Tag: books

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Words & Books, and More Words & More Books!

carolyncordon

Writer, Poet, Blogger, Editor, I write things, because words are my main tools for what I love to do, to write, and to speak, and if I’m speaking in public, for a purpose, words will be written, probably to properly say what I really want to say.

And this year is definitely a year of words, and books for me! I put out a call for words to be written and sent to me, and I know have a book on its way to being printed, so it can be launched and then provided to all of the wonderful people who’ve sent in their responses as requested. This book, and anthology of both poetry and prose is a fine look at what creative people thought on, regarding Covid-19, from the serious to the ridiculous, and all things in between.

This book will be launched during the Gawler and Adelaide Plains Festival of Words (Recovery), and this Festival is another perfect storm of words, with writers, and poets doing thier thing in a variety of ways, in a variety of different places, taking words to the community!

And today, I’ll be talking with a friend and one of the things that will be mentioned is another book a book that may well be written, and then published next year, with a launch, perhaps, because, well who doesn’t like to celebrate a new book come into the world?! I love book launches! This book with be the fourth in a series of books begun way back, when my son was at Primary school. He’s now a grown man, working for a living, with his own house … Wow.

And of course, there are the things I do regularly, a writing group meeting every Thursday, Poetry reading every month, and the Festival, an annual event held in July, with the seventh such Festival happening this year 22-25 July. What fun, what lovely words!

And there will be workshops run for that Festival, and I hope attendees might end up writing their own new book, and have a book launch, so I can attend, and feel joyful for having been involved in that new book coming into the world, a precious time for sure!

And of course there are also books in the library, where I visit every month or so, to find some more books to read, then take back again, free of charge. I love libraries, and I’m glad to live in Australia, where our library system buys books, and loans them out to readers the way they do, it’s great!

Yes, I love words, and I’m so glad there are many people in the world who love books too! Do you love books? If you do, leave a message to tell us about it!

One of my books, and a brochure, all about multiple sclerosis, which I’ve written about, raising funds and awareness about my chronic illness …
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”!

inspiration, Uncategorized

It All Starts Tomorrow

carolyncordon

Today is the penultimate day of January, and I can almost say that tomorrow will be the first day of February, and that means it’s also the first day of February, and the first day of the month of creative writing prompts! I’ve been talking with members of my writing group about this, and the blog posts I’ve written about it, are on my Facebook page, and being read by some people.

I’ve put some links on my twitter accounts, and who knows how many people may have seen the information there. I’d like hundreds of people to be reading this blog post, obviously, but life isn’t like that – you have to work hard to get stuff like that happening in your life.

And my life is full of lots of different things, and I don’t have the time or the knowledge, understanding, or inclination to get all of those kinds of things done. In my ideal life, I’ll have a p/a, who will attend to the details, and I’ll be able to concentrate on the big picture stuff only. I’m not living that ideal life though.

Puss in Boots and I hape we all have a great creative month together, for February, with lots and lots of words written!

So I do what I can, what I want to do, what interests me the most, and what ‘floats my boat’. I get a huge kick out of inspiring other people to write, when they never realised creative writing was a skill they had. Giving feedback and encouragement taught me these things, and I’m grateful to the people who helled me in these ways. This February writing prompt idea is a way of giving to others.

Giving to others, helping them to write better, inspiring them to write, as a writer, of course I want others to write too, they’re my peers, and writers, are also readers, and of course writers and readers have a symbiotic relationship, giving to each other …

So the month of February will be a month of exploring ideas, writing on the new prompts I’ll be handing out, a new one every single day … And I’ve just today discovered that Writers’ Week starts in Adelaide, on the last day of this project, and that seems so appropriate to me, a month of new writing, ending with a great writing and listening and learning, as well as chat and schmoozing event, that brings together writers and readers from around the world, all getting together in the that little grassed space …

I’ll be there, for some of the event, not sure how many days, but at least two days, hopefully more. Writers Week always feels like I’m ‘one of the gang’ the gang of writers, sharing with others, and learning more and more about this writing world …

So this month of writing prompts starts tomorrow, the fun starts tomorrow (I hope!), and with luck, by the end of February, I may have enough poems for my next poetry collection! Or I may have a breakthrough and really truly get to work on my series of Cosy Murder Mysteries, or I may even turn the first draft of the novel I’ve written into the second draft, and have begun giving it to readers to make it into a publishable book, perhaps! You never know what might happen, when inspiration is in the room!

So I hope you’re feeling inspired for February to bring good writing, as I am, buckle in and be preapared to write and write and write!

writing opportunities

What is a Writers’ Lock-in?

carolyncordon

A writers’ lock in is when a group of writers all get together for a set period of time, and they write! Simple, yes? Yes it can be, if the group has a place available that has tables and chairs, and with food, drinks, and toilets available. Such a place is where my writing group meets every week.

It’s a hotel in Gawler, the Prince Albert Hotel, where the Adelaide Plains Chapter and Verse group catches up for our meetings at 4-6 every Thursday afternoon, and again on the last Sunday of every month, for the Gawler Poets at the Pub event, which has been going for over twenty years.

And every now and then, our group holds a Lock-in, and today is the day again, hooray. Personally, I have several writing projects I wish to work harder on, and not be bothered by chores at home, so today will be a great day for working on those projects, I can knuckle down and write, knowing that the other people there with me are doing the same thing, on their own projects.

The vibe in the room will be all about getting our words written, that’s it. There will be some talking too, of course, because that’s what humans do, but it won’t be lame rubbish nothing talk. Or hey maybe some of it might be, but that can help with the writing too, to have a joke too, so the pressure level doesn’t get too high. And there might well be some things the executive of the group needs to work on, and this will be a good opportunity for that too.

We’re very lucky to have this great hotel to work in,and work with, and they’re very lucky to have us there too. We have food and drinks there, and bring other people in too, when we have our events at the P/A. Many people have commented on what a lovely hotel it is, very historic, and with fine food, and a great range of drinks.

So I know the Writers’ Lock-in will be starting when the hotel opens at 11.30am, and will go through to 4, for our usual group meeting, and then there might be dinner after, for those interested in that. I hope to get lots done, but even if I don’t dramatically improve my work count, I will definitely get some sort of a start on all three projects.

If you live in or around Gawler, and you write, why not come and join us, you’ll be most welcome!

Writing

Working at Becoming a Novelist

carolyncordon

I have just begun looking at my “At Talloola” Cosy Murder Mystery series again, after leaving it and doing something quite different recently. I broke my ankle at the end of September last year, and my head was not interested in cozy mysteries, it was interested in my ankle. So instead of murders in a little village, I was writing poems about my broken ankle and related things.

Now though, now that ankle book, a poetry chap book is written, having 21 poems about my ankle. It is called ‘Angles on Ankles’, and is available from the publisher, Ginninderra Press, here.  I launched this book recently, and sold some copies, and have more copies available for sale ($5, plus postage) by simply asking me about it, in a comment.

So that poetry book is written now, so it’s time to get back to working at becoming a published novelist! The “At Talloola” Cozy Murder Mystery series is one avenue toward becoming a novelist, for sure, and I have several people who are wanting me to get on with that project, because they want to read them! I have to admit, I do too!

I also have another option though, a book that is already written, and here on my laptop, the first draft of a novel I began and finished quite a few years ago. I lost contact with that book, then discovered it again, sitting on our family PC, as if calmly waiting for me to be in the mood for it.

Once I found it, I did some word on it on my lap top, tidying up somethings, and working more on the story line, and ending. Then other things happened, and I left that one alone too, until now. So I have a bit of a quandary, which novel project do I run with? One stand alone novel, or a series of many Cozy Murder Mysteries, all with the same base cast of characters, and which I’ve begun doing a bit of work on.

I’m not sure, but I keep thinking there’s no need to choose which, I can do all of it, surely? Haha, of course I can, I am invincible! No I’m not, I’m an ideas person, but also a procrastinator … But my writing group is having a writers lock in, in just over a week, and that will give my several hours to put some good and steady work in on whichever I choose to work on.

I’m also without a car at the moment, so am basically stuck at home, mostly. So no excuses for not writing. So, I’ve sent the first chapter of the second book in my mystery series to a friend, because he asked to see it, and he liked it, so that’s another person wanting it.

But that novel in first draft stage, it’s been waiting for me to get on with it for about ten years, one little novel, already there in an early version stage, I can perhaps concentrate on that until the lock in? Maybe. I can at least spend a couple of hours on it today, perhaps to see what I actually have, and where it needs to go from now …

Yes, that feels like the best way, and if after putting this time in today, I decide I’m not that interested in it anymore, so be it, it can go on waiting. But that main character, and the others are still wandering around in my head, at the back, just reminding me now and then, that we’ve all had good times, getting the novel going, and plotted, and planned, and then written!

Yes, there are things that need fixing, but it’s there ready and waiting, and Laani and the other characters have been waiting for a long time. So that’s it, finish off this post, and get working on my novel, “An Ethical Dilemma”. I’m reading the book again, for the first time for some time.