Quote of the day - Life and motivation

Every day I stumble into something worth sharing with those who have the patience to follow me. The world is full of inspirational quotes, and we read at them, understanding their depth and simplicity.
So here is one:

Life happens every second, and quotes like this one might feel overwhelming. Creating a whole life worth watching at the end of your days is a challenge, and perhaps this is not even what it's supposed to be.

Life is made of idle moments where you take a pause to think, to admire what you have around, what you have achieved and to dream what would you like to do next.

Moments that live for themselves and don't include doing something special. Yet, they make us feel good, and if they can put a smile on our faces, they are fully worth it.

There will be endless times of working on a longer schedule, feeling: "I'm not paid enough to take this shit."

Yet, there will be those times when you do something to be proud of for the years to come.

If you see this as a whole, the life flashing in front of your eyes might be something even boring to see. Moreover, when we look at our past, we might still find something we might have done differently.

For this reason, if one day, my life flashes in front of my eyes the only words I want to be able to describe it would be: "Carpe Diem."

Create something for the future, but don't forget that your life is happening now, and you need to enjoy it at this moment. Don't get too stressed at how it will look like, once you're old or once you will have to look back at what you've done (you will always watch it with a too critical eye).

I guess that the best show worth watching at that time is that you lived your life enjoying every second of it.

You might have not saved the world, or you might not have been a superhero. But you have lived your life, you enjoyed what it brought and built something even only for yourself.

Nobody should ever get too stressed about becoming someone special, we all are in our different ways without trying too hard or trying to be someone else.

Make your day worth living.

Have a great weekend you all!

Change of hat for the Wandering Writer

It's that wonderful time again when the Wandering Writer turns into the Marketing Writer.
Just like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I am going to transform myself, to give you some updated and fresh news.

First of all, I have now a new website.
It had been a lot of work, money and time spent tweaking the way I think it is best. Eventually, this is not even the final version, and with time, it will be improved and updated more frequently. Nevertheless, if you want to drop by and give some hints and suggestions, I would be more than grateful.

CHECK THE NEW WEBSITE

Every week I will change the header's picture updating a Quote of the week.

About the trilogy, I have bundled recently into a box set,  I would like to make some remarks. The novella Deadly Deception - Prelude, has been tweaked one more time and edited. Also, the other books have gone through a screening to fix some minor/medium issues with the dialogues. I must say that those reviews which were not so positive gave me a lot to think and gave me the chance to improve and see my novels with the eyes of those readers. Not being an English native speaker is challenging, but on the other hand, I need to tell those stories I kept in my heart, and that's mostly the reason why I published them.

About my next release I have sent it to my editor, and I plan to have it published by next month. The date is still to be decided also based on my ARC team's schedule.
But stay tuned and keep an eye on my Facebook page/blog/website for the news, as soon I will start releasing some sneak peeks and the cover.

So for this time, I guess it is all, but don't hesitate and contact me for whatever question. I am (almost) always open. LOL

Have a great weekend!

Beware of scammers and crooks

As my grandmother used to say: "to trust is good, not to trust is better."
When I was a child, this sounded to me like something mean to say. Why wouldn't I trust other people?
I thought that as much as I was an honest person, so were other people. 
Oh, the innocence of the age. Quite soon I had to learn that she was right, but not because I needed to believe that people are all evil, and I should protect myself from them. Her teaching was meant to make me think twice before trusting someone's words. 
My father used to say: "Question everything and everybody. Use your brain to understand whether you can trust someone or not."
His invitation was just to push my emotions a bit on the back burner and think rationally before deciding whether to believe what people told me. The message was clear to use my brain with as few biases as possible.
He would include even himself within those not to be trusted. As I grew up, I understood what he meant.

The Internet era brought great advantages to everybody, access to fast information, news from the world in real-time. However, it also increased exponentially the risk to fall in the net of those scammers, attention-seekers, and shady people.

The examples are many, but there was one recently that grabbed the attention of many authors I am in touch with. 
I am talking about a person who back in the years I have friended, and I have also hired as editor, for my second novel.

She took an insane amount of time to do the job (which also needed to be redone by another editor I have hired).
She justified herself telling that she was going through difficult times and had serious health issues. I didn't have any chance to put into practice what my father said, and I trusted her words. She started to put on funding requests to pay for medical treatments. Recalling the teaching of my father and grandmother, I never sent money without proper proof to anyone, so I never participated in her fundraising campaigns. I have my way to do charity, and I stick to that plan.
Now, recently it came out that all her fundraising campaigns were nothing else but a scam. I feel sorry for those who generously sent money, trusting in the honesty of other people who, like her, are abusing of the good heart of those willing to help.

I personally think that people like that, not only abuse of the generosity and goodwill of the others to help, but also cast a shadow of doubt over those who honestly seek help. This is probably the worst consequence of their actions.

It is like laughing at those who really have problems and might need the help of a community around them to get them solved.

I hope that people will understand that scamming is not going to pay, and in the long run, those lies will come to the surface. Maybe there will be someone who will also take legal actions against those scammers. The problem is that many times those belong to fake accounts that are not easily traceable, making it a lost war.

My only advice is, that of taking the wisdom of the elderly people as a treasure and trust, but not trust until you can have tangible proof.

That said, I wish you a great weekend from the (unbelievably) sunny, Helsinki.

It's a new year!

It is for a few years that there is this way of saying "New year, New me."
I have no idea why people should change themselves or whether it is even possible to make drastic changes in the span of one night when to develop the one you are now it took a life.

Regardless of this detail, I am not so much into this fashion, and you will have to deal with the old me, I suppose. Well, old me certainly but with new adventures, new travels, experiences, books, and whatever this new year will be able to bring.
Travelwise, the new year brought some bad news, and my husband and I are trying to figure out a solution for it. The problem is that in December, taking advantage of a discounted deal, we decided to purchase the flight to Egypt and Iraq, via Jordan.
I presume all of you have heard, even by mention, the diplomatic problems caused by the american airstrike at the Bagdad airport. Luckily for us, we are not US citizens, and Finland has neither any affiliation with NATO, so this should make, at least, the granting of the visa easier. Nevertheless, concerns seem reasonable and more than justified in this case.

I know, you might wonder: why in the world we decided to reach Bagdad? Well, the reason, as usual, is to gather knowledge from the direct sources. Iraq has a very interesting heritage and hosts many beautiful historical sites worth the visit, and the risk. The ruins of Babylon are my main target, together with other least known places around. I aim to get inside the culture, history, and possibly to stay alive.
This is not our first journey to conflict areas. So far, the most dangerous place we visited was the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, with a bit of planning and updated information, we had one of our greatest experiences so far. Sierra Leone was another dangerous place, and it really touched my heart in a way I didn't think possible.
I hope we will be able to reach it. The departure is scheduled for May, so four months from now.
Let's keep the fingers crossed.
Concerning my writing career, I am now at the learning point, and I am following an intensive course on advertising. This should not take me too away from the writing process, but it might slow down my social presence. I will try and do my best to be present but time might not be on my side.
Despite this, I plan to be at least punctual with the monthly blog and every news that I need to share.

Preparing for Christmas and for the new year

So, I am not yet sure but this might be the last bog until next year.
As the end of the year approaches, it is time to think about celebrating Christmas with the family and dear ones. This is the best chance to recall all the blessings we have received this year, the achievements that made us smile and the disappointments that made us almost drop everything.
Life is made of all of these, and they represent the balance of a lifetime.
As for me, I have to say that I have been blessed with many achievements, which were interrupted by some other failures and disappointments.
There have been many times when I thought I could have just step back, because I could not take it, and the difficulties, at that time they seemed to be insurmountable.
However, it also returned to my mind that most of my achievements came after disappointments and went through failures.
So, my proposition for the next year is not to give up on the difficulties that will certainly appear on my path.
That is also what I wish to everybody: finding the way not to give up, continue, and try to improve starting from the first failure.
A bad result means only that you need to recalibrate your shot, and not that you need to quit everything.

This year I was supposed to publish three novels, but things went a bit on my way, and I could not make it on time for the third one. Nevertheless, I could take more time to review the next novel and older novels, plan the next year's marketing, goals, and consider/planning the box set for the trilogy Deadly Deception.
I have also started to check up my new website and I'm considering making some changes in the layout, which will make it easier to navigate.
I will keep you updated when it's ready.

With this in mind, and also waiting for the next travel adventures that are waiting for me next year, I am going to leave you.
I wish you all the best for this end of the year, and for a brilliant success for the next year, regardless of the goals, you will set up.

Night fell on Earth

It's nine o'clock in the morning, the sun hasn't yet risen. It's the darkest month of the year here in Finland.
Even though Helsinki is located in the south of the country, there is just a small chance to even see the sun. This because at half-past two in the afternoon the sun will start to set, giving space to a long night.

For an outsider, this might seem like something cool, but I can assure you that there is nothing cool once you start living here, and northern winter starts to be your normality.
To begin with, the simple biology that we need sunlight to live should tell you that surviving in a place where for a long period you won't see the sun, is strongly affecting your mood.
People in winter are less talkative, feel depressed, and constantly tired.
At the moment, we have five hours of light, and no snow to give any sort of joy to our souls. Nature is just dark, damp, and cold.
The sky is covered by a thick curtain of clouds, and it really doesn't make any difference whether it is completely dark or just dark grey.

 

Nevertheless, if you move to the city center, particularly now that we are reaching the Christmas period, the lights and the decorations for the incoming festivity, give a good reason to feel hopeful and improve the general mood.

We are just missing the snow...

Well, the recent years have brought a slight change in the seasonal plan of the Finns, living in Helsinki, and we are not having a decent amount of snow until the second week of January. This means that we need to clench our teeth, brace ourselves, hold onto each other for another month before having two main important things: more light, and more snow.

One important happening, people still follow, is the crowning of Lucy.

One week before the winter solstice, in Finland, there one event historically tied to Swedish culture: the day of St. Lucy. 

St. Lucy is celebrated as a “beacon of brightness” in the darkest time of the year. The first records of St. Lucy's celebrations in Finland are from 1898, and the first large celebrations came in 1930, a couple of years after its popularization in Sweden. Every year, in the Helsinki Cathedral, a girl is going to be crowned.

She bears a crown of candles to fight the darkness, and will walk as a bearer of the light for the streets of Helsinki:

 

She comes to remind us that within one week the days will start once again to get longer, and this means walking toward the spring. You might consider this a bit funny, but in this period, every second added to the length of the day is a great step toward the season when the sun will shine for most of the time.

With my heart full of hope, but still tired as hell, and slightly moody, I wish you all a fantastic weekend!

It's a magical world!

Today I am going to tell you about one of my passions besides writing: photography.

I believe there is a very close connection between all forms of art. In my case, the three things that go hand in hand are writing, traveling, and photography.

How do they relate to each other? Well, writing needs inspiration right? What better inspiration than visiting new places, experiencing cultures, meeting people, reading other countries' newspapers.

Photography offers inspiration. This one helps me to think outside the box, see the world from different perspectives, and clear my mind whenever I feel stuck with a page or chapter.

Here, the weather started to be quite unstable. It began with a chilling period, when we had the first snow, to the time we are now with temperatures that raised far above the seasonal average.

Despite this, during this winter, I was lucky enough to have a camera with me right when I needed it and could get some interesting shots that helped me going through the last few weeks.

Due to stress at work, I couldn't proceed with my writing, so I just got out and took a walk in the forest.

What I found was really stunning, and I spent most of the time taking shots of those crystals. 

The perfect harmony between the white of the snow, ice, and the blue of the sky (believe me, it's quite rare) was extremely inspiring. I could have spent the whole day there.

 And that was exactly what I did. Not caring about the temperature, I stayed the whole day out, to take pictures, and admire the sceneries.

I also got the chance to take a shot of a hawk, who was taking a rest on a tree, checking the food situation on his territory.

Undeniably, days and walks like this give a lot of inspiration, besides offering the chance to unwind from the stress of everyday life. 

With those images, I greet you for this weekend and wish you a great day.