Tag: Editing an anthology

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The Book I’ve Edited Looks Fantastic!

carolyncordon

Yes, I caught up with the printer, and the man who created the front cover, and it looks fantastic! This book will be ready well in advance of the programmed launch date, and that feels like a good thing, no, a great thing!

When I decided I wanted to make this book, Plague Invasion Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19, I wasn’t sure of my abilities to do such a thing, calling for reponses from people all around the world. But those responses came, and they came, and putting them together in satisfactory way pleased me greatly!

And I was thrilled that the printer, who I’ve used before, liked what he saw in this book! So it’s on the way to being made beautiful, with all of the right things in the right places! It is so thrilling to have managed such an important book, and even though I will be out of pocket intially, I expect, with actual book sales, I will cover all of my costs, and start to make money.

Of course, if I factor in all of my own time, and the time of the various writers involved, that would paint a different picture of it all, but writers write for the love of it, and then, as I have, they may move into the ‘editing’ role, again for the love of it. I gave a lot of my life to this book, and I’m happy to see it looks like a worthy book indeed.

The front cover captures the craziness of this Covid time we’ve all been going through, and I have been thrilled to have given this role to a young man who has been studying Graphic Design at university, and from the way he was talking to the printer today, he knows what he’s talking about, and I was impressed when I was listening to them talking about ‘bleeds’ and ‘bleeding’.

My mystery writer mind listened in, and I wondered about the possibility of such a conversation being heard and misunderstood in one of my novels in the future! But I have lots of other bits of writing to work on, and that idea may have to wait until another time.

I was doing my ‘Writer in Residence’ thing again today, and enjoyed in very much again. Even though I didn’t get much money in my tin there, I did work at raising awareness, to some degree, talking to one of the regulars there about Multiple Sclerosis. Later on, I went to Gawler, where the printing business is, and doing some more fundraising, and awareness raising there, or I tried, anyway.

There will be another opportunity for that again later in the week, and on Monday next week too. After that, I will be taking my money raised to the MS Society SA & NT, to see how close I was able to get to my target of $1000. I fear I won’t hit that total, but I’m glad I’ve been working at it anyway, confident that I did the best I could with it.

So today was a great day for me, and I hope for another great day again tomorrow, when I do a Zoom meeting about ‘branding’, and perhaps some more of my novel written!

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When Closing Date Approaches …

carolyncordon

It seems to me poets, and possible all writers, love to leave things until the last minute. I state this based on my years of experience as the Competition Secretary for Adelaide Plains Poets, a group which has held an annual poetry competition since 2005.

We have a different theme for the competition every year, and I have the wonderful opportunity to read lots of interesting poetry, for free, when the entries land in my letter box. It would be better, for me, if these poets could send their poems in over the entire time period, from when we first put the word out, until the last week or so. That way, I’d be able to give a more considered reading to those poems that arrive in the final days, before I have to write them up and hand them over to the judges. Ah well …

But the closing date that I’m thinking about at the moment, is the 31 July 2020 date, which is the closing date for people wishing to submit work for the Plague Invasion anthology that I’m editing. This anthology is an interesting looking collection of writing about this crazy Covid-19 time, from the silliness about running out of toilet paper and being unable to get more, to the great time when dining out was allowed again, and a whole heap of other things, you may not have thought about.

toilet paper in its natural habitat

This book will have them all, and more. There will be a short writer bio from each contributor too, and I’m hoping to have a forward written by the mayor of Gawler, who is also a nurse, and so dealing with Covid-19 in a ‘close up and personal’ way. I wish her well, and not just because I want that forward! I’m also having the back blurb written by a well known South Australian poet, and fellow (and prolific and entertaining blogger) who is giving me a great photo for the back cover, that is closely related to the times we’re living in right now.

An image is on its way too, I’m informed, by the secretary of my writing group, whose talented son has put his hand up to provide the artwork for the front cover. This is a wonderful effort from friends, longtime ones and brand new ones, and working with other people in this way has been an awesome experience.

So, if you’ve been following the progress of this anthology, by reading be related blog posts here at my blog, or if this is your first introduction to it all, thank you for showing an interest in it, and if you want to get in the book, you’d better get a move on 31 July is getting closer, and closer! All contributors whose work is accepted with receive a free copy of the book, but residents from out of Australia will have to pay for postage.

You can send me your work, or ask for more details at my email address: kittycordo@gmail.com

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Stages and Pages

carolyncordon

Things have slowed down, with putting together the Covid-19 related anthology I’ve been working on, but I’m a bit excited (very excited, actually), to have another piece that may end up in this book.

The book will be called “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”, and it’s very close to being ready to prepare it for printing. I’ve spoken to the person who will provide the front cover image. I’ve spoken to the printer recently too, with hopeful results. Thing are progressing well.

I almost have all of the submissions needed for this anthology. There’s a broad range of works, poetry, prose, fiction, and non fiction, and I’m loving the words people has sent to me. If putting together an anthology is always this much fun, even when the subject matter is not always a fun topic, well, bring on anthology subjects, I may do another one, once Plague Invasion has been launched.

Hmm, an anthology about vegetables? Or perhaps Home Grown as a writing prompt …

No, I won’t think further about that yet, I’m busy on other things, although … No I’ll get on with the other projects already begun, and finish some of them before I get working on that idea. In the forefront of my mind anyway. There’s no telling where the back of my brain might go though, when I’m not watching!

I have to say, I think I’ve never had such a time of creativity in terms of my writing. In this Lock Down time, things are still happening. Online connections are safe and they’re fast, too. And ideas are flowing, a river of them, and all I need to do is catch one in my net, and get stuck into it! The anthology is the most important thing, but things progress at their own pace, and the times in between can be used on smaller things …

At the moment, this anthology is looking like 104 words, or so, with at least another six or seven pages of prose on their way (or at least I hope they are …). So there will be over one hundred and ten pages, and

Time lengthens, shortens, depending on stages and pages …

covid 19, Cozy Mystery

Book Cover Design

carolyncordon

I had a talk with the person who is going to ‘do’ the front cover of the book (an anthology of Poetry and Prose in response to Covid-19), that I’ve been seeking submissions for. I told this person, Patrick, my ideas for a possible cover image, and he told me his ideas. Patrick listened to my idea, which was nice of him, but we both agreed his idea is better. He is going to put some things together to show me when they are ready.

Some of my earlier books, a wide variety …

I like the idea of getting people, especially young ones, interested in things I do. This Anthology is attracting lots of interest from a broad range of people. Patrick is a student, who is in between things at the moment, as many others are also. His mother is a member of my writing group, the Secretary, actually, and Janette is working on a piece of prose to go in the book, so they can perhaps workshop some ideas about what they’re doing.

So this is another step in the process of getting this book up and running, a necessary step. A good cover can make a book, and a bad cover, while not necessarily ‘breaking’ a book, it doesn’t help. Patrick’s idea for the cover, give hints about what readers might find within the pages of the book, teasing them a little. I like that idea!

It’s still quite a while before this book comes into the world, but there are lots of people waiting, and that has to be a good thing. I have high hopes for this Anthology, and if it’s successful, there’s no telling what may come next. Perhaps ‘next’ will be a stepping back to the series of Cosy Murder Mystery books I’d been working on, when the whole Covid-19 thing hit us, and those cute little village mysteries seemed too small a thing to spend my writing time on.

The “Plague Invasion” anthology is a much more important and worthy thing to be spending my time on. Once things are back under some kind of control though, the world may be looking for something lightweight, and my own head may feel better about getting back to my amateur detective, Meredith, and the little town of Talloola, where Meredith does her detective, with her worthy helpers.

covid 19

A Note Regarding Poetry in “Plague Invasion”

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“Plague Invasion ” – It began as a short phrase in my head, and my poetry brain loved the assonance of the phrase and wanted to do more with the words. That ‘a’ sound in the two words seemed important, and worthy of something, something big. I could have written a poem, an important and worthy one. But I wrote something else, I wrote this blog post, and so it all started.

“Short poetry forms give the opportunity to share more thoughts, because four haiku will fit easily on one page … and so one ‘suite of Haiku’, can count as one poem. This may well mean each contributor will be able to share some more of their thoughts, poetically than for instance, on three lined Haiku, they will be able to submit for of them all on one page, as I did in this blog post, previously.

Hmm, I’ll write a post about that, and perhaps will received more small poems to showcase in this book. Haiku and the related Senryu, Clerihew, Tanka, Clerihew, Limerick. An A4 page of one of each will be one submission regarding poetry. The Editor has spoken!”

This was a comment on that previous blog post titled ‘Lines While in Lock down’. The comment was from John Malone, a friend and poet, who is again going to write a back blurb for a word related book for me, this book, . John is a regular commenter on this blog, and I value his thoughts. They often add value to what I have written.

John writes poetry, with a particular skill with short and pithy little poems, which he shares on his blog. In John’s small poems can be much that is important to think on. And isn’t that what good poetry can do, scale back the huge truths that are there, and present it to you, in a neat little package your mind can then unpack and think further about …

So, given all of these thoughts, the upshot is that I, as the editor of this worthy book, “Plague Invasion”, will accept submissions of a page of short forms of poetry, as one ‘poem’. So a ‘suite’ of five Senryu, for example, will count as one submission of poetry. I hope this is understandable, and if you need further clarification, post a question on this blog post, and I will do my best to answer any questions regarding this.

If you want to be involved in this, send poetry and/or prose to kittycordo@gmail.com – up to three poems of thirty lines or fewer, and/or up to 3,000 words of prose in up to three pieces. I will consider your submission, and let you know if it is accepted for this anthology. Contributors whose work is accepted will receive a free copy of the book. If they are Australian residents, the book will be posted to them, if they cannot attend the book launch.

People residing outside of Australia will receive a copy of the book on payment of the cost of postage and handling, with will be advised at a later time, when the costs is known. Stay well, write about what you’re experiencing, and we may meet up at the launch of this book. In the meantime, stay in contact here, on my blog, it’s my home away from home, at my home!

I value any feedback, please leave comments here, we can discuss things further.