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

"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

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.

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

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

The Bombadil Ear

Hello all Bombadilians,

I got a mail from a Peruvian guy who wrote about the feelings he felt when he found Bombadil Publishing on the Internet, and the certainty to be listened to. As he wrote, I just smiled, because I read this mail – not listening to anybody - but, of course I understand this young boy, and I’m very happy to do that. Like this boy, there are many young people who are writing e-mails to Bombadil and express that they get this same feeling, they get inspired, happy and they show their enthusiasm, and start to write the books on many different matters. At the same time I’m very surprised for this rich experience this young people give me, and not only from Latin-American but the entire world. Be sure young Bombadilians, that here in Bombadil there are several of our staff who is ready to listen to you!

Melvin González

media center soon going live

Today was spent promoting our media centre. We had visitors from the local area who were first presented with the vision, then the plan and finally a quick tour around the centre finishing off with a scrumptious cake. A very successful meeting, I think.

The logo has also been launched. The logo is a reflection of the beautiful nature surrounding us - the anchor symbolising the sea, and the tree, well, the tree symbolises the trees :-D

MiB does not mean men in Black but rather Media Centre in Bergslagen.

Poetry

This weekend we are off to Trollhättan - the cradle of Bombadil Publishing - to attend the poetry festival. That in itself is really nice, but best of all, I think, is that one of "my" authors, who is also our very own Sara, will have her book release there. She has worked very hard on it, and it is the first poetry collection that I have worked with. We named it challenge poetry, because it challenges the mind: it is not just about pretty words, it is about opening a door into the very soul of the writer, challenging the readers as well as the author. There is something very beautiful about being invited into somebody's inner sphere of emotions and feelings and I think I am as excited as Sara about her book release. It will be an exciting day for us both!

Obsessed about it.

Today it´s all about obsessions. I think I´ve listened to the same song about 25 times, and it´s just 14.30, now that´s a bit obsessed! Plus it´s Monday, which means that I´m as usual a bit tired from getting up early in order to drive my car for 3 hours to get here. Me+tired is often not a good combination, I tend to get a bit cranky and high maintenance in general, but there is a couple of tricks one can pull to raise my mood a bit.... namely: food!!! I guess it´s all about balance, lack of energy in terms of not sleeping enough will be replaced with energy through FOOD. And coffee of course. So I guess I´m obsessing about food as well. Food and Fleetwood Mac. Not a bad combination at all actually. Silver Springs was the song anyway, by Fleetwood Mac. Tune indeed.




Fleetwood Mac - Rumours - Silver Springs

And I can´t stop thinking about the Poetry festival that Bombadil Publishing is attending on Saturday. I will be reading a few poems myself which is the result of not being able to take the Poetry festival off of my mind. We are 4 authors from Bombadil and on official festival leflets we are refered to as The Bombadil Publishing All Stars, neat! So I guess that´s being a bit obsessive too.

It´s nice weather anyway, on a Monday which I´m very suprised and impressed about, spring is here for real, at last. Welcome, please stay forever. And that´s all I have to say about that.

Over&Out

/Your Monday blogger Sara

Swanning around

Rather a short week for the second time in the last fortnight. Melvin Gonzalez, our Spanish countries coordinator has been hard at work translating the website into his native tongue, the Indian market is continuing to grow far beyond our expectations and I demolished a glass brick window.

Spring is here, and I'm rather enjoying it.



Mute swan



Coltsfoot (also mute)

In other news, the Bombadil dog currently smells like Febreze, which is most unusual.

Easter holidays and social networks

The last few days have been holiday here in Sweden due to Easter. I actually took it easy and did not work at my desk (only in my head) and took a long over due holiday. Saying that, I was forced to as the cold I had turned into pneumonia and kept me bedridden for a few days. I am better now, though I do not yet have as much energy as I would like. As I keep saying, "I do not do ill!"
I bet a lot of you thought I spent the time driving around the new car rather than working, and I really wish that had been the case. It is a pleasure to drive though, especially with the hood down.


Anyway, my task this week is sorting the parameters for the new social network. It is coming together rather well and I am pleased with the way it is coming together. Please check in on the website later in the week to see my efforts :-D then you will be able to register and be a part from the beginning. The social website will have most features that facebook and other social websites have, but will also have others such as information centres, writing schools and other exciting areas for book lovers and authors. It will be like a beautiful shore of a rolling ocean, full of pebbles - all different, all beautiful and all telling a unique story. Stay tuned!

Intriguing mysteries and scalability

One of the best – and the worst – part of mentoring is that you really start seeing the authors as family members: you want them to do well, not just in their writing but in life in general. Most of the time this is amazing and the benefit is of course a friend for life. Sometimes this backfires as it did this weekend. John and I mentored what we thought were two good friends. I mentored the one that wrote poetry, John the novelist. They were good, entertaining and friendly. Suddenly a drama was to unfold, and a strange and initially plausible mystery started unfolding. We were incredulous but also genuinely worried because your dear friends seemed to be in trouble. John gallant as ever, and I with my bleeding heart dropped everything, sitting up until late at night trying to help. It was all, however, a joke, a practical and rather tasteless joke. Still makes me sad that such talent was wasted on nothing better than trying to impress and gain sympathy, which essentially was already there. It sort of backfired for the young prankster, I guess mainly because the person behind the one-actor drama only realized when it was too late that being a Bombadilian is not just about artistic talent, but about ideology, an open heart and trust. Now that there is no trust, or an open heart for that matter, the door is forever closed to that talent. Come to think of it, perhaps the talent was not as good as I had first thought it to be, because this young man, it seems, was unable to hold a consistent story line.

I am blogging quite late today, though not as late as Sara. The reason is that we went for a partner meeting in Stockholm to discuss scalability. I do not like coming up with exact numbers - I like estimations and trends - but after having heard of their importance for three hours, Niklas and I spent the evening getting them down on paper. As Niklas said, “these meetings are really good because we get an awful lot done – afterwards”. Well that too of course but the main objective of our partners is to structure us. And they are certainly successful. Structured we are getting – and scalable :-D And we are ready to get even bigger. Just look at the old picture of our office building and the domestic train just outside.. perhaps we will need to reinstall the train service so we can quickly get down to the village shop. Wow, wouldn't that just be so much fun!

I´m late!!

It took me a Monday and a Tuesday morning to remeber to blog, I do apologise. But here I am, your Monday blogger Sara on a Tuesday morning!

Spring has finally decided to show up and Gyttorp is more beutiful than ever, this morning a couple of swans were swimming on the lake, so yes we got our lake back! Sunbeams and melting ice, life is good on Tuesday mornings! Plus I´m getting to know The Mary Onettes, Swedish band which seem to have recorded an album that is made just for me and my Tuesday morning at work, thank you The Mary Onettes! You see, I´m that kind of person that cannot work without listening to music, this might be a bit disturbing for my coworkers, so far no one has complained but I´m waiting for that day to come. For some reason I have a feeling that it will be Niklas that will come to his senses and ask me to turn the music down... Or I might start playing Djingjis Khan, Niklas like Djingjis Khan a lot.

During the weekend John was sorting out our future garden and our patio, plus the deck, it really looks amasing and it´s kind of nice to be able to access the deck again. Before it was covered in the hedge which John cut down in January and a small dog kennel. All this has now been removed and we will be able to have breakfast on the back of our house, facing the lake. wonderful!!

So yeah, Tuesdays are not too bad.

/Sara, your monday blogger, today at a Tuesday morning.

"Just make it cheerful!"

John has been helping me out with my blogpost of today, he named my title "Just make it cheerful". That was also the answer to my question: What shall I blog about today?

Although it might seem like I have run out of creativity, that is not the case, my levels are just a bit low today. I have great plans though, since i´m planning to make a festival, a Bombadil festival! Or an author-night, I haven´t really sorted out all of the tiny details yet. What I would like to achieve is a big get-together where Bombadil-authors will get a chance to shine and read from their books or books-to-be. I would like to have liveband playing and people enjoying themselves! And of course to spread the word of Bombadil, maybe we can reach some new youngsters that would like to publish their thoughts and ideas! This head of mine is not just a hat rack, believe it or not!!

A few things has changed in the Bombadilian way of working lately; we´ve decided that we shall start having old mentors helping new mentors with the mentoring bit of being a mentor. The old mentors that are helping the new mentors that are learning to mentor shall be called Super Mentors. I was just asked to hold an introduction about the mentor-role, since we are getting new mentors =). And then a rather important question sort of popped into my mind, will this introduction make me a Super Mentor? What is expected of a Super Mentor, will I have to wear my knickers on the outside of my jeans? Will I have to get Super sight and save people from burning buildings?!

I hope not. I haven´t got the figure for blue tights and certainly not the courage that might be requested in heroic situations such as the one mentioned above. Plus I can´t stand heat, I don´t do tans, just deep red.

But if it´s required to chat a bit about the feelings of being a mentor, how to develop a manuscript and how to aproach an author, I´ll sign up straight away!

All for now,
Over&Out
/sara

From Switzerland with love

I've been out of the office for a few days this week, visiting the British Council at the UN headquarters at Geneva.



I went to see their "Turning the Tide" exhibition at the Palais des Nations. We are planning a collaboration with them which should be launched soon. More details to follow!

We still have snow, but I am assured that spring is on its way. The Bombadil vegetable garden is expecting a delivery of topsoil in the next few weeks, so assuming the ground ever thaws out, I can start to grow Swedes. And other vegetables, of course.

In other news, the Bombadil dog currently smells like the epitome of mustiness.

It´s snowing!!

So yes, it´s Monday and the weather is disapointing (suprised?!). It started snowing again, after a week of sunshine. Since all of us have kept our fingers crossed, hoping for some spring to arrive, today´s change of weather kind put at least me off a bit. But hope is the last to leave us someone cleaver once said, and I will not be put down by traditional Monday-weather. Before I would, but no. My hope is still with me!

Tomorrow John is going to Geneva, very exciting! He will be meeting up with some important people that are involved in the big "Turning the tide" project, but as well he will aparently be introduced to some people from UNESCO who started the worldbookday in 1995. Which is VERY exciting since John is the brain behind the 24 hours Worldbook-book that we are attempting to make. It might be a very long Worldbookday at the 23rd of april, but I guess it´s quite cool to be able to put on your resume that you´ve made a book in 24 hours! Quite cool indeed.

Personally I´m a bit nervous, speaking of the Worldbookday. My little baby-project for the Worldbookday is to get libraries and their visitors interactive in their local library. This I think partly can be achived by having people participating in a writing campaign. Basically we are encouraging people through their local library to send us novels, short story´s and poems on the topic "Me&books". Then we´ll publish the national Librarybook of Sweden! I´m not worried about the concept, but about people getting involved, I´m relying on the librarians committment, so yet again, fingers crossed. I like librarians, they are nice so I trust that they will do their best to get Swedish library visitors to contribute!

All for now,
over&out
Sara