Category: Public Speaker

Arts, meaning in life, Public Speaker, therapeutic writing, writing exercise

Being Normal Doesn’t Feel Like Me, And I’m Happy About That!

carolyncordon

The idea od being judged as ‘normal’ is of no interest to me, I don’t ever want to be ‘normal’ it feels so limiting! I’m a Word Nerd (a term I’ve only recently come across, and I know willingly embrace it! Words are the thing that draws all of the best things in my life togerther.

From reading and especially writing, to talking, and performing, and of course thinking, Words are what floats my boat! I love new words and ways to say things, I love intellingent conversation, listening to clever radio is my idea of the perfect driving companion, some of the time anyway.

Lots of people I know, ad those I don’t know (yet), might say the same, but I suspect I might take all of that in more unusual directions at times, that many others wouldn’t envision ever doing themselves.

The most obvious one is probably the Art Installation I Created, and am now Curating (a work in progress, and I’n expecting lots more actuon will be coming along on that one later on this year. And of course my desire to do work as a Stand Up Comedian is probably not what the average 60+ year old wants to take up doing …

But I have plans at foot, and hope to have a lot of fun doing this one for sure. The idea of performing as my persona of Nanna Carreau fills me with happiness! I offer humble thanks to Martin Christmas for his assistance with getthing the idea of this persona up and running!

That’s me dressed as Nanna Carreau on the left, the man on the right Len Dix is far better known than me (in motorsport circles especially)

This occasion was in Mallala, when there was an afternoon of classic cars when one of the roads was closed and the cars were there for people to see and learn about. So, with encouragement from someone I know, I dressed up and Nanna Carreau and had fun, and gave some of those in the crowd a bit of a giggle too!

Taking opportunities is something I’ve learnt to grasp with both hands, and am enjoying where some of it takes me! Soon, there may be something happening for me in the Barossa, if things pan out well for me, and if they don’t there will be other times, in other places!

Having books, and doing things with, and in libraries, that seems to be quite a good thing to do! And given the fact that I like talking to others, and I have books and thoughts, and a somewhat interesting life, well I think so anyway, I should be taking about it to others!

And who knows there may be book sales to come of doing that! Book sales and author talks, as well as doing writing related workshops are all classic ways for writers all around the world to earn money.

I’m a writer, and I know about these things. I’m just not that good (yet) at the marketing side of things. I’m working on that though, and I hope by the end of this year, I’ll be much better at it!

I’ve had a life, and I’m still having one, a different one in new ways, and I’m loving it! Not everyne would say the same, and I’m sad for those people. Perhaps a session with Nanna Carreau would cheer them up, and make them laugh!

Cozy Mystery, Public Speaker, writing prompts

A Day Late, But Here’s the Writing Prompt

carolyncordon

Yesterday was ‘one of those days’ and I didn’t get around to doing much at all regarding my blogging life … I did get some more of my current work in progress though, so I’m happy with that. I’m hoping I may be able to find a way to sneak this writing prompt I’m going to put up here, into my Cosy Murder Mystery, “Winds of Death at Talloola”, which is that current work in progress.

So here is the prompt, do with it what you will! What on earth was that?

So, I’m sure there’s a lot I could do with that writing prompt, given my current work in progress is a Cosy Murder Mystery … Things that go Bang! in the night anyone? My main character (Meredith) is at the moment beginning to wonder about the large number of deaths in her new little town, that she is beginning to call home, and falling in love with. But the local copper doesn’t like her, and doesn’t like her friend, Gert …

But Meredith is also friends with Mister, the dog who lives next door, and she’s going to use him as a warning system, in part, because she and Mister (and other dogs too, it seems), have some kind of an understanding … If Mister doesn’t like someone, Meredith will know to watch out for them too. And Mister is going to show Meredith that her initial distrust of this police officer was wisdom indeed …

This is Mister, a red kelpie something cross, former sheepdog, now, lounger around on the grass, and a fine judge of character in people, helping Meredith to stay safe …

Mister may look a little grizzled (or quite so, actually), but he, like Gert, still has all of his marbles, even though some around town may doubt that. If Mister doesn’t like you, you’re probably not a nice person, not at all.

So in my novel, perhaps Mister is going to help Meredith when there’s a big Bang in the night, and she goes out of her front door to see what caused the sound … I haven’t written any of that yet, but the prompt was there, and it seems like it will fit in well, for my story …

That is the thing about writing prompts, the best ones will have a connection with what is already in your head, or written down, and will, ideally, prompt lots of other useful ideas too. I sure hope this is going to help me to get lots more words written down. Writing a Cosy Murder Mystery series, as I am, seems like a grand idea, and with luck, bit by bit, I will eventually get to ‘The End’, and ‘Winds of Death’, book one in my “At Tallola” Cosy Murder Mystery series will be done. And then book two will be my obsession, as well as getting book one published, of course …

Cozy Mystery, Public Speaker

Excited About My Writing

carolyncordon

If a writer isn’t at least a little bit excited about their writing, is their really any reason to write? I’m talking about those of us who write for pleasure, rather than people who write reports for a living. People who do that could well still get a buzz out of writing a good report, but it may not live up to the huge boost of the writer who sells their first book.

Getting published is a huge rush of excitemnt for sure. Sharing our words with other, interested people, is a boost too, though, one that I definitely find exciting even after having done it for many years.

This writing prompt thing for all of February though, that’s something else entirely, sharing my love of words, and assisting other writers to come up with now ideas, brand new pieces of writing. Fabulous February I’ve been calling it, and I’m havng a good time with it, giving the writing prompt every morning, and then I’ve been using the new prompt myself to being a new piece of writing into the world!

Well eventually I will, if not straight away. When a poet is working to put together a poetry collection they need all of the inspiration and writing prompts they can find! And I am that poet, for sure. My poetry collection has a title, and it has some poems, it just needs more of them!

I’ve begun putting some of my brand new poems into the collection, and I’ve been thrilled at the way some of my new words fit in with the words already there. By the end of February, may there be at least twently more poems, to go wih other poems I have to include.

I’ve been looking through various places I have around the house with bags and folders, all with poems, pieces of writing that haven’t made it into anything yet, for one reason or another. Some of them where needing a little more work, others simply were misfiled, to be found later, perhaps edited a bit, made better, and woohoo, more poems to go into my new collection!

I also have a different writing project going on at the moment, and this is something I’ve been thinking about since last year, and was working on, but disaster struck, in the form of a broken ankle. This led to a brand new book, more poetry, this time a small collection, in the form of a chapbook, with 21 poems all about my broken ankle.

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So writing these poems was what I worked on from early October, until the book was published and launched in December. The book launch was certainly a good time, selling copies of my brand new book. But that excitement’s done now, time to go back to what I was working on, when my focus suddenly and painfully changed.

And what that project was, was the writing of a series of Cosy Murder Mysteries, all set in a fictictious town, which is modelled slightly on a town I know quite well. For this project I’ve used the same town and characters of something else I was working on last year, something that wasn’t working the way I’d hoped.

That other piece of writing wasn’t giving me a real buzz, not all of it. Working with the characters was good, exploring the town was, it was more that the genre of that book wasn’t working for me, it wasn’t something I read much myself, if at all. I wasn’t excited by it.

The idea of writing a series of Cosy Murder Mysteries, that certainly floats my boat! I can see myself in twenty years time, the beloved writer nearly fifteen mysteries in the ‘At Talloola’ Series with sleuth, Meredith Webster. I’ll be 76 then, and still working my way through my list of book titles, and I hope giving talks and workshops all around Australia, an internationally too. Haha, you gotta have a dream cos if you don’t have a dream, how’re gonna have your dream come true. (clumsily plagarised lined from that movie, you know the one)

Anyway, by then, Meredith will be living with her adviser in police matters, Travis, who by then will be the Mayor of Talloola, and Meredith will still be coordinating the town of Talloola, but as a retired lady of leisure … as well as still doing her samateur sluthing thing …

So that’s my career as a writer sorted out, and Meredith’s career as a fictional amateur sleuth sorted out too. There will be lots of things going on in my life and hers, “At Talloola”!

Public Speaker, Writing

Who Am I? What Am I?

carolyncordon

If you ask me who I am, I probably won’t give you the same answer that I may have given you fifteen to twenty years ago, and I most likely will have to think about the answer I actually give you these days. Twenty years ago, I probably would have said, in answer to the question: I’m Jake’s mum.

And of course, whether naming myself that, in answer to the question of ‘Who are you?’ is an interesting thing to think further on. I am Carolyn. That is who I am. But I am also Jake’s mum, for sure, I am proud to be the mother of this fine young man I carried into this world.

But I’m Carolyn Cordon, writer and poet, as well as President of Adelaide Plains Poets writing group, Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle newsletter, and a former dog breeder, breeding dogs with the Kennel name of Holkschter Kennels. I’m a former Public Servant, a onetime (failed) dog food promoter, and a couple of other smaller jobs, including the Mallala and Dublin Towns Coordinator, a role I enjoyed, but one I suffered many sleepless nights because of.

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The writer and poet jobs, have been with me off and on for the most years, and they are pretty well always happening every day. Writers and poets don’t really turn off after work in the afternoon, because our workplace is inside our heads, thinking, whether we’re doing it consciously or not. And my role as the Editor of the Crossroad Chronicle is one that happens on the weekend too, sometimes, if a community event of note is on, for instance.

Writers and poets, as well as editors, are always looking for the next big thing to write about, hoping to put together something of interest to their audience, through a story of whatever kind is relevant to their role. And I am another thing as well, I am a blogger, with a few different blogs, of differing subject matter. So – gardening, dogs, writing, child abuse, multiple sclerosis & stoicism, these are all things I blog about, so I am open to anything relating to them all, all of the time, because, well you never know what might happen in this brain of mine, when  things are in there swilling around!

I have a main character from my unfinished novel, Meredith, and even though I am probably never going to complete that novel, I still see things and think, yes, that’s something Meredith would think, or do, or have happen to her. Meredith is with me, whether I want her there or not. I brought her to life, and I’m not going to abandon her, even though she probably would like me to get her story moving along some more …

All of the things that happen to me, may happen to Meredith, or some other person in that novel or in my next poetry collection, or they may come up in the next issue of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, or one of my blogs. I am who I am, a wearer of many hats, and doing of many things. Life is full of things, good and bad, and I can use them all in various ways, in my life.

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And of course, I am a Public Speaker, looking for more work in that role, so I am looking for interesting, informative, amusing things to speak about too. Life truly is a basket of things, isn’t it. Thinking, writing, speaking, being, they all blend together in great ways for anyone and everyone who are interested and are paying attention!

Anyway, the question of Who I Am, is tied up to the question of What I Am, always. Do you have many roles too? And how do you respond to the question?

Public Speaker, Writing

I have Transferable Skills

carolyncordon

Dear Sir/Madam,

As a writer, I have many skills. I can type on a keyboard, faster than your average trained monkey, and my spoken language skills are infinitely superior to any parrot ever, living or dead.

I have written and read more and better poetry and short stories than probably any current member of the Australian Government. I know how to harness a pacer (harness horse), and how to prepare a Standard Schnauzer for the show ring.

I have a strong feeling for what makes a fine haiku or tanka, and am even able to write them as well! I can write a villanelle, a clerihew, and I am the person who first invented the Cordonostic Poetic Form (Google it).

My skills as an office worker were second to none in terms of slacking off whilst appearing busy, and I am proud to tell you that my Friday night drinks results surpassed what any man has probably ever achieved (my husband of over thirty years is offered as proof – his super pension is probably more than you are currently paid as a full time worker!)

All of the skills mentioned, are what are called transferable skills, and if you employ me, you will be amazed at what I do!

Yours sincerely,

Carolyn Cordon, Poet, novelist, short story writer, blogger, monthly newsletter editor, and so on …

I’m also as funny as a smelly fart in a crowded lift!