I look with optimism at the decay of the publishing world

Posted on by taniacreations
“The world is changed, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it in the air. Much that once was, is lost…”
Galadriel’s words come to me when I look at the publishing world. I’m seeing many bookstores closing, I look at my own reading habits and how much they have changed since I acquired my first Kindle.
When I look at Amazon’s best sellers lists I see several self-published books competing with the largest publishers, and quite often these publishers are not doing a very good job in promoting their books and authors in the ebook platforms.
I have knowledge of ebook publishing and can see several errors in basic strategy that are more common to the publishers than the individual authors.
I look at all that is changing and see great opportunities. There are so many wonderful books I would like to re-read that are not online; there are many great books in other languages that were never translated because of the difficulty to reach a market. So many series forgotten in libraries because it was hard to get all the books in the series, in their proper order would have been even harder.
The ebooks bring the classics for free and a lot more for free, good and bad. These free books are wonderful opportunities to promote a new author. Writers able to create series of books are the ones who are more prone to success.
What I believe is happening is the old publishing houses to be stuck in their stubbornness to prove they are right, instead of looking ahead of what is coming next.
I understand, quality will suffer, glamour is lost, jobs are on the line. But change is change and there is no point struggling against it, you have to go with it, see where it takes you. I find there is a need to find new avenues to promote their books and their writers. I have read mostly unknown writers since I have gotten my kindle. Before I would go to a library or a bookstore and choose among the best sellers and known ones.
I still feel a bit romantic and would love to see my book in hardcover, do book signings in a bookstore. But that may be a scene from the past, is is possible bookstores are doomed and I am part of what caused this change.
What is that saying? Lying in the bed you’ve made? I hope I can do it, with pleasure.
(Orble Votes: 23)

What Works in Writing

Posted on by taniacreations
 I wonder if one day I will know what works and what doesn’t for me. In inspiration and writing, every time is different. I’m creating a new book, one written in English this time. But my inspiration and especially my confidence are fragile.
How much feedback is good? What to accept and what not. Sometimes I feel I don’t want to listen, unless it is positive. On the other hand there is a great benefit in listening, to the good and the bad, learning, adjusting, in finding the way.
(Orble Votes: 32)

The success of a failure

Posted on by taniacreations

They say everyone is a winner, I feel like one even though I was very far from 50,000 words. There is this website http://www.nanowrimo.org where people log themselves in to launch full on into a competition, except they are really just competing with themselves. Nanowrimo stands for national novel writing month and it runs every November. the name is actually wrong because what started with a North American website where about 40 registered over 10 years ago, today it is fully international with more than 300,000 registered in 2012.

You sign in and every day register your word count, attempting to reach 50,000 words by the 30th of November. I’ve made it to about 7,000 words. I won’t stop writing and participating in the event gave me inspiration and ideas. I’ll just need more time than a month.

The best I took from it was that, for the first draft, it is smart to turn the internal editor and critic off.

I also feel good I actually intend to do something about my writing and not just put it into a drawer once it is done. I’ve met a few winners who have been doing this for a few years, and every year, after writing 50,000 words, they put it somewhere and forget about it.

That is why I think, in my failure, I feel successful, because my writing will see the light of day.

(Orble Votes: 16)

Twelve Million Steps

Posted on by taniacreations
Since the 8th of November 2010 I have walked 12,161,788 steps. Twelve million steps! It is a great example of what you can build one step at a time. In Portuguese there is a saying which would translate: “grain by grain the chicken fills its belly”. It is very hard to translate idiomatic expressions, but this one is a good one, meaning by eating one little grain at a time the chicken feeds itself to satisfaction.

 

If I had said to myself today I would have to walk that much in less than two years by the sheer sound of the numbers I wouldn’t have believed I would do it.

The reason I found this number is my iPod. It has this fitness function that I keep always online. I certainly have walked more than that because sometimes the gadget is turned off, runs out of battery or is not in the bag, but that doesn’t happen very frequently.

I have a high average of daily steps, I walk a lot by choice and love and I would say I reach the ideal of around 10,000 steps per day. I do have low days, when I spend all day at home writing, but I also do some longer walks, like the Seven Bridges, sometimes the MS walk, and City2Surf.

I’m thoroughly impressed with myself just because it sounds so cool to have walked that much, even if it is a normal amount per day, almost anyone could do it, I’m happy I did it.

(Orble Votes: 29)

Creating an App, Learning to Meditate

Posted on by taniacreations
My friend and I have created an iPhone app called Minute Meditation.
I find it funny the way things happen almost as by accident. I always thought myself to be too agitated to meditate. Didn’t ever believe I was going to be able to. But now…
My friend was feeling stressed a while ago and decided to go to this meditation retreat operated by Brahma Kumaris. She enjoyed it and came back with this technique of doing minute meditation. One minute per hour during some hours of the day. She said there was a website that reminded people but it wasn’t working.
I was having some ideas to create apps and we decided to try this one.
Being the writer of the duo, I was in charge of writing the descriptions and tutorials for the app and to do that I got from her a book and a CD.
I felt really inspired doing this. The idea of getting little pockets of peace to people’s day sounded great, and to really get into it I started reading the book and listening to the CD.
It got me. Now I know why I was driven to do this: to learn to meditate myself!
Our App is at the Apple Store and it is called Minute Meditation.
(Orble votes: 21)
PS: The app never worked so we had to pull it down. Read more at: http://taniacreations.com/2015/09/12/the-failed-minute-meditation/

New iPad, Simpler Life

Posted on by taniacreations
Very simple indeed…

I remember a time when you went out the house and you were simply out. You couldn’t contact anyone, unless you were going to their house and ring the doorbell. Or poke someone unless you employed your actual fingers.
I can certainly see the disadvantages such as getting anxious because you are running late and someone else is waiting for you. I know, and many others.
None the less, sometimes I miss it. I’ve just gotten an iPad and the other day I had it out for a walk, as it was settled in my bag; my mind was thoroughly unsettled.
I kept thinking, what am I going to do once the bus arrive? Something on my phone? Or setup my new iPad? perhaps listen to some music? Or some podcast, an audio book or audio program? Or possibly read my Kindle? What if I don’t do any of those?
This morning I was admiring this girl seated beside me. She was just seated, looking to the front. Nothing else. Really, she didn’t move, didn’t fiddle with her phone, or checked her Facebook, didn’t have headphones on. I felt like checking her pulse.
This sensation of “wasting time” is hard to shake and has been assaulting me when I’m walking, waiting for a transport, actually commuting, or simply with a few minutes to spare between an activity and other.
And then I don’t know why I feel so tired…

On the other hand I went to a workshop on how to use iWork on the iPad yesterday. I’ve felt like someone who has been cutting things with a piece of rock for years and was suddenly given a sharp, stainless steel, knife. The tool was so superior to what I had before it was like a light was turned on. Now I really get why people buy Mac and felt I have a knew knowledge to fire the old debate within me.
I woke up at five am today thinking what I could actually do with the thing…
And then I don’t know why I feel so tired…

So life is getting simpler with all these new objects and possibilities of connections that we have. All I have to do when I get home at night is to put my stuff to charge: my mobile, the iPod, the iPad, the iPad key board, the pocket wifi and the Kindle; eventually my iPod speakers and the photo camera too. Simple isn’t it?
So I’m in bed and I realise one of the things is running out of battery and not charging overnight? What am I going to do if I have a moment on the next day and the battery is flat?! Do I get up and plug it in?
Tired…

Imagine I have released a new App for iPhones. My friend and I have developed it and it is called Minute Meditation App. More about that later.
So I had to register a few things on line to get it processed. You have to register in the Apple store then register a company with the taxation office than register that company for GST; answer some stuff about tax at the US, update your information, etc. To do that you need two things installed into your computer, and to install that you need a java something also installed to your computer and to run that you need an specific browser above a certain version. Then you get the browser installed, but each part of the process only functions with one browser, so I have Safari, Google Chrome, Explorer and Firefox open and to each installation I need only one of them functions. It was funny and bizarre, and sad and ridiculous, and absurd and unreasonable and yet wonderful. All at once. Because I kept saying:
“See and we say we are making life easier!”
To which my friend answered:
“Yeah, but in the past you would need to do all that in person and on foot.”
I keep wondering if they wouldn’t have made the process simpler because you had to be in person and on foot.
And then you could be walking to the official office, just by yourself, with nothing else to do other than carry the papers and get there…

In the end I feel technology is sometimes quite bittersweet!

(Orble Votes: 34)

Let it Rain

Posted on by taniacreations

Photo by Chris Newland “Rain at the Wharf”

Somehow I found myself drowning in gratefulness amid the rain drops this morning.
I was thankful for the people, as there is a sense of camaraderie around, we are all fish… as they say. I met a woman while waiting to cross the main road, we simply started laughing.
At the bus stop we turned into a battalion, five people holding our umbrellas as if they were machine guns. ‘Let them come!’ I screamed.
The bus passed. We cowered behind the huge monsters of umbrellas.
Mine is a beautiful rainbow one. I bought it because I liked the colours. The next day I thought: ‘What was I thinking? I’ll never carry this again!’ At the time, my angel must have whispered in my ear: ‘buy it, you will need on ‘The Flood’ of the eight of March’.
So The Rainbow Tent, as I named it, saved me today again I gave thanks.
We had to cower around it, sideways, including our heads in its protection not to get drenched by the bus splashes. Feet, parts of trousers, a part of my arm and the top of my head didn’t escape.
I jumped into the first bus that finally stopped, one to North Sydney.
It was raining, in and outside.
I was happy I got to sit, even looking back which always make me a bit sick.
The water was coming down the side of the window and splashing in a puddle by the wind sill.
Little droplets of water landed on my phone, my kindle, continuous dripping water damping my sides, I was still thanking the world for being seated and able to read in a trip that took almost two hours to cover a half an hour strip.
I looked outside and remembered my mother land, where it rains like this frequently. I was appreciative that I wasn’t worried my home would flood this time, having my first floor rented flat, the absence of rivers nearby. Not even remembering, until now, that once I stood in the middle of a river which used to be a street, watching my car, my house and everything I owed being washed by an angry flow of mud.
I’m grateful to be in a country where you call an emergency service and someone will, at the very least, answer you. Where there are flood warnings, barricades, enough help for the unfortunate.
I’m happy I had a great life and a family who could drive me when it was raining as much as today when I was a child. I thought of all the little South Americans who are used to face this type of rain frequently without the systems we have here in Aussie land to keep us safe.
I came out at North Sydney and blessed my hot coffee, the gods were happy when they invented such a thing and I was happy seeping its warmth.
Then I was grateful for China, where people can fabricate very cheap stuff, I bought new, clean and dry leggings which I’m wearing now and I am so glad for.
I am now emotional and happy, compassionate in a level I haven’t felt before for my fellow human beings who are not as privileged as I am or the ones that simply cannot see the blessings we do have (I think I feel even more for the ones).
And let it rain!

Written the other day, the 9th of March when we had an amazing rain in Sydney, Australia.

(Orble Votes: 25)

Climbing

Posted on by taniacreations

The floor was a long way down, as far away from his mind as it was from his physical body.
The great thing of doing this was the focus required. It was his kind of meditation, clinging to a rock, reaching for the sky.
In this situation he found out the best was not thinking, just concentrating on where to put his hands, the next notch, his feet, clad in their special shoes which made possible for him to use a surface a third width of one needed for bare feet.
His mind was in the present. He could feel the wind, caressing his skin as a lustful lover would; the sun, creating the perfect temperature; the smell of the rock, so close to his nose; the noise of his own breathing and of the world’s inhaling. He was aware of each of his muscles, the tension was exhilarating, his legs were answering the challenge, he could feel his right biceps pushing against his forearm.
Suddenly he felt his stomach plunge, that feeling you get when you think it is possible you may fall. The realisation of how fragile your life is. At the same time there was a strange sensation mixed with it, the one he had only experienced the day before at the ruins. A strong knowing that there is much more out there and in him, a sense of connection to the whole, of being an unlimited being. It was so weird, like looking at the bottom of the well of yourself and seeing a galaxy there.
Then there was the bird. Flying over his had a millimetre far from his helmet. Bloody bird, he just hopped to be far enough from the chicks.
At the same instant he was acknowledging these feelings, along with the sensation of slightly releasing his grip on the rock, he realised all that was a consequence of a single thought.
A profound realisation; an answer to a question that had been plaguing him for the last few days.
He regained his focus, his strength, his sanity and continued up carrying The Answer with him.

(Orble Votes: 38)

Tumbling Down, Thinking Up

Posted on by taniacreations
I’m in a self-destruction process. No, nothing to do with drugs, or sex, or alcohol, maybe that would be exciting.
I simply tumbled down some stairs.
Such a common occurrence that broke my youth’s belief of invulnerability! I love the drama of the phrase, being unreal as it is. I don’t think I’m still carrying around that belief even if I am stretching youth to the rest of my life.
Ironically enough my heels got caught-up in the “safety” strip. Unsafely momentum carried me forward and down I went.
Broke a glass vase, got a few superficial cuts.
The lessons I’ve learnt with it are of patience, thankfulness, love and strength.
There is nothing I cannot do if not being patient. Patient (literally) at the hospital, while they check that no broken bones were found.
Patient to put the yucky natural medicine twice a day into the purple, red, magenta, slightly green and black mottles I’m sporting throughout my hips and legs and some in the arms. I feel as a colourful farm animal, proud of my interesting stains.
Patient to wait for the pain to go away. Patient during the days nothing got done, no work, no reading, just feeling the kick of the pain relievers and surfing the wild sensations. Sleeping. A lot of patient sleep.
What is really a challenge to be patient with are the daily new ailments that are still appearing as a consequence of juggling your whole body and the joints it comprises. On top of the ones acquired straight after the fall. One day is the left wrist, the other is a back pain, a neck pain, a heck of a pain, hell! Ha ha ha, the laugh just bubbles up.
A permanent happy tiredness keeps me in its grip. Today I woke up with a cold sore, the body is using all its defence mechanisms to heal the things and forgot to protect my upper lip. Patience, my friend told me. Stop fighting with your body!
Thankfulness and strength come together. I feel as if made of steel, because nothing worse happened. Lucky that the vase fell away from my face, my jugular too. I am thankful I only missed a few days of work, I’m in reasonable working order. Like a radio clock that doesn’t play the radio but still shows the time. Good enough.
I can say with extreme knowledge: I’m very hard to break.
The knowledge spreads to my writing: I can now write how a character would have felt after being beaten up, run over, had a ski accident and any other horrible thing I feel like inflicting them. A writer characterises all happenings in her life as useful information. Patience. Love. Love, love, love, as I was supported in any way I could have wished for. People all around were nice and efficient. I can never complain about the public hospital system in Sydney. I’ve never had a bad experience with them. They treat me well.I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring, but the day after tomorrow, or the day after that one, will bring me perfect health again. And that is good enough for me. I’ll keep the lessons, or “the positive learnings” as the NLP practitioners say!

(Orble Votes: 36)

Becoming a Master

Posted on by taniacreations
Although I’ve been writing less here, I’m writing more in general. I’m on a new path now: I’m doing a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at UTS. I’m loving it. When you are “on purpose” and doing your passion it always goes well.
Funny thing is that I didn’t even know such thing existed! I’ve always wanted to do a masters degree but not of something that wasn’t a priority. As soon as a friend from a writer’s group told me about it, I went for it!
This blog and my website, I’m sure, helped me to get accepted for the program. The Advanced Narrative Writing classes taught by Rosie Scott are not only a high level technically, they are also great fun. I’m also on a Theory and Creative Writing class, where we talk about very strange notions, ininteligible texts, obscure writings and intelectual conundrums. All worth it.
The end result of the course is the writing of a novel. I was going to write a novel anyway, to have such a structure to guide me through it will be great. Being a migrant with English as a second language, I can grow much more for having this contact.
Again I feel privileged to be in Australia where there is a government program to support students. Had I not been here, I wouldn’t be able to be doing this right now with the easy I’m doing it.
I know this all looks too positive, suspiciously so, I could imagine, but it is how I really feel.
(Orble Votes: 44)