19, Uncategorized, writing opportunities

First Idea, Isn’t Necessarily Best Idea …

carolyncordon

Today was a day to visit, rather than a day to write … I did talk about my writing project though, when I visited my Mum, and she is thinking about what she may write if she actually writes something for the anthology I’m currently working on. I’m not demanding she write for me, but she knows I will be happy to receive something, if she does write it.

I’m not a demanding kind of person, asking, with no pressure is more my style, and that is working well enough for this Anthology I want to publish. The idea of having lots of different sesponses from a range of people, all about Covid-19, and the crazy times it has brought to us all, seems like a great thing, and I’m thrilled with both the quality and quantity of responses received, so far, and there’s still a few weeks to go until the submission closing day.

This image is a silly front cover image that occurred to me when I first started work on this project:

First idea, not best idea!

Having ideas, and being prepared to drop them when better options come along is an important thing in writing, and in life too, isn’t it? So when I was able to speak with a young man with artistic abilities far better than mine, and saw he was very interested in assisting me with the front cover of this book, I was thrilled. I’m sure the front cover of “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19” is going to be much better than the photograph as above, that was my first idea.

When I had the idea for this book thought, that I put out the word for submissions for an anthology about Covid-19, and gather them all into a fabulous and historical book, well, that first idea is still a fabulous one, no need to change it. It has grown, though, and the format has slowly came into being, and without being too overly prideful, I think it’s going to be a great and interesting book.

We’re living in times not many of us have ever had to deal with before, and different people have different thoughts and ideas about this time. We went from silly toilet paper things, to more nuanced ideas about community, politics, and a great number of other things. I look forward to getting this book finished, and launched.

I feel like this was a task I had to do, and while I know I’m not the only person with the idea of writing something about this time, I feel my book will be one of the books to show a wide range of the responses of people to this strange time.

So I’m still collecting more submissions, and if you’d like to have your work considered, this is what I’m looking for:
Poetry – up to three poems of up to thirty lines
and/or
Prose – up to three pieces, of 400 words or more, with a total of prose of up to 3,000 word.

If this interests you, please send work to me at kittycordo@gmail.com – I’ll let you know promptly if I would like to use your work. There is no payment for works accepted but accepted contributors will receive a free copy of the book, and extra copies required will be at a lower cost. I will sell copies out for free, to Australian contributors, and with contributors from other countries, will ask for postage to be paid for.

As I said, I hope this is interesting to you!

covid 19

My Writer Life

carolyncordon

At the moment, in my lock down Covid-19 life, I’m performing a variety of roles, mostly from the comfort of my sofa, with laptop on my lap, or at the computer.

I am the Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle monthly newsletter, I’m the competition secretary for Adelaide Plains Poets national poetry competition (entries closed last Friday, I have to write up the most recent poems that have come in, and take photocopies of the entries accepted via email, because of possible postal delays. And I’m also collecting submissions for an anthology about this Covid-19, which is making life difficult for so many of us.

But today, I was able to send some of my books to a purchaser, who will pay for them, as soon as she can, and this woman is expecting to enjoy reading my words, once the books arrive, as I have enjoyed reading the words she has written in her entries to that poetry competition I’m organising. Making connections, whether in real life or online, the honesty is beautiful, and words will further connect us, for who knows how long.

Friendships maintained can keep us safe, from many things in life, let’s hope this friendship will keep going, and who knows when I finally get my passport organised, and travel to New Zealand, we are sure to meet up. She lives just up the street (30-40km?) from my brother, who I will be staying with if or when I get to NZ.

Life hey? I love the way connections like this happen. And one of the poems this person entered in the competition, refers to Covid-19, and I will be glad to have it in the anthology I’m working on. Swings and roundabouts, it’s awesome. Did anyone mention toilet paper? Oh yes, plenty of people did … I’m so looking forward to having this anthology finished and launched, so I can meet more of these wonderful writers who have shared their word with me.

And before that, we will be announcing the winners of the Poetry Competition, and I don’t know yet, if that can happen in real life, or if it will have to be an online thing. This is in a month’s time from now, or a bit earlier actually, and things are still a bit up in the air, on the question of what is safe … But at least I have enough toilet paper, for now, anyway.


covid 19, New Ideas

Scrabbling for Comments

carolyncordon

Hmm, I was expecting, or at least hoping, to have gained some kind of response from others, in relation to my previous blog post. I know, or at least thought, that Scrabble is a game much loved by wordsmiths … I certainly enjoy playing Scrabble, with its focus on words, placed strategically, surely those are skills of writers!

A large vocabulary is a benefit to both writers and Scrabble players. But knowing words, without having the strategic smarts to place them for maximum scoring options, or having the misfortune to just get useless letters, can lead to bad/losing scores in games, as I well know.

Anyway, even though I posted a poem, with zero responses to it, that won’t stop me writing poetry. I am my first reader of my won poetry, and I am the reader I must satisfy first, before my poems go any further.

And I enjoy writing blog posts too, and having one or two, or ten or twelve readers (or more) of my blog posts is a satisfying thing. I read of bloggers with thousands of readers, and followers, but if I am able to connect, fully connect with few others, I am happy those followers are people of quality, who are, or become my friends, whether or not we will ever actually connect in real life.

I have various fun ways to get my words ‘out there’ another favourite of mine is in being Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, the monthly newsletter I put together then have printed, and then pick up and distribute around Mallala and beyond. I also put it up online on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/40710

And of course, I’m still putting together the “Plague Invasion” anthology, and I’m thrilled with the quality of works I’ve received in response to my request for submissions. See more about that here: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/carolyncordonwriter.wordpress.com/2018