Tag: writing groups

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Stand Up Comedy, Who Can Do That?

carolyncordon

Some people are terrified of Public Speaking, and would rather to almost anything, rather than actually speak in public. Not me, I love it!

So when the chance came up to do a short Stand Up Comedy piece at an event with several other Stand Up Comedians, I said, yeah, count me in! And now, as one of the other performers at that gig, Todd Gray, wrote in a message to me, ‘that monkey is now off the back, and a weight off the chest’.

The other performers, and especially the person who organised it all, Marc Ryan, were lovely to me, and it seems like the kind of thing where they all look out for each other. They all thought I’d done a good job doing my act as Nanna Carreau, an old dear who’s funny!

I had a couple of poems I’d written, and performed them, people laughed (with me or at me? who cares, at least hey were laughing!) And wow, I enjoyed doing that so much, I really want to do another gig!

Anyway, yes that monkey is now off Nanna Carreau’s back now too, and she’s has been whispering lines to me, for the next show! The performers there on that night at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler, it was, a venue I know very well. And no, not for hte reasons you’re thinking!

My writing group meets at that hotel every Thursday afternoon and that helped a lot on my big night as a Stand Up Comedian! I did a little impromptu act, sort of, yesterday too. I was driving home from a visit to my Mum, and had to stop to fill up my car with petrol. And as I was going insode there to pay for the fuel, I saw to young women collecting money for something or other, and decided I’d stop to see what it was all about, on the way back to the car.

So that’s what I did. They told me what they were doing, and I told them about doing the Nanna Carreau, and did a mini act, with just my voice and words, not dressed up in character, like in the photo below!

Then one of the young women google Nanna Carreau, and found a photo of her/me, and we all laughed again! The photo was a smaller one, and only showed Nanna’s Carreau’s head in that same beanie (which she’ll proudly tell anyone and everyone, she knitted it herself), but that link and photo were definitely enough to back up the truth of what I was saying!

Anyway, they told me I should record myself doing my act, and put it up on TikTok, and I’d get thousands of followers! A fine idea, and one I may see if I can get my son to help me with that one day. In the meantime, I’m definitely going to discuss the possibility of that writing group I mentioned putting on a workshop in doing comedy/Stand Up, and then later on in the year, have a Stand Up Comedy event as a part of the Festival of Words we run every year in July.

We have a theme for the Festival, and this year the theme is ‘Time’, and Nanna Carreau and I are already thinking about what we will/or rather could do with that theme! I have to remind myself, I may be the President, but I have a subcommittee to convince!

Ah life is so much fun, and it looks like it’s going to get much more fun, and funny too! Cheers, have a laugh, you deserve it!

meaning in life, New Ideas

Feeling More Open!

carolyncordon

These are very strange times, with the Covid 19 virus wreaking havoc on our lives, and on the economy. Fears of death, having to stay away from each other, not hugs to friends, or even family not living with us. What weird times we’re in …

Not poetry readings in hotels, no book launches in libraries or other venues. No getting together somewhere nice for a writing group meeting. Sure, there are many online options for all of these things, but there are no hugs between friends and peers. No chances to catch nuances in conversations, and body language.

I’ve been feeling quite low, about these things, but today my mind is getting out of that mindset, and I’m looking more outward, outside of the window, up to the sky, which is a beautiful blue, that I so much love to see!

lovely blue sky, with trees

Looking out of my window, seeing what Nature is up to, living, breathing, being, these are still going on. And although there is death happening here, it is only pesky mice getting caught in traps, and that is a normal kind of death that happens at this time of year, when colder nights bring mice inside at night time … Normal.

And having and doing things that are ‘normal’ feels good, because so much of what is happening right now is far from normal. The song from the early eighties by The Specials, is in my head, and the lyrics leaping out when I see and hear the latest restrictions … The governments are doing what they have to do, I guess, but it feels like we’re being punished for being naughty, when we don’t really know what we’ve done wrong …

But sky and trees, and the birds, they’re all keeping on too, doing their normal things, and this lovely Autumns day, mild and only a gentle breeze, but with rain forecast for later in the week, normal weather for this time of the year. And even though the writing group I’m involved with won’t meet up ‘for real’ this afternoon, at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler, as is normal, we’ll be meeting up for the second time, online, and will try to conduct a meeting as normally as possible.

Reaching out to others, keeping an eye out, and helping, via the internet, or phone, these are things we do, because we’re all human, even now, when life feels far less ‘humane’. The absence of touch is hard on people who love to hug, or shake hands, clap each other on the back. But we find other ways now, a kind message via email, a comment on Social Media, a blog post such as this one. Reaching out to others, because we’re people, and that is what is natural and normal, for people to do.

I’ll go on thinking about finding normality, and how and why it’s so important, and this afternoon, I’m thrilled that my writing group friends will be there with me, online, and still connected, just without any hugs … People need people. Best wishes to all, struggling through this Ghost Town of a world …

Writing

Being Happy as a Writer

carolyncordon

I’m happy with my writing life. I’m not a widely read writer, or a rich one, or a writer who is speaking to hundreds of people about my books or writing. But I am a happy person, a happy writer, who has written about many things in my life, and things I’ve ‘made up’.

Life is what I write about, life in its many forms, from sad to happy and many things in between. I (obviously) would love to sell more copies of my books. I would love to talk about my books, and about the things I know about and am interested in, a lot more.

But this year, I have begun thinking about what the Stoic life is like, and it is helping me to think about what I really want in life, and what I have. And further to that, I’ve been thinking about bad things that could have happened to me, but didn’t, and that kind of consideration makes me grateful for all I have. I have a great life. IMAG0579.jpg

Sure, others have big publishers wanting to publish their books, and have thousands of fans, who write them fan mail. They have thousands of dollars in royalties, and get constant requests for interviews. I don’t have any of that. I am a self-published poet, editor of a community newsletter, writer of a self-published series of humour books.

Oh, and blogger, of course. I am a blogger with fewer followers than I’d like, but there are at least some people following my various blogs, including this one.

But I’m particularly enjoying my most recent blog, one about Stoicism, where I explore various aspects of life, my life in particular, from the point of view of a Stoic. This is my most recent post from that Blog – if you’d like a simple look at what being a Stoic might entail, take a look at how I’m doing it!

And just a couple of minutes ago, in the previous paragraph, I wrote something that got my brain ticking over, with a brand new idea for another new book, and isn’t that a great thing? I certainly think it is, always! The possible new book would be another book in the Buster the Dog Series. 20190505_114825

I am definitely going to do another book, the fourth one, for this ‘Buster the Dog’ series, and it is planned to be launched about this time next year. That one will possibly be called “Dog Says, Cat Says”. But the book I had the idea for as I was writing this blog post, was to look at Stoicism as a dog might see it … I’ll have to consult with Buster the Dog, on that one. He’s the dog who lives in my head and who I wrote the books with, in the photo above.

He’s not a terribly stoic dog, I don’t think. He’s more of a bark first, contemplate results after kind of creature … As I said, I’ll have to consult with Buster the Dog.  (He’s not a real dog in my head, he’s a figment of my imagination. I know that. I’m not sure if Buster knows it though.) Imagination is such a wonderful thing to have!

The dog in the first photo, right up the top of this, that’s Missy and she is a real dog. She lives in my house and in my yard, and is a lovely dog. Some of what Buster the Dog does in his books comes in part from things his ‘father’ used to do. Buster is based on a schnauzer and a pharaoh hound, which were the two breeds of dog we had when I, well, Buster the Dog and I, wrote our first book, the one about gardening.

The fourth book is going to be something new for me, I’m going to write it with a friend, and she will be doing the cat part, bringing in McTavish the Cat. Having friends who also write, that’s an important thing to, to be with people who are also interested in something that interests you.

Living with Missy also helps make my writers life a happy one – a dog will always remind you about the important things in life. Eat, go outside, enjoy yourself! If you have a dog that reminds you about these things, and other, leave a comment, I’d love to read it!

 

poetry

A Happy Coincidence

carolyncordon

Today was a pretty full on day, with weather that acted against doing too much. I have a chronic illness that means I am particularly badly affected by being too hot, and the summer we’re having at the moment in my part of South Australia is hot, perhaps the hottest ever, or at least since Australia was settled by white people.

When you know what your limitations are, you learn how to deal with them , so that’s what I did, I spent a minimum of time outside in the heat, staying inside as much as possible, where it was nowhere near as hot, then drove, in my air-conditioned car, to

Anyway, I got to the usual writing group venue in plenty of time, but I hadn’t had time at home to write my poem for the day, the final poem for the #poemadayfeb I have been doing for all of this month, even though, I’d looked up what the word for today and so knew it was ‘yourself’.

Others arrived at the meeting, we went through the usual items, telling of our writing related activities for the previous week, talking about some relevant issues relating to several events we will be involved in, for the coming months, and then doing our writing exercise.

The writing prompt for today was ‘night’, and I eventually settled down to do my writing, based on that them, but without any real idea on what I was going to write. In the back of my brain, I had my poetry prompt, as mentioned, and together with that was the writing prompt from today’s meeting.

So, ‘yourself’, and ‘dark’, were possibly travelling around in the back of my brain, what would happen? As it turned out, a lovely small poem happened.  This unexpected poem is a senryu, another Japanese poetry form, similar to the haiku, but about people, rather than nature.

I’m relatively happy with this small poem, and the others at the writing group though it was a good one too. I love the people in this group, we share our words with each other, but there is so much more to it. We may have begun as people who write, but we have become friends, ones who care about each other. If you have a writing group too, I hope you have such lovely experiences.

Anyway, this is my senryu:

 

Every night leads

to a new day, a new chance

to be yourself.