Lance Greenfield's Blog, page 90
March 15, 2015
Southern African Empowerment and Cultural Workshop
I can honestly say that yesterday was the most wonderful and enjoyable day of my recent life.
It all started with the Andover parkrun. The conditions were ideal, and the company was, as usual, splendid. I was nowhere near to my personal best for the 5 km course, but that did not matter a jot. I just enjoyed the run with my friends, and a sociable mug of tea with some of them, and some visitors from other parkruns across the south, in the Pavilion Cafe afterwards.
After a shower and a small breakfast of toast, Marmite and coffee, I set off on the long drive to Grays in Essex, picking up Mello Elo along the way. As any followers of Eloise’s
excellent blog can testify, she is a most interesting person. It was a real joy to spend the day chatting, and exchanging views with her. We even helped each other with ideas for future writing. I was feeling sorry for her by the end of the day though. I was guilty of hogging the majority of the conversation. I hope that I didn’t bore her.
Anyway, when we eventually found out way to St Thomas Hall, the venue of the Southern African Empowerment and Cultural Workshop, five minutes before its scheduled start time, we were alarmed to find the hall empty. Outside, we bumped into fellow participant, Philip Wake. He seemed fairly calm, and informed us that most of the people involved made a habit of being late.
We took my box of inscribed books inside, and we made for the town centre to find ourselves some refreshment. Following some complex instructions, which deserved to be simpler, we eventually relaxed in the open cafe in the shopping mall.
When we got back to St Thomas Hall, the population had increased and everybody was greeting each other and preparing for the big event. It got under way about 90 minutes late.
Huge credit to the organisers for assembling a diverse crowd of authors, documentary makers, fashion designers, photographers, media presenters and producers, economists, and many other interested parties, including the Mayor of Thurrock, Steve Liddiard. Everybody had their chance to speak and ask questions. Good progress was made towards tangible results in the form of suggestions and actions to promote Southern African Culture in the United Kingdom. Everybody in that room inspired me and interested me. Furthermore, we all had great fun.
I had the opportunity to talk about Eleven Miles and how I came to write it, and I answered a lot of questions. I only managed to sell six copies on the day, so I ran at a loss, but I still felt the glow of success. After the discussions, I was interviewed on camera by the very impressive, sixteen-year-old, Katrinah Phenyo, who has read and loved Boi’s story. She is the daughter of Boikanyo Phenyo who, I am sure, is very proud of her little girl.
Eloise took the opportunity to talk about her book, Deception, and to show her children’s book, Spoilt Miranda. She captured much attention.
Boikanyo proudly showed the Mayor her recent award from the African Achievers’ Awards: She was recognised as one of the 100 MOST OUTSTANDING AFRICANS MAKING A DIFFERENCE.
We eventually got away at about quarter to eight. I was so happy to have Eloise’s company on the way home. It made our long drive a real pleasure for me. We stopped for a snack at Starbucks in St Albans and got to Bracknell at about 10 o’clock. It was gone eleven by the time I got home.
I was very tired, but extraordinarily happy. What a wonderful day!
March 14, 2015
Late night coffee
It was a real pleasure for me to have Eloise joining me today and supporting me so well. She was also able to speak for a short while about her own writing too. As we met on NaNoWriMo 2014, it was most appropriate. There were many connections to her true home in Harare, and we were both made to feel most welcome. I am now an official, honorary Southern African Scotsman!
To finish off the evening by turning our blogging, virtual coffee meetings into reality, really was the icing on the cake of a wonderful day, although we both managed to avoid the real, physical, sugary cake!
Originally posted on Thoughts by Mello-Elo:
It is with great pleasure that I share my coffee blog with you from a live location with an actual blogger sitting across from me! Yes, I was lucky enough to meet an author, blogger and friend for a Starbucks coffee earlier this evening after hobnobbing with wonderful intellectuals at a special workshop targeting the enhancement of Southern African countries. It was Lance Greenfield, author of Eleven Miles, who invited me to come along to this event and get a chance to promote my work to fellow Southern Africans.
The event was a success and I got to meet a variety of talented people in their own right. Lance was in his element chatting about his book and his friend Boikanyo who was one of the organisers. We were lucky enough to meet the Mayor and chat to him about literature, his term in office and the wonderful things…
View original 286 more words
March 13, 2015
I am ready!
All evening, I have been writing messages into the fly leaves of copies of Eleven Miles, and signing my name. Tomorrow, my editor an the inspiration for this story, Boikanyo Phenyo, will add her signature to those copies. We will be selling them for just £10 each at the Southern African Empowerment and Cultural Workshop in Grays, Essex.
We will speak about the book, how I came to write it, and our determination to use half of the proceeds from sales to provide a school bus to take children from remote villages in Botswana to their secondary school, giving them greater access to education in that country.
I am delighted that fellow author and blogger, Eloise de Sousa, will be joining us and speaking about her own writing. We met on NaNoWriMo 2014. We’ll be talking about that too.
I am so excited about this event. It’s going to be a great day. It would be wonderful to see you there, if you are in the area.
Terry Pratchett
Originally posted on Jo Robinson:
I’ve been in love with this man ever since I was a teen and read The Carpet People. I’ve read every little thing he’s ever written multiple multiple multiple times too – they grow my soul and make me laugh like no one else has ever done. Right now I have to take my eyeball to some place where it can vegetate in the closed position, but old one eye or not, I’ll write my tribute to the greatest comedy fantasy writer of all time tomorrow. It will be EPIC. It will be VERY LONG. It will be full of love, and rude humour. In the meantime, I’m pretty sure our Sir Terry had some awesome rat-on-a-stick nibbles out for the reaper, and some knock out Ankh Morpork booze. So sorry that your next book will be written amongst the stars, but those of us who believe in the great…
View original 41 more words
March 12, 2015
Review: The Shadow of the Wind
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A book within a book
There are so many layers, and levels, and intertwining stories within this book. The main story is begins in 1945 with a ten-year-old Barcelona boy, Daniel Sempere, being taken to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, by his bookseller father, to choose a book, which he must keep alive.
Daniel chooses The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. The book and the mystery surrounding its author, who appears to have suffered his fate in a duel in Paris, soon infatuate him.
Against the background of post-war Europe, and the fascist [Franco] state of Spain, Daniel grows up and discovers more and is horrified to find that somebody is seeking all of the writings of Carax, and burning them.
The tension builds throughout the book, and the ending is far from disappointing. There are powerful messages, which have frightening echoes in the modern world. Political censorship is one of the intriguing threads. It can be as subtle as it can be obvious. There are also threads of evil, eroticism, psychic control, politics, real and fake friendships, and so much more. Apart from all of that, it is original.
The book is so well written and translated. I wish that my Spanish was up to being able to read the original.
Recommended to everyone, and it is one of those rare books that I would put on a pile to read again!
March 9, 2015
The Indie Author Feature Presents: Eloise De Sousa
Take a look at this and give “Deception” your support.
Originally posted on Veronica Bale's Blog:
Welcome to the Indie Author Feature with Coffee Time Romance and More. This month, we’re showcasing Eloise De Sousa’s latest novel, Deception.
Tweet to Win: For a chance to win one of three free copies of Deception, tweet this to your followers:
After five years of struggling to make a new life for herself, Amanda is called back to her past under the hot African sun. Dangers she thought she had left behind are waiting to haunt her and reveal the secret she ran away to protect.
Alex is a man drowning in his own world of sorrow from his wife’s death. Questions which plagued him for years are suddenly finding answers that he could never imagine. The woman he has sworn to protect might…
View original 414 more words
March 5, 2015
Review: Dark Matter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I wasn’t sure that I would like this book as I read the first ten pages, but it gradually drew me in until I knew that I could not escape!
The opening is a letter to a journalist from Algernon Carlisle, a survivor of the ill-fated 1937 expedition to the deep Arctic Circle, which denies the existence of Jack Miller’s journal. He admits that Jack wrote a journal during those continuously dark days in the far north, but, although it would probably explain a lot, he knows not what happened to it and requests that the journalist backs off.
Almost the whole of the rest of the book is a transcription of Jack’s mysterious journal.
All the way through, I was wondering if Jack also survived, or if his journal was found next to his lonely, dead body, or of numerous other possibilities. Did Algernon have the journal, and have good reason to hide it? After all, he was now an aspiring post-war politician.
When I was a child at boarding school, we used to try to terrify our friends with our imaginative ghost stories. I therefore regard myself as a bit of an expert in the potency of such stories. Let me tell you that this rates as a powerful ghost story.
It also brings out the beauty and dangers of the cold and hostile frozen north.
I really loved this book, and it was nicely capped off with the author’s notes at the end.
Highly recommended.
March 3, 2015
Review: The Magic Mountain
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
At the risk of being labelled a Philistine, I declare that this book is one of the most insufferably boring tomes that has ever made it onto my bedside table. I admit that I only struggled my way through the first 170 pages, but that was enough to convince me that I should not waste any more minutes of my precious life wading through any more of this drivel.
I know, I have also been chastised for criticising modern art in the same way. Tracey Emin’s “Unmade Bed” and Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” will just have to live in the pile of junk that I fail to understand.
I realise that I am in the minority, as most reviewers and professors of literature believe this to be a masterpiece, and probably the best book to come out of Germany in the twentieth century. Then again, Hans Christian Anderson’s boy who recognised the nakedness of his Emperor as those around him admired the splendour and wonderful colours of their leader’s new clothes, was also in the minority.
Perhaps, then, I shouldn’t feel too bad about my opinion of this amazing piece of creative writing. It may also explain why English literature was the only `O’ Level that I failed, despite having been a prolific reader all of my life. It just happened that the books that were chosen for my studies for those exams also bored me to tears.
Following some comments on this review, I have added these notes (27/9/09).
I have always been a prolific reader, sometimes having up to five books on the go simultaneously. I read most novels at the rate of 80-100 pages per day. With The Magic Mountain, I found that I had been reading a few pages at a time for well over a month, and had only waded through 170. There is so much description attached to the narrative that all that had happened by this stage was that the main character had arrived at the sanatorium, met his old friend and most of the patients. It had also come to light that he really wasn’t there for his own medical benefit. He isn’t really ill. Rather that he was there for a bit of a rest, and escape from the drudge of life in Hamburg with his guardian, and to be with his best mate. If the descriptions were interesting, and succeeded in conjuring up a wonderful picture in my mind, I wouldn’t feel quite so bad about it.
Encouraged by some of the other reviews, I revisited the book, and read the passage describing Hans’s adventure in the snow, as that was said to be the best part of the book. I remained unimpressed.
Perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more if my German language were up to the standard required to read the original, but I doubt it. I am not alone in my disillusionment. Several of my friends and family, some of them professors and schoolteachers, share my views, and I have yet to meet anyone who has survived to reach the end. It is obvious that there are many who have read, re-read, and thoroughly enjoyed The Magic Mountain. I am happy for them and I rejoice that the world is full of variety, particularly of taste. Wouldn’t life be dull without that?!
February 28, 2015
Spock-light: Six lessons in honor of the “green blooded hobgoblin”
“Insufficient facts always invite danger.”
When we don’t know the answer, we make it up. If a friend doesn’t call you back right away, if someone gives you an unexpected sideways glance… your mind immediately spins a series of stories to explain the unknown. And it’s dangerous. It leads to interpretations and assumptions that have no basis in reality. This sends conversations, projects and relationships sideways as you are reacting to something you completely made up. But it never feels that way… the stories we make up feel very real because we base them on some tiny sliver of a past experience that we deem as fact. It takes tremendous self awareness and discipline to break ourselves of this habit. But it can be done if we are willing to ask questions. Be curious. Clarify what you don’t know.
“Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.”
Logic is the linkage of data to create a piece of information. That’s valuable. And a good basis for examining components of an argument, organizing thoughts and making decisions. But when we think about wisdom – about the robed guru on the lone mountaintop or the blind oracle on the dais – their gifts are not about logic. They’re about awareness and intuition. We achieve wisdom when we can combine logic and clarity of thought with emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
“Change is the essential process of all existence.”
I have been told recently, by more than one person, that I am not particularly comfortable with ambiguity. True. I am a logic based soul (see the prior quote) and I cling to clarity in thought, action and emotion. But life just doesn’t work that way. Life is organic, messy and forever morphing… some parts are a slow moldering burn, some are crackling crashes. And there’s no way to predict the timing or the outcomes. Understanding this, letting go of the need to control outcomes and to cling to expectations leads to both a happier present and greater wisdom. Yes, I’m working on it…
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”
Whenever you hear that quote, you can recall that scene in excruciating detail and it still brings a heavy knot in my chest. (If not, I’m surprised you’re still reading this… but thanks, and keep reading!) While Spock was talking about self-sacrifice to save a greater society, I believe there’s a more powerful message here. I am all about understanding and feeding your own needs. Self awareness is all about understanding who you are, what your passion is and creating the life you want. But it’s also about recognizing that the world is a greater force at play, that we are all connected and there is a grander scheme to life – to our lives – that we do not control. We find ourselves in unexpected situations. We meet someone and in an instant recognize a soul mate. We identify coincidences in names, dates and numbers. The needs of the many is the energy of the world around us, energy that allows us to accept and respond to the expansiveness around us, not control and correct to a limited view. Think about the ambiguity of life. Accepting that we are all connected, that there are bigger forces at play than just our individuality, allows us to open our hearts and minds to experience the world at large.
“Without followers, evil cannot spread.”
All energy, positive and negative, can be contagious. Where do you live energetically? If you live in the lower levels of your personal energy, you’re living in a mode of perennial victim. You could be unhappy, passively accepting your fate and taking minimal action just to survive. You could be angry, pushing through challenges despite the people around you who all seem to be conspiring against you. When you feed this energy, and meet others who help feed this energy, you perpetuate the negative swirl you’re already caught in. But what if you could change your perspective on that person or situation that’s feeding your negativity? If you could bring up your energy level to a point of compassion – for yourself as well as for the world around you – how would that change the way you interact with the world? There is no single person who drives evil in the world without the rest of us feeding into the energy and allowing it to happen.
“I have been, and always shall be, your friend.”
Spock was not easy to get along with. He constantly frustrated the emotional Dr. McCoy. He regularly rebuffed lovelorn Nurse Chapel. He clinically advised the swaggering Captain Kirk. He turned evil once and rocked a goatee. He fell under the spell of love once and got the girl. And it is because of all this, because despite his Vulcan logic, alien attitudes and sometimes seemingly cold behavior, he was loved. Because he was wholly, unapologetically true to himself. When we embrace our uniqueness… our messy, clumsy, emotional imperfections… we allow the people around us to embrace us as well. This honesty opens us up to binding connections that surpass sharing hobbies or a friend group. It’s truly sharing the gift that is yourself, and accepting that gift from others. That is friendship.
“I am not Spock. But given the choice, if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock. If someone said, ‘You can have the choice of being any other TV character ever played,’ I would choose Spock. I like him. I admire him. I respect him.” Interview with Leonard Nimoy
My phone buzzed madly from text messages from my children when they heard the news that Leonard Nimoy passed away (sometime around third period, it appears). I also had emails, Facebook IMs and voice mail messages from around the world. You can take away from that the truth that I am a Star Trek geek supreme, sure, but I think you can also take away the fact that Mr. Spock’s impact as a character, and Leonard Nimoy’s popularity as an actor/director/producer, crossed generations and geographies.
Nimoy was so much more than Spock, but Spock is certainly his legacy role. His Zen approach to life and to the character of Mr. Spock infused wisdom and joy into the world. We were blessed to enjoy his talent.
LLAP
Credit:
Posted from the LinkedIn blog of Natalie Hahn O’Flaherty,
principal at Dirty Girls Consulting,
Review: Perfectly Flawed: Living with Genetic Illness
Perfectly Flawed: Living with Genetic Illness by Molvia Maddox
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Inspirational!
This is the astonishing personal account of the courage, determination and perseverance of the author as she battles her way through a life that has more than its fair share of obstacles. The main subject of the book is the plight of her daughter, Krystie, who has been diagnosed with Friedrich’s Ataxia, a crippling and life-shortening genetic illness. However, from childhood, Molvia has suffered occasional family tragedy and near-tragedy.
When Krystie is born, Molvia’s instinct and previous experience tell her that there is something amiss. The medical experts think that they know better, but they are proved to be wrong. As Krystie grows up, this is a pattern which is often repeated. Molvia researches all the possibilities and analyses the best path for her daughter.
Krystie becomes as determined as her mother. She insists on as much independence as possible and succeeds at home, socially and at school in the face of adversity. Her awareness of her condition strengthens her resolve to milk every drop of positive experience out of her life. She has probably already achieved more in her life than people who are three or four times her age.
Whilst reading this book, I was reduced to tears on more than one occasion. These were not tears of sadness but of joy as I shared Molvia’s pride in Krystie’s achievements.
Molvia’s account is interspersed with Krystie’s own versions of events and is nicely rounded off with the recollections of one of Krystie’s elder brothers.
There are some tiny discrepancies in the chronology of the account, but this just proves what the reader already knows; that Molvia is human.
You must read this book. Whether you are living with genetic illness in your family or not, you will be inspired and filled with great hope.
