Tag: multiple sclerosis

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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 …
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Writers Are Never Just Writers

carolyncordon


Yes I’m a writer, but I’m a wife, daughter, mother, dog lover, community person, and many other things too. I am also a person living with Multiple Sclerosis.

As that last one, I’ve just begun fundraising for the MS Society SA & NT, and held an event at the most recent Gawler Poets at the Pub event on the last Sunday of April. A reasonable amount of money was raised, and I say thank you to everyone there who helped with giving my fundraising a good boost!

I’ve set myself the target of raising $1000 by the end of May, and currently have more than $220, so I’m on the way, but I have to keep moving with it, or my efforts will peter out, and not be as exciting (and useful) as I’m hoping for.

I’ve never really done a big fundraising thing before, and I’m grateful for the help from my writing colleagues, the MS society, and the two venues I attend regularly, the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler, and Gallery 14 in Hamley Bridge, who have assisted me with this.

I will have my official collection tin, and brochures and stickers, and I will be chatting with people about how MS is for me, and how it can be for other people, some of whom have far worse symptoms than I currently am having.

My MS life is not that much of a trouble at the moment, my medication is easy to take (one tablet a day) and it seems to be working well for me. I live a relatively stress-free life, and try to eat a nutritionally sound diet (most of the time, oops with that lovely waffle the other day at the Prince Albert Hotel! It was worth it!)

So yes, I am now a fundraiser, and will be for all of May, if you see me, ask me about MS, and if you can, put some money in my tin. Raising awareness is important as well as raising money. Did you know that of the people in Australia with MS, 3 out of 4 of them are women? And even though men are less likely to have MS than women are, men tend to be more badly affected than women …

Why is this so? Who knows, not me, but I’d love to chat with people about some of my ideas on the subject, and others, relating to MS!

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Getting the Word Out

carolyncordon

Writers can be shy and retiring types of people, who humbly sit at home, tapping or writing out the words that express whatever it is they feel compelled to express. The writing is the point of who they feel themselves to be, they are writers, they write.

But when you have words that have come together to form a book, and that book is published, then comes a completely other stage of the process, the marketing stage … These days, the writers who sell their books are those who can also to at least a reasonable job of selling themselves.

This may be simple talking about their books, to interested people, whether individually, or in group situations. Or in might be on the radio, or even television. These things can be more than the writer first thought they’d have to do …

The good writer needs to be a good presenter to, to give their words the best boost possible, and attract the interest of possible book buyers … It is a learning curve I’m doing my best to get my focus on, and tomorrow, I’m going to be getting the word out about one of my books.

That book is the memoir I wrote after I was diagnosed in 2010 with Multiple Sclerosis “Mick Jane and Me – Living Will With MS”. Tomorrow, at the Gawler Poets at the Pub Poetry reading event (2-4pm Prince Albert Hotel Gawler South Australia). I will have a time when I can do my stuff and read from that book, in the best way I can, and also talk about my life with MS.

My Book, cover photo by Martin Christmas

This event will also be a fundraising event for the MS Society SA and NT, as well as an awareness raising event. MS is a widely varied disease, with different people have a variety of different symptoms. Some with MS have a lot of pain, most have numb, and/or tingling hands and legs. Some have blindness of various levels, continence problems can occur for some, balance problems leading to falls are common, muscle weakness can be common as well.

Find out more about it the fundraising event here.

Some of those things are part of what I have, or have had, or possible may have in the future, I don’t know … But apart from my most recent fall, (OUCH) I’m doing well. I went for a walk with my husband and our dog this morning, and was able to easily keep up with them both.

Anyway, tomorrow I will be dressed up, wearing red for a reason (raising awareness of Multiple Sclerosis), reading from my book, and I hope, helping to raise money, and getting new orders for a copy of this book!

I’ll have copies of my other books there too, so who knows whether I will get any sales? Doing my part in this fundraising and talking about Multiple Sclerosis, these are the main things for the afternoon for me. Book sales are always nice though!

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‘Funny’ in Good Ways

carolyncordon

People have told me I’m funny, in good ways, and that makes me happy! Funny in bad ways, I’m not exactly sure all of what that entails but funny in Good Ways is bound to be much better, isn’t it? I’m funny in person, when chatting with someone, or when talking to an audience of many more than one.

And I’m funny in my writing, some of it anyway. And when I’m writing about serious things, like chronic illness, I try to bring some light-hearted moments into it too. – You should hear me on the subject of incontinence, I’m hilarious! Of course there are some subjects where there is no way to be funny, and I pay due respect to the importance of not playing down the seriousness of subjects such as rape and abuse. There are no laughs with this subject, and if you think these issues are funny, you are a sick person, and should seek help, before you hurt someone.

So, back to happier subjects. I have three books that I am confident are funny. They are written by me, and with the imaginary dog who lives inside my head. This dog is Buster, and he and I have written three books, as I mentioned. The first book was ‘Dig It! Gardening Tips for Dogs’. The next book was Doggone It, Mindfulness from a Dog’s Point of View. The third book is Dog Buddha’s Thoughts, exploring what Buddhism may be like for a dog. All of these subjects are ones of interest to me, from an amateur kind of viewpoint, and seeing them from a different species, the dog adds further interest (I love dogs).

I also have a book about Multiple Sclerosis, looking at the serious sides of this chronic illness, which is what I was diagnosed with in 2010. This is not something for laughing at, you’d think, but the memoir I wrote and had published, ‘Mick Jane and Me – Living Well with MS’ has some funny pieces in it along with the important serious stuff. If you can’t laugh at life sometimes, is it worth getting out of bed?

Some of my books
My lounge room, with Missy lounging around

Being funny is something that appeals to me, a lot, and one fine day, I hope to be a stand up comedian, bring laughter to people, talking about my life, and the way I always look at the positive side of things, even those with a negative aspect. Incontinence, for instance, not a funny subject, that’s true, but if so, why on earth to people say, ‘It was so funny, I pissed myself laughing!?’ I’m well aware that ‘pissing yourself’ ie, wetting your pants, is not a funny thing, yes, lived experience there, damned MS! But seeing the funny side of this very serious issue helps a person live through the embarrassment of it, and also helps other people to feel better about themselves if this is an issue they deal with too.

Showing the funny side to life helps yourself, and it helps others too, and who wouldn’t want to do that?

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My Regular Big Event!

carolyncordon

Today, February 28 is the last day of February, the last day of Summer, and the day of my favourite event of the month. Today is the day my favourite Big Event happens. This Big Event isn’t necessarily big in terms of people attending, but it is huge in terms of the wonderful things that can happen.

The event is the Gawler Poets at the Pub event, incorporating both a writing-related workshop, and after that a Poetry Reading. The event takes place at the Prince Albert Hotel (known as the P/A to regulars, and it has lunch happening too. I am one of the two coordinators of this event, and it is a small part of what the writing group I’m the President of, does.

So Alex Robinson, my co-coordinator, is also the Treasurer of our group, which is the Adelaide Plains Poets. He collects the money, and also brings along books we have as a prize for one of the little mini competitions we hold during the afternoon’s happenings. These new books are donated by a wonderfully eclectic bookshop close to the P/A hotel. It is the Gawler Bookshop, and I love popping in there every now and then to say hi, and thank you to the lovely Ally who owns the store, and can find or get in for you any book you might ever want, I suspect!

So this morning, right now, I’m getting ready to head off to Gawler to the P/A for the workshop our guest for the day will present. The guest is Valerie Volk, and the subject for her workshop is ‘Poetry from Pain’. This is a subject dear to my heart, and to my savings too, because I’ve written and sold my own books touching on this subject. One is my memoir about having Multiple Sclerosis ‘Mick Jane and Me – Living Well With MS’, and the other is a poetry collection about my own story about being sexually abused as a child, teen, and young adult ‘damaged children, Precious Gems’.

So painful things for sure, both of them, but the writing of those books has been therapeutic, and I’m in a much better space in my life now, having written the pain out of my head and onto the pages of my books.