Taking Mariannes new car for a spin

Marianne has bought a new car. Well, if you look closely, there's a tiny blue feather at the rear sidepanel, making it a Bombadil car. But to tell the truth, it is a Marianne car. She loves it. She loves me too, is obvious, because I was alloowed to use it, going to my part time job at ESAB in Laxå. ESAB makes welding equipment, and that's where I'll do most of my research for at least about two years now. There's a Swedish saying "det är många grejor på ett järnspett", approximately "there are a lot of details on a iron rod" - there are even more details to a weld joint, and it is a really fun piece of complex physics to try and simulate to gain more insight in how the process works and thus help make even better weld equipment. But back to the car. It is red, can reach allowed speed limit really fast, and has cruise control. Very nice. Here's a picture.

Roof and friendship

Springtime is definitely here :-))

Blogging time again. Pixie I not around at all, she is with the kids.

What have I done since last time? A lot actually, but the weekend did not go my way at all. Cars was broken down and I did not meet my basenji friends as supposed. But the week started with nice weather, besides today (it´s raining).

Here at Bombadil I have been scanning some really nice pictures for a book, it´s by a Gandalf author. Gandalf is Bombadil's sister company for older authors. And soon the setting of the English book will be finished, John is doing the last check on it.

Yesterday was a sunny and warm day, funny, and also bit strange. Why? Well me and Sara were climbing up on a roof and John was on the ground taking pictures! Hmm wonder why he didn´t climb up :-)). The pictures is about friendship and they are for a book. We probably looked a bit funny climbing and John did take some (hmm) peculiar pictures. But he also took some nice ones when I was not taking notice, well kind of forgetting he was taking pictures :-)). I normally don´t like people taking pictures on me, I want to be behind the camera instead. But this was for a Bombadil book, so it was kind of ok. On the picture Sara and me are relaxing for a moment before climbing or more like sliding down. Well I wanted to jump down but they didn´t let me do that!

After that we was going a bit by the lake taking some nice pictures. Well it was nice weather and we wanted to be outside for some more time. There was a swan in lake and some other birds. Of course we took some flower pictures. Well it is not so many flower up yet but coltsfoot is actually up.

Has anything more happend? Yes Marianne got her new car today, a red sports car and it is a cabriolet one. And she is really happy and excited about that :-)):-)).

Have nice Easter

Mari, happy in spite of the weather today

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.

Late thursday in radio

Oops,
late again, blogging.
I have a good excuse this time, though. At least I consider it good. :P
I was interviewed for local radio yesterday, you can see and hear for yourself here.
(In Swedish, so for non-native readers here's a brief summary:
The mine is filled with water from 20 meters down. We will empty it and create a research centre aiming to prove that a self-sufficient moonbase is feasible.)
/Niklas

Trees that grow on books

Yet another week has disappeared under our noses. Melvin Gonzalez, our Spanish expert, has joined us and on Thursday Mari, Sara and I went to see a man about a tree. Or rather a man about lots of trees, it is Bombadil's intention to plant a tree for every title that we publish.



We have decided to start with dwarf beech trees, as not only are they globally endangered, but the Swedish word for beech is the same as the word for book.



This is the island where we will plant the trees.



UNESCO’s world book day is on 23 April. To mark the event, Bombadil wants, nay, needs submissions from all authors between the ages of 12 and 26 - short stories, poetry, letters, essays – and anything else you can think of, to be published within twenty-four hours! Short or long, fact of fiction, poetry or prose, it's all welcome!

This is a not-for-profit book. We will cover our expenses and then donate the profit to charity. So, we will not be paying royalties, sorry, you will just have to make do with the glory of challenging the idea that publishing is slow and unwieldy and that books take years to produce. That and the satisfaction of seeing your name in print and reaching Bombadil’s audience with your writing! People, pick up your pens, tap on your typewriters and compose on your computers and become part of the Bombadil revolution! The deadline is 21st April. Email submissions to worldbookday@bombadilpublishing.com

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

A sunny day

Hello everyone

Finally there is a nice sunny and warm day :-)). The spring is here.

Today our new co-worker began here at the Bombadil office. Melvin Gonzalez is his name. He will be mentoring our Spanish speaking authors. Maybe he will teach us some Spanish too :-)).

Niklas is also happy. He got the answer on the water test he took cin the mine. The water is fine, you can actually drink if you want.

Right now I´m doing some book templates. It has a lot to do with placing the stuff in the proper place so everyone will understand it. I will continue with it tomorrow. On Friday I'll not be here, im´m on my way to a meeting.

And we are hopefully soon be working together with a big Swedish company; it´s well known. You will hear more about it later.

Pixie is not around at all today, I think she is a bit tired. She can actually lie down on command, with some help of a treat :-)). At the picture (taken by mobile phone) she is doing that.

Bye bye for this time and have a nice day.

Mari