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Focus in times of technical overwhelm
Sometimes I’m like the dog in the movie Up. In the animation the dog is focused, obedient and loyal. Until *^%$Squirrel! I turned off all notifications just to get away from the noise on social media. I know, if you are marketing your book this is not an option. But before you market your book you write it. To do that you want to clear away as many diversions as you become aware of. Recently, I came across an involuntary digression and immediately planned for a way to keep me from wandering. Imagine you turn to your phone to retrieve some…
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First draft finished? Congrats!
Some say write what you know. Others want you to write what you think and some advice you to write what you feel. In the end it doesn’t matter what you write, they say, as long as you write. I agree. It all starts with the letters on the page. Even if you dictate your book into your phone and let the computer put it on the page. If you keep writing you end up with a first draft. But, when they say what to write they’re not actually telling you what to write. They encourage you to do YOUR…
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I’m done with Bridgerton
I am a romantic. I love romance. I’m rooting for the heroine to find the love of her life. I’m a sucker for a happy ending. But a great love story doesn’t have to end in marriage. For me it’s all about the moment the lovers discover their feelings, trust them and risk everything to get what they want. Love. Consider Marguerite Duras’s novel The Lover, set in 1929 French Indochina. The movie adaptation (1992) has the most exquisite erotic scenes I can think of. The physical attraction, tenderness and passion between these lovers breaks all societal taboos. That’s part of…
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Too bold, too big, too much
Success is such an overcharged item. We’ve all heard about the fear of success as a reason success evades us. I wonder whether it’s not so much success we fear but the situation for which we find ourselves unprepared. What do you picture your success to look like? Is it the Oscar nomination or winning the Oscar? Is it getting the job or getting the job done? Is success something you create by yourself for yourself? Or is it gaining a position ahead of everyone else despite everyone else? Recently I had an intimate look at my relationship with success.…
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False Beliefs, Fables, and Facts
Language carries our wisdom but it also carries old thinking. We carry it around and we pull it out at times without giving it a second thought. What does it mean when you say let’s watch the sun set? What goes through your mind when you notice the earth’s rotation? How difficult is it to say Auf Wiedersehen to the sun as the earth rotates away and our day turns into night? We use phrases that originate from misguided thoughts expressing beliefs long proven wrong. These thoughts are deeply ingrained in our language and this prevents us from acknowledging new…
