Tag: poetry collection

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Novel Or Poetry Collection

carolyncordon

Why not both? At the moment, I have two major writing ‘things’ happening. The Cosy Murder Mystery is the most important one, and is coming along mostly OK, with a bit of a slowdown over the past few days, because of other things. The second thing is a poetry collection, with the title of Pond-erings. The title tells you what one of those ‘other things’ is, a major development in our pond, in the form of ten fish,

This pond and these fish have attracted my attention, but I’m going to work hard to get the novel back on track tomorrow, so I can send the 500 words to my reader, (thanks Michelle!) again, as I said I would do every day in January. I was going so well, then for a few days, zero words sent to poor Michelle! I sent fewer than 500 words on Sunday, but at least I sent some more of the novel-in-progress.

And today I’ve sent another 600 plus words to Michelle, yay me! I’m also thinking about a new poetry collection as well, and so am looking at things at our pond to gain inspiration. The working, and possible final title of this collection is Pond-erings and it will contain poems written at, or about, our new pond.

So sitting by the pond, listening to the birds, looking for fish (are there still any little fish down there, anyway?), and watching the sky reflections on the pond, these reflections will be in the collection, and more. I hope it ends up being a fine little collection, a chapbook, so only up to thirty pages …

This means I’m both writing a novel, and putting together a poetry collection, and blogging too, this feels like just the best life for me! I love words, lots and lots of words!

Uncategorized, Writing

Considering Options …

carolyncordon

Having options, thinking about them, talking about them with others who’ve done the same kind of thing before, these are always good things to do, no matter how you feel about how things are going. But even if you think about it and discuss it, but stay with the same mindset, it’s still a good thing.

If the thing you are thinking about doing in the same way as usual, still seems like the easiest way, and especially if it already something you know how to do, and have done successfully in the past, then, that’s a good thing, isn’t it? I think so. And because I think how I’m looking at doing things a particular in the future, because they’ve worked in the past, then I’m staying with that.

Thinking about it is a good thing. Thinking is a good thing. Doing things the same way, always with never any further consideration about other methods, that isn’t a good thing at all. I’m a writer, I write things, and work to have them published, in various ways. I’ve self-published, I’ve been published by professional publishers. I’ve made money in both of these ways.

One of the methods is simpler in many ways, put together a collection of my poetry, send it to a poetry publisher and wait. Simple. Or write something else entirely, put it together into a book format, or as close as I can get to that, have a friend do illustrations, wait while they happen, put the illustrations into the proposed book, look at it, make it as good as i can, take it to the printer, work with them, get it printed.

I’ve used both of these methods. The ‘do it myself’ version was early on in my writing career, and it went so well, I went on to do two more books in a series, with another book being thought about, and will happen, at a later stage. This Covid-19 pause in our lives has slowed the progress on that, and so has the other project I’m working on, which is actually Covid-19 related.

Self-publishing means self-promoting as well, and at the moment, self-promoting for me is limited to doing things on Social Media, and I’m doing that, to some extent. I’m not selling thousands of books, constantly, but apart from my most recent outlay, I’m well in front with money going out and money coming in, for my self-publishing endeavours.

With my own books, I have very small print runs, so I don’t end up burdened with lots of boxes filled with thousands of books. Instead, I order a hundred if I have a bigger event to attend, and fifty if I’m only ‘topping up’ what I have left. I usually have copies of my books with me if I go out anywhere I might have an opportunity to find a book buyer. In my self-published books, I cover a range of topics, from serious, to amusing – sexual abuse, chronic illness, and most recently, my broken ankle at the serious side, to various angles on dogs being dogs, at the amusing side.

In my published by trade publishers, I have a children’s school reader, and two poetry collections, one about the animals I come across in my life, the most recent, about my broken ankle. Both of these books are available from me, and from Ginninderra Press.

So given that my books are ‘out there’ and available, and bearing in mind that my printer of choice is in a town I visit at least once a week, I am extremely content with my chosen path with my self-publishing endeavours, and with Ginninderra Press, with the two books of mine they have published – Tense and Still, and Angles on Ankles.

But talking with my friend the other day about some of these issues was a pleasant lunch time meeting up, with lovely food bought from a sweet little cafe in a lovely town not too far away from my home. Freeling was the town, and even though I live relatively close to that town, I certainly don’t know it very well. I saw more of it than I have at any other time, mostly because I forgot to bring my mobile phone, and neglected to check the details of my friend’s address.

I thought I knew her address, but even though I had the street name correct, I got the number wrong initially, I had remembered to bring my laptop with me so was able to check the correct number and I found her place then. All was well. Getting the address correct is a good thing, if you need to find where you want to go!

The road I was looking for is the main road in Freeling, Hanson Road, and because it’s the main road, there are no signs telling the ignorant visitor that is the road they’re driving on. So even though I was moderately confident I was on the ‘right track’, it was still a little unnerving to be out without my phone and a little bit unsure of where I was and where I was going … Not lost, but unnerved for sure. It all turned out fine though.

Have you ever had that kind of experience? I actually knocked on a couple of doors, to perhaps get some help, but no-one answered my knocking. I’m glad that didn’t matter. Why not tell me your horror ‘lost’ story, I’d love to commiserate with you!

Cozy Mystery, writing exercise, writing prompts

What Comes Next?

carolyncordon

So February is over now. I no longer ‘have to’ post a new writing prompt on this writer blog of mine, and instead I will be actually writing some prose of my own, primarily. Sure, some poetry will be written, because I can’t help myself. I’m addicted to those stripped back words, I admit it!

I will be doing the weekly writing prompt thing that I’ve written about previously though, so new writing ideas will still be emanating from this blog, as well as other writing related things. It would be good if I can get a decent bit of my first Cosy Murder Mystery story written, so I can post an excerpt of it here … 

I learned a number of useful things in February, as I posted the daily writing prompts, and responded to them myself. I learned that having a daily program of writing, every single day, makes it a habit, and the writing simply comes along, because that’s what I now do after breakfast, every day.

I also learned that if you post every day, you definitely increase the number of readers you get to your blog! I sort of knew that, and now have the proof, right there in my blog stats. And I’m getting more likes, and a couple more people are writing a comment here and there, in response to what I’ve written, or the fact that I’ve written something.

Connections are always good, for writers! People interested in the written word, who like what you’ve written, great! And I’ve been expanding what I write, exploring things, doing new things, and that’s gone well too.

I’ve found also, that having prompts, leads to the feeling that what I will be writing has some kind of purpose, and so I put more of my attention into getting it right, as well as getting it written. 

And putting the word out about the writing prompts made it feel like it was something I had to do, so I kept it up, easily, it was just what I had to do in the morning, once I’d finished having my breakfast. Get up from the table, go to laptop, switch it on, and post the writing prompt. Done.

Yes, I’ve enjoyed this, but my next writing mission is to actually get a much larger prose piece written, an actual book, in fact a series of books. And once that first book in the series is written, time to get onto (or back onto) the second book in the series. And get feedback on the first book, edit in response to feedback, and then work at getting it published, another form of writing-related fun!

And then theres that new poetry collection … I have nearly seventy poems for it, I think, and I have a few of the prompts from February that didn’t end up with poems written, so I’ll have to get that all done. A job for later on today, I think. I have time for that right now, so I’ll get it done, right now.

I am going to post a new writing promt still, but it will be happening only once a week, probably on Monday, so this isn’t the end really, it’s the beginning of something easier, and less of a ‘burden’. Not that it was actually a burden to do these prompts, I enjoyed it. But my prose didn’t happen, when I want it to get going … Poetry/prose. Prose/poetry … I can do both, if I give myself the necessary time for both, which is why the once a week prompts are happening instead of daily ones. All good!

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Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Twenty-nine

carolyncordon

So today … the twenty-ninth of February, the final day of this fabulous month of a new writing prompt a day … I’ve enjoyed posting a new prompt every single day, and the couple of times I did it incoreectly it didn’t matter there was a prompt there, a new one for every day in February.

And speaking of writing prompts, here is the prompt for today, the final prompt of Fab Feb Writing Prompts. The writing prompt is: Prove it!
How’s that for a challenge?! Call yourself a writer, prove it, and write!

I like to be called an inspiration, by people – it seemed a little odd the first time it happened, but when I think about it, it makes sense. I’ve had some challenges in my life, and have got through them, and come out smiling at the end. I still have some challenges, but I’ve thought about them, and found the best ways to work with those challenges. I don’t personally go with the idea of ‘fighting’ against my problems, they are there, and fighting something with no cure is senseless, so I work at ‘living with’ rather than ‘fighting’ my Chronic Illness.

I pace myself, write fun things, look at what I know, and write about that, and I use humour when I can! Life is a journey, I want to enjoy the trip!

So yes inspiration and being inspirational are things I know a lot about, I am living them, and living a fine life with them. One of the things I an do, is help other people to use their writing ability, and bring creative words into the world. I do it, I’ve been doing it all of February, with people coming along to my writer blog here, and they read my prompt, and write something, or at least they think about writing something, and that is enough.

Responding to a new prompt every single day has been a big challenge, and I have to admit, I haven’t got a new poem for every single day of February, but I’ve been doing a lot more creative writing than I usually do, and I’ve written more poems than usual, and have in fact added some new poems to the poetry collection I’m putting together to get feedback on, with a view to submitting it to a publisher this year, to get it published.

I’m happy with how the collection is looking, everyone I’ve tested the title on has loved it, and I feel positive about the collection, really. Some of the poems may be weaker than others, but I have enough that I can delete them before submission time, and still have a good sized collection. I’ve done this before, and I’ve learnt more and more every time. This will work, and if my selected publisher doesn’t want it, I have back up plans. The collection will become a book, this year!

And because this writng prompt thing on my writer blog has been a postive thing for me, and for other writers, I’ve decided to continue doing it, but will scale it back, doing a new one every day has been a bit testing … So once a week seems a much easier way to go, it will give more time to get a response to the new prompt done, before the next prompt comes along.

Every Monday, before lunchtime (South Australian time), I plan to have the writing prompt for the week on this blog. I’ll be putting other things here too, and because I’ve become accustomed to doing writing related things just after breakfast every single day, I plan to get writing on my Cosy Murder Mystery books! I really want to become known as a poet, which I already am, and a writer of Cosy Murder Mysteries. And if I wish to become known as the latter of those things, I have to write them, and get them published, to prove that’s what I am!

So think about yourself, what you believe in, what you say you are, and what you can do, and prove it!

poetry

Add Another Book to the List!

carolyncordon

I now have another book to add to my list of books written, this most recent book is the smallest, but by no means the least. This means I now have eight books published! “Angles on Ankles” is a book of poetry, a chapbook, of around twenty poems, all focused on my most recent life challenge.

This challenge was the breaking of my right ankle, on AFL Grand Final day, a painful challenge for sure, but one which gave me plenty of resting times, which I used to write poems about the whole new experience.

There are poems that rhyme, others that don’t, there are Senryu poems, and there longer and more prosey kinds of poems, all about my right leg! And on the front cover, what’s in that photograph? Well it’s a photo of my broken right ankle, encased in a moon boot!

Before this challenge occurred, I’d barely ever even thought about moon boot, now I’m writing poetry about them. I love the way our life experiences can add brand new subjects to write about! I had the chance to try out some of the poems in this new collection, and I was happy with how it all went.

It was my first time for going out to attend a writing related event, rather than a medical appointment, since I broke my ankle, and it felt great! It was a poetry reading, a monthly one I almost always attend. I wasn’t able to go last month, but a dear friend offered to take me there, and bring me home again.

Thanks Colleen, you were awesome! Colleen and I have been friends for about twenty years, and I was thrilled to be attending a poetry reading, with her as the guest poet! Colleen came to my place to take me there, put away my walking frame, and getting it out for me as needed, and I was so glad to have here there.

The poetry she read was great too, her poetry collection is a terrific book of poetry, about the small but so important things in life. Her work is so true, and finely written, it’s like she is sharing her many wisdoms learned through her life. If you like poetry, I strongly recommend you get a copy of her book!

Back to my own collection, I included a page of Senryu in this collection – I tried them out at a poetry reading today, and they were very well accepted. Senryu is a Japanese form of poetry, very similar to Haiku, but is is about people rather that about Nature, as Haiku is.

I found Senryu was just the best poetic form to comment on a few aspects of my broken ankle …