A Providential Rain

After enduring unquenchable blaze and violent hardihood of life in heat-scorching Delhi, some drops have restored the placidity of unquiet souls, flourished the yearning to drench in rain, and aspired the romantic hearts to unite. It seems soft gentlest pleasures are whispering around after redemption from cruelest and seductive Sun. Peaceful environment has settled on all creatures’ life.

Rain has always played a prominent and recurrent role in the mighty pen of authors’ and poets’ rendering nobility of thoughts and majesty of life. I am no exception to it--a mysteriously daunting spirit of roasting heat of sun that handsomely sucked my humanly livelihood and left with barred heart, rain has refurbished once again my energetic soul to be enmeshed in freeing my long-suppressed feelings. Seeing all children are enjoying the shimmering drops adoringly rolling down their diminutive body, my dream and desire leapt up to catch the moments and frame them in mighty words. Extreme frequency of power cuts that snatched the serenity of Delhities, is overshadowed by the law of nature.

The tumult of conspiring Sun made lively days bare and faint

That decayed with the blessings of the mighty, matured rain

Colossal wreck stretched far away above the despair sky

Dry days were bleating and soft-lifted wings had stopped to fly;

The barred clouds hid amidst the wrath of blazing-breast of sun

Now all are freed and bloomed in small drops’ sprawling run

The little almighty drops have consecrated the Earth

The sweetest feeling oozed in my heart I have ever heard...,

Alex & Mousumi

“A clean hippie is not a good hippie”

I was down town on Wednesday, there was music somewhere; there was a song which reminded me of the old days back in the seventies. I strolled to a park and I could see a band trying to play “Black dog” from Led Zeppelin, I say the band tried because them was not so good as Led Zeppelin, but the members of the band wore this clothes very similar that I wore back in the early seventies, when the hippie thing was in fashion. When I was about thirteen years old I did want to be a member in a pacifist group whom protested again the Vietnam War, there were a lot hippies much older than my self, I remember that we did wear flowers as symbol of peace and love.

The first day everybody was happy with me and I came back every morning to the park, as my mother don’t allowed me to sleep in the park as the rest of the hippie gang. I come back every morning and I begun to see that everybody was wearing the same clothes, whereas I was wearing brand new clothes and several members of the hippie gang came to me and tried to stop me being with me. A guy who was a kind leader told to me to go, I was very sad and I asked him why? The man answered, with good manner, “Don’t you see that a clean hippie is not a good hippie.”

I left the group very sadly and went home, but I can’t forget the feeling this people transmitted me, the feeling to love everybody and don't spread war, instead spread love.

This feeling has persecuted me until now, I am so exalted over all the love our Bombadilians around the world send me and to all our staff in Bombadil Publishing, all these young people who send messages of love and peace in this very special manner, through writing poems in our Social Network, this special love get me this “clean” feeling, which is a wonderful experience, a marvellous feeling, a Bombadil feeling.

Melvin González

A lot + sun + bath

Hello everyone out there

Finally the summer has come to, with some warmth and a nice big sun :-)). That really does a lot to your mind. Today I actually took my second bath for this summer, it was actually a bit colder than the time Sara and I jumped in the lake a couple weeks ago. Brrrr, but I went into the water twice anyway. I just can´t let it be there for just looking at it :-)). The lake here at the office is so nice to go to and just sit down for a while and just take a calm moment.


The lake "Vikern" just outside our office.

On monday and tuesday we had one of our authors here for a visit, Tommy. He came on his motorbike all the way from Stockholm. Not just for a visit we also did some work on his book. Some layout stuff and choosing pictures, going trough the text a bit. Actually John took a new photo too, that will be in the book. That will be more personal than the other picture from a big photo company. I like it that way books shall be personal well at least the ones our authors is writing. The books they are writing is theirs and no ones elses!

Co-workers are good to have they are inspiring, fun (they always have a laugh for you), they are helpful in every way they can and that is worth a lot. It is worth a lot to me, I really appreciate them very much. Everyone should have co-workers like this!
Today was Saras last working day, she is going on holiday so I just want to say to Sara: -Have a nice time in Austria and send us a postcard or some photos :-)), say hello to Kristoff also.

Ohh I almost forgett something :-)). We have finally got some apple cake that John has done. We have kind off teasing him about apple cake that he had done at his house and not letting us taste it (Sara had, she has a room there to). Finally we all got to taste it and it was good:-)). Thanks John, you have to do it again!

by by for this time
Mari

The Bombadil family is growing and growing!

Well, our dear family is expanding all the time, as we could read a few days ago; Matthias is our last acquisition as co-worker at our office in Gyttorp. But in the international side are we growing too, a lady from Peru, Maggy Jacinto, has started as a mentor and proofreader, as well, in our family, she had experience of office and printing work and she is mother of two young girls back in Peru, I want to welcome Maggy in the name of all Bombadilians and we´ll see toward new adventures together in our wonderful world of books, our world of writing, our world of creating and building a different world, a better one, there all the young people around the world have the possibility to express them self and show the world that the young people can create a new better world… and want too.



Maggy Jacinto Salazar.

And we got several fresh writers from Colombia and Venezuela, young people who inspire other young writers, and older of course, all around the world, and the marvelous felling to be part of this family get me this sensation difficult to describe, but easy to understand for everybody in our expanding family. Come together everybody and get this feeling, the Bombadil feeling and be part of this wonderful world all around us, the Bombadil World! YOUTH TO YOUTH.

Melvin González

Mixed things

Hello out there.

Well we have had some nice days now, with sunny weather. And that is so inspiring to me you get more energy, well at least I do. So yesterday I took my lunch outside by the lake and at the same time took a couple of pictures. It is so calming and kind of quiet at the lake, well you can hear the waves but that's it! Sometimes it is nice to be alone for a while, you kind of getting some new spirit. You recover from a lot of noise and other stuff.

And this afternoon I actually took the little Mac outside doing some work on a book. And I actually did a lot on it, nearly finished it. You get more done when you sit outside and don´t have anything else disturbing you! And it was also nice to sit outside and work. It is not on ever place you can do that.

By the lake "Vikern" in Gyttorp, Sweden.

This morning we had a meeting about Graphical profile, our webb site and the social network. It was a lot of talk and some presentations. It was really good and it gives a lot to have these Wednesday meetings, you learn a lot too. Soon you will see the result of it.

Ohh and this Friday it is Midsummer eve. That is a Swedish tradition having a big and high midsummer pole with leaves and flowers attached to it. And you also dance round it (if you want). We here at Bombadil are actually helping to get the arrangement ready in Pershyttan. And that has Marianne arranged, she can get people to do anything, she has big persuasive powers :-)). We are helping with that tomorrow Thursday and on Friday the event actually is. That will be fun and let´s hope for nice weather.

P.S dont forget to look at Author school, part 2

have a nice evening
Mari

A promising Journey

Hello to you all!

I kept contemplating about what to write on my very first blog, spent over 15 minutes wondering over a variety of subject matters. Then I asked myself: “how about my journey with Bombadil?”

I thought and things started floating in my mind, a series of events, one after another. It’s been over four months, one of my best stints with such a rapidly evolving organization. “A promising journey with a number of things learnt by now and many more yet to learn.”

Bombadil has helped me connect myself to the literary world and I feel privileged assisting these young authors who intrigue me with their literary skills. The mentoring experience of various geniuses gifted me a distinguished sense of smelling fragrance of individual’s creativity. “A youth to youth Publisher!” “You’ll also provide me with a mentor!” Such encouraging responses make my each day bright. Besides, getting phone calls at the middle of the night and listening to the newly born thoughts from an author as young as 13 is a kind of experience I can’t quantify in a couple of words or sentences. The feelings that youth today are becoming advanced and mature frantically grasp all my veins and boom cheeringly beneath the crushing victory that how youth are evolving with gracious creations. I take vicarious pleasure in their hunger for excellence that increasingly inspires me to drag all my inward thirst for gaining knowledge. Isn’t is surprising that a 12 year old has finished reading V.S Naipaul, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie and Anton Chekhov apart from reading novels such as Harry Potter or Twilight?

I strongly feel that Bombadilians are striving for a noble cause and someday, pretty soon, each youth will eagerly look forward to us irrespective of their geographical locations. The feeling is tantalizing and I’m enjoying every bit of it.

What a promising journey which has fed the dells and hollows of my intellects not only with astonishing delights but also with newly-sensitized amusement and wordless emotions beyond expression.

Best,
Alex

New co-worker and author school part 2!

The Bombadil office has expanded even more, although no one thoughtis was possible, it was. We have now got the Bombadil handyman, i.e. Mattias the Estate Manager. Mattias is going to work with the Bombadil buildings and sort out the stuff which we are not able to do. Getting us a nice and neat lunch room, the old fika room is now under construction and is turned into a proper lunch room, wonderful! Mattias just came back from the paint shop and started off straight away. Aparently Mattias also has been riding when he was a child, just like the rest of us at the Bombadil office, perfect! For some reason he is not anymore, I think it had something to do with the story he told us by lunch (in the old lunch room i.e. mine and johns kitchen) it had something involving a 12 year old Mattias, a large horse and a very high fence. Somehow Mattias managed to get to the other side of the fence, going from the horses back. Interesting. I might very well try that sooner or later...

To the left, Mattias fixing the lunch room!

Further I am pleased to annonce that the Author school, part 2 is now finished! The topic of part 2 is making progress and identifying the problems that might come up whilst writing. We are trying to introduce a few different way of thinking, that might help authors on the way towards progress. Personally I think it´s important to think progress rather than solution when it comes to writing and other creative ways of expressing. Because what does solution actually mean when discussing creative expressions such as writing? Does it mean to achieve the perfect manuscript? And if that is the case, what is the perfect manuscript/book, isn´t that for the reader to decide, in the eyes of the audience and all of that... So there for I believe in progress and I believe in consistant development.

Over&Out
/sara

Bombadil has an informal environmental policy. That is to say, we do not brag about it, but we castigate those who leave lights on, turn off the coffee machine when it is not being used (although this is rarely) and publish our books on recycled paper. We also compost the apple cores and orange peel from the fruit bowl in the fika room. I am Composter in Chief, a post that carries many responsibilies (mainly the responsibility of carrying the compost bucket to the compost heap, emptying it, and replacing it under the kitchen sink).

I was happy and fulfilled in my duties until I learned, to my great surprise, that I am in possession of an illegal compost heap. Apparently, Swedish compost heap regulations stipulate that the pile of rotting vegetation must be enclosed, either with a wall, some form of planking, or by locating the composting materials inside a barrel or other preformed container. I have briefly considered enclosing my heap, but I lack the necessary building materials and therefore lie awake a night awaiting the inevitable knock at the door. That is, of course, providing the decomposition police can negotiate the cunningly laid set of banana skin traps in the driveway.

In other news, the Bombadil dog currently smells like a court summons.

A hidden world emerges from Peru!

A few days ago a charming Peruvian lady sent me several beautiful pictures from her country Peru, what magnificent views! I was gratefully surrounded by those high mountains, the dessert landscape, the blue sea, and of course the beautiful people the country of Peru has. But my admiration was drawn to this marvellous ruin of the Machu Picchu, it was a sensation that I haven't experienced for a long time ago, and a very good sensation. When I saw the different pictures I got from this lady - the Macchu Pichu, the Nazca drawings, the double sunset, the Andes Mountains, the candlestick on the beach, my reaction was: wow! Amazing! No words can describe the feeling I felt in that very moment. The things is that if we, as normal human beings, want to see these marvellous views from a good angle we need to fly in an aeroplane, well, maybe not the Machu Picchu because you canget to that by driving a car, but the view you get from the air is so splendid that there is most be an unforgettable moment in the life of the happy people who can see those things of art, human art.



This Peruvian lady was so exited and happy to introduce to me her country that I didn’t mention that I had already seen these things, but her special way to show me her country inspired me to think, as I wrote in my last blog, to get wings and fly away to Peru. And that’s the feeling that real Bombadillians get of this inspiring people, I want to fly together with all those Bombadilians who are writing through the power of inspiration, the Bombadil inspiration.



Melvin González

Words + dogs

Hello everyone.

Words are sometimes nice and sometimes bad, in wrong time and place it can hurt or take a lot of your mind. But words can also help you go in the right direction.

Like me taking to much work on me (privately) and not getting the help I have asked for. I'm having really hard to say no or stop or asking for help. But with my excellent co-workers help I'm on my way in the right direction :-)) Thanks. John just saw that the other day and push me in the right direction, to say stop. Thanks John it really meant a lot to me. In the future I will try more and more to say stop or no!

Today I have had two dogs with me to the office. My sister is ill so I'm helping her. Our honorary office dog Ubbe (co-owned by me), and his housemate Molly has been with me. And it did go well with office dog Pixie, well if they try to take her bone she will tell them to go away ;-)). Sara really liked little Molly and at lunch she put Molly in Johns bed and started to cuddle a bit, then Ubbe jumped up there to. Hmm John doesn't want dogs in his bed. But it was kind of funny to see it. And honestly I think he did not mind at all :-)):-)). Ubbe and John has some kind of connection, I don´t know what but something it is. And it is nice to see that.

Bombadil dog Sunny, John and Ubbe, Sara with Ubbe and Molly in Johns bed.

Take care all of you out there and say nice words to each other.

Mari + the dogs

Excitement and social networks

At the moment the office is buzzing with excitement: summer is nigh with its wonderful long nights and we are presently working on the author school. Well I am not really, but my colleagues are. They certainly make me smile when I see their antics :-D

We are also working on something amazingly original and innovative. We are taking our social network into a new phase, which will be released as a Zeta version - perhaps. Or alpha because it is truly unique and amazing. We will be planning it in more detail tomorrow and I hope we will soon be able to send out a press release about it. So stay tuned… Sorry about the suspense, but we do not want anybody else to run away with the idea before we are completely on track. But I hope you will all be as excited about it as we are.

Jantelagen should be put to bed.

Last Thursday I was reading some poems from my newly released book "Where´s the manual?", of course I was terribly terrified and had problems with standing up straight before even walking into the café where the event was held. Once in the hot, thick air, meeting the crowd and greeting some of my friends I was prepared to run back home again. For the record, I didn´t. Instead I was focusing on keeping up some sort of calm apperance and breathing regularly. Somehow this technique worked because I sort of managed to read my 15 minutes worth of text and even dared to look at my audience. And the absolutely best bit, I was happy with my performance.



Pics above: Café Mejeriet, where the event Dinkytown was held.

A very common expression that reflects Swedish mentality is "jantelag" which basically means that you are not to say anything good about yourself. If you happen to be a brilliant football player you would probably describe yourself as "quite good" or "not worse than anyone else in my team". You are not to have a big head and pat yourself on the shoulder for achieving something good; a good song you´ve written, a specially nice lasagne you´ve made or if your last riding lesson went really well. But you are more than welcome to tone down your skills and the sides of you that show off how good you are at certain things.

I don´t know why our society´s mentality has turned into a self denial and repressing way of being. People are held back by a insvisible law who is telling us to not appreciate ourselves. I´m not trying to proclaim that all of us are going to turn into big show offs and regard ourselves to be better than our neighbour, our next etc. But I want to make a stand for the right to be happy with oneself, and the right to gain self confidence through the experience of feeling happy with ones achievement!

So therefore I was brilliant last thursday; for 15 minutes I owned that stage and I did it well. So dear "jantelag", I´m putting you to bed. At least today. So should everyone do from time to time, maybe you´ll discover that it actually made you feel good.

Over&Out
/sara

Competitive coffee

Bombadillians are not by their nature fiercely competitive, but an element of competition is never a bad thing. Sara has been laughing at me for quite some time now because I am in possession of a very small USB memory stick, whereas she has a 2 GB memory stick. Well, today I am laughing because my new 16GB memory stick has arrived. It's rather funny though, I remember having a computer with a 1GB hard drive, and the hard drive was an optional extra.

Our author school video is finished and up on Youtube. We had a lot of fun making it; it was a lot more scripted than the shorts (we even drew a storyboard for it). See it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7cIHvA4SV4



The Media Centre cafe is being planned at the moment, but that hasn't stopped me campaigning for a pub. I'm not holding out much hope, but you never know. But the point is, you're all invited for a cup of hot, inspiring Bombadil coffee one of these days.

In other news, the Bombadil dog currently smells like socks. Again...

Dreams become true!

This feeling of happiness and inspiration is growing and growing inside me all the time; a beautiful young writer, a young “señorita” from Venezuela asked me to interpret a dream she had the day before. I said, “I am not a fortune-teller, but I’ll try”. She wrote that in her dream an old man called her to follow him, then pointed to a building showed her up the stairs, after several floors up they came in a luxury office. There she could clear see a big placard with our name, Bombadil Publishing and our logo, this young girl told me that she got exited and happy because the people who was there inside starting to applaud. "What does this mean?" she asked me. As her mentor; and occasionally “fortune-teller” I answered: The building in your dream represented your book, the old man (though in a young version as I told her) was myself appointed to her book, I continued my version, the stairs represented they turn toward and back between Venezuela and Sweden in the cybernetic space, and, of course, the office is our office in Gyttorp! The people who applaud were everyone at Bombadil Publishing, happy to publish her magnificent work! She was very happy with my answer; she told me that there is this kind of feeling she get in Bombadil. I told her: keep dreaming!



Melvin’s dreams become true! As many Bombadilians' do!


Melvin González

Sunnny days, rainy days

Happy days

"Summerdays comes, summerdays goes.
And the weather is as volatile as life can be."

Small things like the sun, a nice summers day and getting wild flowers from your co-workers makes your life happy and nice, it makes the day :-)).


Look what I got from John and Sara.

As Sara mentioned we actually had our first bath in the lake next to our office. It was nice and warmer than I thought it should be! We were kind of warm after doing some work on the author school, well I just helped a bit and then the bath cooled us down. We will definitely do that some more times.

We all have our different interests. I love my dogs and old horse, Sara likes riding, John has his kayak building and so on. But on Saturday Marianne actually had persuaded John to take a ride in the forest with me on Sunday, big surprise when I got that sms :-)). But that is typical for Marianne, she can get anybody to do something strange or odd. And we did take a ride for about an our or so on Sunday, I had Ophelia (Marianne's horse) and John had Sunny. He did really well and did not fall of despite Ophelia's very fast turn to the right touching Sunny and him. Well done John. Me then ? Hmmmffrr I was hanging around Ophelia's neck with one foot in the stirrup. Ophelia is totally terrified of calves and sheep but it was something else she saw or heard this time. She will be better in time.

The first book for Gandalf Publishing is sent for printing now !!! Very exciting will it be when we actually have it in our hands. And tomorrow we will hopefully have another book in our hands, and another book is at the printers.

Have a nice evening and take care.
Mari

Bloggin' on time

Last week I forgot to blog. Sorry! I guess my blogs aren't the funniest anyway, so perhaps no one minded. My ego hopes so, of course.

Anyway, most of this week has been spent organising the structure of the company, and handling the expansion and sorting out the changes to the social network. I am pleased with the way it is going, and also pleased that so many people have sent me messages off line saying what they want. Keep them coming please! We are listening, and really like your ideas.

One of our authors suggested a short story competition and our very first one will be on the theme "A smile" and in three languages: English, Swedish and Spanish. I am very much looking forward to the outcome, and I like the idea that the first competition is so positive.

Another of our authors has started a group for well being and encouragement. I think we all need it, and can all be inspired by it. Do take advantage of this, and I hope this group as well as the competition brings many smiles!

The first bath of the year(?!)

It has been an absolutely lovely day at the Bombadil premises today, 1st of June and summer seems to have arrived!

Me and John are working with the visual part of the Bombadilian author school which includes a bit of filming... Naturally it goes a bit bonkers when you combine a few Bombadilian coworkers, a video camera, a horse and a kayak. I´m not going to tell anything about the theme of the author school film but I can reveal that I´m kayaking and sitting on a horse back to front. The horse in question is named Sunny and is a very calm and reliable Fjording which made her the perfect horse to be sitting back to front on. I shall probably also mention that I was not holding Sunny in the same time as resting my head on her backside, Mari very kindly held her whilst Sunny was quite happily eating lots and lots of grass. I figured I should be a bit responsible and explain this so no one thinks that it´s a neat idea to go out in the forest with a back to front horse. Or sitting on ahorse back to front is what I mean, really. It´s not a good idea, unless you bring Mari of course.

After shooting the horse scenes we continued with the kayak and as I was the bravest one in the group I jumped into the kayak and paddled 35 kilometres and back again, turned out that I was a kayak talent!! Eeh, at least this is what could have been, but it was not what actually happened. Since I was the one who were acting in all these scenes, I HAD to get into the kayak, I was not overly excited to be honest. But once I was out on in the water, in the kayak I happened to enjoy it quite a lot, and I actually was a bit of a talent, I could turn!! So I´ve decided'; Kayak is cool!

After kayaking me and Mari thought that the water looked extremly inviting so we had a dip! Which kind of explains the title since I have not been having a bath outside before today. Both of us was very happy with the first dip of the year and agreed that the water was warm enough and very refreshing! The summer is here!

And don´t forget stay tuned for the Bombadil author school video!

Over&Out,
Sara