Secret forest

Book Launch

2012-08-23T12:00:00.001+02:00

Although the book in which my novella appears was published last May, it wasn't until the first week of August that we held the book launch party. On August 4th, about thirty people gathered in the courtyard of a museum in Vilabella, and I'm happy to say it all went well — we kept it short, the weather was nice, and my family had a lot of fun while I faced the audience and made my speech (which I can't recall right now, but they assured me it was coherent). We only missed there the authors of the two other stories included in the book, who should have been invited to come. The city council that handled the publication wanted the book to be read and not just build some hype about it. So they decided to give the book for free to all attendees. It was the best idea I've heard of in three years of financial crisis.

This is the queue to get the book signed. It was a first to me!

The councilor for culture, me in the middle and my editor.

Now I look forward to writing the next book and start over the process of publishing.

Keep It in Tune

2012-08-13T20:49:00.000+02:00

I have been silent for a long time now, or should I say out of tune. I guess you can expect that from a writer. It is better to keep the process of writing in silence, at least for me.

Anyway, the topic of my blog post today is piano tuning. Being a piano may seem easier than being an author. No piano benefits from staying in silence, though. A piano is used, if I may put it like that, to sound good; and, for that, it must be in tune. Tuning a piano can not be done without a specialized knowledge, and there are trustworthy dealers such as Sherman Clay, specialized in Piano Tuning Portland, who make the difference.

Pianos should not be left to their fate. Instruments have a health to take care of, and the change of seasons has an effect on them, which is usually harmful. Pianos go out of tune on a regular basis, and nothing better than having a professional to fix that and tell you what to do to keep them in good shape.

The change of season is just around the corner. If you have a piano around, think how easy is to keep it in good tone by using services from a good dealer. Thankfully, piano tuning is as simple as that.

The image above has been taken from Sherman Clay.

My Summer

2012-06-27T10:35:00.000+02:00

This is in response to my fellow blogger — and sister from Compte Enrere. :)

Other links: Mafalda, by Quino. Wordless Wednesday.

Mullioned Windows and Horseshoe Archs

2012-06-13T10:35:00.000+02:00

One year ago now, when posting here my first photos from our trip to Seville, I expanded my English vocabulary with words such as courtyard, orange blossom, Moorish, sparkling locals, heat wave, and crispy shrimp omelette. When I put these newly learned words on the posts' titles, I find it easier to remember them. This is why this post is not entitled just "A Palm in Seville". And this was intended to be my Wordless Wednesday entry for today.

Pexagon

2012-06-11T20:58:00.000+02:00

Blood Bonds by Levi Montgomery

2012-06-08T10:00:00.000+02:00

On June 5th, 2012, author Levi Montgomery launched his latest novel of literary fiction, Blood Bonds. Levi’s work spans genre lines from YA to adult literature and touches on coming of age themes that appeal to readers of all ages. With a touch of literary fiction and a raw edginess, he writes in a distinct voice worth taking the time to get to know. Let me share some info about his new novel, which has a lot to do with what I usually write about, along with an excerpt from it.

Immortality is the birthright of youth. The young are going to live forever, and they know it. When you’re young, you can cut your hand with a dirty piece of bottle glass from the town dump, and it’s okay, because you’re going to live forever. There will be no pain and no blood. There will be no regrets. You can lie to your best friend, you can steal the very substance of his dreams, and pay no price, because you’re immortal. When the shadow finally sweeps you up in its slow omnipotent crawl, it is not life that you are leaving behind. It is youth. It is the immortality of belief, of knowing that you can cut your hand, you can kiss a girl, you can steal from your blood brother and never pay a price.

Standing back away from the blinds, almost hiding, Lucy watches his truck until she can no longer see the early sun flashing from the pitted chrome. She moves to the back door, the last of the morning’s coffee in her hand. She needs to clean the kitchen, do the dishes, make bread. Get the eggs in, turn the compost, hoe the eager weeds from the garden. She needs to go shopping. She needs to do all that, but first, she needs to stand here and gaze down the long gravel road into her childhood.

There was a time when things were simple. When life was friends and games and school, when even school was mostly the playground. There was a long, easy time of climbing trees and playing monkeys, chasing each other through the dusty leaves and the bitter green cherries. Then she looked down and saw Denny gazing up at her like there was something he wanted, something on a pedestal he could never climb high enough to reach, and life changed in that moment.

She decided, late that night, the night of the day that she’d seen Denny watching her, to start a diary, and she carefully cut all the used pages out of a spiral notebook from school. She wrote “My Diary” on the front cover, and embellished it with hearts and flowers and a pony’s head, and then she put it in her top dresser drawer until she could decide on the best way to say “I saw Denny Martin watching me today, and something woke up.” She never did decide, and the “diary” got thrown away empty a long time later, but over the years since then, she’s picked and worried at that one entry a thousand times, and never gotten it any better. I saw Denny Martin watching me today, and something woke up.

At three in the morning on her first day as Mrs Dennis Martin, knowing no other way to voice the joy and fulfillment that had become her life in those moments the day before, she sat in the bathroom and sobbed as silently as she could, smiling so hard it hurt, the most joyous pain she’d ever felt. Mrs Dennis Martin. Lucy Martin. Lucy Springer Martin. Lucille Ball Springer Martin, actually, and she’d sworn him to secrecy three times in a row before she told him her middle name.

And now, nearly thirty years later, she still feels both, the pain and the joy, the longing and the fulfillment, every moment of every day. All she wanted, all she needed, was him, and all she wants and needs now is for him to be happy. There is no belief in her that a woman needs a man in any magic way, or that no unmarried woman can be happy or complete or fulfilled, only that she needed him, only that she could never be all of herself until he was half of her.

She begins to stack the dishes, running water, squirting soap, watching the tiny bubbles float in the strong light through the window. She stands there, not washing, not scrubbing, just watching the bubbles rise like prayers in the silent house.

Blood Bonds can be found on Amazon; check out more about this author and his work at http://levimontgomery.com.

Debut

2012-05-13T10:51:00.000+02:00

Published by Cossetània Edicions.

I was starting to think that something bad happened to my publishers. They asked me to send them my story last August, and that was the last time I heard anything from them. It wasn't until a few days ago that one of the authors included in this book contacted me with the good news that our stories were finally published.

This book is a collection of three stories awarded in a literary contest sponsored by a Catalan municipality. My third of the book is the story called L'habitació de les mans and it is my first published work. We could call it a cautious debut.

It actually is the story I've been nagging about for three years in this blog (there are thirteen posts under the labels my book and my novella). You can get an idea of how glad I am to see this story finally published! Now I wonder how long it will take them to send me a copy of the book...

Yellow Monday: Common Broom

2012-04-30T14:30:00.000+02:00

It is the new plant at home. Say hello, plant. Yellow Monday.

Sant Jordi

2012-04-23T10:56:00.002+02:00

Today, April 23rd, Catalonia celebrates its best holiday ever. I think in previous years I failed, somehow, to explain what St. George Day means to us, and how proud we are of it. This time I'll try to keep it simple. On this day, our Patron's Saint day, we Catalans exchange books and roses with each other. It's like our own Valentine's Day. Every bookstore puts a stall at the nearest square, avenue, or free space on the sidewalk, and florists sell roses on the streets too.

According to Wikipedia, roses have been associated with this day since medieval times, but the giving of books is a more recent tradition originating in 1923, when a bookseller started to promote the holiday as a way to commemorate the nearly simultaneous deaths of Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare on 23rd April 1616.

This year, it is expected that seven million roses (one at a time) and one and a half million books (a sum equal to 8% of annual turnover) will be sold on this day. There are many book signings and book launches on Sant Jordi, and many roses are sold to support charities.

Although it is in fact a working day, people fill the streets from morning to night and the atmosphere is festive and cheerful. If you ever plan to visit Barcelona, and want to see this city at its best, I strongly recommend you make your trip coincide with Sant Jordi Day, and take a walk through the Rambla.

Pulp's "Common People" Cover by Manel

2012-04-09T13:39:00.000+02:00

Manel is the most successful Catalan band in recent years. Having released only two albums, they have become popular for lyrics telling everyday stories, a simple and effective instrumentation, and the personality of each of the four components. It's nothing new, yet they're fresh, witty and funny. No wonder they chose "Common People" by Pulp to cover live in concert. "La gent normal" has been named the best Catalan version of an international song by the readers of Ara, a Catalan newspaper. I hope you enjoy it.

Homemade Mona

2012-04-07T11:28:00.000+02:00

Mona: [Catalan word first documented in 1507 — not to be confused with Monna Lisa, where 'Monna' is a common contraction of the Italian madonna (lady), nor with the Catalan word of identical spelling meaning 'monkey' (from which it follows that in Catalan 'Monna Lisa' may sound like 'Monkey Lisa')] from the Latin mŭnda, neuter plural of mŭndum, 'decorated basket full of items (especially cakes) offered in April to Ceres [in Roman mythology, the goddess of agriculture, crops and fertility].'
Meaning: Cake usually decorated with hard boiled eggs or chocolate eggs, eaten by Easter (whence follows that in Catalan 'Monna Lisa' may sound as well like 'Easter Cake Lisa'), although these chocolate eggs may actually be eaten before Easter, at least at my home, thus the lack of chocolate in my mother's mona, above.

Source: Enciclopèdia Catalana, with last-minute amendments by myself.

Happy Easter.

Wordless Wednesday: Chez Julien

2012-03-28T10:15:00.000+02:00

My niece, Júlia, posing in front of Chez Julien. Paris, december 2011.

Visit more Wordless Wednesday participants.

"True Love" by Wisława Szymborska

2012-03-21T10:32:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I wish my blog was an anthology of poems worth reading, seasoned with wise and subtle comments. So far, I've just worked on the anthology. Have a nice World Poetry Day — and a great start to Spring :)

True Love   

True love. Is it normal
is it serious, is it practical?  
What does the world get from two people  
who exist in a world of their own?   

Placed on the same pedestal for no good reason,  
drawn randomly from millions but convinced  
it had to happen this way - in reward for what?  
For nothing.  
The light descends from nowhere.  
Why on these two and not on others?  
Doesn't this outrage justice? Yes it does.  
Doesn't it disrupt our painstakingly erected principles,
and cast the moral from the peak? Yes on both accounts.   

Look at the happy couple.  
Couldn't they at least try to hide it,  
fake a little depression for their friends' sake?  
Listen to them laughing - it's an insult.  
The language they use - deceptively clear.  
And their little celebrations, rituals,
the elaborate mutual routines -  
it's obviously a plot behind the human race's back!

It's hard even to guess how far things might go
if people start to follow their example.  
What could religion and poetry count on?  
What would be remembered? What renounced?  
Who'd want to stay within bounds?   

True love. Is it really necessary?  
Tact and common sense tell us to pass over it in silence,  
like a scandal in Life's highest circles.  
Perfectly good children are born without its help.  
It couldn't populate the planet in a million years,
it comes along so rarely.   

Let the people who never find true love  
keep saying that there's no such thing.   

Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.

Wisława SZYMBORSKA. Translated from the Polish by Stanislaw BARANCZAK and Clare CAVANAGH.

You can find more renowned poems by late Wisława Szymborska, such as "Cat in an Empty Apartment", here.

Catalan Poetry Online

2012-03-17T11:54:00.000+01:00

As a prelude to World Poetry Day, which is held every March 21, today we celebrate the Catalan Poetry on the Internet Day. This is my bit to help fill the social networks and the Internet in general of Catalan poetry, at least for one day.

Tota amor és latent en l'Altra amor,
tot llenguatge és saó d'una parla comuna,
tota terra batega a la pàtria de tots.

Each love is latent in the Other love, every language is the seasoning of a common speech, each land beats in the heart of the homeland belonging to us all.

Josep Vicenç FOIX. From Readings of J. V. Foix. An Anthology (with English Prose Tranlations) edited by Arthur Terry

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

2012-02-27T22:12:00.000+01:00

This short film won an Oscar last Sunday for best animated short film. If you'd like to know more about it, and for more free Oscar-winning and nominated films on the web, check out Open Culture.

Wordless Wednesday: Notre Dame

2012-02-22T22:11:00.002+01:00

Notre Dame, Paris, December 2011. Wordless Wednesday.

The Composites

2012-02-18T12:21:00.000+01:00

"5’6… Not once ounce of excess fat… The left ear much bigger than the right, and malformed, but her hair always covers her ears… Lips formed a tight straight line… Small narrow nose, somewhat protruding cheekbones, broad forehead, and long, straight eyebrows… [Face is a] Pleasing oval shape… Extreme paucity of expression."

Being out of my hibernation for a while (yes, I keep writing; no, I haven't ended writing any book these days), I stumbled upon this site where you can see portraits of literary characters created using law enforcement composite sketch software and descriptions by authors. Above there's Aomame, female main character in Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, one of the latest novels I've read, and enjoyed, along with the description taken from several parts of the book. There are about fifteen more portraits in the site by now, and no doubt soon there will be many more.

Although the portrait of Aomame is quite accurate, I don't think the point of this project is to show us the actual faces of the characters we've imagined, or we're about to be introduced to, while reading a book. Imagination still belongs to us.

Rather, what I found amusing was that, in first place, literary characters are turned into a sort of suspects booked by the police, as if they were outside the law or could be charged with any crime. Some powerful and very real guys would love to have our imagination behind bars, along with all the books that make us think, inspire us, and with which we have a damn great time, isn't it so. So one can say these creepy portraits somehow give a wink to us readers.

And secondly, in The Composites you can suggest a character to be portrayed, as long as you can provide a good description by the author. How cool is that? You just have to keep in mind that, for instance, they "made an honest effort to do a Cormac McCarthy character, but you just can't work with 'Man. Medium. Two eyes.'" (There happens to be the portrait of one of McCarthy's characters in The Composites, though.) For further details, here's a link to The Atlantic about the artist behind The Composites who uses police sketch software to (re?)create some of the best known characters in literature.

So, is there any character you would like to see portrayed? If, as happens to me, you can not decide for any, you can take a look at some that have already been "booked" in The Composites: Emma Bovary (gorgeous), Daisy from The Great Gatsby, Humbert Humbert (really spooky)...

Love Locks

2012-02-12T17:35:00.000+01:00

When we approached the Pont des Arts in Paris, we did not know that this gate was full of locks affixed by couples in love.

There were hundreds, thousands of them. When I took these shots I had already in mind, of course, my Valentine's Day blog post. I wish you all a nice one.

If Kim & Ken, or any of the sweethearts whose padlock appears in this photo, stop by here by chance and want to tell us how is their relationship going, we will be happy to listen to them. I know I am assuming a lot, but, somehow, I thought I had to say that.

Yellow Monday

2012-01-30T09:58:00.000+01:00

Art Nouveau lamps on Alexandre III bridge, Grand Palais in the back, Paris, december 2011.

Top Droppers

2012-01-23T10:28:00.000+01:00

I'm not much into blogging these days, for no particular reason other than I thought I'd catch up with my writings. I have not written any book during this time, though. While I figure out how to get back into shape, let me share the list for this month's top droppers through Entrecard. Thank you for your patience!

Sparkle
Some Assembly Required
Dragon's Alley
Blissful Moon
bethere2day
Comedy Plus
Herbs Crafts Gifts
Grandma's Goulash
Jean's Musings
Forced Green

These links will lead you to the blogs' pages on Entrecard.

Birthday

2012-01-13T22:12:00.000+01:00

Hôtel de Ville square, Paris (France), december 2011.

Just posting a two-storey merry-go-round to celebrate that today is my birthday. I never thought my blog would be one day full of photos of Paris :)

Wild Photographer Set Free in the Louvre

2012-01-09T09:43:00.000+01:00

Being used to Spanish museums, where you are not allowed to take pictures even with the flash off, to the point you are chased by security guards as soon as they see you taking out the camera, it is understandable that whenever I enter a museum in a foreign country, as was the case in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France, I do not know how to behave and take leave of my senses.


Two workers in the museum's hall. I fet very "artistic" at the beginning.

This is the only good photo I took of a work of art from the Louvre. It was a very large inflatable (a diver?) that gave us a scare and we never knew why it was there.

No, you have never seen a worse snapshot of the Mona Lisa than this one before (yes, that is Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa). I didn't edit this photo at home to add to it this sort of yellowish texture or spots on the glass. It is, in fact, the reflection of the people huddled in front of the picture. I have no explanation for the yellow color, the creepy look and the fact that I got a dark picture for once they let me turn on the flash in a museum!

When I saw on the computer screen my photos from the Louvre I realized they could only be shared in a humorous post, so I started thinking of something witty. Being a bad photographer can be very good for exercising your neurons.

And a Happy New Year

2011-12-31T12:14:00.000+01:00

Yesterday evening we arrived from our Christmas trip to Paris. I'll talk about the wonderful time we spent there in upcoming posts; this is just a quick update to congratulate you on the new year and wish you happiness, joy, and fantastic journeys.

Of course, I can't help but share a first couple of photos from our trip. Capturing the Eiffel tower is a hopelessly tourist-y thing to do, and you knew I would do it anyway. I have to say, though, that it was really difficult to get the chance to capture the entire tower.

In a more "parisienne" photo, this is how the tower looked like at the end of a street the first time we approached it. More than half of the tower was hidden by the mist and we had to come back the next day. The twisted branches are Christmas decorations at a store.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-23T09:16:00.000+01:00

This is my Anti-Crisis card for this year. I hope the Government does not find the snowflake too excessive.

Have a very nice Christmas. See you in a week, after my trip to Paris! Joyeux Noël à tous.

Last Pictures of Summer

2011-12-14T09:56:00.000+01:00

I'm posting the remaining pictures from our last trip before embarking on the next one this Christmas. Earlier this year, my family and I landed Seville, Southern Spain, at the same time as the first heat wave of the Andalusian summer.

This sort of awning in front of this building, Seville City Council, in San Francisco square, didn't do much against the sun, but it was highly ornamental — which is, I guess, the reason why the charming Sevillians left it where it was.

Wordless Wednesday.