Writing update #1 - new blog structure

Some of you might have noticed that this month I have only posted once. Although me being on holiday was partly a reason, the main reason was that I have been thinking a lot about the direction of this blog and how to re-organize it.

I am quiet happy with most of my blog posts, but consider that this blog needs more structure, so everyone can access quicker the posts that interest him/her. So I have decided to split the post into cathegories, such as: essays, short stories, movie reviews etc. I am not sure if I will sort the old posts or just leave them as they are at the moment.

The main page will be reserved for my writing updates, which from now on will me numbered (as you can see from this title). This way you can follow the progress of my novel and my first steps in the publishing world and hopefully this will encourage other yet to be published writers.

Another thing is, that I might be posting less then before. This is not because I don't enjoy blogging (which I do immensly) but because I would like to focus on writing my novel now. If you are a writer and have a blog as well, you will agree that writing a blog often takes time you could employ in writing your novel, which let's be honest is our main focus. This doesn't mean I will lay the blog dorment, but that I have shifted my priority for the time being.

The present status of the novel (working title: Chronicles of the Shadow Wars) is that I am about half way done with it, while the rest of the story already exists in my head. The advancement has been not as quick as I wanted to, lately, but this was due to revisting old chapters for some fine tuning. Despite editing being a tedious work I am very happy with it, as it has given my characters more depth and I also managed to add smaller twists, which from my point of view make the story even more intriguing. Since the novel is what could be considered "historical fantasy" for young adults you can imagine that one of the main challenges is the creation of the "world" in which it takes place but on the other hand this is the fun part. To create rules, traditions and cultures is very exciting.

Since the novel is planned as the first one of a series I assume the rest will be written quicker, as by then the background will already be done. Needless to say that avoiding contradictions in the future books is one of my main targets.

Ok, that is about it for today. I hope you will enjoy the new structure of the blog, as much as you have enjoyed the old one or even more. If you have any ideas for sections or things you would like to read, feel free to let me know and I will consider them. Take care!

Expat 2.0 - Identity crisis or invaluable chance?

With the European Soccer Championship going on, one inevitable question you are asked as an immigrant's child, which I refer to as Expat 2.0, is: Which team are you cheering for?

This is actually a really good question, to which you will get all different kinds of answers.

In my case the situation is as follows: I was born to a spanish father and spanish mother in Germany and grew up and spent all my life so far in Germany. As opposed to the popular belief I am legally spanish but could easily get a german passport if I wished to do so. In fact my oldest brother is now legally german but still he roots for Spain.

So the more important question, finding out who we are, is: How do I feel? Do I feel german or spanish? And the answer to that question is easy for me: I am spanish but I am extremely grateful to have had the chance to grow up in Germany. I also know enough people, whose parents are also from Spain, that will answer that they are german, which is fine.

So if I am spanish, why am I grateful that I got to grow up in Germany? I grew up bilingual and consider german and spanish both my mother tounges. This has made it easy for me to learn other languages, as I was already used to think in different language. In fact my english would be much worse, hadn't I grown up in Germany.

Since both cultures are very different I learnt early to tolerate and appreciate differences, this led to me being an open personality. I always was different, so how I could I not like "different"? Actually I developed an extreme curiosity for other cultures and constantly find myself asking people tons of questions about their home countries.

But growing up abroad was not always easy and full of options, there was also a downside to it.

In school my parents weren't able to help with German homework, because although they speak German and manage all their daily tasks in German their language skills are not flawless. This gave my brothers and myself a significant disadvantage at school. Being the youngest I was again lucky as my brothers supported me.

In Germany I was always "the spanish girl" and in Spain I was always "the german girl". When you are a child this can be hard, as you wonder: Do I have two home countries or none? It is sort of conflicting because although people don't say it to hurt you or with a negative attitude you feel as if nobody wants to "claim" you as part of their people. I am sure that for people having grown up in their homecountry this may sound awkward but it is difficult to explain.

Still I wouldn't have want to miss this way of growing up for the world! I am spanish, but growing in Germany has enriched my life tremendously and helped me become the person I am today.

If you have the chance to offer your children this opportunity grab it, especially when it comes to the language.