Tag: book review

Uncategorized

Being Back on the Radio

carolyncordon

I loved being back at PBA FM, after being away from there for so long! Formerly, I’d been there as one of the presenters of the ‘WORDS OUT LOUD’ Program (I’m fairly sure that was the name of the show). Today I was there as a guest for Nick and Beth, on their program, Short and Sweet Spoken Word.

The three of us talked about what I’ve been doing word-wise lately, so I jumped at the chance to talk about some of what I’ve been up to. So of course I jumped at the chance!

Talking on the radio is something I’m quite good at, as it turns out. I’m not any use at the mastering the panel thing – I know I was trained in it quite a few years ago, but my brain said, nup, don’t wanna do that, so the lesson fell though.

That didn’t matter, because Nick and Beth were there, managing that part, and they kept it all going nicely! I was able to speak about my writing, poetry, blogging, editing of a newsletter, and creation of an Art Installation.

The presenters had a copy of that newsletter, so could see what I was doing with that, and that led nicely on to the RUST & FOUND Art Installation – because after Beth had got that newsletter up on her screen, she could see some of the pictures of found objects that have become a part of that Art Installation.

So we spoke about that, and also the recent event Beth and I were both at, in Gawler, the Gawler MAP event, where the Governeor of South Australia was recently a guest, and did a fine job of it.

And once we’d finished talking aobut me and my writing, Beth had a kind of quiz, for Nick and I to think on, and answer. She had a list with two versions of particular words (one correct way to say the word, and the other incorrect way, and we had to choose which was the correct pronunciation.

And because this was radio, Beth read out the two versions of the words, because just showing us the words would make ‘dead air’, instead of fine radio! It was fun.

Being on the radio is something I’m happily do more of, if and when I can! Just don’t ask me to ‘man’ the panel, because I just can’t do it!

And being able to talk about the Art Installation was an awesome opportunity! While the Art Installation has now been largely created (on and along my front fence!), there are still spaces to be filled!

And my walking of our dog and looking for (and finding) rusty items of interest (to me and viewers of this Installation too, I hope), well this is keeping the dog exercised, and me too, so we’re both keeping fit and healthy!

And the curation part of the Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation is keeping my brain healthy as well, and I consider the various aspects of what I’m doing – the placement of objects, whether or not items are and aren’t relevant for this installation …

I don’t think the Installation isn’t ever going to be completely finished, for as long as I go on walking, which I hope to do at least four or more times a week! And putting it together and considering the placement of pieces is only a part of it, because there’s the promotion aspects too, as this Radio session was to some extent.

And of course the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, the newsletter I edit is a perfect avenue for me to talk about what I’m doing with our front fence! And the even more exciting part of that is that the Adelaide Plains Mayor is going to Open the Art Installation for me!

And not only is he going to open it, he will be speaking about a particular rust item form his own place (and I hope), giving it to me to be put on display as a part of the Redbanks RUST & FOUND Art Installation!

And if it turns out he’s only showing it to us for the purpose of his talk, and he takes it home with him again that will be fine too. After all, there are over four hundred individual items on and along our fence and front gate! And that number is growing, every time I head outside!

In fact this morning, I and my support worker/Installation assistant placed out a much larger item, a nice big rusty Exercise Bike, that had been left idle on our front veranda for goodness knows how many years. It’s now got a proper role in life!

I think I’ll have to write a poem about that! I’m going to write a book, a non fiction book, with the working title of “Rust & Found – the Making of the Redbanks Art Installation’. The book will have some poems about this project, including some poetry about some of the items.

I suspect the work on that book will be a lot more ‘on the way’ than it is right now whn the Installation is Opened, but it won’t be published then, it will be quite a bit later.. The Opening of Installation is happening on 5 May this year, which is only a couple of months away …

Another relevant time to have a book out might be for the Gawler & Adelaide Plains Festival of Words – Scenes, which is happening at the end of July this year … But I think it’s not going to be ready then either. Festival 2025 – that may be the time to launch that book. It gives me a deadline that is reasonable, and do-able.

And when that book comes out, you can bet I’ll be looking for more opportunities to go on the radio again then!

Uncategorized

Regarding my first Book Review here

carolyncordon

I was sent a book, a poetry collection, with a note asking me to post a review on Amazon. This was after some online discussion with the writer of the book, which is a poetry collection. After reading the poems in the book, I was ready to post such a review.

But Amazon is not a literary organisation, where the written word is a thing of beauty, to be treasured and treated well. Instead, to Amazon, a book is just another thing to sell and make money from. And because I am a mere poet and writer, as well as being a keen library user, I don’t buy books from Amazon, and so they don’t care what I think about any books written by other people, and I couldn’t leave a review.

But I am a blogger, as well as poet, and writer, and so I am going to use this blog, to post my review of the book I was sent, because that will at least be in the spirit of meeting my obligation to the sender of the book. I enjoyed reading this poetry collection, if ‘enjoy’ is the correct word for it. It is a good collection, for many reasons, which I will go into, obviously, in the review I will be writing and posting on this blog, once I have finished writing this post.

So, if you wish to read what I say in my first book review posted on my Writer blog, take a look later on today, and you will see it! Poetry is certainly a genre I feel fully qualified to write a review about. I may not have a degree in literature, but I have read, written and heard much poetry, both contemporary and older. I personally write in many forms of poetry, with no particular preference over rhyming or non rhyming poetry.

I feel that point is a thing a poem will often tell the poet they must use. And some poets hold strongly to the idea that poems must rhyme. I have no further thought on that, beyond the fact of what I do myself. If a poem tells me to use rhyme, I use rhyme, if the poem says free verse, the same, I use what the poem tells me to use.

So now is time to take another swig of my coffee, before it gets cold, and eat some of my delicious lunch of nuts seeds and dried fruit, and then thus fortified, launch into my first book review! (By the way, if you like the review I write, and think you’d like me to review your book, why not send me a copy! My contact details are available on this website.)

So Ciao for now, and I’ll be back soon. I have a review to write!

********

Back again, here is the link to the review I wrote and posted to my site. If you have a book you’d like me to review, send a copy to me, and it may well happen!