The biggest impediment to being successful
The biggest impediment to being successful may be something you find surprising. No matter what field you’re in, or what you consider success to be, achievement of any kind comes, to some extent, through learning. Those at the top of their game have learned what they need to know to do it well. Whether they learned formally or informally, through life experience or in a classroom, they have learned, and they have put what they learned into practice. But success does not last. The successful person today can be a failure tomorrow, or at least not as successful. To remain at the top of your game, your knowledge must retain its relevance to changing circumstances—and everything changes. If we don’t change with it, we will fade into irrelevance. Take fiction writing for instance: The modern approach to fiction writing is, to some extent, a response to the excitement level…
Literary Fiction: Not an Excuse for Boring
Literary fiction is supposed to be a category for beautifully written, moving fiction that crosses genres or otherwise doesn’t fit into the genre categories. It’s supposed to deal with ‘deeper’ themes than genre fiction, but that attitude can be elitist, since there is nothing to stop something that fits a genre category from dealing with such themes, and many do, especially in indie writing. The exploration of relevant and moving themes is not the exclusive domain of literary fiction. Granted, much genre fiction has little more than the story to recommend it, but to assume that none of it has anything more to offer is pure arrogance. Take On the Soul of a Vampire by Krisi Keley—literary fantasy that uses the particular challenges faced by a character forced to murder to survive as the basis for an exploration of the human soul—or my own work; for example, the Diamond Peak…
I have a publisher!
It’s official. My books are now published by S & H Publishing. If you take a look at the S & H website, you’ll see that they’re a small publisher, so why did I agree to let them publish my books—didn’t I have all that together already? Yes and no. I had my books out, but I felt I was swimming upstream, trying to sell the damn things. It’s really nice to know that now someone else is trying to help me do it. I never set out to self-publish, and I only did so because after my agent and I parted ways, I’d been waiting for two years and I couldn’t be bothered going through the whole thing again with the smaller publishers—the query letters, the rejection letters, the months waiting, and for what? Maybe for nothing. And I wanted to see how it would go. I’m glad I…
The Symbolism of Diamond Peak: Motivation
Demons kidnap Ariel’s mother. She didn’t know they existed until she saw one drag her mother into a hole in the ground. The shock jolts her from her normal reality. Ariel becomes aware of the power of negative emotions—represented by the demons—to trap us. And so the story begins with the same realisation as individuals taking their first step on the path towards enlightenment. In Buddhism, Mothers represent unconditional love because traditionally they love us regardless of what we do, and so we naturally love them back. We care about them, and we respect them because of everything they have done for us. And because we all have had many lives, everyone has, at some time or other, been our beloved mother. Thinking that everyone has been our mother makes it is easier for us to consider all beings with love, to care about them and want to keep them from…
How was your trip? A view from outside.
In New Zealand, where I was born, the young are expected to travel then return home with a broader perspective on life and a greater appreciation for their own country. It works—except that some of us decide that Australia suits us better and end up living there, as I do. But no matter where you travel, what your revised perception of your own country may be, and where you end up, travel gives you a different perspective, which if you contemplate on it, can give you greater insight into yourself and the human condition in general. This is one of the benefits of travelling. Usually we are so involved in the concerns of our life that we don’t consider how things are for others. Our own challenges totally consume us. Though it would be beneficial to do so, we don’t step back and look at our life from a more…
What is success?
What is success? Different people have different ideas about that, but I totally agree with Paul Coelho on this one!
Surface Pro: Is it really one device for all situations?
Or how my Surface Pro became my only computer Why I bought a Surface Pro 2. I bought a Surface Pro 2 because I wanted a tablet that would run the full Word program. This was so I could do manuscript appraisals in a relaxed situation, on the couch instead of at my desk. My IPad Word app didn’t do track changes or allow me to add comments. I was very happy with my new purchase; it did exactly what I wanted it to do. The Surface Pro 2 really is a computer and a tablet in one. I never thought that it would become my one and only computer, though, but it did. Only one thing bugged me. The only thing that bugged when working on the Pro was that I didn’t have all the files I needed on it. No matter how carefully I planned ahead to make…
The Full Diamond Peak Series is Now Out on Paperback.
Those of you who like ‘real’ books can now purchase the full Diamond Peak Series in paperback. “A beautifully written, exciting fantasy-adventure with vibrant description.” Krisi Keley, author/editor. These are no ordinary books. The magic within them is real. The powers of the characters are within your grasp and their success can be yours. The layers of meaning within this series are rich, the symbolism profound and the characters’ experiences, though cloaked in fantasy, are the journey we all take through life whether we know it or not. It is a journey of self discovery on the profoundest of levels. It is the journey to enlightenment. The cheapest way is to buy them from the Book Depository because they have free world-wide shipping. Just click on the link and you’ll find all the books listed there. But if you’d rather, you can get them from Amazon.