Embracing Diversity

In today’s world of rushing about, and interaction with our electronics have we lost the art of connection? In the industry like the one we are in, where our words are our greatest gifts, we often times forget they can also be our greatest weapons.

I see the lack of respect and professional courtesy everywhere. Social media is full of it. As a society, as an industry have we lost the sense of professionalism we once had in the midst of being opinionated and looking at our own desires before others? There was a time when having a difference of opinion was accepted, when we encouraged thought

Very recently I was following a post on social media where an author, looking to break into the industry posted a question. This person had to suffer the wrath of other authors who obviously felt their skills far outshone those of the new author. There were comments on everything from the spelling of the question to telling them to quit.

If I’m being honest, it was painful and horrifying to see. It made me ashamed and really made me question why there is such anger and hatred amongst us. It really brought to mind the fear we have lost our ability to be professionals. As an author, I know what it takes to gain the courage to submit a project to a publisher, editor, agent…and I know how devastating it can be to be rejected.

How can we judge a person just getting started on their journey into the wilds of this industry? What would we think, or feel if we were in the individual’s place. There is no place for bullying in this world, it is hard enough as it is. Regardless of skill level, or perceived weakness, we are in this together and as such we should be helping to build others up rather than tearing them down.

We cannot believe our success is dependent upon the shredding of another’s dreams. That we rise only because the next person falls. It is not the way to go through this world. I believe in loving your neighbor, respecting them, treating them with fairness and kindness. If you truly desire to have success, don’t allow yourself to fall in the darkness of destroying others. Lay a solid foundation of likemindedness, of awareness and embrace the differences we have.

Words dusted off and reused

This is another episode in the life of an amateur philologist.  As the log- will tell you, it’s about words, the philo-meaning love for ist meaning person a philologist is a person who loves words.  As a child, I studied the origins of both words and personal names, believing that the meaning of a name held clues to that person’s character.  I spent my babysitting money on baby name books to appropriately name the characters in my stories. This was long before the days of personal computers or the internet, so I typed my stories on my mother’s, and later my own typewriter.   Once in jr. high, due to a transgression, the nature of which I do not now recall, I was sentenced to a couple hours of detention, and the teacher in charge very unwisely assigned us to copying pages out of the dictionary.  I say unwisely because while he may have gotten the desired groan from the boys, in my case it was a squeal of delight. Here I was exposed to a whole wonderland of new vocabulary. He would have done better to have given me the sports pages.  That would have quelled my feeling of delight.   to suppress; put an end to; extinguish: The troops quelled the rebellion quickly. to vanquish; subdue. to quiet or allay (emotions, anxieties, etc.): The child's mother quelled his fears of the thunder. Instead, I chortled my way through the punishment, which for me, was no punishment at all.  to chuckle gleefully. verb (used with object), chor·tled, chor·tling. to express with a gleeful chuckle: to chortle one's joy. noun a gleeful chuckle. A word listed with chortle was snigger.  I always pictured this one cartoon dog sniggering.  My favorite reference defines it as snicker. WORDS RELATED TO SNIGGER dump, twit, gird, slam, deride, jest, rally, caricature, leer, snicker, swipe, insult, lampoon, decry, travesty, crack, scorn, smile, gibe, slight They’re probably not old words, but they’re good words which onomatopoeically describe the words themselves.  The great Bard William Shakespeare would have loved them. If he didn’t use them himself, which I believe he did, in at least one play, he should have.   Fustilarian is a word the Bard did use as an insult, but the dictionary lists no definition for it, but from the context I can guess at the meaning.  It would mean someone fussy about his appearance, but has no basis for being so.  onomatopoeia noun the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent. a word so formed. the use of imitative and naturally suggestive words for rhetorical, dramatic, or poetic effect. What words would you like to see dusted off and used again?  Words are the very stuff of writing, so there is the connection to writing.  Words are both my tools and my toys. What are words to you? Rita Trevalyan ReplyForward

Connecting with life outside of our writing

For those of us who have busy lives the worst thing is that moment when we realise we need to reconnect...Or for some of us its when our family -quite cheerfully- drags us kicking and screaming out the door away from the computer, the phone, the busy schedule that just seems to get more and more full.

Forced to do nothing but reconnect with our loved ones we're at first irritable, sullen even. Don't they understand we're trying to build something, our business, our careers, our dreams...? Too often we think, No by God they don't. They haven't got a clue what it is we're trying to do. We tell them - but its sort of like ships passing at night. There's a vague awareness of them but beyond that, they become a faint memory which stirs when its time to do bath time, homework, dinner. Do we as authors, entrepreneurs, business execs really need to spend 18 hours working to get ahead?

Oh I hear someone saying YES! Running our own business is a full time job, its a twenty-four hour thing. There is no time for procrastination or disorganisation. We must be driven. Must be willing to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good...and the bottom line.

But do we sacrifice ourselves or our families and personal lives? Recently, and yes I griped and moaned and glared my way through the first hundred kilometres, I discovered a rather shocking and horrifying fact. By burying myself in work I'm not sacrificing myself. No, I'm sacrificing the very thing which I'm doing this for....my family time. I love my family, they're why its so easy to get up in the morning. But I also have to realise they are also the ones whom I neglect because I'm working on the latest book or the latest newsletters for the month.

Half way through our trip, it hit me. I was without a computer, without my work, and I was relaxed. You wanna talk about a shocker - I spent 100 kms stressed out of my mind because I didn't have my computer, my writing, the galleys, connection to my promotion and social media...and slowly it sunk it while those people are important - I was with the ones who should always be my top priority.

Hard lesson to learn and one I'm still learning how to deal with. How can I, as a business woman and author manage to juggle my full time job, my business, my writing and still  have time to reconnect with my family? It seems now a days we have so little time to dedicated to our loved ones we have to come up with plans, ideas, schedule in time to reconnect even in the most basic of ways. It has become a lost art on how we as a society connect with those living in our homes, part of our lives. And too often, we forget to think on how we are disconnected from them.

Perhaps its time to forget the business, forget the job, the career at least for a moment and do something silly be it go for a walk or just play a rounding game of cards or something that allows us to see our family and friends before us. Disconnect from the electronics and reconnect with the living, breathing people who make up our lives. Even if it is in some small way.

Author Interview: Rita Travelyn

Tuesday morning Patricia and I sat down for an interview.  One of the questions involved a term I hadn’t heard of before.  I had heard of writer’s block. I fight it constantly, like a lot of other writers.  But readers’ block I hadn’t heard of before. Patricia explained it as when you just can’t get into a book or story you’re reading. I explained that I was going through it at that very moment with a book I was reading called Goblin Corps (author’s name withheld)  I’m sure he worked very hard on his book, but I just can’t get into the story.  

I may well have used up my 15 minutes of fame by now, but it’s all right, because several of my friends who don’t want fame gave me theirs.  I need fame, because as an author my success depends on it. My favourite song by the late great David Bowie is “Fame.” It’s funny about writing.  It’s the one field I can think of where participants actively encourage those who might well become our competitors. But maybe not. After all, we are each in pursuit of our niche audience; our own special corps of readers.  My readers may find your books tedious, while your readers may find mine frivolous, and so on it goes.  

I finally thought of the word I was searching for this morning to explain how I feel when I’ve been writing.  Endorphins get released from my brain into my blood stream, and so I spend the rest of the day riding a writer’s high.  It gets to be that way when you are doing your rue Will, what you were always meant to do, and I discovered this without going into seclusion for six months to do the Abra Melin working.  It’s a working some magicians perform, to attain knowledge and conversation with their Holy Guardian Angel. But I knew mine in life, and he was always encouraging about my writing. In fact, he described NaNoWriMo as “the Olympics for writers.”  I have always fancied this comparison of writers with athletes. One of the hints I drew from a book I have on outwitting writer’s block is “the ugly notebook,” where I warm up my brain in preparation for writing, just as an athlete or dancer warms her muscles in preparation for performing her sport or dance.

We discussed briefly my current project about exploring the Andromeda Galaxy after using their new friends’ technique of felding  space to get there when it is millions of light-years distant. She was tickled when I told her that the dominant life form is feline.  They have a very delicate hold on the galaxy, mostly performing the administrative tasks necessary to hold their empire together.

It was an enjoyable experience, so much better than when I used to be interviewed for a job.  Now I’m being interviewed for what I was always meant to be, a writer, and that’s as it should be.  Stay tuned for exciting news regarding my next release.