The Modern Human's Error

Most of you will be frowning over the strange title, but  I have been thinking a lot about this post, being a history student and having a somewhat romantic idea about the past.

Let's me start by stating, that despite my romantic idea about the past, I am very grateful to live in modern times, because I am well aware that my idea about the past is bascially that: An idea!

The past was tough land, especially for the poor: They had little to no rights and often enough were missing the most basic things to make life worth living or even bearable. I am not speaking of luxury items, but the things we nowadays easily disregard as "normal" often without consciously acknowledging them, such as shoes, food and heating.

Why is it still so appealing to us? My guess is, as weird as it may sounds is the lack of chances, as weird as it may sound. Take dating as an example. We, the women, have now the option of doing the first the step and we can be more active, which is a great thing, but with the freedom came the problem of choice. Some 50 years ago it was rather simple, because there was just one way: The guy made the first move and if he didn't he wasn't into you, end of story. Now guys have to wonder if the woman hates or likes the old-fashioned approach, if she hasn't done the first step herself because she shy or whatever. The same goes for the women. In the end the variety of options have created a lot of uncertainty, not making dating any easier. 

But the same goes also for the many career choices we have not. I have recently started a new day job and unfortunately this wasn't what I had expected. So I started thnking about modern times in which such things as burn-out syndrome and bullying at work have become mayor issues. While we generally think that it is better nowadays I wonder why we complain so much about things we brought upon ourselves.

You don't even have to go back too far, just take a look at our parents generation. Back then there was no argument about a fullfilling job or anything. A job was there to provide for you and your family, nothing more nothing less. Back then people were happy if they could do a hard work, because it was usually well paid and it meant a more comfortable life for their family.

This and the knowledge that in my homecountry Spain people are being evicted from their homes, because without a steady job they cannot pay their morgue honestly made me feel embarrased and it made realize something:

In the present we complain about a lot of things while we should see those actually as a blessing. We complain about unfulling jobs, while we should be happy, that we at least can try to have a fullfilling job. We are frustrated by modern dating, when we actually should be grateful that we live in a time when we can date whoever we want regardless of gender, religion, social standing or colour. Maybe it'll help us if next time we are frustrated about something like this, we ask ourselves what the situation would have been 100 years ago. 

writing update - #3

After having finished writing the novel and the first round of editing I thought it is about time to post my next writing update. I have to admit I underestimated the part of the work that I am facing now. Since now writing feels actually like work, but you know what is amazing? I love every second of it! It is a good feeling to know that I am approaching my passion with professionalism and it makes me proud.

Right now my novel is in the hands of my valued "test readers" for the second round of editing. Since it is one of the deadly sins for a writer to edit their own novel, because you end up overlooking errors. 

That doesn't mean I am being idle, on the contrary. Lots of my time is now dedicated to preparing the next stage: Trying to sell it! This is a very tedious part as it takes time to browse through countless websides of editors, publishers and agents to see if they are right for me and my book or should I say: If I am right for them? 

Then there is also the issue about professional proof readers. Although I think my grammar and spelling are not bad (particularly in german, which is the language my book is presently written in) I think a professional proof reader will be a good thing, since I want to avoid that spelling errors divert from the actual story. Of course this is also a matter of financial means. 

I have also started to work on the english translation in order to be able to approach a wider range of agents and publishers. The spanish translation is also being worked on (Thank god for family members with lots of time). 

But that is only half the task. The other half is finding out about procedures, dos and donts and how to succeed. But my personal approach is going to be exactly that: Personal! I don't believe in pre-written coverletters but in something original that sticks out, after all I am not trying to sell insurances but a fantasy novel, right?

As you can see I am being extremely busy and hopefully will soon be able to post about the first feedback and good news. 

The Road not Taken

I apologize for not having posted here in such a long time, but as the ones who follow me on twitter might know I am extremely busy editing my novel (which goes so far as to a change of title). In any case this is a post I have been thinking about for quiet some time. 

Being in my midthirties I often think about what I have so far achieved in life and what I dreamt about ten years ago. I am sure you all know these thoughts. When this sort of thoughts comes up you sooner or later reach the point of  "The Road not Taken".  You start wondering if decisions you made years ago were the right ones or if the other road would have been the better choice. 

Lately I wonder about a different thing: What do we actually ask ourselves these questions? If you think about it, it is a pretty useless way of torturing yourself, since it literally doesn't lead anywhere. It doesn't matter if breaking up with your ex six years ago was right or wrong. No only that he or she might be married now, but because as a matter of fact you broke up. No emotional torment is ever going to change that. This goes for everything, from rejected job oportunities, to relationships or business oportunities. And we all know it! 

So the question is, why do we still keep lamenting about it? My theory is, that we do that for two very different reasons. 

First the human being is an egoistic creature. Most of you will now roll with the eyes, but I think it is true and we need to accept it because only if we accept it, we can control this instinct. It is also mainly a good thing if we don't let it out of hand, as it is partly a survival instinct. Only if we take care of ourselves we can survive. But this is not what I was hinting at. Actually what I meant was the fact, that we think so often about roads not taken, because we would like to live out all options in order to find the best one finally choose this one. Isn't it? It is the human nature, yet we all know this is not possible, so why wasting time with the thought of it? 

Second and in my eyes the more important reason is that we are partly masochists, constantly trying to punish ourselves for errors commited in the past. How else can you explain, that we remember things like the first error the teacher marked in our first school test, but cannot remember our boss's birthday even if our life depended on it? Maybe it is about time we forgive ourselves for errors in the past and look ahead instead. Because if we constantly look to the past we won't see what is coming and commit the error we might be able to avoid otherwise. 

I don't want to be all philosophical but these are just some thoughts I wanted to share with all of you and maybe you find this worth a thought of your own. 

Bad teachers, good teachers - Or how to make a difference

Recently I was talking to my mom about my school time and the various teachers. It was interesting to see how much I am still influenced by some of them. What fascinated me, was the fact that I don't remember any teacher for their particular knowledge rather than for their way of teaching. Basically there are two sorts of teachers I remember. 

First there are what I consider bad teachers. Those that wouldn't really listen to the kids and just judge them by the impression. Like the sports teacher that automatically assumes that the heavy kid is bad at sports, although it is in fact a rather capable gymnast. Another classic is the language teacher that thinks the foreign kid has to be bad at language class. These teachers tent to frustrate kids and destroy their efforts and will to learn. How I know that? Because I was a kid and if you think about it you might remember one of those teachers as well. 

Let me tell you a little story: In 3rd great we got a new language teacher and she bluntly decided that each foreign child had to go to remedial course. I remember cleary how indignated I felt although this happened 25 years ago. It wasn't because of the extra class (As a matter of fact, back then I really enjoyed school) but the fact that the year before I had been about 5th in the language class. She hadn't even checked my credits! So how is a child going to be motivated if getting the feeling that the teacher just doesn't care enough? How is the kid going to take marks received by such a teacher serious? The story ended when after three weeks the remedial class teacher went to her and said that it was ridiculous having me in that class, also because I was frustrating other children. 

I am not telling this story to brag but since I don't have any kids I have to relate to my own school time. I remember quiet a lot of stories like this and I am sure so do you. I also don't want to make teachers look bad, as I know it is one of the toughest jobs in the world. It is also one of the most responsible jobs, so before becoming a teacher maybe consider if you are at least equally dedicated to children, as to the subject you will be teaching. 

On the other hand there are those teachers that inspire you and always make you go the extra mile. Not because you want to impress them but because they convince you that you want it. I remember another teacher from 7th grade who constantly encouraged me to write, often also with critics, telling me he knew I could do better. It goes so far that I have been trying to find him in order to tell him about my writing and to thank him. It sometimes just takes one person to tell you: Go for it, don't stop. 

The purpose of this post is to inspire all of you to be such teachers to the children. A teacher doesn't have to be in a classroom. Everybody is one! Try to encourage children and listen to them, this way they will reach their full potential. Imagine what would have happened if his father hadn't listened to the three year old Mozart playing the piano and instead had shooed him off the instrument!

Writing update #2

Sorry for not having posted lately, but as announced I am focusing on my novel. My work is finally starting to pay of and "Chronicles of the Shadow Wars" is developing nicely. I might be able to finish the first draft by August 31st as scheduled.

Some of the latest twists I came up with blended perfectly into the existing story parts and gave the book a quicked pace and more dynamic.

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As announce I have also started  a new blog section for my movie reviews, that you can find here:

http://lorcas-movie-reviews.blogspot.de/

The first review is for "The Dark Knight Rises" and might get me some enemies, but that is life! I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful.

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.