Tag: coronavirus

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Getting New Book ‘Out There’

carolyncordon

When you have a new book, and you are the publisher as well as writer of that new book, there are certain things you are legally required to do. So today, I sent one copy of my new book to the National Library of Australia, and another copy of the book to the State Library of South Australia. This is a necessary thing for publishers to do with new books.

So as I am the ‘publisher’ of my books, as well as the editor of this particular book (an anthology), it’s my task to deal with this part of the publishing process. It costs money, of course, to post books, but it might well lead to further book sales, and also to having copies of my book in libraries. And having books in libraries can lead to even more money being made, through Publis Lending Rights. Yippee.

I am far better at writing than I am at marketing, but I am very slowly getting the hang of it all. It’s a necessary process, but my brain whispers to me that the writing is the fun part, and it’s not interested in that marketing stuff. Naughty brain!

I love this new book though, and want to share it with as many people as possible, so I’ll do my best to be a book marketer, as well as editor, and writer … I put the word out recently to some of hte members of my writing group, that it would be great if one of us got into that side of things, for various group members, but it seems I’m the one who does the most of it, so, maybe I should step up and be that person …

But it would be great to find someone wishing to do these sorts of things, an agent I suppose, who may take on all of the ‘Adelaide Plains Poets’ group, as their clients … We don’t just write poetry, and some of us don’t even write poetry at all, but write books, fiction, and non fiction.

Being a writer, if you do it well, can bring in money, and while the money isn’t the main reason most of us write, it is certainly a welcome part of it all, if and when it happens. I’d happily do a lot more speaking in public, I like to do that, but the idea of being the person to book in for such things doesn’t make me happy at all.

That’s the kind of thing an agent would take over, if there was one their to perform that task … I’m so bad at these things, I haven’t even mentioned the name of my new book, nor plastered the screen with an image of the front cover, even though I love my most recent front cover.

So a gentle slap to make myself get onto this task – My most recent book, due to be launched on 25 July is the anthology – Plague Invasion, a fabulous book, with poetry and prose from writers from Australia and some from writers overseas. The variety and quality of the submissions was excellent, and I’m proud to be the person who brought it all together, to put it out as a book to tell the world how this whole Covid thing has been …


And this is what the cover looks like:

Book launch details, and book cover.

So this is what I’m proud of at the moment, this book and the wonderful contributors who gave me their best, many thanks to you all!

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And So The Book Is Here, Let The ‘Fun’ Begin!

carolyncordon
This is possibly my most important book yet …

I have written about important subjects in the past, Chronic Illness, Sex Abuse, for instance, and they are certainly both important subjects, but more on a personal level. This new book I have edited, ‘Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19’ is an important book on a global level, and may well become even more important historically, who knows.

I just know that when the phrase ‘plague invasion’ invaded my mind back in April 2020, I had to do something imporant with the phrase. That important thing, was to put the phrase ‘out there’ (online on this blog, and other places online), and see what happened. What happened is this book. An anthology of poetry and prose, filled with words about this awful coronavirus.

The responses go from the silliness of nursery rhymes, to the seriousness of brutal attacks and a wide variety of ideas in between. Covid has hit us all, but we are hitting back, remembering, reporting on, what has been going on.

So I am thrilled that I have produced this book, and humbled by the way others have stepped up to help me make this important document come to life, in the form af a book, a book well worth owning! If you sent me something to go in this book, and gave me permission to include it in the anthology, would love it if you sent me a message with your postal address, so I can get your free copy of the book.

Further copies will be available to contributors at the special price of $15 Australian dollars. If you would like futher copies, tell me, and I can include those copies too.

And if your words are not in the book, but you’d like a copy, the pre launch, and Festival price is $20 Australian dollars. The price after the Festival will be $25. The ‘Festival’ is the Gawler & Adelaide Plains Festival of Words, which will run from 22-25 July 2021. The launch of this book will be at 3pm on Sunday 25 July at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler South Australia.

So if you’d like a copy of this book, please let me know, I have nearly 100 copies of the book, just picked up from the printer today, and they’re all looking for a new home!

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An Idea, A Need To Do Something …

carolyncordon

Back in April last year, as Covid-19 took over our lives, we wondered how were would manage it all. My mind grabbed onto the phrase “Plague Invasion” and wouldn’t let go of it. I felt I had to do something. The ‘something’ I decided to do, was to edit an anthology, on the theme of Covid-19, the disease that was killing people all around the world, including my country of Australia.

So I reached out to my writer friends, both locally and overseas, and the result is almost ready to go out into the world. I’ve written further about the whole process – See here for me details. It’s a fine book, and I am proud to have edited it, to make it the book it is!

So I have this, my ninth book, on its way, with another coming in next year, a poetry collection to be published by Ginninderra Press, who have already published two of my poetry collections. And there is another book in the thinking about stage, which will be something quite different to this serious Covid-19 book, the fourth book in my ‘Buster the Dog’ series.

I just need to get my part of the book written, and the person who is going to join me in getting this fourth book done, getting her part written. Then there will be the images that will need to be drawn and decided on. But in the meantime, I will be concentrating on ‘Plague Invasion’!

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

Ignorance Or Fear? Or Both?

carolyncordon

This Coronavirus crisis is a scary time, and the word ‘unprecedented is being used a lot. These are unprecedented times, in this century for sure, and for most of last century too, unless you include the Ebola virus that killed thousands of people, and the SARS Virus too, back in 2003. and there was MERS as well, in 2012.

But none of those were as bad and this current pandemic, with Covid-19, in terms of deaths, or spread. Apparently the Antarctic is the only continent without any Covid-19, as far as my ‘research’ has shown. My research was a couple of Google searches, one of which led me to an interesting Antarctica-related article concerning a cruise ship that had Covid-19 problems, which were all recorded by one of the medical people on the boat. The numbers of negative and positive people on the boat gave some very interesting results.

When you have asymptomatic people with a disease, only testing can let you know the truth of things, and when some of the testing gives false negative results, things can be tricky indeed. On that particular boat though, Everyone was tested, and tested very often, and everyone was aware of what the situation was. Apparently one of the affected people died.

These are sobering statistics. The people on that boat were very aware of what their situation was, and all were more than happy, by the look of it, to take part in the necessary testing. And being on a boat, that was out on the water, there weren’t any options apart from going along with what had been deemed necessary. And I suspect the kind of person who would go on a cruise such this one where you are looking at scientifically interesting things, would be well aware of dangers if things with this virus took off.

So back in Australia, where are we? There’s understanding, ignorance, and denial, there are people who don’t care, ‘cos ‘We’ve all gotta die of something, don’t we?’ Arrogant ignorance, perhaps the most dangerous kind, because what can you do with people like that? Abject fear, being too afraid to even go outside at your own place, that’s going too far, regarding being careful, perhaps, but at least it won’t harm others.

The people who can be dangerous to the broader population are the ones who make no changes to their behaviour, and possibly are unknowingly spreading Covid-19. And what of the people involved in the recent “Black Lives Matters” protests/rallies in America, and in Australia? These events have inspired, interested and enraged different people. Social distancing issues were raised, and some questioned the wisdom of such events.

Others were anti such things for quite different reasons. Reasons of racism, for sure, in some cases. But it seems organisers did the best they could to enforce or at least strongly encourage, social distancing, as much as that is possible. Certainly, there were some instances of people being too close together, that I saw on the television. but for most of what I saw from Australia, the crowds were at least trying to stay apart to some extent.

But is it enough, and what about shoppers at supermarkets these days of ‘opening up’ and reducing the restrictions that kept us all at home and separated. If there are increases in numbers of Covid-19 affected people, will it be those people, or will it be those who were protesting? Should fears for our health keep us home, and let others risk their health, while Aboriginal deaths in custody still happen at terrible high numbers? From what I’m told about one of the events, most of the protesters were wearing masks, and were keeping socially distanced.

And with the protests in Sydney, the police did bad things for sure, from what I’ve read. Herding protesters into smaller spaces with exits closed off. It could have been a breeding ground of infection, and only time can tell whether it has been or not. Whose fault? Protesters for being there, or police? I know what I think …

These are unsettled times for sure, keep safe, but remember the lives of those who aren’t safe, and think on doing what you can, to help them keep safe too.