I have so much going on right now, in my life as a writer/poet/blogger/editor, I barely know which way to look!
But the prioritisation of the tasks to be done is more or less under control, I think. I may be deluding myself about that, but time will tell, at least I hope so. I know what I will be doing every day, if there is something important I must do, because I use the calendar on my mobile phone, and I always take my phone with me, wherever I am. Except for when I go to bed.
Sleep is an important part of the day, and I value my sleep, so when I go to sleep, my phone does as well, turned off and up the far end of the house from my bedroom. Its cheeps and chirps will NOT wake me up, so I sleep well!
Having, and using that calendar has been a welcome tool to help me keep on track with what I have to do in my life. I also have a diary now, which I am trying to use as well as I the calendar … And a further tool I will be thinking about getting into my box of useful things to use, and that is a five year book for the writing down of important little things. This book has the title of ‘One line a day’, and has the room for five separate one small piece of writing, on every page. It is diary form, but with space for more than just the one year.
So I am to write down my snippet of interest on the relevant day, including the year it comes to my mind. And eventually, I might have a book filled with pith little sayings, that will be of much interest to people interested in such things, when I become famous. Haha!
The most important thing coming up at the moment, that is written about in both the mobile phone, and my diary, is the upcoming launch of my next book! This is exciting news, and I certainly wasn’t going to forget to go to it! But writing it up shows how important it is to me!
The book is my next Poetry Collection, titled ‘Leonard Cohen Is Dead’, and I honestly believe this is my best collection written yet! And today I was at an event in the Civic Centre in Gawler, the town where my writing group meets. I had to be there, for a couple of reasons, because firstly, one of our group members was one of the three presenters, and secondly one of the other presenters is the person who will be launching my book for me, and I wanted to show my solidarity to him, as a sign of respect!
When writers are able to do things like this, it leads to an even stronger connection happening. Being a writer can have the lonely times, with just you and the page/screen, putting down your words in the hope of eventually connecting with readers …
I have to get the next issue of the newsletter I Edit for my town too, and I plan to do a lot of work on that tomorrow, when the house will be mine (and the dog’s too), and all I need to put my mind to will be getting myself coffee as needed, putting out the call for pieces for the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle newsletter, and then heading off to Gawler for the writing group meeting …
I have to do this every month, and while I do enjoy doing this, it is about the only thing I occasionally feel stressed about, when or if I don’t have enough done, and the end of the month is approaching, which is when the Chronicle is due to be printed and then distributed! But I’ve seen for myself that the world doesn’t actually end if the issue doesn’t actually come on for the intended month, but is released in the following month instead.
The fact that it was out of my hands, and there could be no blame laid on me over it helped, but I still felt a bit stressed about it. It felt so wrong for the month to end without the next issue of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle coming out! It was eventually out though, so that was fine. I hope the May issue is out on time though! So tomorrow, I will do all I can to get the issue almost ready to be sent off to be printed!
And of course, there is that ongoing Cosy Murder Mystery I’m supposed to be writing … I think I’ve done my homework to hand in tomorrow, which relates to the homework given last week, to present at the next group meeting (tomorrow). And I’ve got my next poetry collection to add more poems to … It’s going to be a chapbook this time, rather than a full collection, so that takes off the pressure a bit. And I don’t have a time frame, or due date for that, but I would like to have it ready to be published, by July next year, if I can.
So I’m thinking about that one too, and hope to continue with those thoughts, but there’s no stress for that one, it won’t impact anyone apart from me. So most of this stuff is totally under control, and is exciting, but not stressful, and these are busy times, but good times!
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 