Day 29

I have 13 more pages to go. My fingers hurt I wonder why?

The interesting thing is, I had stopped typing coz the story was getting tiring to me.  I’ve heard the voice so many times. Yeah. But I fixed one chapter, and gave it a girl’s voice, it was all about shoes. After that the story was flowing right and I’m looking forward to see what is in the next pages. Funny thing, when people ask me what the story is about I'm not sure what to say. I got like, eh, it's a love story, no wait , there are different characters, and they all meet, no wait, why don't I just give you the book when I'm done?

--------------The oven timer went off and the smell of fresh baking filled the room when Anita opened the door. The vanilla queencakes smelt really good. Anita set them on a large tray, the red and white tea cloth made the cupcakes look so delicious, like you would see in cook books. She set a sufuria on the gas stove, threw in cardamoms and sprinkled in some tea masala. The water started to boil. She then threw in tea leaves and poured in milk, set two cups on the kitchen block and strained the tea into the cups.

The fragrant tea reminded Noor of his visit to Eastleigh town in Nairobi. The Somali style restaurant, Al Kwother served a good cup of cardamom tea.

“Go on,” Anita said, sipping her tea.

“Where do you keep the sugar?” He asked, standing up.

“Pole, I don’t take sugar in mine so I never remember to serve sugar.”

“It’s alright, my mother doesn’t take any too. I’ve been trying to take less but it’s no use, I love sugar.”

Anita laughed and got up to hand him a sugar dish along with two spoons. One for scooping, one for stirring. When she sat, she suddenly stood up, “would you rather have honey, I got some.”

“No, please, I’ll have the sugar. Thanks”-----------------

I spent the day with my friend’s 6 year old daughter and I have a lot of Chinese in my head, I’m listening to some Chinese tunes now but can't upload them, so let's listen to Lemon. I love this poem.

Hey, Soul Sister - Train . day 28

Today I’ve typed an upward of 3,500 words. I have 42, A5 pages left to type. It’s just 21 leafs but with writing on both sides.

It’s a nice story, Sublime Innocence and I’m hoping the publisher will get the same feel when I finally send the whole story.

They said I needed to work on the length of my sentences. I’m glad they pointed that out because I thought I was being  stylish with my poetic lines. No no it doesn’t work in novels. I will need to make the sentences a bit longer.

I already have big dreams. I can already see myself turning out books every other year and having them read in schools, ah, the places I would go with the money earned. Way I would treat myself to some books whenever I felt like reading something different (I don’t have a book to read at the moment so it's a constant thought).

On the other hand, depending on what the publishers decide, I might continue to wear out my fingers on one dollar re-writes until I'm 55 and with those the  farthest will be a trip to Thompson falls  then be satisfied with looking at pictures from different places on the Awake!

Today my friend’s son was playing the song and I got hooked the minute I heard it, love it. The other one of their song which  I've known and liked for years is Drops Jupiter by the same guys.

News

East African Educational Publishers want to see the rest of the story!

A bit of confusion

So I'm staying with my friends Pebbles and Babes and there's this creep who throws coins into their balcony. He has stopped throwing coins and he threw in a couple of music cds. Then the the blue box. Haha.

I read in the Venus and Mars book that when women are stressed they might use confusion to deal with that, it’s true. I’ve tried to start of day 27 but haven’t got past the first sentence. Sorry my people.

I posted the manuscript, along with the CD of the same. I had to queue twice at the post office,  I dashed up to Tesco to get water and grabbed some pens while I was in there. The queues were long in Tesco. I didn’t know people go shopping on midmornings. But it was mainly really old people and what I think should have been their foreign caretakers.  I was standing in queue for about ten minutes and was worrying that my number at the post office was nearing. I was desperately trying to make eye contact with this black guy who muffled a hello to me as I passed, he was moving closer to the counter. He didn’t look my way. So I just went up to his back and said hey, please could you do these for me and held out my half bottle of water, the  pens and a bank note.
He took them and I was wondering what to do with myself coz he said no to the money, I went round and waited on the other side. His sticker for one of his items(Vaseline) came off and the cashier, was trying very hard to figure out what could be done to solve this mountain of a problem. So the guy hands me my things, and I just walked off.  At the post office I was wondering should I have stayed and until he sorted out his Vaseline.
I haven’t done much towards publishing this week, but I’ve made plans towards that, like the portfolio I’ve been arranging. Pebbles is going to help with it, she's good in design, but she doesn't know yet, I left her a message on facebook because  her wisdom tooth has been growing all day so she slept the pain away.

I like people who are crazy enough to throw 'precious stones' into a stranger's balcony.

day 26, positive inspiration, positive thinking

Let’s see if you can guess what the colorful picture is about.

The black and white one is quite clear, so we talk about that first.

Since I haven’t got a reply from my publishers, I decided to escort the soft copy with  the old school style manuscript. Actually the idea crossed my mind as I was watching an episode of Judging Army a few weeks ago. When the writer guy, no wait that was something else. I was wondering why I’m confused. It was in the movie –In the Land of Women, the writer does a manuscript to give his grandmother to read. It’s bound and looks professional even though it is a fictional children’s story about a teddy bear.

 I thought, hey, I think I need something tangible. I will post this to the publishers tomorrow. I’m not sure; should I include a CD of the same or should I  refer them to my earlier e-mail? I am imagining there is a lazy editor somewhere who cannot be  bothered to check  the e-mail archive. But then again, I am a lady  writer who thinks I have made enough effort on this so far.   Tomorrow I will decide.

So the chocolate box. I recently wrote an article  titled- Massages and Spas in Bukit Bintang, the myth-  I came in second in the run and that was my consolation prize. It was a surprise actually, and I am  very happy with it even though I prefer potatoes to chocolates. It is the same fuzzy feeling I got  when BBC sent me baseball caps for my entries six years ago.

This kinda tells me, I have not lost my game.

 I still got half of the chocolates , if you want some just drop by.

25

The Swahili  translation sounds good. I was editing it today and I think it sounds better than the English  with the homely names and Swahili expressions.

I haven't done much toward my publishing efforts . I have a lot in my mind honestly,  I  even went to bed early last night but in the end I slept at the same time I sleep on normal days trying to figure out things. It's hard to connect with a lot of things running across the mind.

I know throwing myself into my stories can reduce the time I spend stressing  on things but somehow, until I am sure of what I must do, it's hard to see  clearly.

I signed up on docstoc.com  and  uploaded one of  my recent articles to see if I get an interested buyer. :)

24

I'm listening to Peggy Lee

"you give me fever

when you kiss me

fever when you hold me tight

Fever

In the morning

Fever all through the night"

I donno why I find it so hilarious. :)

I'm still not right but I have something to report. I received the Swahili translation for one of my children's story. I'm so grateful to Robert for his hard work. I hope this gets published so that I can have his name right there on the cover.

I did a review for the book I've been reading, this is how it goes:

If the song - Welcome to my Life by the rock band Simple Plan makes your back hair stand, reading this book will poke at your raw emotions just the same.

However, this is not the case until you reach the second last chapter. Most of it certainly feels like a –how- to- manual for women on how to treat their men.

A man reading it will nod his head, but for a woman, unless it is for comic relief, it will feel like a repetition of society’s popular rhetoric’s on interactions between men and women.

If you re looking for a general read, you might as well jump right into the last two chapters.

I liked the concept he calls ‘Displacement Love letter.’ This applies to everyone who wants to improve their lives by resolving pending feelings from their past. The advice is to imagine you could go back and deal with those feelings by writing a ‘love letter’ to those people involved, could be a parent or even yourself.

Other than that, I found the numerous subtitles and ‘clever’ quotes to be exhausting. It is repetitive, and the writer keeps referring to h is other books and videos. To me, it just sounds like cheap advertising.

In my opinion, an audio version of the book would be more in place since you could play it in the background as you do other thing.

I’ll give him one with his point that our culture doesn’t teach men what women want. As a woman, I nod to that.

John Gray has written many similarly themed books. As a certified therapists, he comes out knowledgeable on his subject. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, yes we got that clearly, once again.