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Ah, August. The month of summer camps, hiking, swimming, barbecues and marshmallows. At least in this hemisphere. :) But there's another definition of "august" I thought I'd play with in this Musing. The "marked by majestic dignity or grandeur, as in her august lineage" definition.
There are those who carry true grace and nobility of spirit, and then there are those who only paint it on their exterior, spending most of their time keeping that paint sparkling fresh.
My fear is that we have largely lost the collective sense of what grace, honor and dignity are. What they mean to a society. The current political circus scene here in the United States is a superb example of this. How absurd—and appalling—is it that we are now not only being fed lies and mistruths on so many fronts and so many issues, but are also being implicitly asked to conduct research to disprove those lies?
On an almost daily basis I receive sales and marketing pitches in my Inbox by people who denounce all those wannabe gurus out there asking for outrageous amounts of money for their services... only to proclaim they are in fact THE guru and their services only cost... an outrageous amount of money.
Some time ago, I met a person at a workshop who struck me as uncertain about herself and not quite confident in her skin personally or professionally. Just a few days after that meeting, I received an announcement about an upcoming event from a completely unrelated business network, announcing their upcoming speaker, a highly successful and respected professional. It was the very same person!
We all know that we see in magazines, on Facebook, on TV, and other platforms, is a manufactured, manicured reality. It's the reality that others want to project about themselves, because that is their dream. But too often this dream stands on the backs of others. It cannot stand on its own. It requires someone else to feel worse in comparison, less powerful, less wealthy, less beautiful. That's not true power, wealth, or beauty. These values are all magnificent when they are pure, and should not be shunned. But they've been stripped of their own grace and honor by lies, deception, ego, and greed.
Don't ever let someone's shiny new paint make you feel any less worthy—or worse yet, to rub off on you.
~ Birgitte
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Ever wonder what writers read when they're not writing? You'd be surprised how similar we writers are to everybody else. And sometimes we read things you'd never expect us to.
These are some of the articles that have caught my eye lately:
The Debate Over Time's Place in the Universe
August 9 is Indigenous People's Day.
One Hundred Amazing African Cities Destroyed by Europeans
How focusing on the details and self-awareness can lead to peak performance
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While you were all sipping mojitos on a Caribbean beach (don't we wish), we spent a week upgrading our publishing web site. It was like an overgrown lawn!
Proud to share it with you now, so you can see the other books we've published. It's not a lot, because we're small—I call our little publishing house a "nanopress"—but we're nimble and expanding our horizons. Next step on the publishing journey is libraries.
And that, I can tell you, is a beast. It's a monstrous, brain-numbing, multi-tentacled sea creature you've got to hunt down and... no, not slay because then you kill the very market you're trying to enter. You've got to find it, get it to talk to you, feed it roses, and make it love you. Because as we know, most multi-tentacled sea creatures really just want a little marine TLC.
So do people go to libraries anymore? Of course they do. Especially parents for their kids. And don't underestimate these ancient institutions—while you were out playing Pokemon (or hopefully something else), they've been working on overhauling their entire business model. And that can only be a good thing.
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I'm taking August off. Sort of.
The Speculative Fiction Cantina podcast
Live program took place Friday, August 5
Here's a link to the show if you missed it!
For my fellow authors interested in being interviewed by the host, S. Evan Townsend, contact me and I'll be happy to give you his direct email.
School fundraiser
Sunday, August 28
I'm donating my "Chocolate Quest" event for a local elementary school here in the Bay Area. All proceeds go to the school.
If you'd like to do a Chocolate Quest fundraiser for your school, please contact me for more details.
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