Dear Writer’s Journal, Today is Saturday. It’s almost the end of June. In June, I think… I studied more and wrote less. Indeed, the study of the Spanish language continues to take me most of my daytime. But it’s going well. I’ve just entered Section 8—the last one; together with Section 7, they cover the words and grammar a student must know at the B2 level. Consequently, I read my first book in Spanish; I made my first book review in Spanish; actually, my first bilingual book review, in English and Spanish, and I posted it here, on the Writing Blog: https://lauralai.weebly.com/review/modern-drama-federico-garcia-lorca-la-casa-de-bernarda-alba-review-in-english-and-in-spanish Do you know what else Duo told me about my study of Spanish? Please, let me! It’s my moment of glory :) I want to share it with you. What glory? I know that the glory of this victory may look small, but behind it, there is continuous work. I mean the achievements on Duolingo so that I can read in Spanish The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca. And you know what? I got some courage and I also read Bloody Weddings by Lorca and in Spanish, too. Now, what? You’re jealous? Wait a minute! You just have to… practice your language skills. Look at what Duo told me:
I also earned lots of badges that I leave Duo make an auction and, eventually, fundraise. And this is only one fragment of what Duo told me about my progress in Spanish. Once in a while, I also had some time to play the game Lily’s Garden. I almost reached 1000 levels of puzzles and I think I’ll stop here. It was a lovely experience to see how a story can intertwine with a puzzle game! I might have not written a lot this month, but I took part in some webinars that covered different aspects of writing and publishing. For example:
Tomorrow is Sunday. It’s the last day of June and the last day of this weekend that I wanted a theater and movie weekend. Hmm… either I take advantage of the last day of the weekend to make it a theater and film one… or… I’m extending the weekend. Whatever I decide, it must be combined with Spanish lessons! :)
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Dear Writer’s Journal, I was on April’s Furious Fiction writing contest’s long list. Hooray! Hooray! I think I mentioned countless times that I love this monthly writing contest organized by the Australian Writers’ Centre for the challenging prompts and the fan—and fun!—community that is built around this contest. :-) In April, it was my 43rd participation in a row and, probably, the first time I was on any kind of list. Well, I suppose perseverance pays off… sometimes. The Furious Fiction creative criteria for April’s writing contest were:
Now, you see what I mean, dear Writer’s Journal, in terms of challenging prompts? And it’s every month like this! Yes, I guess I mentioned several times I like this contest, but I never showed you the way the prompts look like, right? This is the way they look like. However, I’m such a huge fan of this writing contest, and I enjoy so much flexing my creative muscles on its given tough prompts that I would take part, anyway. Indeed, it’s unconditional love not only from me but from all those taking part: With or without list nomination, we all can’t wait for next month’s Furious Fiction. It’s great to be Fiction and to be Furious because you’re loved unconditionally. :-) Furthermore, this May last year, I started a new linguistic journey. I started to practice Spanish on an app called Duolingo. After having studied a series of three Spanish Beginner courses with edX.org, I thought to keep on practicing with … modern technology. It sounds a bit pompous to me, too–don’t worry!
This app is linked to a phone number. Therefore, at the beginning, I was practicing on my smartphone and its relatively small screen. But following a trip to Spain last November, I bought a Spanish SIM card to use on my tablet—a card that belonged to many people before (e.g. Jessica, Monica, Melvin, etc.) because I received some phone calls, some messages, and I constantly receive notifications from Western Union that I sent money to people and that they received it. :-) I don’t know any of them! Practicing on a tablet is better than on the phone because the screen is bigger. The results are great. For example:
These statistics are impressive to me, too; it’s like they speak of somebody else, not me. And, you, dear Writer’s Journal, may have the impression you read the records of some genius in the Spanish language, right? Ha!Ha! Good joke! The reason they surprise me so much is that I didn’t study more than the time I played to practice—and did that daily, somewhere between half an hour and two to three hours, sometimes (but rarely) more. In other words, I didn’t put any effort into it besides the effort of practicing daily and staying concentrated while practicing. It’s a great app, it’s fun to use, and it’s free, too—indeed, it comes with some commercials, but that’s because this app is somebody’s business and there must be some sort of win-win solution. Writer's Journal, you read the statistics of a talented person at languages who with discipline tries to persevere in achieving fluency--that's all. Learning with an app is working alone with no interaction with other classmates—but language classes are expensive; sometimes, very expensive depending on the personal budget. Furthermore, Duo is a bird. Yes, it’s a bird and like all birds, it doesn’t speak to you—but you can speak to Duo by rephrasing its phrases, putting in the plural, or by phrasing a new sentence as a response to the question Duo addressed. It’s easier to construct sentences from a question—but you must try to phrase them as coherently or as correctly as possible because Duo isn’t going to correct this part. In conclusion, I think this new app trend that reached all fields of human activity, including language study, is a great opportunity to spend some quality time doing something useful such as the study of a foreign language. I enjoy it so much that I added German—because you can add as many languages as you want!—to review and remember words and grammar that I once studied. To me, the traditional way of learning a language and this new app trend aren’t exclusive, but complementary: You can always go to a book if you need more explanations and homework or to the app if you want to do some more exercises on a screen. Dear Writer's Journal, here I am, at our monthly writing update that became trimestrial! :-) The reason is that I don’t know why the day goes so fast. Like Goethe’s Faust, I wish I could say: “Stop, moment, you are so wonderful!”. I wish I could tell the spring to stop because it’s so wonderful. I could say it, but neither the time nor the spring would stop for a moment. However, I always know where my day goes because I don’t like to waste a second. Therefore, I continued with my Spanish learning and my German revision on Duolingo. For example, in January, I played this language game so much that I reached 5,512 XP (points) in a week. If you think it’s a lot, in February, I reached 9,573 XP. Then, I’ve said to myself that I’d better be constant in Duo’s Diamond League, meaning being among the first 10-15 players. And I started to alternate the gameplay with the lecture out loud of brief articles from the Spanish news—basically, it’s an alternation between intermediate Spanish with the most advanced and specialized vocabulary. It works! Currently, I’m at Unit 28/29 in Spanish, and in German, I’m almost at the revision Unit 7. I like this language game because it helps to learn new words and to refresh old ones. Besides, it’s fun, and it’s free fun! From April, I will diversify more my Spanish language learning—I’ll still play, but I’ll also do it my traditional way, with pen and paper. Once I feel confident enough, I’ll continue the series of creative journals in Spanish. Now, I’m just collecting the material for this creative and entertaining writing project.
The old blog that I initially made on Blogspot is still on—and it will stay so. At some point, I thought to use it only for old film reviews—but no! There might be another option. I’ve noticed that among writers many love movies—and some love the old movies, too. Therefore, I started to build a small project around the old movie reviews. Write now, I’m at the ‘giveaway’-phase because I want to write some things about it and I need to include a template for... —no! I’m not going to say anything more about that. I have something beautiful in mind. I don’t know how people will respond, but if anybody will, a template is necessary for consistency. Indeed, I miss taking some time in a week to watch an old movie: to follow the story, to listen to the dialogue, and to identify the techniques a director used to tell me the story and to convey a certain emotion. I’m not a specialist, but I once took a course in the history of the cinema, Hollywood: History, Industry, Art—on edx.org, obviously! I took the course unverified (free) and it was still highly informative, well-structured, and it was an enjoyable way to spend my time. Those who take the course as verified learners (for a certificate) have access to more information and exercises. In which concerns my project, I will do my best to be ready for next month. But I, honestly, did my best to be ready for this month, and it’s already the 30th of March…. Anyway, it’s on my To Do List. :-)
And I have a list of plays that were read, wait to be read, are read in a language and I check a bit the translation, others are written, another one wants to be done, some are reviewed, others are not yet reviewed but they will… I can’t even put in words how crowded this play section is. When I see the piles, when I see the papers with distinct notes in each book, it looks overwhelming, but I don’t let myself get overwhelmed. I love the process and I love the ideas that give birth to other ideas during the process. They are part of the writing process and they’re wonderful moments. Being organized and having a structure helps. For example, although I’m reading plays from different time periods (because they interest me for something else, too), my current focus for blog review is the modern drama and the 20th century plays. From the moderns, I already reviewed G.B. Shaw’s historical plays: MODERN DRAMA. BERNARD SHAW: The Devil's Disciple, Caesar and Cleopatra,The Man of Destiny, Saint Joan MODERN DRAMA. BERNARD SHAW (II): Great Catherine, The Inca of Perusalem, The Apple Cart, Geneva, In Good King From the 20th century, I reviewed and I'll post soon a series of plays written by a French philosopher but inspired by ancient plays. Then, I return to the moderns with the Nobel Prize winner, Luigi Pirandello, who is waiting in the pile. :-) No, I’m not forgetting or neglecting Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, Moliere; neither Aeschylus nor Sophocles, and others. What? It looks chaotic to you, Writer’s Journal? It only looks so. They’re in perfect order in my mind because I take them according to the literary stream they belong to. As I said, organization and structure help. You don’t seem to pay attention to what am I writing here. Therefore, dear Writer’s Journal, I’ll give you a break. And I’ll pause here. P.S. May I still have your attention to add something? I just want to mention that I also took part in a series of webinars on book marketing and writing. I have recorded them on this page, on the right: https://lauralai.weebly.com/game-writing :-) Dear Writer’s Journal,
In December, I couldn’t write the monthly Writing Update because on the 31st … I was still working. I was improving my Spanish and reviewing my German with Duo on Duolingo. I finished second in the Diamond League – whoo-hoo! Oh, well, it doesn’t mean much—at least, not to me. It means that I practiced online, and that I took a certain number of points that is more than the others online in a week. That’s all. But I was impressed to read my overall accomplishment statistics for 2023 on Duolingo. However, to learn a language is not a sprint but a marathon. It requires time, patience, pleasure, and it can be done both online (with apps, websites, etc.) or offline (with courses, books, notes, etc.). In general, I studied languages in school with teachers, books, and courses. German was the language I learned by practicing with free websites until the advanced level. Then I went to Vienna (in Austria) where I took several advanced classes of German as a foreign language. Spanish is different in the sense that I’ve always had a very good understanding of it without having ever studied it, probably because I’m already fluent in some Latin languages. And this time around, I’m using a free app to learn Spanish. In November, I’ve been away for two weeks and I’ve returned to my routine at the end of the month. Therefore, on December 6th, I enrolled in the last course in the HarvardX Shakespeare series--Shakespeare’s Hamlet: The Ghost. It was a wonderful experience. I felt both happy and honored to be one of the 203,421 people from around the world who completed this entire Shakespeare series. It equipped me with new insights on drama writing, particularly Shakespeare’s writing. I enjoyed this course as I enjoy a delicious dessert from which I was taking small flavorful pieces with a little spoon, feeling its sweet taste melting in my mouth while I was reflecting on each and every piece of information. But what’s good and tasteful doesn’t last long. So was with this course like a Hamlet dessert: it ended almost on Christmas Eve, on December 23rd. It’s January. I write. And I count on a new balance between studying and writing for the New Year 2024. Dear Writer’s Journal,
I wanted to leave a note for you at the end of October, but I didn’t find any spare moment. Why? I was busy with many things-some of them small things that usually take a long time. But if I invested time in them is because they were important. From the many things, some relate to writing, obviously! Goethe used to say, “Don’t let any day pass without reading or hearing something beautiful!” And I try. Every day. In which concerns writing, I completed two more courses from the Harvard series Shakespeare: Life, Work, and Characters. I completed Othello: The Moor and The Merchant of Venice: Shylock. And there is one more left that I can’t wait to study: Hamlet. I loved to be part of this community of e-learners approaching and discussing these plays! I learned that it’s one thing to read plays for your own entertainment and that it’s another thing to discuss them. The latter is like an invitation to a more profound reflection. It’s also a platform where I could share my thoughts and opinions, and get reactions. I find this enriching and inspiring. One of the things we discussed was adaptations. An “adaptation” is defined as “a composition rewritten into a new form” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). In previous writing courses, I learned that the adaptation is evolving as a genre in itself with its own requirements. Anyway, both Othello and The Merchant of Venice were adapted for the stage in different ways by talented writers. I didn’t read the adaptations (yet!) but from the summaries I heard, I had a great laugh at the original ideas. Original great ideas! I didn’t write any adaptation so far, but I love writing challenges. I don’t know on which criteria some people write an adaptation: maybe some need it for work as directors/producers, others for university as a graduation project. I need it for me, as a writer. The only criterion is that I must have a calling for it. I must resonate with the play. I must strongly feel like giving time and energy to complete such a writing project. And I have never had any such strong calling to do an adaptation from the very first words, the very first questions, the very first discussions as I had for The Merchant of Venice. This course series is coordinated by Prof. Greenblatt (Harvard Univ.) and I’m very grateful to him and his team for the inspiration. The courses aren’t complicated. Nobody asks anybody do to anything complicated but to read and think at the plays. I think everybody can take and complete this series of courses, but behind this apparent simplicity, the courses go very deep. This is what I love with all courses I took with edX. And The Merchant of Venice went so deep into my soul that gave me the inspiration to want to write an adaptation, and the course gave me the confidence to try writing an adaptation to this play. In the meantime, I finished reading the Long Day’s Journey into the Night by Eugene O’Neill and posted the review on this Writing Blog. In this way, I started shifting the Review section of this blog towards drama reviews. I’m still reading and analyzing other plays. And I was busy writing, too. But I’ll write about this on another occasion. Dear Writer’s Journal,
this month, I finished my course on Shakespeare: Work and Life. This course is a part of a series of four courses and soon I should enroll in another course from this series. I also use this course opportunity to review some of Shakespeare’s plays. But not only! I’m trying to finish reading a play by Eugene O’Neill (Long Day’s Journey into the Night) and some plays by Moliere gathered in a volume that is over 700 pages. Why did I make this choice? First, to cover the British, French, and the American theater. Second, because they were written in different time periods, in different centuries. Third, I needed a refresh: it’s one thing to read and enjoy the plays as an amateur and it’s another thing to read them again with a more professional eye after having studied some courses about drama, about Shakespeare, about writing. This month, I still kept a … vigilant eye on the book marketing techniques. I attended the Bestseller Secrets Summit (Sept. 4th- 8th, 2023). It gathered over twenty-five specialists and I gathered lots of information. Regardless of how much I like to be online, sometimes I had to content myself with watching replays. But you know what? I’m happy they’re available and I’m happy I could find time to watch them. So was the one on Keys to Becoming a Successful Children’s Book Author (organized by Children’s Book Mastery). You’re wondering about the link between children’s books and play writing? I’ll tell you. First, because I like multi-genre writing. Each genre comes with requirements and this makes writing more challenging and less boring. Personally, approaching different writing genres makes me feel more complete as a writer. That’s why reviews, comments, essays. That’s why low and no content. That’s why children’s books. Second, when I decided to make my writing dialog hobby a profession, I also decided to write single-issue dramas. This is a kind of play that focuses, as its name says, on an issue more than on characters, but I try not to neglect the characters (at least, not the arcs). When I write single issue dramas, I don’t have any models; the issues approached by the single-issue drama are topics that don’t put a smile on people’s faces-maybe that’s why is less approached. However, I try to write it in such a way as to include an entertaining part, but it’s difficult. Furthermore, I want to use my art to explain and entertain for people to think for themselves without being influenced by me, my thinking, or my art. Therefore, maintaining an objective tone all along the play is a must for me, but it’s also exhausting. And I decided that every time I finish one such play, I’ll take a ‘writing vacation’ with the joyful and hopeful children’s book genre to try educating and entertaining a younger generation in becoming wise adults and, hopefully, more respectful to people and nature. So, that’s what I settled at the beginning when I also settled that when I didn’t write single-issue dramas, I would write plays for adults or children, depending on the topic. And I stick to it because I gave it a lot of thought before I decided. But children’s books come with age groups, with beautiful illustrations and the challenge of high costs, with many talented authors and, therefore, with many challenges to becoming a successful one. However, when I was a child, I was always told that I was a mature child. Now, that I’m a mature person, I like to believe that I’m still a child in my heart. This month, among other things, I researched and worked on the giveaway How to Write a Great Dialog. Free Guide. And I advanced my Spanish with Duo. Actually, because I reached a 100-day streak, Duo gave me a 3-day ad-free learning opportunity. I used this opportunity to bring both German and Spanish to Unit 5. Indeed, I could jump over some units, but only if I did all the +/- 20 sentences with only three mistakes. In German, for example. the misplacement of the negation ‘nicht’ in the sentence is considered a mistake; you make three mistakes, you must restart the entire set of sentences. Although German grammar is strict, the negation ‘nicht’ is naughty (and the longer the sentence the more difficult is to find its right place). In short, I worked and reworked some exercises over and over until I could do them with less than three mistakes. But the good part is that on this occasion I reviewed a lot (and with great pleasure!). Then, I could jump over the units and bring both Spanish and German at the same starting point. And I continue from here with both. I continue from here with everything—discovering and learning from others’ advice and experience the ways to reach my writing goal. Dear Writer’s Journal,
it’s nice to see you again—this time, with the August update on my writing. It should be about many things, but I’ll try to focus on just a few. Let’s continue from where we left the last time! I’ve finished the 20 units of Spanish language with Duo. Now, there is a new set of lessons grouped into 36 units. Did you know that some e-learners on this platform study two or more languages? Well, I noticed it several times, and then I figured out how you do it, and guess what? I made it! I added a second language, too. German, you’re right! In general, if one doesn't use a language that it used to study well, the notions come back after practicing a bit. It’s like taking them out of the drawer. I focus on my Spanish, but ‘de vez en cuando’ I turn to German for a quick ‘Wiederholung.’ And I love that! Second, I attended a three-day live sensational writing event organized yearly: the BOOKMARCON 2023. It was hosted by Book Brush and it gathered many great specialists that informed and inspired me a lot. And, in my attempt to learn many things from different people, and as much as for an entire team, I also attended other one-day conferences. Because I master the craft of organizing conferences, I hope that one day I organize something similar for authors and books, too. My craft is less online and more venue-based, like the WRITERCON that takes place in Oklahoma from September 1st – if you’re around check out the free registration! Third, I go back and forth with either improving the marketing or the writing skills. This month, it’s the (play)writing craft with a HarvardX course on the edX platform—indeed, my favorite learning platform! It’s about the course Shakespeare: Work and Life with Prof. Stephen Greenblatt. What?! Of course, I love it. But I didn’t have any doubts because I completed another course with HarvardX: Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking with Prof. James Engell and because I completed other courses with edX and they were all great—absolutely great! Last but not least, I conducted research on dialogue writing to complete my reader magnet on dialogue writing. But let me finish my update with some impressive statistics from my Spanish course:
Dear Writer’s Journal, this is to say that my Spanish learning goes well. But I still have to learn until I can write books in Spanish or translate them from/into Spanish. Education, in general, is a marathon, not a sprint. And learning languages is no exception. Dear Writer’s Journal,
I think I mentioned to you before that in self-publishing, a writer is both an author and a publisher. And these are already two big hats for one person to wear because they each require a set of skills—and some are more difficult than others. On the one side, the writer needs to improve its writing craft and, on the other side, the publisher needs to learn some publishing technicalities and marketing which is like studying for a degree. Some people can afford a team covering different aspects of publishing for them, while they mainly focus on writing. I’m not from this category—I don’t know if it’s ‘fortunately’ or ‘unfortunately’, but fortunately we live some modern times that abound in information. Therefore, in the last years, particularly during the COVID global staycation, I read, I wrote, I improved my writing skills with writing classes—indeed, from www.edX.org website. You know that this is my main and favorite online learning website. And I also dived into marketing with the Amazon Ads Free Course by Dave Chesson. Do you know how I feel now? I feel like a baby girl who learned to walk and she can stand now, but she stands on a shore in front of a big sea or an ocean whose waves keep coming to her. She tries the water with her foot: it’s warm. She knows it’s deep, but the waves ticklish her foot. It makes her laugh, it makes her happy, and she wants to learn to swim. In the process of learning to walk and learning to swim into being a writer and a publisher, the writing community is the warm wave or waves coming to each of us who wants to dive in, but the learning I had to do it myself, as well as the learning to cover for those people in a team I cannot afford (e.g. book formatting, the book designer, the cover designer, etc.)—but, hey, how else can I be the manager of my book project? :-) Or a ‘solopreneur’? This is a term coined by Chesson. :-) In this sense, and with the two hats on my head, I made it through July, too. First, the writer took part in a webinar of ProWritingAid on ‘Story Arc and Character Arc’—an interview with Jessica Brody that has just launched her latest book. Second, the publisher and the writer took part in a writing summit. That’s right! A writing summit: Children’s Book Mastery (July 17-22) that had a live follow-up on July 25th. It was my first time taking part in a writing summit, but definitely not the last because first and foremost such an event brings in front of the audience proper companies and names from the writing and the self-publishing business. No scammers and no phony names. And, as you know, after my recent unfortunate job scam experience, I doubt more everything and everybody because doubting has always proved to be the best policy in my case and in the circumstances I’ve been in. In other words, each time I wanted to trust, I was wrong. So was this time and, in this case, with the job scammers. Then there is that proverb--once bitten, twice shy—that says the same thing and confirms that there is nothing wrong with having trust issues after such an experience. This summit brought together over twenty names that focused on both writing and marketing. One of these people is Ray Brehm — a best-seller author and writing entrepreneur. He generously offered the summit’s audience a video course bonus worth almost $500—five hundred, no joking. It’s this morning that I finished his Amazon Bestseller Formula, which is a super-comprehensive guide. I’m very thankful to Ray for this free course that answered me many questions and illuminated the entire self-publishing process for me. Then, I got his book on Launch a Business with a Virtual Summit that I keep for later because one section of the Amazon Bestseller Formula is precisely referring to the Amazon ads and this reminded me of the course of Dave Chesson that I want to retake because it’s a great study and it’s free; because I want to leave a review. Yes, Writer’s Journal, you’re right: I love writing reviews! What a pity that I cannot make some bucks from writing reviews. P.S. In foreign languages, I finished the edx course Spanish 2: One Step Further, and on Spanish with Duolingo, I’m at Unit 17/20. Hasta luego! :-) Dear Writer’s Journal,
I’m so tired that I can barely put my thoughts together! Indeed, lots of things… a real traffic (ideas) jam in my mind. But, I take them one by one. Please, let me pause on just two tonight. First, I enrolled in the Spanish: One Step Further. This is the edX course that was missing to complete the basic Spanish level. And I started Spanish on Duolingo. That I had already studied Spanish on edX helped me to settle the exercises for learners with some knowledge of Spanish. Where am I now? I’m at ten units completed on Duolingo and on over 20 percent completed on edX. On Duolingo, I registered great scores: ‘You completed 100 lessons with no mistakes. Only 8 percent of learners earn this achievement.’ ‘You leveled to Scholar Achievement with 1000 new words in one course. Only 4.8 percent achieve this.’ ‘You earned 7500 XP. Only 8.1 percent …’ In the Ruby League, I was second and only 0.4 percent achieves this—let alone that I was several times in top three. And yesterday, I was the first in the current league. Nice, isn’t it? The course Spanish: One Step Further is the academic course type, but with a great interactive component. Duolinguo is a language game, and it’s fun and entertaining. They’re two different styles. And I love them both—a lot! Second, I took part in two webinars in book marketing. The first was Keys to Successful Book Marketing. It took place on June 14-15 and ProWritingAid hosted it. The second was called Evening with an Editor. It took place on June 25 and it was hosted by SpeakWritePlay and it focused on a new and interesting idea called ‘story marketing’ that, I confess, I’m much more attracted to than book marketing. However, when an author is marketing the story is, actually, marketing with the entire book. But technically there are some differences. For example, for the concept of book marketing, the email list is essential. This is an element that participants to the seminar on Keys to Successful Book Marketing highly emphasized. They even gave clues on how to increase the email list. Although a combination of the two is ideal, an email list doesn’t grow overnight. Therefore, I prefer to start with the story marketing. At least, this is the right order I see working for me. And the purpose of these seminars was to be exposed to different aspects of book marketing and techniques that worked for the others. I listened carefully and I selected those that are appealing to me and those that sound that I can do, too. These seminars added to the information I’ve already picked in time from the people I’m following on YouTube and whose writing advice I trust. And altogether, they complete a marketing plan – my modest marketing plan. Dear Writer’s Journal,
long time, no see, right? Well, wrong! I saw you, but you didn’t see me. I thought of you, of writing to you, but I bet you didn’t think of me. What?! You were waiting for me to write to you? All right! Here I am. The period of Easter holidays, name day, and birthday is over. Indeed, yesterday was May 1st - the International Labor Day. On this occasion, there were so many protests around the world that I assume this day will soon become International Unemployment Day. On the 16th, 17th, and 18th it was Easter. Before that, it was Holy Week. After that, it was Enlightened Week. During the former, I celebrated my name day—indeed, St. Laura! :-) During the latter, I celebrated my birthday. How old I turned on April 22nd? Of course, I turned 18! Every year, I turn 18. :-) Some of us are young forever. And I’m definitely one of those. ;-) The point is that during this period of high spirituality and personal celebrations, I haven’t worked much on the computer—I wasn’t fully disconnected either. Instead, I used the oldest writing software: pen and paper. And from all the projects that are unfolding in my mind, I chose those that I could work on this first and the oldest of writing softwares. In terms of time availability, you wouldn’t be surprised if I tell you that sometimes I only found half an hour here and there, but they were still a few hours altogether in a day. However, you’d be surprised if I tell you that there were also days I had several hours here and there to write and rewrite. And I did so for three projects. It’s the same project, but in three different languages, as I like to work in different languages and across genres. Yesterday and the day before yesterday, I succeeded in typing the German version. But there is a French one coming. A Spanish one. And others. Oh, I’ve just remembered that I need to retake my Spanish classes. I’ve already taken two free but great ones: both with edX. I can’t wait to enroll in the third one. Yes, I want to be able to write books in Spanish, too, but this is another story. I was telling you about the projects I worked on during this time you haven’t seen me around. And I wanted to add that the topic was very much fitted for this time of the year. It was a pure coincidence. A beautiful coincidence that I don’t want to tell you more about. I want to keep the mystery until I’ll make them public. What?! Yes, it’s nice to see you, too, Writer’s Journal. |
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