Elo, Mr Blue Sky

Friday once more, and what a beautiful day it has turned out to be. It rained a little earlier in the week, which has inspired the lawn to reach a truly ridiculous height. If I don't do something about it soon, I will be at risk of finding a couple of tigers in there.

By tigers, of course, I mean Siberian tigers. And by do something about it, of course, I mean employ a gardener.



There are water lillies on the lake too. I thought they only grew in garden ponds, surrounded by faded plastic herons and covered with miles of plastic netting, but apparently I was wrong. They also grow on vast bodies of fresh water in central Sweden. There are as well, small black ones, but I think it would have been almost as pointless to attempt to photograph them as it would be to go to the effort of hooking them out and frying them up.



Sara and I have been filming for the author school, as she mentioned in her blog on Monday. I was in my element, dressing up in silly hats and throwing papers from rooftops (where I also found one hammer, slightly rusted). I used to hate dressing up and messing around like that when I was a small child, but I thoroughly enjoy it now. I think this is the correct way round. Dressing up is wasted on small children; they don't know the first thing about clothes in the first place, so they don't appreciate being decked out as a pirate or a zombie or a radioactive wombat.

In other news, the Bombadil dog currently smells like grass.

Two wings to fly too!

Yesterday I walked all the way from the centre of Nora to Gyttorp, that is about four or five kilometres. It was a windy day but the sun shone and as I walked, very fast, I saw a beautiful blue lake on my right and I couldn’t avoid thinking of the very first time I travelled to the beach. I mean a beach at the seaside. I’m not really sure my age then, it could be eight or nine years old.

I remember we travelled in a bus that my dear uncle had for these kinds of holidays, myself and my cousin Olga asked all the time to my uncle, Olga’s father, when we should see the beach, my uncle answered that we must be little patient, but we asked and asked about the beach. We began to ascend a mountain in our car, and we couldn’t see any beach. Suddenly, my uncle stopped the car, shut off the engine and asked us to get out of the car. Everybody did like my uncle said. But the beach…! I tried to say, my uncle, very kindly said that we follow him peacefully, we went among several big trees and then we arrived something which looks as a little park, and then… we see it! The majestic Pacific Ocean, I remember I was paralysedby the view to see the sea from a mountain top, about 1500 meters high, its was a great view that my self and my cousin Olga didn't want to stop looking at the sea. My uncle said: "but the beach…" "The beach does not matter," Olga said! And I agreed!

"You really want to have two wings, like a bird, and fly away over this magnificent sea and never stop fly, don’t you Melvin," said Olga. I didn’t answer to Olga, because I was on my way flying, but with no wings, I flew with my imagination. Yesterday I really wanted to have two wings to fly with the -YOUTH 2 YOUTH- boys and girls who are writing with Bombadil - sometimes I feel I do that, fly and fly and fly! Without wings!

Melvin González

Late blogging

Well I´m kind of blogging late today. The reason is that I had ½ day at the office. Taking some time to do something for my self, well I was also company to my sister. Everyone should do something for themselves from time to time, it doesn´t need to be much but just something. I have actually had my hair cut today, it was really a long time since I did that about; 1½ years so it was definitely time for it. It´s nice to go in to Örebro (the nearest big city from Gyttorp, about 4 Swedish miles) to do something fun or just go around looking at people, studying them. And it was also nice weather :-)):-)) a bit windy but okay.

Nice weather bring forward some animals like bugs (not so pleasant) and some other creatures that are not so nice. But some week (weeks) ago I actually manage to catch a frog on a photograph (with my film camera). Well the truth is that it almost jumped on me when I was going up from the ground. I had been lying down trying to take some close up pictures at some flowers. It is fun to take pictures and I´m still trying to learn how the digital camera works, and I´m not pleased with my self on how it goes. But that is me in a "nutshell".



At my last blog I was mentioning that I hoped we should send another book for printing. Well that was a bit wrong but not much. It took a few more days to get it ready for printing. But it is now sent for printing. Sometimes it takes a bit longer than you think but that is a thing that happen to everyone and everything.

Hopefully we will send another book for printing in a short time, the first one for our sister company Gandalf Publishing. That is a bit special and it is a very nice book. That kind of book that you want to have in your bookshelf, well I want it :-)).

over and out
Mari

"Are we insured?!"

After lunch the sun decided to join us on the first working day of the week, the weather is truly beautiful today! Which quite obviously lead to me and John doing some filming, since we are working with the Bombadilian author school at the moment. The author school which will be made into two parts (to begin with); part one is a short film that is introducing the Bombadilian philophosy and lifestyle in an easy manner and a quick pace. The second part of the author school is a summarize of background, philophosy, publication process and some other bits and pieces of information which will be of great value for all of our Bombadilan authors.

Since we had such lovely weather, as mentioned me and John headed outside to get some nice filming done! The afternoon therefor has more or less been spent sitting on roofs, throwing news papers form roofs, throwing manuscripts from roofs, picking up news papers and manuscripts from the ground. John also showed off his acting skills whilst wearing his winter coat, summer cowboy/crocodile dundee hat and a pair of sun glasses, all he had to do was to throw a news paper in a big, green bin, but John being John, it had to be done with glory and drama! After today I´m starting to suspect that John once dreamt about being an actor, I think the best way to describe it would be in a chavy way: "He was being well dramatic, innit?!" He really was, but in a good way of course. Me on the other hand was as usual the one having to climb the really dangerous roofs!! A tiny crack in on of the roofing sheets and a terrified Sara later, John managed to get some nice shots of me sitting and writing on top of one of the Bombadilian houses. Which also finally leads me to todays title...."Are we insured?" was pretty much the only words that slipped out of my mouth whilst being on the roof. If I had been clumsy enough to fall from the roof it wouldn´t have been to bad tho, I insure you. It´s barely 2 metres to the ground which is covered with nice, thick, green grass, plus my backside is quite safe to land on. And that is the voice of experience talking since I fell of a horse last week...

All in all it has been a very creative and productive Monday, indeed, and the sun is shining!! Can´t get much better than that =D

All for now,
Over&Out
/sara

Books and, er, books, I suppose. Oh, and creativity. Lots of that.

There are many wonderful things about living in Sweden. The climate is pleasant (except for today; it's raining), the scenery is unbelievably beautiful and the Swedes are a particularly pleasant bunch. There are huge lakes, tall green trees and lush forests. There was at one stage a point to this paragraph. What the point was, however, escapes me now. I guess I'm just trying to say that Sweden is a pretty fantastic place and I spend my days in a basket of creativity. Those of you who spend an hour a day in the great orbital car park that is the M25, you have my sympathies.

Two books are nearing completion, Sahil's role-playing adventure book "Inz The Warrior" has been sent to the printer today and Seth's book "The Noresemen's Saga" has been sent off to be proofread. Note, proofread, not edited, as we do not believe in taking an author's work and then mercilessly chopping it about.

The big Learning Swedish effort is progressing steadily, if a little slowly. I have just discovered that rabbit is kanin, which sounds for all the world like canine. Dog is hund though, which makes a little more sense. And cat, well, that's just katt.


Detta är inte en katt...

In other news, the Bombadil dog currently smells like pantaloons.

The power of the pen has become the power of the computer!

I always wondered about the power of the pen. I’m old fashioned and I wanted to become an author when I was very young, when I wrote with a pen on paper. I did not succeed then, but instead I learned that a pen in the right, or the wrong, hands is powerful. But when I read a poem where the writer wrote that the pen is more powerful than all the weapons together in the world, I got confused.

I asked my uncle, who was a Medical Doctor, about this matter; my uncle very kindly explained to me that I could imagine the worst war in the world - I thought about WWII. My uncle told me that before the war started, Hitler signed a document that declared war on Poland. So Hitler took a pen to sign the document, that means that the worst war in the world needed a pen to start it.

But recently when a young boy from Mexico wrote to me, he wrote about the tragedy of the war, and he told me that he wanted to use the pen to express his dissension with the weapons, and of course, the war. All the wars.

I agreed with this young boy and I exhorted him to write about this matter and I told him “well, its time to get yours hands to the work, hands to the pen and write.” He answered me: “No Melvin, its time to get my hands to the computer,” and then he added, “this is the modern way, the Bombadil way.” I just smiled and I thought “I am really an old fashioned guy.”

Melvin González

Inspiration and feelings

Hello in the sunny weather!

-Ohhh noo, that stupid claw thing again, grrr. (Pixie)
-Well your nails need to be trimmed again. (Mari)
- No,no. I will bite it. (Pixie)
-Yes, come here. It´s not dangerous. (Mari)
-Grumble, grumble. Let me go NOW (Pixie)
Then Pixie flounders a bit giving me some hard time cutting her nails. But in the end it did go well with some holding help from John.

When the spring comes the inspiration comes more and more. Well at least it does for me anyway. I always want to do so much and I don´t not what to begin with! I want to go out in the nature just to listen to all the sounds. I want to be with good friends, having some fun. I want to be with my excellent co-workers, they are marvellous. And so on, so on........
In the weekend i saw "Lily of the valley" and the blue "forget-me-not" a marvellous flower. I think it was a bit early!

"forget-me-not" (my first try with digital camera)

Inspiration is also to try to learn how a digital camera works. I was borrowing one of Bombadil's cameras over the weekend trying to take some pictures. Did it go well ? No it didn´t, grrr. I don´t have the same feeling for the digital camera as I have for my own normal system camera. I just can´t figure out how it works perfectly and therefore I don´t have the feeling for the digital thing. But I don´t give up that easy and I will try again and again and again :-)).

Books have been sent for printing and some more are quite close to be sent. It is an inspiration to see the finished printing file be uploaded to the printing company. It is really fine !!!

Until next time.Have a nice and sunny weekend
Mari

Entrepreneurs, managers and technicians

I read an interesting book about the myths of small businesses. It essentially said that there are three parts to a business: entrepreneurs or visionaries, managers and technicians. Apparently most small businesses are run as if they are small and do not cater for growth. Also, very few keep the vision or the ideology once the business starts growing usually because they have too much to do. I did a test on Bombadil, and amazingly enough we have already reached the mature stage and are no longer considered a small or a young company. Seems a funny thing when we are only about two years old, and do not have hundreds of employees.
Anyway, I have been thinking about this for a while, and realise that although we are not very old, we do indeed have a very established ideology and we are also in so many places around the world. So perhaps the test was right. With regards to catering for growth, then we have done nothing but, so yes, perhaps they are right afterall.
The other thing that was interesting was that we are classified as a visionary company and will thus be able to really make an impact by what we do. I did not really think I learnt anything from the book, though there was something of which I should take notice - have a structured handbook which is continually updated. So guess it is time to start writing more pages to the handbook. Seems they are needed ;-D

Creativity rocks!!

And it sucks when you can´t feel the heat, of creativity.

Lately I noticed that creativity is a quite trendy word, at least in Swedish, it kind of became one of those overly used words. People talk about "The pleasure creativity brings", "the lack of creativity" and the importance of having creativity! The world itself seemed to have got greater than the real meaning of it. It´s almost like one is supposed to be creative, wether one like it or not. All the sudden it´s well creative to have managed to clean the house or washing your shower curtain...

Creativity is to create something new, to think out of bounds and outside the box. To dare and to do. At the Bombadil office creativity is something that is used and needed everyday since we everyday meets new challenges and new situations that must be delt with which we haven´t faced before. That´s why lack of creativity sometimes might be a "tiny" problem as we all get those days when the brain seems to be a big lump of soft content rahter than a highly tuned, extremly dynamic organ. That´s why it´s so fabulous to work with people and around people who seem to have more creativity than they can handle. One of the authors I happen to mentor is one of those people, she will overwhelm me with short storys, poems and pictures. And she will never stop trying. Amasing. and the best bit is, her creativity smittens and those days when my brain seems to work best as a soft fotboll she and others can inspire and lift me and my creativity level up to a decent level again.

True creativity really rocks. It´s a fact.
All for now.
/Over&Out, Your monday blogger Sara

I'm not dead...

I have been absent from the Bombadil blog for a few weeks now. No, I haven't been shipped off to Finland as punishment for eating all of the Bombadil biscuits, it's just that there have been rather a lot of public holidays lately. They invariably fall on a Friday, so we are not in the office.

I have been working on a couple of Bombadil's flagship projects, whilst at the same time wishing that things would move just a little faster. Sahil's fantasy adventure book is finally nearly ready, after we decided to undertake a major page referencing exercise on it. Perhaps not the most sensible thing, looking back on it, when I consider the amount of extra work that it generated, but it will make the book infinitely more readable. It is a book that allows the reader to make their own choices throughout the story so it must be carefully checked, then re- checked, otherwise it will not make any sense.

The May Fire at Örebro and the Archery Club party (in my villa) has been extensively covered by other Bombadillians elsewhere, so I shall not harp on about that. I am, with Steinar's help, building a kayak. I have recently discovered the joys of paddling along a river in a beautiful wooden craft and so I have started on my own construction. It appears to be growing quite quickly, but I have a feeling it will start to take a lot longer once it is time for sanding.



I am also learning Swedish. It's not really necessary as nearly everyone here speaks impeccable English (even the bums outside the off-licence) but as I have been here for a while now, I thought it was time to learn. It's going rather well (I'm on week two of learning).

I andra nyheter, Bombadil hunden är för närvarande mycket blöter.

The inspiration is Contagious!

Last Monday, a girl from Venezuela wrote about her feelings when she read our home page on the internet; she said that she has a dream to write a book for several years. Despite her early older, she is 19 years old, and when she read, as she wrote to me, was she contagious of all the things she find in Bombadil Publishing home page and then she get inspired.

She promised to me to come back later with her "fantastic history", she will prepare and organize her "chaos" as she said. Well, I was very happy and was inspired myself from this girl, I felt like when I first fell in love back in the seventies, that feeling; which is difficult for me to explain; it took me like a hurricane deep in my soul, this happiness was transmitted to me directly from this young girl's note and I became "contagious" too. As well as this Venezuelan girl, there are many other young people around the world too who are writing their books together with a Bombadil mentor, and they get “contagious” too, well, I mean inspired, this is the new way around the world - the young people meet together, in a sociable way through writing, through books, through Bombadil Publishing. What a feeling! Youth 2 Youth!



Melvin González.

Pleasure

Hello everyone

I hope you all are having a nice time out in the nature when the sun is shining or just enjoying some time with a good book :-). Maybe you do something fun that really give some new "breathe". Don´t stop taking small breaks it´s important to all of us.

Like me, I have kind of started riding again, well I just did it once last week and will do it again tomorrow. I'm borrowing Marianne's horse Ophelia, she is a nice trotter horse like my old one (31 years now, not riding him any longer). I kind of forgot how nice it was to go out in the nature for a tour. Well I had Josephine (Marianne's daughter) and John's guest Lisa from England with me too, and they did well both of them, thanks for the company. And Lisa I hope you had a nice time in Sweden!

Small moon in the blue sky. (taken by mobile phone)

On the working front we just send one book for printing yesterday and will probably send another one this week, if it goes as I hope and think.

Oh, almost forgott the "Öbetraktelse" manuscript is sent for comments by Calle (Gandalf Publishing) and the author. That is a very nice book with marvellously drawn pictures.

Secrets; are they allowed?
Yes I think so :-)):-)) I'm having secrets? Yes small ones, of course everyone should have that. And then maybe, maybe share it with someone/ones in the future. Having secrets is fun, you kind of having people curious in a kind way of course :-)):-)).

Until next time have a nice week and weekend

Mari

Time Flies

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.”
Harvey MacKay


Read the quotation, look at the picture, and relax, meditate, reflect. Reflect a moment, think about the little things in life that make you smile, the wonderful things that made you who you are, and the caring people around. Think about something nice said to you, a kind word, a loving smile, a sweet gesture. Sometimes life becomes a treadmill and sometimes time flies, days becoming weeks, weeks becoming months, months becoming years.

Before we moved our offices to Gyttorp, I thought I would be working less. I knew we would be expanding and that clever, enthusiastic and passionate people would share the burden with me - it looked as if I would be able to take a breather. But no. Life became increasingly hectic and there was not even a routine to fall back on, as the place was new - and big. Big is good, but when it takes you 1 minute and 28 seconds to go from one end to the other, big can also be a concern. Good for us to get some exercise, but still, not always the best when you have left a paper down the other end of the house. 1 minute 28 seconds there, and 1 minute 28 seconds back. But it has taught us to be organised.

The last few months have been hectic, we expanded to 82 countries, have over 6000 authors, launched the beta version of our social network and opened a whole new universe that we did not even think could exist. Wonderful and stressfull. The normal working week went from 40 hours to 80 hours. Leisure seemed a thing of the past, and every minute of the day seemed accounted for. Then I got double-pneunomia, but still went to work. Not something I recommend, by the way, but off to work I went regardless of coughs and pains. During the third visit to the doctor getting a perscription for a third course of antibiotics, while I was eagerly waiting to leave his surgery and head back to work, the good and wise doctor looked at me and calmly told me that people used to die from pneunomia, so I should perhaps take it easy a bit. I regret to say that I did not really want to listen, though warning bells did ring. Where was the time, where were the wonderful moments just looking a wild flowers, cuddling my children while veg-ing on the sofa, or walking my dog, hand in hand with my husband. Perhaps it was time to slow down just a bit. Time flies, but once spent, you can never get it back. So I have decided not to let time just fly, but to savour and enjoy it while it is being spent.

Take a moment to reflect and meditate on the picture. Say a few nice words to those you love, seize the day, mediate, love, live, laugh, enjoy! I know I will!

"Another girl, another planet"

I have a habbit, a habbit of getting stuck to songs. Today that song is "Another girl, another planet" by The only ones. Once have got infected there is not much that can stop me from listen to the same song, over and over again. Somtimes my surrounding minds, but normally not. It usualy depends on how loud i´m playing.... ;)

It´s very interesting how people are effected by music. For example, I could not go through a working day without listening to music, there is always something playing in my office, same thing when I´m at home cooking, chilling out, sitting by the computer or whatever. I guess I wouldn´t have to have music playing, but I prefer to. Whilst going in the car it´s a must though, I litterary would go nuts without the mp3 player in the car. NUTS.

At the Bombadilian offices there is music streaming from two offices, mine and Veronicas. Apart from us it´s quiet except for Pixie barking every time someone is entering the main door... The Bombadil office are very different in what they listen too, for example, Niklas seem to be a mayor Djinghis Khan-fan, John is into Dire Straits and Blur, Mari likes Toto, Marianne dig Dr. Hook. I will have to look up what Veronica listens too, (I would do, but she has left for the day).

Back to the matter in hand; all of us are different in our way of listening, what we listen too, how we listen and why. And with that we can all learn something new from eachother, learn to appreciate other types of music and perhaps new ways of listening too it as well. Varity and an open mind will make your world larger and with that you can contribute to enlarge somone elses mind. Just by introducing them to a band or lending them a book.

It´s all about varity, that´s a fact.

Over&Out
/Your Monday blogger, Sara

Hi again all Bombadillians!
I can’t remember why but I thought about my old philosophy teacher, back in high school, when he asked me: “Well, Melvin, Do you think you can tell?” And I’d answer: “About what?." My teacher answered, “Anything between heaven and hell” and he continues “there is a feeling, read about it”. I was pretty sure I’d do it! Of course I could understand that! That was my first idea. Well, who can’t tell heaven from hell? This happened when I took an important decision which went on to influence all my life. I suppose it was the very best decision I took. Years later that decision got me in trouble and I felt it was a really hell. I have written about this through the written word people get a better understanding, because you can read over and over again. Like all young Bombadilian authors all over the world, these young writers are writing about feelings, about sensations, about experiences and there are more people around the world who are able to read what these young Bombadilians have written. I want the entire world to get that Bombadil feeling through reading! Our young writer do that. I can tell all you that is where heaven is!
Melvin González

Blog, what about?

Hello everyone
Hmmm what shall I blog about today, hmm ........... . What have I done since last time?

First of all as you have heard from some other, we had a really nice time in Örebro looking at the May fire. And the party here after that we had been in Örebro. The people that "set the fire" came to barbecue and having a nice time and evening (morning for some people :-)). It was so nice to meet those people and I got so inspired by their middle age (medieval) clothes that I want to do something like it for myself. And this time I will not just let it slipping by again (has done that before). So now I´m looking for pattern and has taken some contacts with people that might know where to find patterns. Ohh, if anyone out there have a pattern or know where to find just contact me or us.
By the way I also want to try/test to shoot longbow!! And I think Marianne wants to do this too :-)) Thanks to Steinar for taking the people here and they are welcome again.


Here are some of the people.

Ohh, by the way the short movies from Trollhättan poetry festival is now out Youtube, finally the uploding worked as it should. Go and see our young authors and our own Sara performing. Well done putting it up Sara :-)).

Well and as usual I´m putting together some books and soon there will be two more sent for printing. Today I realised that my desk had a bit to much paper and things on it. Hmm well I know where I have all things but I think I need to sort it out a bit :-)), cleaning up and put it in the bookcase. Well I will put things in place when i find the proper place for it, and I will let it take the time it needs.


A bit of my desk (picture taken by mobile phone)

And I´m also now an official employee at Bombadil :-)). Thanks to Marianne and everyone else that has been involved in this and to my co-workers.

Have a nice weekend
Mari

Fires and social networks

The even of First of May is a special spring festival in Sweden with fires, and a lot of signing. We spent ours in Örebro where the fires was lit by our very own Niklas along with nine other people with fire shooting longbows, the longbow was not on fire, mind, you the arrows were, and it was the arrows that were on fire. Very beautiful display from the wall of the old medeival castle.

The rest of the weekend was spent organising the last part of the social network and on Monday the Beta version went live. There are still features to be added, and things to change, but if you are interested in adding comments and shaping how we are doing it and what it will look like in the future, please look at www.bombadilpublishing.ning.com. In the not so long future we will be embedding it into our webpage, but first we need to sort any bugs and make relevant changes.

We went west!

Today Monday feels a little bit odd, an odd Monday. There are a few things that contribute to My odd Monday, I will list them below.

1. It´s nice weather!!! I can´t believe it but spring is here to stay, and me, the worst pessimist in the world when it comes to Mondays and weather has actually started to believe in nice weather on Mondays again. It feels nice not having to moan about those rainy, cold and dark Mondays anymore. Some how I had talked myself into that role as the moaning-monday-mistress. But no more, no, no, no. From now on I will salut these great Mondays, filled with sunshine and blue skies. Indeed.

2. Second thing on my odd Monday list is the fact that i´m not at the Bombadilian head quarter today. I´m actually in my hometown Trollhättan, sorting todays work out from here. I´m sitting by my kitchen table and I have to admit that my office chair is more comfy than my nans old wooden chairs.... Well, well, at least I have the privelige of sitting in my old Taewondo trousers, wearing the top that I wore on both friday and saturday.... and sunday. And no one is complaining about my bad breath or my dirty top. Lovely. The reason why i´m in Trollhättan today is that i´m off to a meeting with a creative coach that hopefully can help me (and Bombadil) to arrange a small event during the summer. Nothing is set so I´m gonna keep a bit hushush about it until I have some more information... So I guess I will have to jump in the shower sooner or later anyway... =/

3. The third odd Monday thing is that John has both texted and e-mailed me in Swedish today. That is well confusing. I almost start to believe that he is actually learning to speak and understand Swedish. As I said, well confusing on an odd Monday.

Over&Out
Your Monday blogger Sara