Bombadil Publishing

Bombadil Publishing is back to stay in Ahuachapán, El Salvador!

2010-02-19T02:35:00.000-08:00

On St. Valentine ’s Day) Bombadil Publishing hasd a delegation in the beautiful El Salvadorian city of Ahuachapán near the border to Guatemala. We got an invitation to celebrate the local festivity at this warm and peaceful city; the invitation was extended by ASCARA , an Art and Culture Association and our two mentors in Ahuachapán: Mr. Guillermo Galicia and Mr. Marco Antonio Lima who had arranged a big meet attended by a good crowd.

Our host gave us a very warm welcome when we arrived early in the morning and we met of a lot of important people of the city, writers, a magnificent theater group, poetry readers and many others.

I was given the honor, as Executive Director of Bombadil Publishing, to introduce myself to the Ahuachapán society, which has a lot of young writers writing a book for Bombadil Publishing. There are three young writers whom are in the final process of editing their books. These young writers are: Luis Guillermo Ibañez, 15 years, (who unfortunately was sick) with his book “El gran día de Al-Zaidi”, Ricardo Rodriguez, 14 years, with his book “Fábrica Literaria” and Mauricio Zepeda, 15 years, with his book “Los Cuentos de la Montaña”

I proudly introduced those young writers not only to Ahuachapán but to the entire world. I was delighted to be able to introduce Bombadil Publishing to many others young writers to our big Bombadil Family. They are wonderful and spirited and transmit the Bombadil Publishing feelings all around the world, those feelings which are inspiring the young writers to write their ideas, their passions, their future to the world, as a heritage to the future generations.

Our gratitude to the young Alex Deras for his magnificent collaboration which was an important part of our visit to Ahuachapán,
We thank to the All Ahuachapán community for the medal we got as “Merit Visitors” And to the beautiful owner of the Restaurant “El Rincon” for her tasty and delight food.
Come young all over the world and join to the Bombadil Publishing revolution!

YOUTH2YOUNTH!
Melvin González

Welcoming our new CEO

2010-02-18T04:47:00.000-08:00

We are delighted to welcome Robert S. Friedman as our new CEO. Bob is based in Virginia, USA. Bob's appointment is one of many changes to the Bombadil management team and global structure, changes that have been implemented due to the company's very fast growth. We are delighted to see how the overall plans are coming together, and even more delighted that we now have more than 100 000 young people in our network. The Bombadil world is increasing and youth authors are becoming an important part of the future.

Here is a brief bio of Bob. We have kept i short, though there is so much more to write. Bob is an amazing, wise and talented man who will help bring Bombadil on its journey to truly reveolutionsing the world of publishing. Welcome Bob!

Robert S. Friedman was born on February 15, 1942 in Baltimore, Maryland. He grew up in Portsmouth, Virginia, attended Woodrow Wilson High School and the University of Virginia, where he earned a B.A. in English in 1963. He has an M.F.A. in Writing (1966) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and two years graduate study at the University College of Swansea of the University of Wales (1968-70).

He taught English at East Carolina University from 1966 to 1968. He worked as a free-lance photographer in Atlanta from 1970 to 1972, then moved to Virginia Beach, VA in 1972. He was managing editor of Metro Hampton Roads Magazine from 1972 to 1974, when he left to found The Donning Company/ Publishers. He was president and publisher of Donning from 1974 to 1989. The company published a variety of books, including over 400 pictorial histories of counties, cities, and states. He started the first trade paperback line of science fiction and fantasy in 1978 (Starblaze Editions) with ten-time Hugo award winner, Kelly Freas. He created and marketed the first four-color graphic novel, the bestselling Elfquest series, and pioneered the first chain store distribution of the genre, followed by several other graphic novel publications which led to the thriving genre on the shelves today. And he initiated a series of metaphysical titles, many of which are still in print.

He and Frank DeMarco founded Hampton Roads in 1989, and the company's book publishing program has focused on cutting-edge books with a self-help or non-traditional spiritual orientation, publishing over 800 books in eighteen years. Among early bestsellers were books by author Mary Summer Rain. Later successes included the trilogy of Conversations with God books by Neale Donald Walsch, all of which became New York Times bestselling books. Book 1 was on the list for 132 weeks. And he acquired bestselling books such as Lynn Grabhorn's Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting, which has sold over 600,000 copies; Barbel Mohr’s The Cosmic Ordering Service series; Richard Bach’s Messiah’s Handbook and Hypnotizing Maria; George Beahm’s Muggles and Magic; and many others.

He is the co-author, with Eckhart Tolle, of a children’s book entitled Milton’s Secret: An Adventure of Discovery Through Then, When, and The Power of Now.
Recently retired from Hampton Roads, he is co-producing a documentary with Neale Donald Walsch entitled iGOD, and now lives in Faber, Virginia.

Too much to bear the life!! Why?

2010-02-16T22:49:00.000-08:00

Recently, shocking digit of suicide cases has drawn my attention to cast my consideration on the issue. Why to load demands on these innocents’ embryonic age? Why not to emancipate them from materialistic philosophy of elders?

What parents need to understand:
Peer pressure of malcontent parents seems innocuous on destitute soul but latter occurs with drastically inimical results-‘suicide’. The plethora of depression on parent’s extensive expectations hinders them from blossoming and before flourishing they decimate their lives. Parents are the chief support for their offspring; they should comprehend that everyone is not exceptionally academically gifted. They ought to edify their children to pursue their dreams and the trajectory of success.
I have also noticed parents comparing their children either with the first boy of the class or some ideal figure which is completely worthless. Everyone can’t secure first position in a class comprising of 50 or 60 students; therefore, comparison is hollow or flimsy which leads them nowhere.

Why to clap only on their accomplishments and why not on their axis performance? To attain success one has to learn how to fail first.

....Alex

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T02:58:00.000-08:00

Despite solemn conclave, murky grieves of bomb blast, meddling of some self proclaimed moral police, the kindred spirit, compassionate ambience and fresh cascade of love frolicked generously around the capital, Delhi.
Fresh mauve-colored rose, festooned florid flowered bouquet, heart-shaped balloons, large-sized teddy bear, dazzlingly bedecked greeting cards and finally, Cadbury chocolate’s delight adorned the lover’s heart. It seemed spring mettled lovers steps and debonair ushered their heart to take them into the paradise of love. Restaurants, coffee shops were packed for romanticizing the valentine’s dinner. Teenagers frittered so much money away on expensive and luxurious consumption to exceed the last extent to convey their affection. Jubilation in concomitant of jocund deluged the metropolis with love.
I didn’t miss the slightest slice of chance of washing away in enjoyment with my husband and five months old son. The day melted faster but…
“I am overwhelmed to see my city in merely heavenly love keeping aside all hindrances or destroyers”

"Happy Valentine's Day"
...Alex

The Regret City

2010-02-05T18:48:00.000-08:00

Dear Bombadilians!

Today, I’d like to share a story with you. I really don’t know who wrote this but the story has a great lot deal to learn from. Most of us, apparently, seem to be living in present; but in reality, we are lost somewhere in past. We have hundreds and thousands of reasons to justify our sadness, our anxiety and what not. Please spare time and read the following:

I had not really planned on taking a trip this time of year, and yet I found myself packing rather hurriedly. This trip was going to be unpleasant and I knew in advance that no real good would come of it. This is my annual "Guilt Trip."

I got tickets to fly there on "WISH-I-HAD" airlines. It was an extremely short flight. I got my "baggage," which I could not check. I chose to carry it myself all the way. It was loaded down with a thousand memories of "what might have been." No one greeted me as I entered the terminal to the Regret City International Airport. I say international because people from all over the world come to this dismal town.

As I checked into the "Last Resort" Hotel, I noticed that they would be hosting the year's most important event -- the annual "Pity Party." I wasn't going to miss that great social occasion. Many of the towns leading citizens would be there.

First, there would be the "Done" family; you know, "Should Have," "Would Have" and "Could Have." Then came the "I Had" family. You probably know old "Wish" and his clan. Of course, the "Opportunities" family; "Missed and Lost," would be present. The biggest family there would be the "Yesterday's."

There are far too many of them to count, but each one would have a very sad story to share. Of course, "Shattered Dreams" would surely make and appearance. "It's Their Fault" family would regale us with stories (excuses) about how things had failed in their life. Each story would be loudly applauded by the "Don't Blame Me" and "I Couldn't Help It" committee.

To make a long story short, I went to this depressing party, knowing full well there would be no real benefit in doing so. And, as usual, I became very depressed. But as I thought about all of the stories of failures brought back from the past, it occurred to me that this trip and subsequent "pity parties" COULD be cancelled by ME!

I started to realize that I did not have to be there. And I didn't have to be depressed. One thing kept going through my mind, I CAN'T CHANGE YESTERDAY, BUT I DO HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE TODAY A WONDERFUL DAY. I can be happy, joyous, fulfilled, encouraged, as well as being encouraging.

Knowing this, I left Regret City immediately, and didn't leave a forwarding address. Am I sorry for mistakes I've made in the past? YES! But there is no way to undo them.

So, if you're planning a trip back to Regret City, please cancel all those reservations now. Instead, take a trip to a nice place called: "Starting Again." I like it so much that I made it my permanent residence. My neighbors, the "Been Forgiven" and the "We're Saved" are so very helpful. By the way, you don't have to carry around the heavy baggage anymore either. That load is lifted from your shoulders upon arrival. But don't take my word for it, find out for yourself.

- Alex

Back Again

2010-01-30T23:59:00.000-08:00

Dear all,
It’s really long since I last wrote contributed my part on Bombadil blog. A couple of unforeseen things, pretty unfortunate actually, took place but thank God things are under control now. Hacking etc. was not the stuff Bombadil had ever anticipated, we’d lost our .com domain and even lost the password of this blog. “Feeling relieved to get back to all of you.”
Last couple of weeks have been rather cold, in fact colder weeks in many decades. The entire Europe is shivering under the thick sheet of snow. Things have also been fairly unusual in India: many calling it the coldest winter after 60s. Fog and mist crippled almost everything—Airplanes, railways, buses all ran either late or got delayed for uncertain time. Like the rest parts of the world, we are also discussing whether global warming indeed is a potential threat on our lives. The plummeting barometer has defied dozens of popular conceptions. Whatever, we are enjoying this season to the fullest: mostly by working and not going outside :-(
Today, all of a sudden, there is a bright sunny day :-) and it seems we have directly landed in spring. I hope it stays and prolongs for months.
Yours,
Alex

INDIAN DRUMS PART-II

2009-12-23T01:53:00.000-08:00

A Journey With the Knowing of Devotional Musical Instruments

Prevalent Indian Drums-Structure and composition

Leather instruments are mainly called as ‘Anabadha’ or ‘Abadha’ playing instruments.
In India there are several types of instruments.The significant names among them are Pakhawaj,Tabla,Khol,Dhol,Nakkara,Mridangam,Dvil,Sudha Maddalam,Chenda,Urumi,Pambai,Udukku,Tumbakanari,Huduk,Tilima etc.

The descriptions are as follows:-(Leaving out Tabla and Pakhawaj)

Khol:-
The other name of ‘Khol’ is ‘Mridangam’ but it should be confused with the ‘North Indian ancient Mridangam’ or ‘Pakhwaj’.The whole body of ‘Khol’ is made with burnt clay. The middle portion is higher and has two slanting faces on either side.The two face are made of leather and the middle of each face has a black portion called ‘Gab’.The right face(maxm. size-2/3 inches) is smaller as compared to the left face. The specialty of ‘Khol’ is there is no need of adjusting ‘sur’ or scale as in the case of tabla. ‘Khol’ is usually used with ‘Kirtans’, Devotional songs and ‘Kirtananga Rabindra Sangeet’ .It is also used with Manipuri dances.

Dhol:-
The body of a Dhol is made of wood and the faces are of leather. Normally a ‘Dhol’ is 18’’ to 20’’ inches in length and 12’’ in breadth. The two sides are fitted with strong ‘Rojju’ which are given through small round rings. The rings are used to adjust the scale of the instrument. They are played with free hands or sometimes with the help of sticks. They are mostly used to accompany folk songs.

Nakkara: -
‘Nakkara’ is one the most significant ancient musical instruments. ‘Bheri’ or ‘Dundubi’ can be considered just as different types of ‘Nakkara’. Usually ‘Nakkara’ is made of Bronze or Brass and its shape is much like the ‘Bayan’ of a tabla. The face is made of leather and is tightly fitted by ‘Rojju’. Its height is approximately 2’1/2 feet to 3 feet. ‘Nakkara’ is played with the help of sticks but with the ‘Sanai’ of North India ‘Nakkara’ is played with hand only.

Mridangam:-
The North Indian ‘Pakhawaj’ is called as ‘Mridangam’ but it has certain dissimilarities with the ‘Mridangam’ of South India. The size of a ‘Mridangam’ is less than that of a ‘pakhawaj’ and whereas the left face of a ‘Pakhawaj’ is played with open palm ,in case of ‘Mridangam’ it is played with fingers like that of a ‘Bayan’ of a Tabla. The length of a ‘Mridangam’ is approximately 1’1/2 to 2 feet. It is usually played with heavy classical music and songs of North India.

Tabhil: -
The shape of a ‘Tabhil’ is much like that of a ‘Dhol’ Its right face is played with fingers while left face with strong wooden stick. This instrument is used with classical musical instruments of North India.

Suddha Maddalam:-
It’s a North India musical instrument and resembles much like that of a ‘Mridangam’ but much bigger in size than ‘Mridangam’ and its ‘gab’ is also much thicker and larger.It has a much heavier sound wave than ‘Mridangam’. This instrument is indispensable for the Kathakali dance of Kerela.

Chenda: -
‘Chenda’ is a type of ‘Dhol’ with length 2 feet and breadth 1 foot. It is played with the help of two sticks in two hands. It is also used with Kathakali dance of Kerela. It is also used with the folk dances of Northern and southern India.

Urum:-
It is also like ‘dhol’ in structure and the two faces are made of leather.It is played with the help of a 1’1/2 inches long curved stick.

Pambai:-
It has been made by uniting two 1 foot long ‘Dhols’ together. The upper part is made of brass and the lower part is made of wood and both faces are of leather. It is played with hand and stick. It is usually used with folk dances of the Northern India.

Udukku:-

It is about one foot long with a thin middle part and shaped like that of a ‘Dugdugi’. It is either made of wood or mud. It is held in left hand and played with right hand. It has limited use in some folk songs of Tamil Nadu.

Tumbakanari:-

It is the Kashmiri ‘Dholak’. It is shaped like a water pot. The lower part is made of leather. It is help below the left arm and played with the right hand. It is a very popular instrument of Kashmir.

Hudukku:-

It is like a ‘Dumru’ but much larger in size. Its both faces are made of leather and are held together by strong rope. It is suspended with a rope from the left shoulder and played with the right hand. It is popular in the ‘Gharwal’ AREAS.

Timila:-

It is also a type of dholak. It is suspended with a rope from the left shoulder and the upper part is played with both hands. It is used in devotional songs of temples of Kerela.

by Sonnet Mondal.

The Christmas dreams came true!

2009-12-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

Last week I got an e-mail of a young guy from Latin America, he is about fourteen years age, maybe a little bit more, he wrote that he read about Bombadil Publishing somewhere and he don’t believe this marvelous opportunity. I mean, he explained to me that he have a big trust on us, in our editorial work, but it’s was so amazing that’s was unreliable and unbelievable, because he had dream about to be listened by somebody and to be interested in his book.
This young boy wrote that in the matter of the facts he beg to Santa in a letter for two years ago if he could find an editorial agency whom could take care on his literary business and finally came Bombadil Publishing in his life as a gift from the sky, a gift he had asked for to Santa. A Christmas gift! His dream about to be edited came true with Bombadil Publishing!
I wrote back this young boy, that Bombadil Publishing is a really matter, that we are represented globally nearly all around the world, that we have several thousand young writers whom are a part of our world, a part of our vision to get a better world, with our slogan YOUTH2YOUTH have found the heart of many young writers around the world whom transmitted their messages of love, their messages of hope, peace and love to other young writers and other young people… And adults too!
I wrote too to this young boy that is not a casualty that Tom Bombadil (Our inspirited character of the Trilogy of the Lord of the Ring) and Santa had a splendid white beard, and both like children, but I aggregated that Tom Bombadil likes younger to twenty six year old and everybody who’s thinking as a young!

We at Bombadil Publishing wish Merry Christmas to everybody and Happy New Year

Indian Drums-A Musical Journey

2009-12-16T02:03:00.001-08:00

There is no reveal of Tabla or Pakhwaj in primeval India. Inspite of this predominantly no discrepancy can be found out between Pakhwaj and Mridangam though many such differences can be found in Tabla. Beliefs and estimations vary about their existence in past and their time of arrival.

The seals of the Mohenjodaro Indus valley civilization contain depictions of men playing long cylindrical drums hung around their necks played horizontally. These drums are most similar to the kharrang of Assam and with the dhole of the Reddis of Andra Pradesh. Other drums inscribed on the seals include an hour glass shaped drum like the hudukka, castanets and cymbals. Some arched harps found in their hieroglyphics and unearthed clay whistles demonstrate they developed a tonal system, but no literature exists which we can translate in order to learn about that system.

The first credentials of music occur in the Vedic scriptures, of the Aryan culture. The most ancient Vedic literature describes drums covered with the skins of wild animals, large earthen drums, and the role of the drums in various rituals. The name of the drum mentioned in vedic literature was ‘dundhubi’.

Literature from the Nardiyasiksa and the Natyasastra that was written around 100 B.C.E. provides a great deal of knowledge regarding music. Naradiysiksa, describes vedic and ghandharva music. It states that semi-divine ghandharva music is composed of three elements: svara, tala, and pada. Narad describes the essentials of vocal and instrumental music. In the 31st and 32nd chapters, the Natyasastra gives descriptions of tala, the fundamental aspects of India rhythm. According to Bharata, tala was known as 'ghana' and time as 'kala'. Laya, called kalapata, subdivided into vilamvita (slow), madhya (medium), and druta (fast). Kala divided into three parts, citra (two matras), vartika (four mantras), and daksima (eight mantras). Bharata stated that tala, or time unit, was known as the measurement of kala, ('kala kala pramanena tala ityabhdhiyate' 31.7). Two kinds of talas existed, n'sabda (soundless or beatless), and sa'sabda (with sound or beat). The soundless tala again subdivided into 4 kinds: samya, tala, dhruva, and sannipata. Other terminology regarding rhythm included: yati (a method of applying a tempo of a tala -- of which they had several kinds: sama, srotogata, gopuccha, damaru, pipilika), prakarana (to make a song ready for singing), satala (with any rhythm), atala (without rhythm). With such terminology they clearly developed a complicated rhythmic system. This originated before the classical music age (600 to 500 B.C.E.), as ghandharva music became obsolete before the Bharata period. Ghandharva music provides the link between vedic music and post-vedic marga type of music (which evolved around 700 B.C.E., and provides insight to the classical period as well.

Mridangam was found to have existence from archaic times but it was found unfeasible to prove their existence in vedic ages and the puranas do not give any description of the shape of mridangam in particular. The “Natyasastra” epoch of Indiaprovides us some information regarding the silhouette of the instrument. At that time the ‘mridangam’ that was played placing in one’s lap was much like the present day’s ‘mridangam’ but it lacked the black portion in the middle known as ‘Gab’. Other features that we see in today’s ‘mridangam’ including its name were added to it during the time of Bharatmuni.Swati noticed the salient features of the instrument and named it ‘Tripushkar’ or ‘Pushkartray’. Muktesvara temple (6th-7th century) and Bhuranesvara (and three other cave temples) of Badari in Bombay (6th century) contain depictions of the Puskara. Musicians often placed the puskara's smaller verticle drum (called 'alinga'), on their lap and played more than one drum at a time. Given the the design, technology, and musical structure for drums common in this this period, we can piece together numerious features of the tabla. During the time of Shrangadeb the name ‘Mridangam’ again replaced the name ‘Pushkar’ and the name ‘Mardol’ accompanied it.The differences between ‘Mridangam’ and ‘Mardol’ was the former had 12 finger size of the two faces while the later had 13 and 14 finger size respectively. ‘Mardol’ was made of wood and had rings to adjust the scale and tune while ‘Mridangam’ was made of tight clay and mud. The similarity was the black middle portion ‘gab’ was densely made in both cases.

The name of ‘Mardol’ and ‘Mridangam’ was found to be associated in the music of different cults in India but none of the books clearly mentioned about them. Suddenly during the Muslim advent in Indiath page of this book he has written a four line sloka which indicated the use of Tabla and Pakhwaj in Northern and Western India during14th and 15th century. the name ‘Pakhwaj’ came into existence. In the book named “Sangeetoponishadsarodhar” written by Sudhakashal presented a detailed study upon opinion of youths free of western influence regarding Indian music. In the 87

It is guessed that in the 14th century, ‘pushkar’ and another instrument named ‘Abja’ was combined to create ‘Pakhwaj’.

Taking a look into the discovery of Tabla there are so many conclusions and varying opinions about it. The correct is still unheard of.

Some of the noted are:-
1>Some experts consider that Tabla originated from the Arabian instrument ‘Tabl’.The name has been supposed to come from the son of musician Jubal’s son Tubal.
2>One strong belief is In 1300 A.D. during the reign of Allauddin Khilji Parsi Poet Amir Khusrau discovered Tabla.
3>In paras another instrument name ‘Nakkara’ was prevalent .Therefore Tabla also might be a Parsi instrument.
4>Going into ancient times some people believe that Tabla has oriinated from the instrument “Audharka” which was much like Tabla in structure.
5>Sangeetacharya Gopeshwar Bandopadhyay believe that Amir Khusrau the second , the disciple of Sadaranga was the real founder of Tabla.This was during the period of Mughal Ruler 3rd Mohammad Shah.
6> Some people believe that famous Pakhwaj player of Delhi Ustad Sudhar separated pakhwaj to make tabla.

Sudhakushal said that Tabla is a Muslim instrument but there is no proof in history supporting his statement. There is no substantiation anywhere that Tabla was used in the 12thCentury before the coming of Anir Khusrau but again in some books of western writers it has been mentioned that instrument like Tabla was used from the 6th century. Another thing worth mentioning here is in Italy there was an instrument named ‘Tipani’.The photo of ‘Tipani’ which we can see in the 192ndpage of the book “Musical instruments through the ages” indicates clearly that the Arabian ‘Tabl’ was like the ‘Bayan’ of a tabla. Another instrument named ‘Tabar’ was found in Western lands that indicated the shape of the ‘Dahina’ of a Tabla. So the time period from when did this instrument come into play is still controversial but the reason of the discovery of Tabla was quite obvious. Musical instruments like ‘Mridangam’ or ‘Pakhwaj’ produced heavy and deep seated sounds and were suitable for songs like ‘Dhrupads’ but on the other hand as the light classicals like ‘Khayals’ and ‘Ghazals’ became popular there was a need for a much more lyrical and sharp sounding musical instrument that led to the discovery of Tabla.

by Sonnet Mondal.

Europa y Latino América: ¡¡¡DE JOVEN A JOVEN !!!

2009-12-16T00:31:00.000-08:00

Deseo comunicarle al mundo entero con mucha alegría y beneplácito que cada vez que un joven escritor nos contacta me contagia con su energía e inspiración cuando leo sus textos y manuscritos.

Desde la Península Ibérica y su capital Madrid, nos ha contactado el talentoso y enérgico joven Yoandy Cabrera, el cual ha obtenido un Máster en Literatura en la capital del idioma español y a enviado a nuestras redacciones el principio de un libro que hemos enviado a uno de nuestros mentores y auguramos un éxito literario.

También me llena de mucha satisfacción que desde mis queridas tierras andinas y mas específicamente Perú, nos ha contactado el joven talento y promesa peruana, Franco Finocchiario, estudiante de la prestigiosa Universidad de Lima, estoy segura que tanto Bombadil Publishing y Franco trabajaran arduamente para obtener un magnifico resultado el cual se reflejará en un legado a las futuras generaciones en forma de un libro editado.
Pero también desde tierras “ticas” es decir el verde y democrático país de Costa Rica, hemos establecido contacto con el joven escritor y poeta Andrés Jiménez.

Y desde las cálidas y tropicales tierras salvadoreñas, nos han llegado dos libros de dos jóvenes talentos literarios a saber: Luis Guillermo Ibáñez con Pseudónimo Luis Gallamo de tan solo 15 años al cual le predecimos un brillante futuro por las cualidades literarias mostradas, por ser ganador de varios premios literarios, nos ha enviado su libro “El Gran Día de Al –Zaidi”.
Además el joven de 14 años Ricardo MancÍa de Pseudónimo Radandi, con su libro “Fabrica Literaria” nos ha impresionado por la calidad de su narrativa en la cual expresa el pensamiento de los jóvenes actuales y estoy segura que este libro es buen material para nuestras imprentas.
Con estos dos jóvenes, nuestro mentor Guillermo Galicia, ha dado una excelente muestra tanto de su trabajo personal como Mentor de Bombadil Publishing y del talento literario de la Juventud Salvadoreña.

Todo esto me llena de mucha inspiración y alegría que los jóvenes en el mundo demuestran la capacidad que tienen para mejorar globalmente y obtener un mundo mejor… Un Mundo Bombadil!!!
¡DE JOVEN A JOVEN!

Maggy Jacinto

Lucia!

2009-12-14T07:39:00.000-08:00

On the 13th December every year Sweden turns into an ocean of lights for the celebration of Lucia. The traditional way of celebrating this annual event is to dress in a white dressing gown and carry burning candles while singing, often there is a choir performing or school classes and the celebration is mostly held in churchs.

Lucia originally comes from Saint Lucy, but is also known as Saint Lucia, (283 – 304) who was a Christian Martyr. Her name comes from lux, lucis "light", and she is the patron saint of those who are blind. Lucy, or Lucia consecrated her virginity to God, refused to marry, and had her dowry distributed to the poor. Her would-be husband denounced her as a Christian to the governor of Syracuse, Sicily. Miraculously unable to move her or burn her, the guards took out her eyes with a fork. In medieval accounts, Saint Lucy's eyes are gouged out prior to her execution. In art, her eyes sometimes appear on a plate that she is holding.

Sometimes the story behind this celebration is forgotten and vanish behind the happy celebrations, which is a shame since Saint Lucy was and is saint to keep in mind and look up to.

Over&Out

Sara

Human Right’s Day: Still a long way to go

2009-12-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

We’ve just celebrated Human Right’s Day on 10th of December. Officially, it’s been being celebrated since 1948 in over 189 countries all over the world. We also mark this day as ‘struggle against poverty’.

On this occasion Mr. Tom Malinowsky from Human Rights Watch in the U.S. state of Washington opined that there had been a significant progress in human rights over the last 40 years" "I think there is greater awareness around the world that people have fundamental rights and that those rights are enshrined in both law domestically and internationally"

The same day an article was published in a leading Australian daily, “The Australian” titled “The day to mourn, not celebrate, human rights”. The article writes that the year 2009 was worst of past decade in terms of human rights’ violation:

“Mass killings have continued in Darfur, the Congo and elsewhere in Africa, with only minor and sporadic attention from the media or the UN.

Dictatorships in North Korea and Burma terrorize their citizens daily, with no end in sight.

In Iran, a rigged election brought thousands of democracy protesters into the streets, where they were attacked (at least 70 people, including Neda Agha-Soltan, were reportedly killed) and arrested, followed by Stalinist show trials designed to intimidate these advocates.

Tragically, Human Rights Day, which marks the anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Conventions, now serves as a reminder of the abject failure of the international community in living up to its moral commitments. Ignoring the pleas of victims around the world, the UN Human Rights Council is locked on to a political agenda that uses the rhetoric of international law as a weapon in the political war targeting Israel.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference, which controls the UNHRCs agenda and chooses its officials, has no interest in opening a discussion of the systematic oppression of women or minorities in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Gaza, etc.

Israel is a convenient diversion, which explains the obsessive focus on "war crimes" claims, including the biased mandate of the Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict.

To make matters worse, the non-governmental human rights watchdogs that were created to offset the unethical behavior and biases of governments, have become accomplices in promoting oppression.”

We really have come long way ever since the UNO’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights came into existence. We can’t deny the role of UNHCR and OHCHR in Africa, South America and war affected zones such as Kosovo, Chechnya, Cambodia, Srilanka etc. Thousands of people, especially women and children have been rescued and rehabilitated. Yet, establishing an egalitarian society free of any sort of human rights’ violation is far from reach. Millions of innocent people will continue to suffer even in the most developed parts of the world. If we really want to curb all sorts of human rights’ violations, we must bolster democracy, print and electronic media, police and judiciary system and emphasize on empowering women. Otherwise, all these demonstrations, summits and promises on paper would be of no use.

Yours Alex

Bombadil Publishing are opening the Spanish literature ways in Latin America.

2009-12-11T05:42:00.000-08:00

Bombadil Publishing has opened the Spanish literature ways in Latin America.
We, in Bombadil Publishing, see our work in Latin America to be growing and growing every day. The Spanish market began to grow in March 2009. Now Bombadil Publishing has its presence in almost all the Latin American countries.

From Canada to the Argentinean Patagonian we can see our wonderful development with young writers and today about 300 young writers are working very hard together with our mentors in Latin America. We are very happy to be a part of this young world who is wonderful, marvelous and in the best literary mood, there are young people meeting young people, young voices are being listened to by others youngsters as well. These young souls are writing in this very moment the books to the next generations, the books to the future, the books that will be the legacy to our children, and the children who will make a better world.

I want to congratulate all our mentors around the world; we have mentors in Swedish, English and Spanish. The YOUTH2YOUTH Messages of peace, love and hope are really true with those young writers as well as our mentors who will give the world this brilliant legacy of literature through Bombadil Publishing and I want to mention those mentors and dedicate a great regards to all of them who are working in Latin America:

Margarita Alfaro, Carlos Molina Velásquez, Miguel Pinto, Guillermo Antonio Galicia, Marco Antonio Lima, Ricardo Berdugo, Preyer Huamán Torres, John Lossio Hawkins, David Vera, Sandra Leiva y Maggy Jacinto.

To all them our gratitude, respect and admiration!
YOUTH2YOUTH
Melvin Gonzalez

Awakening youth to establish an egalitarian society

2009-12-10T06:06:00.000-08:00

"[Vivekananda is] one of the very greatest historical figures that India has ever produced. When one sees the full range of his mind, one is astounded." Christopher Isherwood
A spiritual genius, who was born in an affluent Datta family in Kolkata on 12 January 1863, was the living embodiment of handsomest and noblest inheritor of supreme goodness. From childhood, he was an enlightened soul who worshiped science and emphasized on honesty, sincerity and selfless love to conquer the world. To him ‘unselfishness is God’ and ‘Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man’.
After 1884, during his journey to explore India, he stumbled upon appalling Poverty and hungry millions all over. He was deeply distressed and decided to awake the slumbering Indians. At the time of wandering and sermonizing, he heard about World’s Parliament of Religions and went on the request of friends in 1893, in Chicago.
Austerity in grave-featured personality and commanding intellect of this anonymous spiritual guru of India that flourished in the significant lecture at the Parliament of Religions, where he represented Hinduism. His profound acquaintance with Eastern as well as Western culture, luminously handsome personality, spiritual insight with Yogic temperament, impressed whoever came in contact with him. He received an honorable appellation - the ‘divine orator’ from his enthusiastic adherents all over the world. "The thought of this warrior prophet of India left a deep mark upon the United States . . . . I cannot touch these sayings of his . . . without giving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shocks, what transports must have been produced when in burning words they issued from the lips of the hero!" - Romain Rolland
In his sojourn in the west, he preached the ennobling principle of Vedanta Philosophy and practical analysis of religion. He was agnostic and stressed on working hard with sanguine determination to shape up the life which will indubitably assist us to accomplish at acme of self satisfaction. Self nourishment is an indispensible process for leading a successful life.
In 1893, when he arrived in America, which was by then hardly known in Europe, was quite impressed by the workmanship of the people and progressive culture. After returning in India, he wanted to add new dimension by instilling the inspiration and workmanship spirit in Indian youth so that they could demolish the abject poverty and backwardness of the masses forever.
After 108 years of his death his humanistic teachings are equally relevant. But has India changed? Do the Indian youth possess the tremendous perseverance and comprehensive vision to give it a modern shape? We are overwhelmed by his dynamic spirit, worship him and have built massive monuments in his remembrance. But the question remains, “have we dedicated ourselves for the implementation of the universal figure’s adage?”
It’s time we youth listened to what he voiced a century ago.

.....Mousumi

Gira Bombadil en Latino América

2009-12-08T01:49:00.000-08:00

Vemos con mucho agrado y satisfacción que nuestra actual gira en Latinoamérica esta sobrepasando las metas que nos habíamos propuesto, pues la aceptación que hemos obtenido en la parte oriental de El Salvador ha sido enormemente placentera.

Después de tres entrevistas televisivas y cuatro radiofónicas y una entrevista con la Casa de la Cultura, serán muchos los jóvenes que se acercaran a Bombadil Publishing y allí estaremos para darles las mejores atenciones en la cual desarrollaremos conjuntamente con estos jóvenes escritores; escribiendo acorde a nuestra filosofía e ideología, la comunicación de joven a joven, legado para futuras generaciones.

Maggy Jacinto and Melvin Gonzalez in El Salvadorian TV

Nosotras representantes de Bombadil Publishing Maggy Jacinto y Margarita Alfaro Bulle, estamos trabajando arduamente con nuestros mentores en Latino América para darles seguimiento a todos los jóvenes escritores que se están acercando a Bombadil Publishing tanto en El Salvador y toda Latino América y estamos seguras que pronto daremos a luz los resultados a través de los libros editados.

Pero lo que más nos ha sorprendido a sido el inicio literario de 23 jovencitos de la ciudad de Ahuachapán, la cual se ubica en la zona occidental de El Salvador, en edades comprendidas entre los 14 y 17 años, quienes conjuntamente con nuestros mentores Guillermo Antonio Galicia y Marco Antonio Lima, están desarrollando 23 distintos libros y como parte de nuestra ideología será un legado literario de joven a joven… y también de los adultos que así lo deseen, entre estos 23 temas podemos mencionar : leyendas, historias, cuentos cortos, ficción, en fin temas actuales que llevan mensajes de amor y esperanza para obtener un mundo mejor, un mundo Bombadil.
Desde aquí deseamos exhortar a todos los jóvenes con ambiciones literarias a acercarse a Bombadil y formar parte de nuestros sueños y hacer realidad un mundo diferente.

DE JOVEN A JOVEN

Written by: Maggy Jacinto

Bombadil Publishing se abre camino en grande en Latino América.

2009-12-08T01:45:00.000-08:00

Con mucha alegría vemos en Bombadil Publishing que nuestro crecimiento en Latino América se ha dado de una forma asombrosamente explosiva, empezamos nuestras operaciones en Marzo de 2009 y podemos informar orgullosamente que hasta la fecha estamos presente en casi todos los países del continente, desde Canadá hasta la Patagonia en Argentina contamos con el desarrollo de casi cien escritores que en estos momentos han enviado sus manuscritos y alrededor de trescientos que nos han contactado y que se preparan para empezar para escribir un libro con nosotros. Pero nuestros mentores están trabajando arduamente conjuntamente con estos jóvenes escritores haciendo historia dentro de la literatura, desarrollando los libros que serán nuestro legado a futuras generaciones, proporcionando esos mensajes de amor, paz, esperanza y fe que de joven a joven transmiten nuestros libros en Bombadil Publishing.
Como Director Ejecutivo de La Sección en Español de Bombadil Publishing, me siento muy orgulloso de formar parte de este maravilloso grupo de trabajo que conformamos en Bombadil Publishing en español y deseo saludar con mucha alegría a todos esas magnificas personas que dan nombre y que dan vida a nuestra filosofía de ayudar de joven a joven en todo Latino América y España también, me refiero a Maggy Jacinto, Margarita Alfaro, Carlos Molina Velásquez, Miguel Pinto, Guillermo Antonio Galicia, Marco Antonio Lima, Ricardo Berdugo, Preyer Huamán Torres, John Lossio Hawkins, David Vera, Sandra Leiva y muchos otros, desde la Oficinas Internacionales de Bombadil Publishing enviamos este abrazo y este beso a todos ellos.
Pero también es digno de hacer mención de que Bombadil Publishing tiene muchos otros mentores en Sueco y en Ingles quienes atienden nuestros jóvenes escritores alrededor del mundo en muchos países en todos los continentes, inclusive la Antártida, estos mentores están ayudando al desarrollo de los legados literarios en los tres idiomas que editamos nuestros libros, es decir en Ingles, Sueco y Español, podemos afirmar orgullosamente que tenemos diez mil jóvenes escritores que de forma global están en contacto permanente con nosotros y pronto el mundo vera el resultado de esta maravillosa colaboración en el resultado de miles de libro editados por nuestra Editorial Bombadil Publishing.

DE JOVEN A JOVEN CON LA LITERATURA

Melvin González
Director Ejecutivo

Go out and meet nature

2009-12-07T00:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I woke up in a terrible mood, it was grey, dull weather, I had not slept very well and so on. Frankly I was quite moody. Not the best beginning of a Sunday morning I thought to myself. But since it was not raining at least we ( me and my boyfriend) decided to take the car and drive to a very small mountain not far from our hometown Trollhättan called "Halleberg" and go for a walk. Halleberg

When we came to "Halleberg" we both realized we had never been on this mountain before and didn´t quite know the ways around it, it turned out to be a quite long walk just because we kept going on new paths which led us further and further from where we had started our"little" walk. Which I can feel in my body today; feverish and my cough became worse, but it was totally worth it! Because of nature! My bad mood was swept away as a soft wind as soon as I started walking through the thick and healthy forrest, my smile grew bigger for every breath of fresh ait my lungs inhaled and I felt like I had woken up a second time, this time happy. Nature is fabulous and at least I forget which inpact it has on me when I´m gone from it for too long. So go out and meet nature and heal your soul with the magic from our nature!

Over&Out

Sara

The first woman who won the Nobel Prize in literature

2009-12-04T02:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I was reading some parts of The Wonderful Adventure of Nils and I found it awesome that tempted me to know more about the author. I found her to be the first women, from Sweden, in the world who got the Nobel Prize in literature.
Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf, an internationally acclaimed female author, who won The Nobel prize in literature in1909 for her widely known fairy tale ‘Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige’ (The Wonderful Adventure of Nils) which was written after three years of devoted studies on nature and birds’ life. She was awarded for her "lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception".
She was born on 20th November 1858 in Mårbacka, in the province of Värmland in southern, and spent her childhood there. She had a great passion for reading from childhood and was much more mature than others of her age. She started her journey by taking part in a literary contest which she won and furthered.
She changed the realistic movement and emphasized on imaginative and romantic manner which drew the attention of masses readers; in a nutshell she abolished the border between the dream and reality. Danish translation of her first book Gösta Berlings Saga received wide critical acclaim all over the world and led the way of lasting success. Her later works are Löwensköldska Ringen (1925), Charlotte Löwensköld (1927), and Anna Svärd (1928) [The Ring of the Löwenskölds, 3 vols.]. She also published several volumes of reminiscences under the title Mårbacka (1922-32) that earned fame for her. On 16th March 1940, she died of a stroke at her home. Some of her books became text book in Swedish schools.

......Mousumi

Bombadil Publishing´s official blog now also in Spanish!

2009-12-03T02:25:00.000-08:00

Or very first blog in Spanish was published on Monday and it was the Peruvian Lady Maggy Jacinto, mentor and assisting Coordinator for Latin America who wrote from El Salvador, and talked about the wonderful work of our youngest writers.

But I want to shed light on the voyages we are doing in Latin America, Bombadil Publishing is working right now in El Salvador and get contacts with diverse people here which are active in the literature world, people whom help young writers, people whom carry on Bombadil Publishing philosophy, to create communication between young people but between adults too.

The young Spanish writers are many in Latin America now, from Canada to Argentina there are numerous young Bombadilians writing a book with the help of a mentor and together with us developing a great legacy to the world, a legacy of love, hope and faith to future generations, all over the world!

We are very proud to assure that our presence in Latin America will get the results we are looking for, which is to publish books by youth who want to express themselves!
Yesterday was we in a TV channel in El Salvador and we told about our work in Spanish, the TV people was very impressed about our wonderful work, can you imagine? Tom Bombadil has become a celebrity here in El Salvador, because the literature, because the young people whom are writing together with Bombadil Publishing and sent their messages to the young whom want to be a part of our world, a part of the future, a part of the really true wonderful life!

Best regards to Bombadilians all over the world from El Salvador!
Melvin Gonzalez

History of English

2009-12-03T02:21:00.000-08:00

The diversity in cultures, customs and norms that had initially taken birth from the five civillizations to become more diverse with the passage of time has been the main cause of the creation of different languages in different corners of the globe alone with different accent of speaking.With the tremendous globalization and theory of wiring the world into a global village the need to accept a common medium of verbal and written communication arose.Among almost over 1000 languages spoken all over the world English was accepted as the common and global language for communication. Inspite of being a young, English had gone through many phases of transformations from the old period to the modern period.English is originally a West Germanic language.During 5th century AD three west Germanic tribes namely the Angles, Saxon and the Jutes invaded Britain.The language of the British people was Celtic language. During these invasions most of the Celtic speakers were pushed to the west and north which comprises of the modern day Wales, Scotland and Ireland.The Angles belonged to Englaland and their language was Englisc from which Englan and English originated.

Old English
Period:-450-1100
Initially Old English comprised of a varied group of dialects representing the origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The original Old English was further influenced and afffected by two invasions-The Scandanavian branch of Germany who conquered parts of Britain in 8th and 9th century followed by the Normans in the 11th century. Ultimately these conquests made English a Mixed and Borrowing language.

The introduction of Christianity added another wave of Latin and some Greek words. The Old English period formally ended with the Norman Conquest, when the language was influenced to an even greater extent by the Norman-speaking Normans. The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of Anglian and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development. According to Lois Fundis, "The first citation for the second definition of 'Anglo-Saxon', referring to early English language or a certain dialect thereof, comes during the reign of Elizabeth-I, from a historian named Camden, who seems to be the person most responsible for the term becoming well-known in modern times".There were great differences between today’ english and Old English.English speaking people nowadays will have great problem in understnading them.

Middle English
Period:-1100-1500
In 1066 England was attacked by William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France.He conquered Ebgland. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

Modern English
Early Modern English (1500-1800)
Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

Late Modern English (1800-Present)
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.

World's AIDS Day: Let's Spread Awareness

2009-12-01T08:59:00.000-08:00

"The global HIV/AIDS epidemic is an unprecedented crisis that requires an unprecedented response. In particular it requires solidarity -- between the healthy and the sick, between rich and poor, and above all, between richer and poorer nations. We have 30 million orphans already. How many more do we have to get, to wake up?"

-- Kofi Annan

When obstacles are devastating, applying every possible means is necessary for successful disposal. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) day, marked on 1st December all over the world, is the important movement to generate massive awareness, fighting against prejudice and make all understand the utmost sense of seriousness. Each member of society needs to eliminate the space of ignorance which monstrously escalates risk of getting affected. Regarding this disastrous disease, education has been stressed to get rid of this epidemic man has ever faced. Contaminated needles, unsafe sex, breast feeding and transmission from an effected mother to the baby are the major causes of HIV.

Since its discovery in 1981, HIV has already shown its catastrophic consequences by taking more than 35 million lives between 1981 and 2006 and 2.7 million lives in 2008. At present, HIV, AIDS infects 0.6% of the world’s population. It itself proves that all efforts will go in vain if we don’t take the strongest initiative and precautions to eradicate; active participation from all sections of society is necessary.

.......Mousumi

The first Bombadil blog in Spanish!

2009-12-01T07:02:00.000-08:00

Ahora por primera vez en Bombadil Publishing iniciamos nuestro blog en español y yo Maggy Jacinto, Asistente a la Dirección de la Sección en Español, tengo el honor de escribir nuestro primer artículo.

Como ciudadana de un país andino, específicamente Perú y escribiendo desde la República de El Salvador, siento el calor tropical de estos lares, pero siento también el calor humano de los habitantes salvadoreños que se vierte en el contorno sobre nuestra Editorial, la comunicación de Joven a Joven es muy visible en estas calurosas tierras Centroamericanas; pues Bombadil Publishing a recibido con mucho agrado una enorme aceptación de la juventud literaria salvadoreña.
Para hacer mención de lo anterior vemos con mucho beneplácito que se han unido a la revolución de la filosofía Bombadil una buena cantidad de jóvenes escritores salvadoreños, quienes conjuntamente con nuestros mentores esparcidos en toda Latino América están desarrollando muchos manuscritos que a su debido tiempo se convertirán en libros imprimidos en nuestra Editorial.
Estos nuevos bombadilios los podemos ubicar en las ciudades de Ahuachapán, Santa Tecla, San Salvador, San Miguel y en distintas ciudades del salvadoreño departamento de La Libertad.

Pero también es digno de hacer mención que la explosión en español de Bombadil ha alcanzado casi todo el continente americano: Canadá, EEUU, México, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Perú, Chile y Argentina.
Al mismo tiempo de manifestar nuestra alegría de dar inicio a este blog en español, informamos que una considerable cantidad de libros en español están siendo elaborados y revisados por nuestros mentores y la revolución Bombadil hace posible el sueño de muchos jóvenes latinoamericanos, jóvenes escritores que nunca pensaron que podrían hacer realidad ese sueño.
Desde este blog, envío mis manifestaciones de exhortación a todos nuestros jóvenes bombadilios a continuar con esa loable tarea de comunicarse de joven a joven.

ADELANTE BOMBADILIOS HISPANOS PARLANTES, HAZTE ESCUCHAR A TRAVÉS DE LA LITERATURA.
DE JOVEN A JOVEN.
Maggy Jacinto.

Learning new things

2009-11-30T11:20:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I decided to make a drastic change in my life, I decided to change my everyday life and even my future if you will.

I decided to learn to play the guitar.

This might sound a bit courageous to say that learning how to play the guitar will change my life and future, I am not aiming to become a rock star or anything like that, BUT I do believe that playing the guitar will change my life anyway. I will meet new people through wanting to learn more, I will be able to express myself in a new way and I will foremost gain new knowledge.

My first guitar lesson might not have gone surprisingly well, I am, not a talent, let´s put it that way, but I did have a lot of fun and quite sore fingers to be frank. My biggest concern after just one lesson was “How can it be so hard?!” I have quite a few friends who play either the guitar or some other instrument and they always seems so relaxed and comfortable whilst playing and all the sudden it was really difficult when I was supposed to do it! I guess it does take some practice… This will take time, time that I am more than happy to spend to enrich my life in the future.

Philoshophical Sara says Over&Out

Change of Eras - From Modernism to Postmodernism

2009-11-26T00:36:00.001-08:00

Not too remote but four decades ago we had a singular outlook towards materialistic elements, human emotions, mental architecture, aesthetics and art forms. The two prime and most significant events in the 20th century were the two devastating World Wars that paved the way to many movements which later turned into theories and concepts. Whether it be the transition from the 1st wave to the 3rd wave of Feminism, from Deconstruction to Reconstruction, from Modernism to Postmodernism or from Classical to Fusion era, these two events were gateways of the alterations. Presently we are in the Postmodern era which can also be otherwise called as Fusion era. To a student of science, the term fusion is not alien and he will flash upon with the concepts of nuclear fusion to describe the term that is - The blending of two light nuclei to form a heavier nucleus. Sighting the aesthetical and philosophical meaning of the statement we can welcome it as the base avowal for today’s fusion world- Blending of two good things to bring out the best. Nothing but today’s Postmodern mind acts as alchemy to it. But what are the changes that this fusion and postmodernism has brought about? Referring to a study called as mapping postmodernism and synthesizing charts or lists in the works of Ihab Hassan, Donna Haraway, Frederic Jameson, David Harvey and Jean-Francois Lyotard some changeover from modernism and postmodernism can be presented as snapshots such as from Monopoly capital in modernism to Multinational Capital in postmodernism, Semi-autonomous culture to Commodified Culture in socioeconomics. Considering Poetics the changeovers are like from Emotions to Random Intensities, Character to Caricature, Plot to Labyrinth, Parody to Pastiche, Detective Model to Sci Fi Model, Individual Ideas to Free floating codes, Readerly attitude to Writerly attitude, Metaphor to Metanomy while considering Miscellaneous Figurations the evolution is from Biology to Immunology, TB to AIDS, Mind to Artificial Intelligence and Labour to Robotics. Coming into personalities just for a better knowing if we refer Carl Marx, Stravinsky, Freud as Modernists then Baudrillard, Cage, Lacan can be considered as Postmodernists in their places.

But with the advent of the 21st Century, Postmodernism seem to be placed as a theory towards completion of Modernism rather than a reaction against Modernism. This is evident from the blending of traditional and modern thoughts and ideas. In music the word Fusion leads others in terms of popularity which is nothing but a blending of classical and fast pace music. In poetics short simple poems are popular. The World needs new ideas and maximum output at a faster pace. The only reason is materialistically we need recognition and aesthetically we need peace. Though achieving neither of the above has been easier till date and perhaps this is the reason why the pace is going on increasing. At times devastating mistakes are also resulting due to the tremendous pace of working. The Global Economic depression bears testimony to this fact. Not only this according to the latest theory of Postmodernism that man is a slave of his/her own perspective and all are correct according to his/her own perception, unruly activities have increased enormously .The terrorism and terrorist activities and the political disorders prove this. Looking at the brighter side individual freedom has never been such before as in this era. There are too many opportunities in almost every field through which one can focus his/her talents. “Around The World in 80 Days” no longer seems to be a dream. Ideas no more go into waste; there are always some people to appreciate. The positives in this era are not meant to cover up the negatives and neither the negatives can but a competition always goes on.
The ending note as well as advice can be the words of Sophocles’s “If you don’t change yourself with the changing world, you will be thrown like an antique piece in the museum of History”.

Poetically speaking,

“Neither Shakespeare nor Newton
Falls heavy upon this era
Where emotions are trampled for honor-
Where recipient is more and less are the donors!!
Rays of hope knock every morning –
Yet falls out in a haste-
Where thinkers are called beggars,
And performers are treated as guests..
Where they are the fools who follow castes-
Where words come before trust!!
Where one may hail you as dust-
And the other as Prince!
The sound of Fusion rings-
In the cements and grasses-
Where Modernists fail to execute-
And Postmodernists Sing.”

By Sonnet Mondal

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

2009-11-24T12:59:00.000-08:00

Since 1981, 25th November is identified as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women by United Nations mainly in the remembrance of brutal assassination of three Mirabel sisters who fought against dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).

Around the world violence against women has taken a devastating shape. According to the UN report, country specific data show more than 70% of women become victim of physical brutality. Other shapes of hostility against women are domestic violence, ostracism from their family, Femicide, trafficking, dowry death, honour killing, sexual abuse at schools or colleges or workplaces, rape either by husband or intimate partner or strangers and many more. Death rate as the outcome of various forms of violence is higher than death due to disability or diseases. This day is intended to spread awareness of women’s human right and eliminate the demoralizing practices; it is also to empower women and advocate their strength.

In India, a campaign for change in daughters' perspective 'Daughters against Dowry' will be launched on this occasion (25th November, 2009). A National seminar is to be conducted on "IMPLEMENTATION OF DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT" In Delhi more than 500 girls from various schools will assemble and highlight Dowry Prohibition Act.

......Mousumi

Nostalgia

2009-11-23T01:06:00.000-08:00

Writing can be many things; nostalgia, therapy, expression of crazy thoughts of happiness or frustration. To me writing is all of those things.

Have you ever gone through old note books? Old texts written long ago? I did the other day, and I was overwhelmed by how those words written long ago brought all those feelings back again... The mind is funny in that way, how feelings can be brought back into daylight just by reading a couple of old poems, written not to be read but just for being written. It´s dangerous, because it get at least my head spinning in high speed, wondering “could I have acted differently?” “Could I have made a better choice”. And in the same time I absolutely love the fact that I have note books and note books laying around to remind me of periods of my life which are now lost, maybe not always lost, but buried if you will. The album "Tigermilk" by Belle&Sebastain makes me nostalgic.

Today´s blog is a tribute to old times and to nostalgia, many people fear to touch nostalgia because many times it hurts to bring back old memories to life. In my opinion it´s a wonderful thing to be nostalgic (once in a while, not always) because it reminds me of whom I am and who I have been. And thanks to writing those feelings down in the past I can now remember why I made certain choices and why I didn´t make others and I realize that I have always made the right choices. It´s easy to remember things in a different light than i actually was; better or worse. Therefore I am happy that I have written these feelings down because in that way I can skip the hurtful thoughts of “what if”, based on my old poems and texts I remember how things really were.

So today I want to pay attention and tribute writing as a reminder; write for the sake of get a chip of your shoulder but also to be able to one day look back and remember, do not put a gloomy face on and feel bad about old and lost relationships or situations. Be glad about the fact that you have done it. Never regret, learn from your mistakes and greet the times you have done wrong because you have gained a new experience! And don´t forget to keep writing about it. This is most likely the only way to keep an accurate memory.

Sara says Over&Out.

What is trust?

2009-11-16T06:44:00.000-08:00

What do I need to trust somebody? Today I asked myself this question, for many different reasons, and quite naturally the next question was; what is trust?

For me to trust another person completely is not rare, I trust a lot of people, but I trust them in different ways. To show up at a friend’s house without make-up with a gloomy face and in a bad mood show that I trust that person. It might sound a bit vain and silly but it´s not like I am very narcissistic and think my looks are very important and therefore can´t show myself without make-up, it´s more about the person I am when wearing make-up; happy, funny, cheerful etc. Because that is what I would like “strangers” ( people I do not know very well) to think about me, which I think is fair, because why would I want to be a person who seems angry, annoyed and moody? I mean, I can be all of those negative things, at times, but those sides I do not want to share with the world at all times, just like I don´t want to share my inner and deepest thoughts and feelings with the rest of the world. So for me to for example go and see a friend with no make-up really mean “I trust you” because I am comfortable with showing both my good and bad sides to him/her. So like I said; I trust in different ways, for example: I have really nice friends who do not know my bad sides, although I trust them and I have friends who I will never share my problems, thoughts and doubts with, although we are really close friends.

Another type of trust is the kind of trust you show by being honest and not telling lies. I have friends which I love and think very highly of, some of them might not always pick up the phone or answer my texts, they might not always be reliable when it comes to planning things together; but they will on the other hand never lie to my face or let me down.

A trust which has been lost can be very hard to win back, and I quote Marianne: “I don´t believe in second chances, I believe in new opportunities” and I think that quote can be related to trust which have been lost; you will not be given a chance to get back that trust, you will have to create the opportunities to win it back again. You will have to fight yourself to show the person you have let down that you are to be trusted again. Am I right?

Philosophical Sara says Over&Out

India celebrated Children's Day

2009-11-15T10:39:00.000-08:00

“Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future” -John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Celebrating this day, we promote children’s emotional and social well being and right, inject high aspiration and astonishing determination to stand still in front of crumbling odds, promise a humanitarian assistance and renew commitment to provide safety, security and ample opportunities to grow removing the sickening poverty from root and make them free from most distressed situations. Different colourful and cultural programs are organized, patriotic songs are sung, various fancy and quiz programs are held on this special day. All are dedicated to celebrate their spirit, talent and make them realize that they are the future of the nation and concern of the country.

First children’s day was celebrated across the world in 1955 October. Though, universally it is celebrated on 20th November but different countries celebrate children’s day on various dates. In India, it is celebrated with great enthusiasm on 14th November, the birthday of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who laid the foundation of modern India and emphasised on all-round development of children.

Yours

Mousumi......

Does Age Really Matter?

2009-11-10T23:57:00.000-08:00

Being a writer I can’t be passive towards the mass debate that started last week on our social network.

Age can’t be a constraint for writing. Numerous examples can explicitly be given: John Keats who died at the age of 25, Anne Frank who died at the age of 15, John Kennedy, who was posthumously given Pulitzer award, died at the age of 31, Raymond Radiguet (a French novelist and poet) who died at the age of 20, Sylvia Plath (an American poet and novelist) who died at 30, Thomas Chatterton (poet of 18th ‘Gothic’ literary revival) who died at the age of 17, are among greatest poets and novelists till date.

So, I feel-

Literature is a field where criticism is a must. Criticism, which sheds light on the flaws with compassionate attitude towards the work, certainly helps establish credibility thus should surely be kept in consent for furthering persistent improvement. But ‘destructive criticism’ is, I would opine, combination of senseless words, enough for derailing authors’ right direction. One is liberated disagreeing authors’ point of view but with proper reasons and honest opinion, which is certainly essential for an individual’s betterment, otherwise damage can be done. Therefore, it is better to depreciate one’s hostile disagreement by throwing away those useless negative words.

.....Mousumi

Take care

2009-11-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

Almost everyone have a friend who has not been feeling well, or might even be depressed, almost everyone have at times not been feeling very well, or even been depressed!

Some people feel an ease through talking to others, some people might close all difficult feelings inside...And for many of us writing is a way to express our feelings and a way to ventilate our thoughts to the world in a way that do not mean confrontation or needing to tell people "I´m not feeling very well". Friends is many times a savior when ones soul is not whole and what I would like to express in today´s Bombadil blog is; Take care of each other. If your friend is not well, ask them what you can do to help. Depression is at least in the western culture something you do not speak about, well I guess you do speak about it, but not enough. Youngsters feeling bad about themselves, given medication at young ages for their "problems" is not a topic which is talked about easily at the dinner table.

But what really bothers me is; They are given medicine to solve all their angst and bad feelings, but no one seem to ask "Howcome all these people, all these young people, our future, why are they feeling so low?" The problem is attacted when it´s in full bloom but no one seem to ask the question "How do we prevent this issue?". The solution is not medication to still your brain or sleeping pills to make you sleep your problems away, the solution is being open and accepting that the issue exists and trying to figure out where it all started... And meanwhile, we have to take care of each other.

Over&Out
Sara

The Mentors in Bombadil Publishing: a big part of us!

2009-11-06T07:42:00.000-08:00

In the magnificent and marvellous world of book writing, the writers do the main work. Our young writers get inspiration and write onto the paper (or computer), giving the world a legacy for future generations. And the messages from youth to youth are in many ways a part of the new way to find a better world, an optimistic world there the young people are working together, transferring their ideas to each other by writing books with us at Bombadil Publishing.

At Bombadil Publishing we get our books out all over the world in a new and productive way since the young writers work together with our mentors throughout the entire process.

Our mentors are there all the time for the young writers, to help them to get a better vision, a better literary form, to get feedback, for inspiration. Our mentors are the final link helping to assure the quality is excellent in all ways, without in anyway losing the initial gist of the story and the soul of the author.

We at Bombadil Publishing have a lot of magnificent mentors in several countries around the world, in India, USA, Canada, England, Sweden, Spain, Chile, El Salvador and Peru, to mention just a few. Every mentor has our philosophy very clear, the Bombadil Publishing’s philosophy, which is to help the young people to give their messages of hope and faith of a better world to other young people around the world. Our mentors work together to help achieve this better world. YOUT2YOUTH

Bombadil Publishing is proud to introduce to the worlda new mentor, the magnificent Preyer Huaman Torres, living and working in Lima, Peru, Preyer is a young man, 30 years old who has been interesting in literature in his young years back in school, he is dentist and works actively to help the people in the Peruvian Amazon to get a better life. Welcome Preyer to the Bombadil family!

ALL OVER THE WORLD WITH BOMBADIL PUBLISHING

YOUT2YOUTH!

Melvin Gonzalez

Patience brings success

2009-11-06T04:32:00.001-08:00

Success comes when we do our duty wholeheartedly without thinking a fraction about the result-that’s what I have learnt while reading Tagore’s biography. During first 51 years of his life the success he achieved was least. People of outside Kolkata (then Calcutta) hardly heard his name.

On his second visit to England in 1912, he started translating some of his poetry work, Gitanjali, in English. His son was accompanied by him. Unfortunately, he left his father’s briefcase, which contained a notebook of hand written translation, in the London subway. But an honest person returned it to him on the very next day. When they were published in 1912, by the initiative of W.B Yeats, the whole world embraced him. For the first time world enjoyed the mystical and sentimental beauty of Indian culture. Within a year he got Nobel Prize. He was the first non-westerner who was so much adorned and honored. He never anticipated his work would be so adorable and far reaching.

Today we know Rabindranath Tagore as the most successful icon but anyone of us hardly realizes his years of struggle behind it; after spending 51 years of life in anonymity, he got world recognition. “Success comes to those who least care for it”

Yours,

Mousumi

First snow

2009-11-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

Snow, snow . . .

Well luckily yesterday was not my day for blogging. It was that kind of day that had the feeling that your "head was gone" or more correct it felt as the mind was gone. But it is like that sometimes and not much to do about it! Like the qoute I got from a friend:

"That day is still to come . . . . "

And today the first snow for the season, fall down from the sky! Yeak, well as you all know I want summer :-). Sure a sunny day with white snow, then the nature can be wounderful and just amazing. The winter scene can be stunning on those days :-).

But for now it just look like this (look the picture) more or less, not so much snow at all. Maybe that also can illustrate how the head/mind feels, a bit "snowy" :-).

So now my "head" has no moore to say.

by by
Mari

Learning Time Management From These Bombadilians

2009-11-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of days, Mousumi and I have been interviewing our young authors from different parts of the world. These authors, against the popular perception about youth, have mastered the skill of time management. They are not just authors; they lead multiple roles. Shabana Rashid Diya, a twenty year old journalism student from Dhaka, Bangladesh is not just academically excellent but also a budding photo journalist whose photographs have been appreciated in various international exhibitions. She is also a contributing member of 'The Rising Star' the most circulated English daily in Bangladesh. And the list doesn't end here: She writes monologues, plays a critique of music and the everyday issues, voices the needs of those around her, leads social activist groups and teaches young children to dream. When asked how she manages to do all these things and still manages to continue her studies. In the answer she told me that she had been practicing time management for past ten years. Diya is now working on her second book - With A Price Tag - that rediscovers the rejuvenation of a lost identity in a young girl at modern society during troubled times.

Meet our another author Dipanway Maitra, a 19 year old poet, essayist,from Kolkata. He dropped Engineering just to follow his dream: World's Literature. He is an epic poet, essayist, elocutionist, thinker, painter. And what else? He is a professional Kick Boxer. He has already played for national team and aspires to be a world known player. His soft voice contradicts to what he is and does. At present, he is working on epic poetry and has completed the manuscript. But there is no stop: the next project is already taking shape in his mind.
These youngsters are highly passionate about what they do and they know how to do it.
They respect time and utilize every single moment.
"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing."
Thomas Jefferson

Sincerely yours,
Alex

It´s getting dark now.

2009-11-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

Sweden is truly a beautiful country with great nature and magnificent scenery; we have got considerable lakes and majestic forests, open fields and maybe not the highest of mountains but still a few hills to “climb”.

As a Swede I am proud of the variety my country has to offer and the fact that the very soul of Sweden can be found where ever you decide to go in our tall country which form Sweden; in the south you´ll find it like a whirlwind across open fields, in the midlands it is sneaking around in the deep woods and drizzle in little brooks, in the north you´ll explore the absolute face of nature with the northern lights.

There are though a few disappointing details about Sweden too... For example it can get very dark up here, and it does get really dark. Right now, 5 pm Swedish time (1+ GMT) it´s already pitch dark, about a month ago the sun was still up at this time, but during autumn the amount of sun hours decries very rapidly, unfortunately. In the very north of Sweden during winter the sun will barely go up in the middle of the day before it decides to “call it a day” and go down again. Although during summer there are several days when the sun won´t go down at all. And this is what I can´t stand about my so beautiful country; darkness. What´s the point with a astonishing nature if no one can see it anyway? The dark time of the year stretches from the end of September to sometime in March, normally and I´m now referring to the part of Sweden where I live, which is the sort of southern west coast, around Gothenburg. In other places in Sweden it will be different. The lack of sun can make you depressed since you do not get as much C-vitamin from the sun as needed and just the darkness itself can bring your mood down, surprised? Although the autumn/winter sometimes shows a nice side to it too, with snow and ice, and it redecorate our woods to dramatic white landscapes and fields turn into to snow white canvas, truly stunning. But that is if it´s bright enough to see it of course. =D

Over&Out
Sara

A memorable night

2009-10-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

Last night, I read about Karin Boye, a greatest women Swedish poet, novel as well as short story writer. Much of her works deal with the themes of life, death and desolation. She was a poetic genius who liberated herself through her works. “Yes, of course it hurts’ is the most famous works that brought huge success in her life outside Sweden.

What has inspired me about her poetry is that she held quite modernistic philosophy about life. Even after 70 years of her death, her views are still relevant. She was influenced by Buddhism. Among her greatest works I liked these two:

A BUDDHIST FANTASY

Unlocked is the world's copper gate.
High in its gate-vault here I stand,
and what I see is infinitely great,
and no sight is so without end.

However deep I look, however far,
my gaze receives no help beneath.
All that I know exists no more -
not great, not small - not life, not death.

One single step on pathways free,
and for me all return is closed...
Why do you quake? Up, follow me!
For the universe's copper gate is forced!

INWARDS

My God
and my truth
I saw
in a strange hour.
People's words
and commands were silent.
Good and evil
my soul forgot.
My God
and my truth
I drank
in the hour of my angxiety.

My God
was salt darkness,
my truth
hard metal.
Deeply I shook.
Naked I stood,
washed by waves
of cold truth,
cold, strong,
contemptuous truth -
my Truth
and my God.

Finally, I’d like to thank Sara for introducing such a wonderful poet to me.
Sincerely,
Mousumi

Chile: A country with literary skills has joined to The Bombadil’s Generation!

2009-10-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

The Bombadil world are growing in a beautiful and wonderful way in Latin America, and global as well; every day we are getting new writers and mentors who understand the Bombadil Publishing’s philosophy, which is communicated betweens young people who share this message of hope and progress with other young people: and adult who want to too; all around the world!
Bombadil Publishing wants to welcome our very brand new mentor from Chile, Sandra Leiva; Sandra is living in the big city of Santiago, the capital of Chile, the South American country that has born several magnificent writers as the Nobel Price Winners in Literature Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral.
Sandra Leiva has taking with her the austral and long country Chile in our Bombadil world and with Sandra has coming the very first writer from Chile to us, the young lady Fernanda Ferrada, she is writing a roman and is in the terminal phase and we can have soon Fernanda’s book in our prints and we’ll get the book to the world.
Bombadil Publishing proudly introduce to the world our Mentor Sandra Leiva, our young writer, Fernanda Ferrada and of course the republic of Chile.
YOUTH2YOUTH
Melvin Gonzalez

Not much, just a bit

2009-10-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Well don't have so much to say today just this:

Down
Up
Sunshine
Homesick

That's what it feels today, including a bit dizzy in my head with my new stronger glas in the glasses. But now I at least see very good, not blurry at all :-).

Picture from Devianart.com

“A friend is someone who understands your past,

believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.”

have it nice until next time
Mari

Festive Season Ends; Winter Begins

2009-10-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

Festive season has taken a temporary full stop in India until 25th December and 1st January. All our authors are returning and furthering their own fragmentary works. I have already received two novels from Bombadil authors to whom I am mentoring. I am stuck on stunning revelation of inner world, revolutionary fervor of mind and heart of various evolving authors who are not only liberally imaginative but also brilliantly experimental. Sometimes their creative curve, which they express through their eminent stories, is quite gripping and extremely poignant to me. I find their mass explorations are aesthetically superior. I am overwhelmed…

Finally the capital of India, Delhi, is singing the song of winter which has arrived prior to its time. Delhi is quite close to Himalaya’s cold weaves which often take over the entire city. Scorching weaves of summer changed and agreeable weather of welcoming winter pleased Delhities. Mornings are heavily fogged and sunny days are comfortable until winter furthers. Some are thrilled to cherish and some are pretty concerned as this year seems to be going to be the coldest one. Little Felix has started sleeping a bit more than usual: a big relief for Alex and me.

Anne Bradstreet has best said:

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

Yours,

Mousumi

Meeting new people

2009-10-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

Today I have been out of the office almost all day long, the reason behind this was a meeting regarding how do develop our surrounding for our youth?

"Leader" an organization who is working with development took the initiative to this meeting, as Barbro who called me last week expressed it: “I want your brain and your thoughts”. It did not turn out to be as brutal as it might sound, after a nice lunch together with six other “youngsters” with a cup of coffee in my hand I was ready to discuss how to change my surrounding! We spoke about things like “what attracts young people?”, “where do they hang out?” and “how can we improve their spare time?”. It was quite interesting to take an outsiders point of view and analyze myself and the habits I had when I was younger. I remember taking two busses who each took 45 minutes and then having to wait 30 minutes to get in to the venue where the band I sort of was interested in hearing were playing. Then me and my friends normally would have to leave about 20 minutes before the whole thing ended just so we could catch one of the two busses home again! When I was younger I didn´t have any problems with travelling, that´s for sure! All this hassle just because we didn´t have anything better to do, and as a 15-yearold I did not want to spend my Saturday night at home with my parents. Which 15-yearsold really do?

Anyways, we discussed these matters and how the society could improve in order to get the youngsters of today active and happy about the society they are growing up in, it was a great afternoon with many different ideas, thoughts, opinions and dreams to fulfill. I got really inspired and can´t wait until next gathering!

Over&Out
Sara

Welcome to our new mentor! And to our fourth book in spanish

2009-10-23T01:50:00.000-07:00

Bombadil Publishing AB proudly presented to the world our new mentor John Lossio Hawkins, who is living in Lima, Peru; John has a journalist degree and vast experience of working in tv. Right now John is working as editor to the news program with a majour audience in the national tv in Peru in channel “Canal America Vision”.

John is also a writer and has published a story called “30 Seconds” in the magazine “Prensaperu”. John is 31 years old and single. Welcome to the Bombadil’s family John!

At Bombadil Publishing we are also very happy to introduce to the world fourth book in Spanish “Sembran do Valores" written by the lovely and charming author Susana La Barrera. Susana La Barrera is a Peruvian lady living and working in Lima, Peru. This book is being set at the moment and will be ready for the global market in February. There are always many things going on in Peru.

Around the world around, many other good things are happening at Bombadil Publishing . So many good things happen all the time, and our work continues to bring the world a better future in the hands of many young people who are writing books which send messages of peace, love and hope to their peers - a Bombadil world. Come and join us!

YOUTH2YOUTH

Melvin Gonzalez

Need it!

2009-10-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

Well today no problem what to blog about :-).

Yesterday it happened! The thing that I don´t want to happen, I do get so helpless without my glasses!
Mattias and Lena (his girlfriend) wanted some help with putting up a curtain in the window that is high upp above the office stairs. I walked over to them. I was frezing so halfway down i started to tie the sweater round my shoulders, crasch I heard and my eyes was suddenly blurry!! I had in some way when I was tieing the sweater reach my glasses (I had them on) and accidently pushed them off me. Crasch bang, :-( one of the glass in my glasses was broken :-(. Noooo we all said.

Then it was just to go into town trying to get a time for a check on the eyes, I had not get the glasses from there before so I had to do a eye check. I just saw money flying away. But they did not have any time until in the afternnon, suck. Then back to office, but on the way we did go to my home and collected a pair of my older glasses. Luckily I had them left! Did not see too good in them but it was better than noting. So after lunch Mattias again drove mee into town for the eye check. Thanks Mattias! In the end it tourned out that I needed stronger glasses!! So it did get out a good thing from a bad thing anyway :-)):-)). Not so strange that I had have headache a bit moore than I use to have the past weeks.

When things like this happens you really notices that you are depending on something, for mee this time my glasses. I need them to see good on the screen and be able to work, and I need too see good on Tv and so on. I can moore than well understand people that are depending on some things to help them in their daily life. So Sara I do understand that you needed glasses too :-)).

Hopefully I get the new glasses in the end of this week or maybe in the beginning of next. I need and want them Now!

My old glasses (the reserve pair) at the laptop and on the screen honour office dog "Ubbe". It´s a picture from the mobile phone so it´s not he best quality.

So take care of your things in the daily situation, say nice word to each other and give a hug even if it´s not needed!

bye bye until next time
Mari

Last week: A lot of work, fun and nostalgia

2009-10-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

Last week was the busiest week ever with Bombadil Publishing with hundreds of enquiries pouring in. Though I am not surprised at all; if you are running for a cause, people are bound to join you. “Great Job!” “Well Done!” “All the Best” echoed my ears. Youths are so curious to know about what’s going on at our office, our soon to be launched 3D social network and lots and lots of questions about Bombadil authors and books.

Then we celebrated Diwali, the festival of lights and prosperity and now, another merriment- Chhat festival- is in the queue that is widely celebrated in the major regions of India especially in the northern states. My mother gave me a hopeless call, “You aren’t coming this time again?” I regretted not seeing my parents for three years now. Hopefully they come to us next month.

I really miss this festival which is dedicated to the Sun. Chhat is worshipping the rising sun in knee-deep water of Holy Ganges at the dawn as well as the sunset holding a basket containing variety of fresh fruits, dry foods and sweets. Devotees take customary holy dip and begin to chant the Gayatri Mantra. It has great impact on spiritual and physical aspects purifying the truculent mind from all dinginess of evil potent, remedying the earthy suffering of mankind and blessing with health and prosperity.

Women have to follow certain rules like abstaining from eating or consuming water, cooking meal and wearing any stitched cloths for the whole auspicious 24 hours. Women summon the Sun God singing traditional devotional song in chorus. This ritualistic aroma ends with consuming variety of folk dishes including every agricultural, seasonal item and vegetables.

I’ll miss my mother and elder sister on this very auspicious day. I wish I take the entire Bombadil team to my place Bodhgaya, the place where Buddhism was born.
....Alex

I DID IT!

2009-10-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

Today I am a bit tired, one get tired from arranging stuff I have noticed.

Last Saturday on the 17th of October I did a debute as event planner, for quite some time now I have been working on this event that I was suppose to arrange in my hometown, Trollhättan. When i first started off this project I couldn´t even imagine how much work it would generate, booking artists, venue, security guards, technician, writing a press release and Promotiontexts and creating flyers and posters, creating a budget and applying for money to pay all the mentioned people with. Plus a ton of other "small" things which had to be taken care of. Luckily I have a bunch of really good friends who has helped me a lot with the preperations, but also during the event day!

It has been a journey and I have been quite stressed out, BUT last Saturday I sort of understood why I was doinf all this work; the faces of those poeple being on stage, the silent audience obeserving the people on stage and the beutiful artwork that was on the walls. It was all worth it when the day came and I was standing at the venue obeserving my surrounding, I remeber thinking "I did it". It´s a cool feeling, so keep struggling, whatever you are struggling with because one day you will stand there and think to yourself "I did it"

Over&Out
Sara

Welcome to our new Spanish mentor Carlos Molina Velasquez

2009-10-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

We are very proud to presented to the world our new mentor Dr. Carlos Molina VelasWe are very proud to presented to the world our new mentor Dr. Carlos Molina Velasquez who is working in El Salvador as a mentor. Carlos has a University degree in Philosophy and great experience working together with young writers. He was honoured by obtaining a dedication of the young writer Mario Chavez Jovel in his last book “31 Cuentos Cortos” that we successfully launched a few weeks ago in El Salvador. Carlos is a very dedicated university teacher in “Universidad Catolica Jose Simeon Cañas” in San Salvador. He is happy to work with several young writers, young writers whom are writing Bombadilian books, books with feelings, book that envision our philosophy, which moves forward a new generation of young writer all over the world.
Bombadil Publishing also wants to acknowledge the next Spanish book “Inocencia Marchita” by the young talented writer Lady Jerez from Venezuela, who together with our mentor Maggy Jacinto has worked very hard the past few months. The book is due to be launched late November or early December. Our very dear author, Lady Jerez, radiated so much energy and happiness when she contact us, and she writes with such energy, positivism and optimism that you can’t avoid getting affected by Lady’s karma, a good karma, a fine spirit, which represents exactly the Bombadil Publishing feelings, the feeling of a better world which we together with the authors, the readers, and the mentors create all around the world.
Greeting from Sweden
YOUTH2YOUTH

Diwali: the festival of lights and sweets

2009-10-16T15:01:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow, we are celebrating Diwali—A night of lights, illumination, blessings, celebration; a tradition of Rangoli, burning crackers, exchanging gifts and welcoming Ma Lakshsmi, a Hindu deity that symbolizes peace and prosperity. Mingling upward inflection coming from sides is at emphasizing point: Mousumi and I have been coming outside to cherish this spectacular phenomenon. Today, the night looks brighter than the sunniest day. Glimpses of familiar faces stimulate conversation on planning for the next day. Shops are already packed with crowd and stream of people are waiting outside for their turn. Cities enlighten with vibrant Diyas (clay pots filled with oil) and dazzling lights that signify the glory of victory over evil.

It is also one of the oldest festivals in India. About 5000 years ago when Rama came after 14 years of exile from the forest defeating the demon king Ravana, people of Ayodhya welcomed him by lighting Diyas, decorating homes with flowers and exchanging sweets. In this auspicious night, people, forgetting the differences, embrace and greet each other; the entire atmosphere remains amplified with entertainment and joviality.

Anyway, we have our plans for tomorrow. We have come with crackers (not much since Mousumi doesn’t like contributing to air pollution) brought sweets for visitors and various colorful candles to embellish our little sweet home. It’s almost 2:30 am but still loud noise of crackers is coming from far and close distance disturbing and keeping Felix from sleep.

We all three are up and we have got reasons to wait till tomorrow evening.

....Alex

Sleep on sofa

2009-10-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hi all out there!Hmm this morning it was cold to bike to work, brrrr. Well the sun was kind half up but not warming at all. I was quite tired but not as much tired like the tuesday morning. Well I have a tendency to fall into sleep in the sofa with the television on, and the laptop too :-)). Well it was like that in this case. On the monday evening I watched the TV, answering some mails, chatting a bit and then "bonk" or what you say, I was suddenly fall to sleep and wake up in the night at 02.30 (swedish time). I was very clearly wake i could hardly fall to sleep again. So that is the reason why I was so tired. This is so typically me always falling to sleep in the sofa and having the tv on. The tv is the most perfectly sleeping pill in the world :-)):-)).

Like right now :-)). I´m doing the blog, chatting a bit with my sister, answering mail (yes I have several windows open, I have a widescreen:-)) and at he same time watching the football match between Sweden and Albania, right now they have half time breake and Sweden is in the lead for the moment. Hmm maybe i should not do so much at the same time but I´m like that want to help and have really hard to say no. But I like to help, that´s me in a nutshell (don´t know if you can say so but I do).

On the book front I´m right now doing the setting on two books, two totaly different ones. I´s fun to do the setting o n so different books. It´s one poem book and one about horses. Well we all like horses here :-)) and we have two just outside the office door, Ofelia and Sunny.

Ohh the football starts again, I must end this or else it disapears :-)).

Until next time, have a nice week

Mari

When I first saw Felix

2009-10-13T19:53:00.001-07:00

27th August was a remarkable day in my life. Being a mother is such a great pleasure and I realized when I saw my new born baby-Felix.

I was stuck on luscious sight- an honest glance on naïve appearance of my new-born baby boy-Felix. Happiness found its way—my motionless wide-awakened eyes—for streaming out. Fragrance whispered in my dreamy ear and shifted me in earthy feelings. Though, I am passing through all the struggles a new mother experiences but the pleasure of being a voyager with each fraction of growth of the little soul is unfeasible expressing in a small boundary of words.

It is a quite convoluted juxtaposition of falling in love with his glistering innocent smile and misinterpreting the speechless conversation he expresses through his crying face. It’s hard to cope up but ultimately rewarding. I have written a few words to express my feelings for him:

A tiny majestic soul, a wingless angel

Noblest gift that awakened me in loftiest thoughts

So charmed, so divine, so worthy of purity he wore

A gracious blessing his charms adore

Deliciousness of lustrous rays-

Crowded on face of adventurous knight

My limbs and flesh stumbled upon scattering bright

His soft brown eye-lashes lifted with touch of winnowing gust

It enlightened and replete the longing of my thirsty heart

Unaccustomed courage stirred and liberated beauteous sight

Shapeless flame of heart demanded an utterance-

But sank in lovely glorious delight

My spelled senses rested upon its graceful inward fragrancy

Like a blossoming flower

An intense urge sparkled in my royal glance-

That embraced in a beauty’s fascinating forms

Beloved god descended from warrior’s palace high

From endearing clement sky

Sincerely,
Mousumi

The sky has no limits!

2009-10-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

One of Bombadils coming titles which in Swedish is called "Spelarnas baksidor" is a book about baking, but not just baking, it is also a book about football players! Maria and Sofia, twin sisters has together contacted Swedish elite players and asked them "What is your favourite cake recipe?", then they have baked which ever cake the football player has chosen and after that, photographed it and put it all together with recipe, photograph, facts about and a picture of the player.

They liked baking, and they liked football and thought to themselves "why not combine these two worlds?" When Maria and Sofia first came to Bombadil we thought exactly the same thing: "Yeah, why not". We are all surrounded by prejudgment views, there are always someone thinking something about the way we look or the interests we have got. The stereotypical man likes football and the stereotypical woman likes baking, for example. At least this was the old stereotypes, I pray that these conservative views are fading away as they seem to, because they are far from correct! Maria and Sofia are great examples of that; they love both baking and football, as they should. No stereotypes are holding them back from doing what they want to do; a baking book including football players, and instead of keeping those two worlds apart, they combine them.

So start breaking down the stereotypes and do what you feel like doing, but foremost, be who you want to be; the sky has no limits.

Over&Out
Sara

Hats off to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

2009-10-09T12:23:00.000-07:00

Congratulations are in the queue and celebrations are at peak in India after glorious achievement of Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Indian-American structural biologist, who has been awarded Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 along with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E Yonath. He is an Indian who has nourished and flourished his talent on foreign shores. For past couple of decades, Indians have been proving their distinct excellence elsewhere in the world. Venkataraman left India at the age 18 to pursue higher studies and since then he’s been living in the US.

Once again the debate has started across the country: Can an Indian who has cultivated their talent on native earth win the Nobel Prize in science? C V Raman, Nobel laureate in physics, was the last Indian in India who won the most prestigious prize in 1930. It’s been almost eighty years now and India has given birth and nurtured thousands of promising scientists. India has proved to be a fertile land, where talents are born, by giving innumerable talents at par with international standards. Some top IT companies such as Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Sun etc. heavily rely on Indian professionals. Even NASA and Pentagon recruit promising students from India. Things have certainly changed. In coming years, I hope, we’ll see some Indian scientists(from Indian shore) winning this prestigious award.

Bombadil Publishing’s Journey to El Salvador

2009-10-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

When the Bombadil Publishing’s delegation arrived to El Salvador we immediately felt the warmth of the country, which I’d left 20 long years ago; the air was very hot and I wondered how could I could have lived in such a hot place.

But immediately the Bombadil Publishing’s delegation felt another kind of warmth in El Salvador, - the people’s warmth. We had a great reception by our “Ad Honorem” collaborator and mentor, Margarita Alfaro, and a big line of people who welcomed us to this warm country as a delegation which will help the young writers in this tropical country.

Margarita had prepared a very “hot” agenda for us; we met different newspapers (both digital and analogues), radio interviewers and TV teams. I could that Marianne and Niklas were affected by the heat in El Salvador; I myself got very sick. Our Agenda, however, was very intensive and amusing. The launch of our very first Spanish book in El Salvador, “31 Cuentos Cortos” by Mario Chavez Jovel, was successful, the media coverage was splendous: TV, Newspapers and radio were all there. They wanted to now about the wonderful news Bombadil Publishing is creating around the world, the amazing news about how young people now have the opportunity to be read, the opportunity to write about themselves, the opportunity to be listened to, the opportunity for young people who want to transmit their ideas to other young people… and adults too of course.

We want to send our thanks to all the people whom worked together with us on this marvelous journey to Latin America, specially to Margarita Alfaro in El Salvador, and to our mentor in Peru, Maggy Jacinto. They really are Bombadilians who spread the Bombadil Publishing feeling to young people from the entire world.

YOUTH2YOUTH.

Melvin González

Hmmm late blog

2009-10-08T00:29:00.000-07:00

Not Wednesday but Thursday.

Well I'm late to blog this week, I know I should have done it yesterday (Thursday) but I totaly forgot it, hmmmrrffff. The truth I don't have clue what to write. But I put in a picture, as usual :-) and talk a bit round that.

Well this is my two much loved dogs. They are of the dog race Basenji, one of the oldest races in the world. It is an African dog race from the Congo area, central Congo. I could talk a lot of the history but that will defenitely be to much :-). So if someone is intrested to know more just google "basenji" and you get a lot if info :-).
The tricolored one is my 12 year old "Luppe" his real name is Lucky Swede's Mr Lupus. The red one is my little sweet bitch "Sunny" her full name is Triad's Summer Dream, I actually got to choose that name :-). Well she is hmmm not that funny right now because she has just started her "season" thing!
They both love the sun and as soon as it is a sunny spot outside or inside they are there. Like in the picture it was one of the first sunny and warm days this summer. So this turning to autumn and winter we all three have the same thoughts about, brrrr. We want sun, warm and nice weather.

I will end with two quatations that fits so good to my dogs. First the one that fits "Luppes" spirit in his youger days. Then one that fit "Sunny" when she was a puppy (she is 8 years now).

"Only the tame birds have a longing
The wild flies"
~Elmer Diktonius

"A single sunbeam is enough to
drive away many shadows"
~Franciscus av Assissi

Hmm maybe my translation from Swedish to English in these two is not that correct but I hope you understand it anyway, hmm maybe I already have put it out once but sometimes the memory is a bit short :-).

bye bye for this time
Mari + my dogs

Say NO to Plagiarism

2009-10-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!
I have written a very small essay on plagiarism to help young Bombadilian authors to avoid falling into this trap. It’s certainly a highly concerning issue in today’s publishing world. Appropriating the ideas, expression or sentences exactly from the source material without the writer’s or publisher’s permission is synonymous to transgression of copyrights. Author’s creation is his/her intellectual as well as legal property. Significant similarity between the two writings can allege one for plagiarism. To use one’s thoughts, one can borrow them as quotation but falsely interpreting them as their own creation for ephemeral fame is seductive and ultimately demonstrate the author’s deplorable destitution in charming world of literature.

Kaavya Viswanathan, an Indian origin American teenage author, got a huge fan following after her first published book ‘How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life’ Later, when she was found copying literary composition of famous writers in her book without their acknowledgement, she was severely criticized for being a ‘plagiarized author’, aggressively humiliated all over the world and lost the international readership. Her novel was immediately expelled as a punishment of serious offence. Her eminence was ignored in the dusty and stony ways of ruthless criticism.

Studying different authors is undeniably necessary; they are the source of creative inspiration and flowing own indigenous ideas. Guy Debord, a well known theorist and writer, has appreciably expressed his opinion, "Ideas improve. The meaning of words participates in the improvement. Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It embraces an author's phrase, makes use of his expressions, erases a false idea, and replaces it with the right idea."

Happy writing :-)
Mousumi

Mulk Raj Anand: Bombadil Publishing pays him tribute on his fifth Death Anniversary

2009-10-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

Mulk Raj Anand was an internationally acclaimed Indian writer in English whose notable portrayal of poorer caste in conventional Indian society not only expressed his soul’s depths of despair but also summoned international readers. He was the first ‘Indian writer’ who intellectually incorporated Hindi and Punjabi idioms in English and persistently maintained a distinctive creativity of Indo-Anglian fiction. He was the most prestigious writer rightly called the Charles Dickens of India for his pioneering spirit.

He was born in Peshawar on 12 December, 1905. After completing his graduation from Khalsa College, he went to England and finished his PhD from Cambridge University.

He spent half of his life in India and rest half in London where sporadically lectured at Educational Association in London between 1932 and 1945. In World War II he also worked as a scriptwriter for BBC London where he became friend of George Orwell. E. M. Forster, with whom he got acquainted with while working on T. S. Eliot's magazine, was admirer of Mulk Raj Anand.

His biographical details confirmed that he suffered from devastating family tragedy that made him an eminent explorer in his literary career. His bitter experience made him an accomplished writer. His first prose was an expression of profound disenchantment to the suicide of his aunt who was ruthlessly segregated from family for sharing her food with a Muslim. In his first published novel ‘Untouchable’ in 1935, he realistically depicted day to day life of a toilet cleaner through which he has highlighted the rigidity of casteism in India and evoked the superior sense of awareness. His second novel was ‘Coolie’ where he compassionately described the plight of a wrecked teenaged boy, the victim of higher caste, was trapped in slavery as a child labor and dies of tuberculosis.

He prodigiously penned down wide range of subjects including seven part autobiography ‘Private life of an Indian Prince’ which started with ‘Seven Summers’ and won Sahitya Akademi Award for ‘Morning Face’, one of seven parts. The Village (1939), Across the Black Waters (1940), The Sword and the Sickle (1942) some of masterpieces among all major contributions.

"here comes the sun"

2009-10-05T03:41:00.000-07:00

In Sweden the autumn is now in full bloom, the trees are turning deep red and orange, the air is clear and the knitting season has finally begun!

...on a good day, if autumn in Sweden would always be like it is today, autumn defenitely would be my favourite season! Today the sky is blue, sun is shining and the air smells newborn, it´s a perfect day to go for a long walk and enjoy life. Unfortunately this is not always the case when it comes to Swedish fall I´m afraid. Most of the time it´s raining, raining and raining, and the wind blows right through you not taking in consideration how much clothes you are wearing.

But not today, today the Swedish autumn is smiling and letting us enjoy it´s best sides, so i do my best to appreciate it! Too often I spend my time complaining about how bad the weather is, or how crap my car is or anything really, that is annoying me. Thing is, I sort of realized that one shall not forget to appreciate, so I have decided to appreciate the wonderful weather today and remeber this beutiful day and keep that memory close so it can keep me warm on rainy days when the world seems to have turned it´s back on me.

Just like I keep in mind that beutiful red rose that Christof had put on my kitchen table when I came home and was so tired that I barely had any energy left, I keep that in mind those days when I think things are too hard and that warm memory will brighten up my mind.

I will start to appreciate life a bit more, so should we all.

over&out

Philosophical Sara

New video

2009-10-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

I am rather pleased with this new video because it says a lot about us and who we are. Sara made it, threw it together in an afternoon (well not quite) but the outcome is better than had she, or anybody else, worked on it for several weeks. I think the reason I like it so much is that it feels un-constrained, free of bonds - just like us and how we work. It is inspirational, so thank you Sara once again for a job well done.
To the rest of you out there, please sit back, watch and enjoy!
Welcome to our world!
Marianne

A trip to Latin America

2009-10-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hi all Bombadilians!

After a five weeks journey in South and Central America I am back again to our beloved blog, and I’ll writing about several wonderful things I experienced during our journey. In the nice company of our charming MD Marianne Rugård Järvstråt, the intelligent and smart Vice-President Niklas Järvstråt and myself, Melvin Gonzalez; we travelled to Peru and then to my old country, El Salvador. Well there in Peru joined to us our mentor Maggy Jacinto and we begun our wonderful work in Lima. Later in El Salvador our other lovely mentor Margarita Alfaro joined us. I’ll write about that next week. We met so many people who are working in literature, culture and art in Peru, also many young writers and adults too.

It was amazing and great when we launched our very first book in Spanish in the “Centro Cultural de España” in Lima, Peru’s capital: “La Dama de Negro y otros Cuentos”. The young writer Rogger Avendaño was present and told about his book. The Cultural Center of Spain in Lima was full of people who wanted to know about us, about our great philosophy, about the good news Bombadil Publishing was carrying into the “New” continent, America, and they were very happy to hear our great news about Bombadil Publishing’s work around the world. In fact we have in our Company now many young writers whom are writing in Spanish a young book, a book for the future, a book which will be a legacy to our young people in a near future, a Bombadil’s book, a dream book. Come young to us young people from all the world and join to The Editorial of the Young People, come together to Boambadil Publishing!

YOUTH2YOUTH.
Melvin González

Edges Are Everywhere

2009-09-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about ‘Author’s block’ that inspired me to write on motivation. In the rat race of crushing competition and from primeval astuteness to contemporary thinking, motivation is the pillar that lays the foundation of performance and creativity. We are dreamwrapts and to achieve those, we have to deal with the troubles with expanded sense of consciousness and eminent intellects.

‘Motivation’ that’s what I needed almost every hour from my humble and virtually courageous husband to beat my fiercely extended and defiantly independent depression ever since my surroundings suppressed me with heap of humiliation and failure. I couldn’t calm my persistently mounting expectation from him as I experienced him a concrete combination of honestly aspiring and intensely passionate spirit. I was so much beleaguered by my obstacles that it overshadowed my kind consideration on him. While plumbing the depth of it, I realized he was no superhuman. What makes him different is that fighting spirit; I gave up but he didn’t, I thought depression might help me but he cruelly slapped it and won over. He was internally motivated. ‘A genius struggler’ he was but my torturous soul made our struggle lengthy.

Lesson I have learnt:

We all need motivation. If a person stays motivated that doesn’t mean struggle or failure has spared him; it does mean he has learnt how to fight with headstrong behavior. You might read books such as ‘You can win’ and ‘Stay Motivated’ or hear the speech of motivational gurus but at the end of the day what matters is how much you are enthusiastic to accept the truth and fight against it with gigantic audacity. Abraham Lincoln opines that human being should read something or do something that helps them to keep their spirit high, “To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.”

To stay perpetually motivated, healthy mindset and desperate desire are most important ingredients to win over hurdles. I hope you have found perpetual source of motivation. I wish you all the best.

Yours writing friend, Mousumi

Mixed stuff

2009-09-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

Ohh, now my time to blog again!
The week go so fast I think, well at least it felt like that today. Todays blog will be about some different things.

Last saturday my sister and me was at a tracking test with Ubbe (honour office dog) up in Hällefors, about 6 swedish miles from here. It was quite early so I was up already at 06.00 in the morning. The test is a working test for hunting dogs as daschhound is. He did rather well and got a second price, hmmm he missed a bit in a angle but hasen't he done that he would have got a first price. It is the first price you want and for that you get the CC:s (certifikate). But it was ok because the time was excellent, 32 minutes :-), he has been quite slow before. After that we stayed an watch when they had the badger tests, Ubbe and Molly has only tried it once but will continue with it next season. It was a good day and long day, we was home at about 16.00-16.30 something.
They day after (sunday) I was really tired and fall to sleep on the kitchen sofa (it is a hard one) and sleept there for about 3 ours!! I was kind of "after tired". But it's no good to sleep in the afternoon, I couldn't sleep in the night instead!

In the evening the other day, i think it was on monday. At round 21.00 or something it started to blow and storm quite a lot! It sounded much and then it started to rain also, hmmmm - grrrrrr I just say. This is a typical autumn "thing", autumn storm. I don't like it at all, neither do my dogs! Hopefully it was just this "storm" but I know it will come moore :-(.

Yesterday evening Gun has arranged a "Wellness" evening here at the office. It was one of her son's that came and tell us about some good stuff that you can eat and drink to feel good both in mind and body. We also got to taste a lot of things, like a herbal tea, that tasted quite good actually :-). It was nice so, Thanks Gun!

A normal day in my office room start with me putting on the computor and then I check the mail, answer some, send some further. Then I check if there is some book that I have to start the setting on or continue with one. Maybe I do some corrections on a picture and so goes the day.
Today for exampel it was a short breake when I helped Mattias outside at the stable, I just hold some board. Then some school friends to Josephine came and took a short ridning tour on Sunny. At the same time, Ofelia entangled in the tail in one of the wacky spring gates, they are rubbish and now Mattias understand why I think that :-). Well it did go well and I hold Ofelia so Marianne could take it out from her tail. Then me and Mattias fixed a new normal rope gate instead.

I have in the evenings a bit hard to go to bed, I am an evening and night "owl" :-). I look at tv, internet or fixing with some other stuff on the computor or maybe anything craft things, it depends on my mood at the time.
Quite late, I was actually on my way to bed:-) I got a nice sms on the mobile phone. That made my evening and I was really happy about that :-).
So you all out there make your friends happy with some "small" words, it does not need to be much, just some nice words. Perhaps a few words that you know would make that person happy.

Words are not just words;
a few barely audible sounds
can link up people
for life.
~Logan Pearsall Smith

Use nice words to each other!
Mari

Pass it on!

2009-09-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

Last week we all could read about Alex´s struggle with getting rid of bad habits, I got really inspired by Alex´s text and decided to start getting rid of some old habits myself!

Many times we do not reflect about the things we say or do to the people around us, sometimes we will make someone upset without realizing it or the other way around; we will inspire make someone happy without actually realizing how. But often it is the small things that matters, Alex blog text last week about his morning runs got me thinking "maybe I should start doing something about myself too?". I have always been a very active person and always been on the run somewhere; football, Taekwondo, MMA, Dancing, Theatre practice, horseback riding, since I was a young girl I have always been physically active! The last few years I have for some reason not been so bothered about it and slowly forgotten how well it makes me feel to work out in some sort of way. But now I have got the will power and the inspiration to do it and that is why I will have the worst ache ever in my entire body tomorrow, but that is tomorrow, today I will just enjoy the fact that I have taken a step in right direction!

I think that is how life works in general, we all need a small push in the right direction to find back to our path again, whether the person pushing us are aware of it or not, but remember to always pass it on! If we all start to try taking care of ourselves and our surrounding I reckon we will get a happier place to live in.

Over &Out
Philosophical Sara

Working man

2009-09-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

Hi all

Well my time to blog again. Last week my thought was to show some pictures of when Mattias (our right-hand-man) did some work. But we couldn't find the card reader to the SanDisk card. So it comes this week instead :-).
Well Mattias is doing a lot of things, both possible and impossible things. And he is always very helpful and try to help if he can. He always makes up when he can! And he is also good at massage!!!

He has in recent weeks, with some help has his hands full of finishing making the horse boxes ready for Ophelia and Sunny to move in. The boxes are ready now and they look nice :-). Well done Mattias!

The nice new boxes.

The boxes are big and nice just waiting for the horses to move in. Well there must of course be some soft straw, sawdust or peat on the floor. And then it´s ready for the horses! Well Mattias has to try them (the boxes) too. So his new name now is Ophelia :-):-):-):-).

Mattias our right-hand-man "as" Ophelia.

And now he has his hands full with making place for a nice little paddock (field) for the horses to be out during the days. Well he must first take away some old asphalt. Hmmm wrong first we had to set fire on the old rubbish pile, that was fun :-). We, well me and him just put some paper and then he poured on some kind of fuel and then............. pooooooof it said. Sh........t wich blow it was and it did get really warm also. I couldn't be near it any longer!

The fire, look how high the flames became!

So things happens on the Bombadil office ground. And soon the horses will move from the place where I have my old "Maxen" to the office area :-).

Will end with these words:

"It is a consolation that autumn is so beautiful."
~Caj Lundgren/Kajenn

Hmm I'm not liking the autumn but these words are pretty nice :-).

Bye bye until next time
Mari

Getting Rid of Bad Habits

2009-09-22T22:56:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,

I don’t know how many of you have developed the habit of getting up early in the morning and going for morning walk or run. I’m not gonna remind you the benefits as the best is to experience them all by yourself. You would be wondering why I am talking all this?

The story goes like this:

One of my close friends, Siraj found my number from facebook called me yesterday. He lives in Bangalore with another of my friend. His questions: How do you look like now? How about your bicep? Are you still struggling with your six pack abs, what about eight packs? The questions were as if somebody showed me a full size mirror after five years. What to answer? I grinned and said, “I look like a typical family man: Single pack abs and bones beautifully decorated with loose muscles.”

Then came the words you would not expect from a friend who you are speaking with for the first time after five years. Any way, he cut off after reminding me all what I used to be. I quietly opened my old photo album and closely observed myself. I just could not realize how and when I put on these extra kilos. I remember my high school days. I used to run about 35 kilometers thrice a week. My father and I were a good company. Being a soccer player and wrestler, he lived fit most of his life. In college days, I spent most of my time working out at gym. The day I left my hometown, all precious habits were gone.

Last night I made a promise to myself: I will wake up early in the morning and run a few kilometers. Today, I got up. It was painful: changing bad habits are always painful. I ran not more than a kilometer and got completely exhausted. A voice came from behind; “A few hundred meters more” I turned around and saw a man in his 60s. “Come on son you can run more.” And I ran two more kilometers.

I am very happy today. I went against myself, shun a very bad habit and ran to burn calories. The feeling is ecstatic.

Yours,
Alex

To have a flue or not to have... a flue.

2009-09-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

Last week I was home sick, all week long. Coughing, fever, soar troath and a damaged mind. I am the greatest person to have around if you are sick, I´ll cook soup for your soar throat and tuck you into bed and charge the DVD player for you. I will lend you my favourite books and sing you bedtime songs.

Last week when I had the worst cold of my entire life I was lucky to have my boyfriend around to take care of me. Being sick is not really cool, when your entire body feels like jelly and your brain is full of snort. It did sound a little bit more glamorous when I described it earlier didn´t it? But now I am back to work and fit for fight again! Glamorous or not, having a real cold makes you realize how good it feels to be well again!=D

Over&Out
Sara

Foggy day, "foggy" head

2009-09-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

Hello

Well today my head feels a bit dizzy or perhaps you could say "foggy" :-). Im not sure what to blog about (again)! So as usual I take some help from pictures when I feel like that!

The other day when I biked to work and the morning was quite cold and the ground still warm, then the fog turned up over the lake just outside the office. So just look at the pictures and feel good about that the autumn is here, or feel bad. Hmmm Im not so fond of the autumn as you might have understand. Ohh by the way the pictures is taken by the mobile phone so not the best quality on them.

Enjoy the pictures or not :-). I will end with these words.

"All the worlds great people
does not weigh up to a friend"
~Voltaire

Bye bye
Mari

Bombadil welcomes Sonnet Mondal

2009-09-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

Sonnet Mondal, an international award winning poet, is the youngest multi-talented poet who is worldwide recognized and acknowledged by organizations such as Harvard University, Drury University, Bengal Engineering and Science University, and United Writers’ associations, for his potential asset-‘collection of poetry’ in English. He, a motivational icon for youths, is not only a balanced person who showed the reflection of sincere hard work in his extensive contribution finding organizations such as United Mind for Peace Society and The Enchanting Verses International through which he is conducting several world peace projects but also a sub-secretary General of Asia of Poetas del Mundo, especially skilled essayist, colonist besides a most aspiring poet for young authors.

He is a Featured Poet of International “Best Poems From Best Authors Collection”, France, International Poetry Forum, France and of ASOP and a member of the World Heritage Community (UNESCO body). He is the winner of the Prestigious International Status Award -2008 for contribution in poetry. His works were appreciated by Abdul kalam, the president of India, and Nobel Prize nominee and the president of world Constitution and parliament association Dr. Leo Rebello, especially for ‘A poetic peep into The Post Modern world’, and wrote a review for next book of Sonnet Mondal. He is the architect of his own image in English Literature and philosophy through Indian English.

It's our pleasure to find such a multi-talented personality with Bombadil Publishing

Your writing friend, Mousumi

Learning new things

2009-09-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

I strongly believe that life is about learning and by learning new things and gaining experiences you will grow as an individual...

...And that is why I have decided to both learn how to play the guitar and speak german! For some reason I got really into German lately, I guess it has to do with me getting very inspired during the summer when I was visiting Austria. The frustration from not being able to communicate properly with the people in Spittal where we were staying and not being able to speak to my boyfriends relatives was driving me up the walls to be honest! I also wanted to tell jokes or take part in a discussion, but my lack of language skills stopped me. But no more, next time I am going to Spittal I will be the one telling stories and expressing my opinions, because I am learning and adding more knowledge to my information base, (i.e. my brain). Language barriers are not stopping me, no way Pedro! So Austria, watch out, Ich can deutch spreche and I am not afriad to use it! ;)

Further I have decided to learn how to play the guitar, but to be honest it is mainly about learning to play this one song... And not just any song, but a song I have written myself! Well "with a little help from my friends" as the Beatles sang, I have written the text and a friend of mine has composed the music, and to really be able to call it my song I figured that I probably needed to know how to play it... =)What do you NEED to learn? There is always something new that is needed to be learnt, I promise.

Over & Out
Sara

Writer's Block

2009-09-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

The following article is in the response to the situation most of Young Bombadilians come across:

In a lifelong deal of writing, authors might stumble upon confusions that distract them from thinking effectively or wrench through the variations of experiences to put something down on paper; but, in ramifications, fail after some vehement trials which throw them into stagnation for shorter times. Don’t be disheartened! You are in writer’s block.

It happens with all of us. We start writing with enthusiasm but soon feel that crafting is monstrously insufficient or not up to the level to finish. It triggers disillusionment and compels us to give up. Following steps might be helpful to bring back the compact and solid piece of potential.

1.Note down all the words that are impatiently crowding into your mind and shaking your thoughts instantaneously. Now start playing with them by making as many sentences as you possibly can and see how successfully your whole heart is engaged in it.

2.Look around: colors, nature, birds, their each activity and try understanding their indications to extract something out of it. Put down in a notebook either in a form of a short story or poetry.

3.When nothing comes out of mind, be quite and try to listen the sharp sound of silence in your loneliness. Writer’s mind is free to go anywhere to collect pearls hidden in trivial things and come out with the most valuable thing they need.

4.To write something, let your mind be free to be inspired by anything, might be unimportant for common eyes: music or picture, pieces of gray clouds floating in the sky or neglected flowers on the ground. “perceive like common people but think like wise”

5.Since internet has evolved, it has become the most helpful guide to look up to. Post your each piece of writing and be ready for the opinions or criticisms from authors all over the world.

6.In our lifetime, we pass through many experiences which are of great value especially when nothing works out even after sprawling across the ideas; you need time away from the page to let your mind idle with fun.

Finally, what we need to realize is writer’s block isn’t curse for the talented; rather, it actually bridges the gap between the realm of the best and excellent. Diversion from writing is necessary for nurturing the productivity and exploration.

Your writing friend, Mousumi

mousumi@bombadilpublishing.com

Horses and banana/chocolate pie

2009-09-09T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hi you all out there.

Today it has been a bit of a weird day for me. Why you might think?
Well for the first thing I had promised Marianne to go to the stable where Ofelia and Sunny are on summer "eating", well it is at the stable where I have my 31 year old horse. And yes that is possible to have an old horse like that :-), but I´m very aware of it that it can go very fast now. But so far he is fine, a bit stiffer for every week so we, wrong I will see how he will take the colder weather that is on it´s way. Aaa to the "thing" then, Ofelia and Sunny should have their hoofs trimmed and put on some new shoes. So the farrier came but ½ an our late, grrrr. But he did it well and quite quick actually and he talked a lot to. It is hard work to do this and it takes a lot of work and strenght, your back will hurt after a couple of years working with this.
Horse shoes can be a whole sience and there is a lot of different ones, riding, trotting, gallop shoes and so on. They are also in so different materials as iron, plastic, rubber and some strange material. Like the trotter horse I have (the old one) in his younger days when he competed at the race track (we trained him on our own) he had from time to time different kind of shoes. But the ones he did most well on was this golden/bronze coloured ones.

Here you can see some different kind of shoes!

Well it also look a bit hmmm difficult to actually put in a nail trough the shoe and into the actually hoof, the hoof wall is actually thin. Not a thing to play by other words! I have kind of disected a "dead" reel hoof once and then I saw how thin it was.

A hof in cross-section.
Stråle means = hoof-ray
Hovben means= hoof bone
Hov brosk means = hoof cartilage
Elastiska putan means = elastic putana

Hmmm we had eaten some good pie too :-):-). Yeasterday I decided that I should do a banana and chocolate pie, as there was some banans left. So late evening (night actuallay) I made the pie at my home. And this morning I did the vanilla sauce to it. So we had some good stuff to our fika time. And there is still a small piece of it left !!!

bye bye from this odd day
Mari + the horses this day

Getting used to it.

2009-09-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Last week I got glasses, and with my new glasses I realized something; I just have to get used to it.

Often things changes in our lives that make us change too, in my case it´s dealing with a change that I didn´t even knew had occurred! Well it might not be that dramatic as I just described it, but still. Following has happened:I had felt for a while that my eyes were hurting, feeling soar and a bit tired, I booked an appointment with the optician and got one the following day. I didn´t think too much about it, after all, my eyes were not far from perfect before I got my "learn to drive" license at the age of 16, today I´m 22 years old so I thought to myself “nothing drastic can have happened in just a few years”. When I came to the optician he quite soon had discovered that I needed glasses, foremost whilst driving and watching TV, plus all other activities where I felt more comfortable with wearing them.

And I who thought he would tell me to sit further away from the computer! It took me some time to realize that I was getting glasses, it might sound a little bit silly, but for me getting glasses was a big change. Now when I have them and wear them every day it´s not such a big deal, because I´ve sort of have understood that it´s just to get used to them.

Nature and water

2009-09-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

Hi you all out there!

Well this is that kind of day that I don´t know what to blog about. So I just looked after some eventually picture to put in the blog. Hmmm maybe say something around them, came my thought. So here are some pictures that I took about 1-1½ week ago on a marvellous Saturday at a small lake with some very good friends.

In these small lake you could actually fish if you had this "fishing card" for the area. It was several small lakes like this and a lot of people out having a nice time and of course fishing :-). We just went out there to have a nice time, a relaxing time and day. None of us had any fishing gear with us but we did barbecue some sausages (Hot Dog) over an open fire. The sausages said "wheeeee-kaboom!" when they where ready to eat. Hmmm well they kind of cracked a bit by that sound :-).

And of course the first reason that we went up there was to see these funny bird houses that a man had done and put up in the trees. There where a lot of them in different sizes and shapes and they had also names, well some of them. It was really funny to see these and that actually some man just doing them and putting them up for just his own pleasure, and letting other people see them. It was a lot of them and I really want to go up there some more time and take some more photos of these funny bird houses. And hopefully have a nice time again with my marvellous friends.

have a nice night
Mari

Quite an eventful week

2009-09-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

Tuesday is my blog day: that's what we call it. Last week, everybody was as busy as bee. You mind it, we Bombadilians love being busy. To us, being busy means a lot of reading and mentoring work (this doesn't include office work) Last week was special... Marianne, Nikalas and Melvin have won the heart of youths in Peru: quite a fruitful journey. Sara and Mari, ask them if they feel lonely at our office in Sweden. Well, you can't be lonely at Bombadil Publishing.

27th of August was the day we welcomed our youngest Bombadilian, Felix. He was barely hours old when he secured a place on our blog. To me, as a parent, it's life long experience. Hope he becomes the youngest author as well.

And then, today, we announced the winner of our monthly short story competition winners. I read the story; it was so touchy and brilliantly written. What intrigues me more is that they are so young: both below 20 Manaswita from India and Jessica from the US. East and West. Bombadil is bridging the gap. I want you all read these two stories. I’m sure you’ll love it.

Sincerely,

Alex

Bombadil Publishing (team India)

Autumn in the air

2009-09-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

It is today the first of September and the air reveals that the autumn is on its way.

Somehow I can taste the autumn on the tip of my tong, the feeling penetrates even my soul and it whispers in my air that the summer is gone. Somehow I feel sad because the summer has decided to leave and the autumn is to take over, and for you who doesn´t live in Sweden I might add that late September until December normally is the rainy months in Sweden. It might not be a strict fact but in my head these months are related to rain... And wind of course.

But I guess it is just to shake the cold feeling of autumn away and accept that the seasons are changing, just like life, people come, and people go. New experiences leave marks and in the end One has always learnt something. That´s the valuable lesson regardless if the experience was good or bad, you always learn something from your experiences. Just like I learn to love the rain, wind and the taste of autumn every single year, what else I am to do?

Over&out
sara

We welcome a new Bombadilian

2009-08-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

We are happy and proud to welcome Felix into this world. Felix is the first child of Mousumi and Alex in India. He was born at 9:50 PM on the 27th August.
Welcome Felix, we hope the world will bring you what your name suggests: prosperity and happiness.

rain, rain, rain and food

2009-08-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

Hello you all

Well today it has been a rainy day here in Gyttorp (Nora), hmmm not so funny at all. As you now know I prefer sun and warmth so today was not "my" day. Unfortunately this weather comes with the autumn. You(I) can´t be out as much as you(I) want, well you can if you have good raining clothes. Hmm my rain trousers are leaking :-(, actually I need some new raining clothes. Today I didn´t bike to work, I did go by car (not me driving) that was okej. But I like to bike even when it´s raining, well no to much. I can the road so well, so I bike that way by routine and can think about whatever comes in my mind. And sometimes I totally forget where I´m actually is going so it has happen that I have bike a bit to far from the road I should turn at :-)):-)). It´s nice that actually be able to so totally "let go" of what you are doing and actually think or just let out and clean your mind.

Rain, rain, rain.........

Foooood. Today I and the rest of Bombadil crew did some food together, well Sara and I did the most of it :-)). It was on Monday I think that I got that idea to make food to us all, sometimes I do get some bright ideas :-)). It was fun and it is always better and nicer taste on the food when you actually has done it and can eat it straight away. Normally I have food with me and warm it upp in the microwave, and it do lost some taste when you do like that not all food but a lot. What had I decided to make then? Well I had something in mind and actually did it. It is a kind of fish "pot". It contains at least two different kind of fish, apple, paprika, long leak, cream and some other stuff. To that we had rice and a nice salad with cucumber, salad, radishes and some herbs from my small greenhouse. The rest in the sallad was from the store.
It's nice to do things like this together once in a while, maybe we will do this some more times. we will see.

I will end with these words. They are meant for an animal (dog) but I think it actually can be for a human being too.

"Don´t walk in front of me because I may not follow.
Don´t walk behind me because I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend".
~Albert Camus

bye bye
Mari

Literature- The art of healing

2009-08-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

I have written a small essay and I'll appreciate your comments and suggestions. It is in the response of the question Alex had asked me a while ago.

“Literature adds to reality, it doesn’t simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become” -C.S Lewis
Literature has always been considered as healing power for reducing the rushes of stresses we experience in our daily deal of life; it has also been considered as medicine to help the readers recover from any kind of trauma, and food for intellectual growth. Significant force and effect of literature has been seen more prominently in world wars by restoring courage and strength among people. It significantly assisted them to get rid of pain of losing near and dear ones.

From ancient time, literature has shown positive changes in children’s as well as adult’s lives. Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice and wonderland’, Charles Perrault’s ‘Cinderella’, ‘Sleeping beauty’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ in 17th century, John Newbery’s ‘Little Pretty Pocket book in 18th century, Brothers Grimm’s ‘Snow White’ and L. Frank Baum’s ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ all were widely embraced by children as it not only offers them entering in the world of imagination but also assists them developing deeper understanding and critical thinking.

Oliver Twist, Treasure Island, The outsiders, Little Women, The Catcher In The Rye, The Jungle Book, Great Expectation, Are You There God?, Moonfleet, The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, Harry potter and many more among young-adult literature were greatly acknowledged by young readers.
Judy Blume, J.K Rowling, Tim Bowler, S.E Hinton, J.D Salinger, Maureen McCarthy, Libby Gleeson, and Alan Baillie renowned authors who have influenced the world in an unavoidable way.
It helps children as well as adults to know the different parts of the world, cultures, and people in better way; it encourages them to perceive lives from different perspective by finding their real-life situation through the characters, their wishes, dreams and frustrations. Sometimes readers, while reading, receive some clues to solve their own problems from the characters. Literary technique (for example, humour, comedy or tragedy) throws them into diverse range of reality creating a perfect ground to react positively towards them. It fulfils their intellectual, social and emotional needs through challenging experiences.

Bombadil Publishing, a youth to youth publisher, is successfully heading and enriching this trends with vigilant thought and assessment by offering readers (young readers in particular) to venture for gems hidden their inside and let them sparkle across the globe. Bombadil Publishing has actually made virtue of necessity. Young people, against the popular conservative belief that they destroy literature, have proved themselves to be highly instrumental to positive change. They are poised to contribute to literature and grateful to our ancestors who spent their lives thinking and writing.

Sincerely,
Mousumi from Bombadil, India

Travelling and an empty HQ

2009-08-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

Our grand travellers have now left for Latin America and the office feels rather empty frankly, it´s quieter and a bit darker for some reason. The only advantage as I see it is the fact that I can play music as loud as I want. Without disturbing a single soul. Mari´s office is too far away for her to be disturbed ;)

There are a lot of things for Marianne, Niklas and Melvin to do, they are meeting up with the minister of culture in El Salvador and I think a dinner with the president was on the schedule too. (Correct me if I´m wrong)Further they are visiting an orphanage and Melvin mother even! In Peru the release of our two new Spanish titles will be held and hopefully lots and lots of press will be there to acknowledge the authors and their great books! In the previous blog post by Melvin you can read more about these books.

But, back to Sweden... The office is empty and the Bombadil dog Pixie is a bit worried about the fact that Marianne is not here, but Pixie is in good hands with the rest of the Bombadil staff. She spent last night wakening up poor Mattias and apparently she really enjoyed jumping up and down in his bed, whilst he was trying to sleep after dropping our grand travellers in Örebro to catch their coach to the airport. He mentioned something about snoring too, I just can´t recall if he was talking about himself or the dog. Since she is staying with me the coming week I think I will invest in a pair of ear plugs, just to be on the safe side.

During the time Marianne, Niklas and Melvin is gone the Bombadil work in the Bombadil office continues as usual. And we have a new project to start up, which we need all our readers, mentors and authors to participate in! We want to have pictures of people all over the world photographing themselves wearing Bombadil t-shirts for our new "Bombadil all over the world"-photo album. So if you happen to have a Bombadil t-shirt, take a photograph in front of something that is typical or representative for your country and send it to us! I for example; I would probably have my picture taken whilst sitting on an elk (?) or strolling around in a great forest... Yeah something like that.

And if you don´t have a Bombadil t-shirt yet, check out this link to get one! http://www.cafepress.com/Bombadil

Over&out
Sara

Bombadil Publishing has launched their first two books in Spanish.

2009-08-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

A group representing Bombadil Publishing AB will be travelling to Latin America to launch the two very first books in Spanish, next already next week in Lima, Peru where we will be presenting Rogger Avendaño’s book “La Dama de Negro y otros Cuentos”, at the Cultural Spain Center in the Incan capital. A week later our Bombadil group will be in El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador, and we will be introducing to the world the book of our author Mario Chavez Jovel named “31 Cuentos Cortos” at the famous local in San Salvador.

Our company will be represented by our lovely MD Marianne Rugård-Järvstråt, the smart Niklas Järvstråt and myself Melvin González, together with our local mentors Maggy Jacinto in Peru and Margarita Alfaro Bulle in El Salvador, who will be very happy to get these books to their writers. The feelings of our work is crowned.

These two books are the result of the combined work of a great cooperation team between Bombadilians, the author, the mentor, myself, the team in the international office and the distribution team. There is a very good feeling in the air about these books and the message of those young writer is very clear: harmony, love, peace and taking care each other and help to building a better future, a Bombadilian future where young people help young people… and adults… as myself. YOUTH2YOUTH

Melvin González

Autum in the air

2009-08-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hello out there

Well last evening when I was at the stable, as I always are every day. I just felt that it had started to be colder outside. I couldn't be without my "oil" coat!!! Noo, noo my thoughts come at once. I don´t like the autumn and the dark moist weather that will come more and more :(. I prefer spring and summer and warm weather, i want sun! By other words I don´t like the change from summer to autumn.
One nice thing it is, just one, the colours that will appear in the trees, that can be really amasing! Hmm actually one more thing, you can harvest the things that you have sowed and eat it up.

Some nice colours in a rowanberry tree. You can actually do jelly out of these!

"falling leaves
hide the path
so quietly"
~John Bailey

Ohh by the way, yesterday we collected the first examples of the two Spanish books "La Dama De Negro" and "31 Cuentos Cortos". That was really nice to have them in the hands, to see them. It was hard to do them because I can´t speak Spanish and didn´t understand more than a very few words!

And at the same time I collected my new passport and Id card, jiiipppiii. Now, now I can go somewhere, don´t know where yet but I have some thoughts and wishes :-). Like I have write somewhere else (FB) i can be "free to fly like a dove and free to go wherever I want". I´m really happy about this.

So bye bye for this time
Mari

August: the festive season begins in India

2009-08-18T21:57:00.000-07:00

First of all I apologize for being abscond for almost a month—no writing, nothing. Thanks to Marianne and Sara for reminding me.

Events come and pass by and we tend to forget the nicest moments of our lives. August is such a beautiful month in India: the beginning of festivals and grand celebrations. I really missed my three sisters on 5th of August, the festival of Raksha Bandhan; it’s the occasion when sisters tie Rakhi (a beautifully crafted and decorated thread) on the right wrist of their brothers as a reminder of love and protection.
Brothers vow to take care of their sisters and in return (not a mandatory) offer her gifts and sweets. The festival is a wonderful way of bringing the family closer together. Many women also tie Rakhis on their close friends and neighbors as a sign of caring and harmony in their social lives. This is the day when you receive so many valuable lectures from your sister: a lot of Dos and Don’ts. I love them so much; therefore, I don’t mind listening to them. After all, it’s for my well being.

Then came 8th of August, the day I should have been in Kerala, one of the southern states of India. This is the day when people from across the globe come to witness a historical event called ‘Snake Boat Race’. I had been there just once in the year 2004 with some of my friends and memories are still afresh. 100 to 120 feet long boats and over a hundred rowers look marvelous. Since most of the snake boat races are held during the months of July and September, I’m left with no options other than waiting for the next year.

Finally, 15th of August, the Independence Day: the day every countryman celebrates with pride and enthusiasm. This time, I was not alone. I received so many messages from authors (we call ourselves Bombadilians) and they are not just from India; they are from all continents. Some messages were special greetings and some came along with thought provoking questions such as:
What is the true meaning of independence? How independent are we? Isn’t it also about liberating our mind body and soul? Can we freely express ourselves? Somebody sent me this quote:

“Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Thanks to these young Bombadilians for making my day thoughtful.
...Alex

Inspirational meetings and making new friends.

2009-08-17T05:36:00.000-07:00

Last week I got really inspired, more inspired than I have felt in a long time. Because last week on Thursday night I met up with one of those friends who are more a friend of a friend, although I can´t remember whose friend he was to begin with. I think we played in the same amateurs football team last summer, maybe that´s were where I first met him, he who gave me waves and waves of inspiration.

I am a hard nut to crack at times, especially when it comes to writing and to feel inspired, I don´t really think inspiration can be forced, although it´s no use just to sit around and wait for it to come and knock your door. Very carefully it need to be pushed and pulled at the same time, and for me who is a hard nut to crack the periods filled with nothing but inspiration seems to be quite irregular and nowadays quite rare even… And I have seriously started to consider if my inspiration has gone off to Greece in order to sunbath ridiculously much, or perhaps skiing in the Austrian alps. Who knows? It´s been missing, and I have surely missed it.

Back to the point; last week I met up with this friend of a friend, but now he is not a friend of a friend no more, now he is "just" a friend =). He writes lyrics and music for his band "Holmes", very, very talented, and we have been saying for quite a while that we should try to do something experimental and creative together. Or rather I have been saying. So at last we did and it all turned out something like this: I have been trying to interpret, unravel and rewrite some of his lyrics, in order to turn them into poems with my way of writing. Then he played his songs that I had rewritten on his guitar. And it all turned out to be pretty fabulous! And because of this energy boost I´ve got from this creative meeting I now have seem to found my inspiration! Didn´t take much; couple of cups of coffee, a new friend and his guitar. That´s the magic recipe. Full stop.

To summarize it all: Get out there and make some new friends, share your thoughts with someone, dare to show yourself, put your heart on your sleeve for a while, you might like it. It might even inspire you, or someone else, who knows?

Over&OutSara

Young People are writing!

2009-08-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

When I read the mails of girls and boys from USA, El Salvador, Peru, Venezuela, Sweden, India and many other countries, and I can see that all of them are writing books with the help of mentors provided by Bombadil Publishing AB, and the writers ask me what I think about their books, about their writing, about their stories, I feel that these young people give me a kind of energy, a kind of inspiration and happiness which takes me to horizons far away deep in the future. When young people are writing different stories, different feelings, different way to think, different ways to see in the future, they express themselves as the adults they will be in a near future. And these young people show us how they will live in the future, how they will take care of matters in the future, in the society and in real life. There will be a good life, no doubt about that, because these young writers are taking their responsibility already now, but in a young way, in a happy way and in a responsible way at the same time.

YOUNG WRITERS OF BOMBADIL PUBLISHING AB

Srishti- India Andrea-Venezuela Lily- Peru Josephine-Sweden

A boy wrote the following to me: “Mr. Melvin, there was time to us, the younger generation to obtain this opportunity that Bombadil Publishing AB gives

us, this will be a historical success for both us young writers and for your nice editorial too, because never before has there been an opportunity like this. My mother is incredulous to this way to write books, because she never seen something like this before; my father is thinking in the same way, but they are just adults, they’re thinking like the other adults who didn’t have this marvelous opportunity your editorial has provided us. My parents are just adults, they don’t know better, poor people.” And there is to this young writer that I want to thanks this wonderful time I live right now, those young writer injected this inspiration, this good feeling, the Bombadil feeling. YOUTH2YOUTH.

A not so younger human been but feeling still young Melvin González.

Fika on Friday

2009-08-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

Today we went for Fika at Siggebohyttans Bergsmansgård, just up the road from Gyttorp.

Ulla showed us around and fed us with coffee and cakes until we couldn't really move.

The buildings date from the 18th century. They make their own cakes and brew their own coffee. Maybe they should spend more time weeding the roof, but the cakes were excellent, so on balance I think it was time well spent.

John

Wednesday on Thursday

2009-08-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hi you all out there!

I don´t have much to say today. Why you might think? Well my head have been a bit confused these past days, but it´s better now. Well the 2 Spanish books is in the printing process right now so hopefully we will get them in our hands tomorrow or on Monday. It´s just a few copies but nevertheless exciting :-)).

And at the same time we (I) can collect my new passport and ID card :-)). So now I soon can "fly away like the doves" if I want. But it feels realy good to actually have it, and be able to go away whenever I want! Everyone here is talking about travelling, and Sara was away in Austria on her holiday. So I want too go away too :-)):-)).

Now I don´t have moore words, they disapeared! So I will end with this (I translated it from swedish to english so I hope it´s okej), i kind of like to find these "short" but good words.

"There is only one kind of real success.
It is to live your own way"
~Christoper Morley

Bye bye for this time
Mari

2009-08-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

This is last Friday's blog entry; it's rather late as I have been short of words lately. Instead of rambling at length about kayaks and moon bases and other trivial subjects, I give you some words by the masterful John Keats, who succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five and whose epitaph reads "Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water."

On leaving some Friends at an Early Hour

Give me a golden pen, and let me lean
On heap’d up flowers, in regions clear, and far;
Bring me a tablet whiter than a star,
Or hand of hymning angel, when ’tis seen
The silver strings of heavenly harp atween:
And let there glide by many a pearly car,
Pink robes, and wavy hair, and diamond jar,
And half discovered wings, and glances keen.
The while let music wander round my ears,
And as it reaches each delicious ending,
Let me write down a line of glorious tone,
And full of many wonders of the spheres:
For what a height my spirit is contending!
’Tis not content so soon to be alone.

John Keats (1795 - 1821)

"A little less conversation"

2009-08-10T05:20:00.000-07:00

A new fresh week, another shining Monday and a new blog post to be written. The theme of today’s Bombadil blog post is communication.

To communicate is to speak and get ones message out. It´s to talk and to get your opinions across. And what else? Listening, in my opinion, communicating is mainly about listening.

Sometimes I find myself hearing what the person I´m talking to is saying, but not listening to what this person is actually saying. This especially occurs when I´m meeting new people for the first time, friends of friends, someone’s new boyfriend/girlfriend etc. The big failure take place when we are being introduced, I am trying so hard to look nice, smile a lot and remembering my own name in order to greet this new person that I completely forget to listen to what they are saying! And suddenly I find myself looking like a fool since I for the love of god can´t remember the bloody name of the person I have just shook hands with! And there I stand with my beard in the mailbox (old Swedish saying, which basically means you have screwed up).

Since I have managed to address the great mystery; why I can not remember names I can now push myself and do some training to get rid of this embarrassing situation once and for all. So instead of thinking "my name is Sara, hello, I´m very pleased to meet you" I am nowadays trying to leave my head blank and not think of anything at all in order to fill my little head with the most crucial information at that very moment; the name of the person, who´s hand I´m squeezing.

The same issue can be found almost anywhere, as soon as someone stops listening and is just hearing (big difference!) what is being said, a problem has been born, the important thing is not to let it grow! So start listening to your surrounding and try your best to communicate with it instead of "just" talking to it. Personally I think it probably would spare a lot of hassle, arguments and misunderstanding.

Over&out
Sara

2009-08-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

A wonderful Lady! A wonderful book!

We at Bombadil Publishing AB are proud to introduce this young, charming and beautiful writer Lady Jerez from Venezuela, she has finished her book named “Inocencia Marchita, Confesiones de una virgen enamorada” which is to be sent for printing during next week. Lady has done a magnificent work together with me and Mrs. Maggy Jacinto in Peru; we had a very good communication in the virtual Internet world that Bombadil Publishing AB has created all around the world.

Lady Jerez have a contagious energy that she use to send via mail, she sends her energy by writing in an easy but very easily understanding and entertaining way that touches every reader and captures their attention until the end of her book. There is a story about a very young girl who is fallen in love in an older man and then… and then you can read it in Lady’s book, it will possible to buy this book in our internet webshop and your near library in all latin America and USA soon. Congratulations My Dear Lady! We want to send to our lovely Lady our admirations and the best hopes, the green hopes that Bombadil Publishing is getting all around the world to those marvelous young writer in this very moment.
Melvin Gonzalez.

Seeing things, small words

2009-08-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hello out there

In the last blog I wrote I mentioned something about confusing days and weeks. Well I´m still confused in an strange way! A bit the Spanish books that I´m setting (soon finished) has a little bit to do with it too. I don´t know what it is, but it is a strange feeling. In some way I will sort this out (I hope).
As everybody (I think) when they have this kind of strange feeling they need "small" words or maybe a nice picture as encouragement. Well I at least need/want that and I do get it also :-)) from my very best friends here at Bombadil :-)). It is really nice and I appreciate it a lot, maybe more than you might understand. Thanks to you all and a special one too.

The other day when I came home from work and went to the backside of our house I saw it!! A nice thing in the nature that really "hit me". It really caught (fångade) me and my mind. It was a Sunflower that had taken support to rise up, by the apple tree, it was totaly tangled in there! It was so simple and so nice and beautiful, it made me Happy :-)). It is strange that this simple but very nice thing caught me like that!

The sunflower and apple tree that "hit" me. Taken by mobile phone.

So you all out there take a look around you and try too se a bit more than just the thing in front of your eyes. It is just amazing what you can see and will see!

"To know is nothing at all
To imagine is everything"
~Anatole France

Mari, that hopes you all have good friends out there

I am back!

2009-08-03T02:34:00.000-07:00

After four weeks holiday I sort of had forgot my regular duties and commitments, which lead to me forgettng to blog last Monday. I do apologise for this rather fatal mistake, but here I am, back with more energy than ever!...Except for today. My energy levels are not as high as they should be after a weekends rest, well saying that, my head is working harder than ever. But my body is not, therefore I am working from bed today. Believe it or not. And no, I have not moved my bed into the office, but I am working from home (Trollhättan) today. The reason for my soar feet and exhausted legs might be that me and some friends went to the Swedish amusement park Liseberg yesterday, lots of fun, but still so exhausting! As a child I could run back and forth in that place for hours, not remebering to eat or caring about what the time was. Energy must have got lost on the way. Somewhere from 12-22 years old I have seemed to been a victime of energy loss. Very peculiar.

Well, anyway I am back at work and it feels like I never been away. The Bombadil dog Pixie looked just the same, John is still pulling his same old jokes and the coffee tastes the same. Good to be back.

A lot of things are happening at the moment in the Bombadil HQ, one thing is that I will take over some work from Mariannes and start being her assitant more or less. Obviosly I will still also be a mentor like before and still handeling my own projects and take care of our website. But now also do some more administrive work. Which I am very happy to do, since I like new challenges and learning new things. The wisedome of today therefore is: Challenge yourself and gain experience. Hell yeah!

over&out
/sara

An ice fridge is a nice fridge

2009-08-01T11:52:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to get some work done in the office. I don't normally work on the weekend, but I've been feeling so inspired since I took on my new (and still nameless) creative role that at ten o'clock this morning I made my way towards the office. Then I bumped into Steinar, who announced that it was a wonderful day for kayaking and that we should put the kayaks on top of the car and head out to a lake at the top of Pershyttan. I don't know how a lake gets to be at the top of anywhere, but there it was, and very nice it was too.

I would have put a picture of the lake here, but I didn't take one, so tough. Use your imagination. (Click for larger image)

When we got back, I tried to make it to the office for a second time, before Mattias called me. Consequently, we went to visit his brother to collect a three piece suite that Marianne had bought from them. We met a few people from his family and I acquired this.

It's a Swedish ice fridge from around 1850. The ice goes in the top (I'm not quite sure how it used to work as it had all melted) It is insulated with chalk.

It's currently in a bit of a state as some kind Swede has tacked linoleum to the top, painted it an attractive shade of "old mans' sock brown" and clad the inside with tartan wrapping paper. However, with a little paint stripper and furniture wax it should make a top notch wine cabinet.

It was quite heavy. Well, really heavy. I looked inside it and discovered an antique flat iron hiding in one of the corners. "Aha," I though, 'that will be making it heavy.' Then I looked a little further and found another. And another. And finally a fourth. So what I actually have is a circa 1850 ice fridge, a 1970s mains operated calculator (with retro green on black display, no less!) and four antique flat irons in various states of repair.

Not bad, I'm sure you'll agree!

English, Swedish and Spanish!

2009-08-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

This week we found a talented author who is writing a mysterious book; a mysterious story about mysterious creatures. She really has a talent for mysterious writing and she asked me what I think about her work. The truth is that I don’t like this kind of literature because I get afraid! But I read it! It was a very good tale, a good story. And I think this girl is really good as any author, despite she is only sixteen years old! Imagine! As John Lennon song, if we all adults in the word should be like this girl! It should be a wonderful world of ideas, good ideas. So I very proudly introduce to the world our very young writer Andrea Lujano from Maracay, Venezuela.

Get a first glance to her, I mean to Andrea, because you’ll love her. As we do right now in Bombadil Publishing! This kind of event is the special kind of occasion which we adults can get the sort of inspiration that this young girl gave me and her mentor, Maggy Jacinto, Mrs. Jacinto said that it’s was almost unbelievable that a very young girl is writing so carefully and so competently, like one of the best writers in the young world of Bombadil Publishing. This is one of the moments that I appreciate so much. The best of all is that Bombadil is publishing in three languages English, Swedish and Spanish to the entire world!

So thanks Andrea, you are really the best!

Melvin Gonzalez.

Back from holiday, poetry bingo, books

2009-07-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone

Well it has been some confusing days in many ways. Is that good or is it bad? Well I don´t know but I hope it will come out some good of it in the end :-).

"Happiness is for close friends.

To have close friends is happiness.

Close friends,

one of the most important thing in the world." (MG)

This Monday Sara came back from her holiday in Austria. Welcome back Sara! It´s nice to have you around again, it´s not so quiet any longer. As she has told us she had a really nice time down there with her boyfriend Christof and some other relatives to him. Hopefully we will see some pictures also. Sara, I hope we will?

Her first thing to prepare for was the Poetry Bingo up in Pershyttan, a couple kilometres from here. It was Sara and My reading poetry.

My reading poetry and Sara is waiting for her turn to do the same thing.

The people first had to write some words (that they later crossed over) in a kind of grid system (bingo badge). It was words that they could hear in the poetry that Sara and My read (poetry that they had written). They really had to pay attention! I actually asked John first if he would go up there but first he was not to (so) keen on it. But then Sara phoned and was a bit concerned that it were so few people up there, it was actually raining a bit. But she manage to persuade John to drive up there and I in the "speed" to the bus catch Jason and told him to come with us :-)). Jason is one of Marianne's sons.

The Bingo grid (badge).

It was actually pity that it was bad weather (not funny at all), if it hadn't been like that then I think it had been some more people up at that event. It was a new experience for me to go to a Poetry Bingo! But a good experience and nice :-)). I had my hands kind of full any way with the film camera, filming the whole thing. It might be a movie that Sara will put up on YouTube (Poetry Bingo in Pershyttan) in time, when it´s finished, it needs to be edited I think.

Here me filming in the rain!

And I also right now doing some setting on two Spanish books, well two books by authors from Latin America. It´s a bit hard to do as I can´t the language. I might have to learn Spanish in the end! But with some help from Melvin that is actually the one that is mentoring these guys it goes just fine. I have kind of sorting it out rather well I think :-)), so far I shall say. I hope that I will have at least one of the books ready and clear for the printing in the end of this week. So keep your fingers crossed out there so I managed to do this :-)). This is important with these two books because Marianne and Melvin plus Niklas will go to Latin America in the end/middle of August and they shall have some examples of the books with them.

Phuu now I have done my blog for this week, this confusing week!

Mari

2009-07-24T04:52:00.000-07:00

I have stepped sideways from the International Office at Bombadil and into a role that didn't exist even a few months ago; that of "Creative Something-or-other" Because the position is so new that we're still waiting for the paint to dry on it, I don't have a title yet. So, following the example of a friend of mine who works for a major corporation in London as a statistician and, following a disagreement with Personnel, signs her emails "Chief Number-Cruncher," I shall be known as "The Oracle of Creativity" until our glorious leader Marianne notices and assigns me a slightly more sensible title.

I'm sure that you're all sick to death of hearing about Niklas's moon-mine shindig on Monday, so I shall cover it quickly. If you are up to speed with current events, you will know that I had special respnsibility for the carpark. This assignment was given on the basis that having driven a vehicular wreck from London to halfway down Africa (see It'll Be Fine, available on Amazon.com and all good bookshops) and therefore I knew about cars. So I set about clearing acres of shrubs, rocks, scrap metal and railway sleepers (with invaluable help from Mattias) in anticipation of Niklas's estimate of anything between 500 and 1000 cars that would be arriving. In reality, Swedes like bicycles and buses and most of them managed to arrive without the aid of a private motor vehicle. Of those who did arrive by car, half of them parked in some poor chap's front garden opposite the entrance to the moon-mine and the other half set about very politely ignoring my signs, marking tape and spray painted lines and parked wherever they pleased, in a particularly Scandinavian display of disdain for authority. This suited me just fine as it absolved me from all responsibility when something went wrong. As it happened, nothing did go wrong.

On the day, I had special responsibility for collecting the horse from the stable a couple of miles away (apparently I'm the only one with the correct licence to be able to tow the horse trailer behind the Bombadil bus). The horse was to be in charge of entertaining the children. So having first freed the handbrake on the trailer with the aid of a man with a big hammer and a lump of wood, we bundled the horse in and chucked it out again under the trees at the back of the mine. Apparently the horse was a bit miffed at this treatment and spent a while digging a hole in the ground, before going absolutely mad. Or maybe it had been watching too many westerns at the stable. Or perhaps it was just attempting to emulate its masters and wanted to mince around on two legs for a bit. Whatever the reason was, it was scaring the children (small and large alike) so we shoved it back into the trailer and returned it to the stables whereupon it recommenced its game of poker with the cat. Probably.

When we got back, all the fuses had blown and the inside of the mine building was as dark as a brown cow's insides. A bit of gaffer tape and chewing gum later and Mattias, the saviour of Bombadil Publishing, had the lights working again. I suppose my own personal claim to fame is now meeting (well, being in the same room as) Maria Aldrin, who is a relative of Buzz Aldrin. The last time I spoke to Niklas on the subject, he informed me that Maria had not volunteered to divulge exactly how close to the great man she was and Niklas, for his part, had politely neglected to ask. At any rate, it beats my previous best of walking into (quite literally) Trinny and Suzannah on Hammersmith Grove.

My kayak is coming on quite nicely, mainly thanks to Steinar's expertise.

Steinar is the one who actually looks like a kayak builder...

...I'm the one with the slightly Boy George shirt.

I'm aiming to get it into the water before it freezes over. (The kayak, not the shirt.)

/John

2009-07-23T00:50:00.000-07:00

Think about it! When JRR Tolkein, the creator of our inspirational namesake Tom Bombadil, wrote his famous trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” and gave life to our famous character named Tom Bombadil – he couldn’t have thought that Tom Bombadil should be a traveller, a world wide traveller, and even an astronaut!

Tom Bombadil

Our company is established in many countries; in Asia: India, Thailand, Singapore, China, Nepal, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan. Bombadil has visiting all those countries in Europe: England and U.K., Romania, Spain, Norway, Germany and Bombadil is thriving, of course, in Sweden, our base country.

And we together with Tom Bombadil keep travelling and we arrived to the American continent and found Bombadil in Canada, USA, Mexico, The Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Columbia, Peru and Argentina. It isn’t amazing? What a traveller Bombadil is! A world wide traveller in all those exotic and marvellous countries!

Scientist and Bombadilian Niklas Järvstråt.

But the amazing, really amazing thing is that our very own scientist and Vice-President, Niklas Järvstråt, took Bombadil all the way to the moon. This week has Niklas presenting his wonderful project about a crew base at the moon and he had early this week the Grand Opening of the Moon-Mine Project. And Niklas took the all Bombadil’s crew with him to the moon. JJR Tolkien might think now, if he would live now, that his character Tom Bombadil had been an astronaut, a happy one. There are those wonderful feelings and wonderful sensations that take all us to those marvellous travellers and found our fantastic world of books; we get the inspiration this way.

Melvin González

Grand opening of the Moon-Mine project

2009-07-22T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hello out there.

It has been a couple days of very intensive work here at Bombadil. Why you might think? Well we all are in one way or another involved in Niklas's Grand opening of his big, big Moon-Mine project. It was also the celebration of the 40-year anniversary of the first Moon landing on another celestial body.

Television (SVT and Tv4) came and did interviews with Niklas at the same time and then a Radio station also came and did the same thing. And we know that the radio program actually was out on the net as the occasion was going on.

Here is Niklas being interviewed on the radio.

All the people has done very hard work, specially Mattias and John. They dug away sand and gravel, put up a lot off stuff. Actually they all worked late evenings and we are very grateful for that. Well done you two! Off course there where other people to help like Göran and Siv, Niklas's parents. They also did a great job. Thanks to you also! And Veronica and her mum Gun baking cakes and buns, taking care of the coffee "tent". Thanks to you two it was nice to have you there and get some nice tea and buns :-)). AND thanks to everyone else that helped, I don´t know all names but I will not forget you!

Here John, Mattias and Göran are having thoughts on how to set up the film screen (actually a window blind) in the best way.

All the program points went on well. Well off course it went well with perhaps the usual power cuts which may arise at times like this, it´s not unusual at all :-)). Everyone took it calmly and there were even small laughter :-)). The thing on the program that caught me was the guys telling about cave diving (Baggbodydykarna). Absolutely amazing and how they even dared to dive in mines and caves, oj oj oj. And they actually did dive to take a look in "Storgruvan".

Here Mattias making friends with one the divers' young daughter, including Pixie our "office" dog.

It was as I mentioned a lot of peoples and the seemed to enjoied it. Hopefully we will see an occasion like this in the future. It was hell of lot of work but worth it in the end!

And of course Bombadil was involved in it as we all work there and Bombadil also was sponsoring.

Here you can see how many people were there, from the left with the back towards the camera is me (Mari), Jason and Mattias.

Thanks to you all for coming and for helping with this Grand opening!
Over and out
Mari

A new Bombadilian is always welcome!

2009-07-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

We at Bombadil Publishing welcome our new mentor and representing us in the Central-American area, Margarita Alfaro Bulle. Margarita has a degree in psychology and she’s working in her country El Salvador as well. She is a very talented writer with experience in magazines and local newspapers, etc. and best of all, she shares our philosophy, to build communicate between young writers and to help them with the development of their books, their feelings and their wishes.

Mrs. Margarita Alfaro Bulle.

Margarita has been coordinating Bombadil Publishing's tour in El Salvador this summer, she did some excellent work that we are very proud of. This summer Bombadil will supply the very first two books in Spanish, our metor in Peru, Maggy Jacinto, has had several intensive weeks with these two books. The first one named “31 Cuentos Cortos” writen by the young and talented writer Mario Chavez Jovel, who is living in Calgary, Canada. The second one named “La Dama de negro y otros cuentos” writen by the young and talented Rogger Avendaño, who is living in the city of Tacna, Peru. Bombadil is very excited to meet these two young writers and put into their very own hands their finished books, to present them with their crowning work, a magnificent work provided by the Bombadil feelings, the feeling which is growing and growing.

Melvin González

Spontaneity

2009-07-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone out there!

Hope you all are well and is having fun.

Last week I had some trouble in my thoughts on what to write about. Well I have some words this time, not much perhaps but some :-)).

Yesterday afternoon Marianne said at fika that we should barbecue that evening and have a bit fun!!?? Oppps barbecue, no planning at all just those word: -this evening we shall barbecue! This is typical for Marianne, doing and saying spontaneous things :-)) and it´s fun. So we all had a nice evening with very good food and some wine/bear. Hopefully this will happen some more times.

Our spontaneous Bombadil "chief" Marianne, at another barbecue time.

This spontaneity is also there in our young authors and I just love it! They all are great in every way. They can write so seriously despite their young age! And they "let out" the words in an admirable way.

Today I also had managed to do a new colour on a feather for Galadriel publishing, it's green. More information will come about that.

Have a nice week

Mari

What makes a good writer?

2009-07-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

As a Bombadilian, my interactions with diverse young authors shove me deep into numerous precious questions and “What makes a good writer?” is one of them.

Today, intellectually, youth are more mature than their age, no doubt. The impact of internet is palpable on their broader vision. What amazes me is that they take criticism positively and are quite flexible for desired changes. As far as the above mentioned question is concerned, my humble advice would be:

Writing remains a raw material or rough elements – a conglomeration of lifeless words or phrases until a writer, through aesthetic voice, pours ‘soul’ into it. It is the craftsmanship to create a real world where readers can walk through and experience the events as if they were real.

Some technical aspects such as precise planning, style or language, knowledge and clear vision of the subject are the basic instruments for further succession of proceeding rationally and logically. In order to become a good writer, one needs to keep their senses active and observe each moment and event they come across. It helps accumulate basic ingredients and then a writer polishes them with their best possible skills.
There is no short cut and no time limit for making a good writer. It has to be practiced on a regular basis. Reading books written by some famous writers, discussing your writing with friends, family members, and receiving expert advice from mentors will certainly help a lot.
At the end, I’d like to remember a famous quote of Richard Wright, “I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.”

Happy writing,
Alex

The Bombadil books are flying around the world!

2009-07-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

A young writer from El Salvador; Mario, emigrated to Canada several years ago, wehere he started a book of short stories,and when our young writer finished his book he was contacted by another young writer in Mexico, this young lady, Lauri, who told Mario about Bombadil Publishing. Mario sent the manuscript to our international office in Sweden, and I, Melvin the Latin-American Editor in Bombadil Publishing, sent Mario´s book to our mentor in Peru, Maggy, and Maggy will send back to us this book, this week, when she, in according with Mario, is finished reading the book as a mentor and as proofreading.

It’s amazing and amusing? Of course it is. The amazing thing is the flying Mario´s book took, I mean, flying from El Salvador to Canada in Mario´s mind and the book flew to Mexico to Lauri, and our book continued to travel and flew to Sweden and then to Peru, then back to Sweden again, there is an amazing flying. It was amusing that our mentor, Maggy in Peru, doesn’t understand so of the book much because Mario wrote in the special way people from El Salvador use to speak Spanish. And I was laughing because I am from El Salvador and I totally understood what Mario wrote. I told Mario that we needed to change the language a little to express the book in an international Spanish, again that was funny and amusing because we people from El Salvador speak a special Spanish, but at the same time we speak “real” Spanish too, and Mario and my self smiled, we smiled a Bombadil’s smile, a global smile, as many young writers around the world, whom are writing at this very moment a Bombadil book. We in Bombadil Publishing are flying and flying around the world. Would you like fly with us?

Melvin González

What to blog about today?

2009-07-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

Well today it is a day that I don´t know what to blog about at all!!! It is all stopped in my head at the moment!

Well I at least did a banana/chocolate pie for fika today and everyone seemed to like it :-)), at least I hope that. It was kind of a test because I had never done this one before. My co-workers was kind of testing "tasters" (testing pilots) for the pie :-)).

But I have also got a really nice movie from John, it was from YouTube I think. He, well they all know that I like music by Toto and specially "Africa". This one was by/with a choir that started the whole thing by silently clapping their hands. It sounds that it was raining! Really amazing version of "Africa". Thanks, it made me happy :-)), it made my day bright as the sun outside the window. Yes it is sunny a bit today :-)).

At the lake a nice sunny day.

"True friends are like jewels,

precious and rare. False ones

are like autumn

leaves, found everywhere."

Until next time - hopefully with some idea what to write about!

Mari

Yesterday

2009-07-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

I got a reproof yesterday, this very young boy and very good writer, who asked me why I forgot him because I didn’t send any mail. The thing is that we in Bombadil Publishing AB are very busy with our visit to Latin America next month and we are preparing our travel to these beautiful and warm countries. Our charming managing director Mrs. Marianne Rugård, our clever Vice-president Mr. Niklas Järvstråt and myself will be visiting several countries this summer and meeting you young writers and talking about our wonderful world, the Bombadil world, the world we are creating together. My dear friend “Chuck” Don’t think that I can forget you, not for a moment, you young writers are my inspiration, I could never stop thinking about you.

As I wrote, we in Bombadil Publishing AB will travel to Latin America and visit several countries, this will be a fantastic meeting with these beautiful, young and intelligent writers. We shall visit my old dear country El Salvador and is possible Mexico, Venezuela and Peru too. We’ll see all you young people and talk about our deep feelings, our wishes and, more important, your feelings and wishes. That will be a Bombadil feeling, our feeling to make a better world, a world with your books, ours books; books of the world, these books will be our legacy to the next generations, your generations, the future generations,Bombadil’s generations.

Melvin