Sunday, April 29, 2012

Good News, Bad News

A half-page story about me appeared in the Maitland/Winter Park Observer on Thursday.  The story also appeared in the East Olando Sun and the Seminole Sentinel, two publications put out by the same company.  I was mentioned in the blogs of two OrlandoSentinel columnists.  I was listed in the "Events" schedule of several newspapers.  Great publicity for my presentation at the Maitland Public Library earlier today, yes?

Well, actually, no. I had a very modest turnout.  Come to think of it--what did I expect? I took a type of communication, poetry, that generates very little interest ,and married it to a type of communication that generates even less interest, newspapers. Jimmy Fallon even made a joke about it at the White House Corespondents Dinner.  he said, "What is black and white and red all over? Nothing much, anymore.

Nonethless, my presentation was great.  Everyone really enjoyed it.  I wish more people could have seen it because it really was great.

Maybe I should write a romance novel true crime thriller about about vampire rock stars.  No wait amoment, I think Anne Rice already did that. 

But to be fair, there is always so much going on in Orlando.  There is a lot of competiton for people's time.  I myself, usually have to choose between two to five events everytime I go out.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Trayvon Martin

I took down all the January through March poems on the newsprintpoetry2012 blog because they are all in my book.

However, I left the poems about Trayvon Martin up because these poems are my tribute to him.  There are two poems in March and two in April. The Trayvon Martin case is one of the few topics that has gotten more than one poem on the blog.  I try to keep the content varied.

Also, I'm keeping the Trayvon Martin poems up because they are among the most popular poems on the blog.

http://newsprintpoetry2012.blogspot.com

Thank You, Mary

Today I got an email from someone I know casually.  She told me that she was reading my blog because a friend told her about it, and the friend learned about it from her friend.  I am getting word-of-mouth!

Very few people follow and I rarely get a comment, so sometimes I wondered if anyone was actually reading these poems.  I'm getting about 50 hits a day now, and sometimes a lot more.  I have over 2,500 hits so far.  Were all these people landing on my page by accident.  No! I have word-of-mouth!

I guess the readers of my blog just don't know that I really need the re-assurance provided by seeing the number of followers grow or getting comments. 

It takes a lot to get a poem done everyday; a lot of days I just don't feel like doing it, but I do it anyhow.  Sometimes I feel I should quit because probably no one is reading them anyhow.  But then I get an email like the one I got today and it keeps me going.

Thank you, Mary!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Twice as Nice

Today two poems for the price of one.  I wrote two entirely different poems from the same news story.  Today is the first time I have done that.  Here's the second poem.

Read the other poem at http://newsprintpoetry2012.blogspot.com

Orlando Connects

FemCityOrlando—
A space where women come together.

Not so much networking,
but connecting,
and getting to know each other.

Women are natural multi-taskers.
They have to be. Running
homes, families, and businesses.

Women tend to share. Women want
to be connected to the community.
Women have the capability.

In Orlando, things are happening.
Women have the power
to take that leap.

It’s exciting,
An exciting time to be in Orlando.


© 2012 Catherine Giordano

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

A Big Spike in Hits

I had a big spike in hits yesterday--I got 206 hits.  Now that is not a big deal for blogs that get thosands of hits, but it was a big deal for me.  Previously, my record high was 41 hits. I've only been doing this a few months.

TodayI got got 70 hits so far.  Perhaps its a trend.

I think I got the hits because of my poem about Trayvon Martin which was about the news story reporting that it was definitely NOT Zimmerman's voice on the 911 call yelling for help.  There is so much interst in this incident.

Everyday, I tweet about my latest post.  I'm guessing that it got retweeted.

The increse in the number of hits is exciting because  "News Print Poetry 2012 Volume 1 January to March" will be published at the end of this month. There are 101 poems, including some never posted to the web, because some days I writye more than one.