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Ah... Sometimes I stretch my boundaries and sometimes I lounge in the safety of the known and familiar. This week was a stretching week.
I am a relatively shy person but when I enjoy something, I become a bit of an extravert. It is as if the project boosts my personality out of neutral and into drive. On Thursday, I met with a group of writers to get ready for the NANO writing compettion. I did this competition alone last year and I wanted to share the experience this year with other writers. Nine people showed up to the meeting and signed up on our yahoo writers group.
Why is this stretching my boundaries. Well, It is a stretch for me to take responsibility for these people. They want to do this and I have made the declaration that I will help them. I also promised that if the writers are able to finish a novel during the month of November, Sofia Verlag would display the book next October. I have 13 people signed and statistically one will finish. I am hoping that I will get 13 novels but that is the optimist in me. In reality, there will be less than a handful. I am getting a larger stand next year and will enjoy having a section devoted to NANO books. The books will be English NANO books written by Expats so a very niche group but I am excited about making people's dreams reality... now they have to just finish the word count and editing.
Not only did I stretch but I started thinking about what I do. So far in Germany, I don't get asked what I do. They ask why I am here but not what I do. On Saturday, at the dinner party, I was asked what I do. What do I do? I always get confused by this answer because it depends on the day, the hour, my mood. How do I answer that question in German? I am a writer. I write children's books, adult books, business plans, contracts, blogs. I am an artist. I have paintings entered into exhibitions and I like doodling on walls. I am an entrepreneur. I have a business plan and a start up company, advisers and product. I am a teacher. I have classes where I teach law, English, creativity. I am a mother. I have children and I try to take care of them. So with so many hats, how do you answer the question about what I do. At this party, I decided it would be easiest to say I was a teacher but I need to think of a way of expressing everything I do in one sentence and in such a way that people understand. Maybe I should come up with a new profession based on Di Vinci who did many things and no one questioned why he did many things. That was just Di Vinci... so maybe I should say I am a Divinchette... a person who has many interests, an explorer, an adventurer... a new classification for the right brained entrepreneur.
Florian Dargel sent a comment to my email box this week and I am going to post it in its own blog entry.. it is an important comment and I don't want it to get missed or overlooked.
Getting missed or overlooked. If you have not been keeping track of the computer game industry, there are some exciting changes happening. Women may actually have a company actively targeting them as consumers. Nintendo has just announced that they are coming out with simplier games, a new controls etc. They are targeting the female consumer market ignored by Microsoft and Sony.. of course this is only happening b/c Nintendo is in last place in the competition for men but innovation is rarely done without necessity.... so Nintendo is losing market share in the men's market but there is a huge untapped women's market... Thank Goodness they are not stubborn and stupid... both women and Nintendo. I am interested to know how are they planning to get women to buy this console and where are they going to sell it. How are they going to convince women that this product is for them and get them to buy it when they are a classic video brand and all the retail space is dedicated to men. How do you get women to venture into the men's section of the department store? How do you get a women to venture into the men's section of the gym.. you know, where all the free weights are located and testosterone fills the air...
I am a relatively shy person but when I enjoy something, I become a bit of an extravert. It is as if the project boosts my personality out of neutral and into drive. On Thursday, I met with a group of writers to get ready for the NANO writing compettion. I did this competition alone last year and I wanted to share the experience this year with other writers. Nine people showed up to the meeting and signed up on our yahoo writers group.
Why is this stretching my boundaries. Well, It is a stretch for me to take responsibility for these people. They want to do this and I have made the declaration that I will help them. I also promised that if the writers are able to finish a novel during the month of November, Sofia Verlag would display the book next October. I have 13 people signed and statistically one will finish. I am hoping that I will get 13 novels but that is the optimist in me. In reality, there will be less than a handful. I am getting a larger stand next year and will enjoy having a section devoted to NANO books. The books will be English NANO books written by Expats so a very niche group but I am excited about making people's dreams reality... now they have to just finish the word count and editing.
Not only did I stretch but I started thinking about what I do. So far in Germany, I don't get asked what I do. They ask why I am here but not what I do. On Saturday, at the dinner party, I was asked what I do. What do I do? I always get confused by this answer because it depends on the day, the hour, my mood. How do I answer that question in German? I am a writer. I write children's books, adult books, business plans, contracts, blogs. I am an artist. I have paintings entered into exhibitions and I like doodling on walls. I am an entrepreneur. I have a business plan and a start up company, advisers and product. I am a teacher. I have classes where I teach law, English, creativity. I am a mother. I have children and I try to take care of them. So with so many hats, how do you answer the question about what I do. At this party, I decided it would be easiest to say I was a teacher but I need to think of a way of expressing everything I do in one sentence and in such a way that people understand. Maybe I should come up with a new profession based on Di Vinci who did many things and no one questioned why he did many things. That was just Di Vinci... so maybe I should say I am a Divinchette... a person who has many interests, an explorer, an adventurer... a new classification for the right brained entrepreneur.
Florian Dargel sent a comment to my email box this week and I am going to post it in its own blog entry.. it is an important comment and I don't want it to get missed or overlooked.
Getting missed or overlooked. If you have not been keeping track of the computer game industry, there are some exciting changes happening. Women may actually have a company actively targeting them as consumers. Nintendo has just announced that they are coming out with simplier games, a new controls etc. They are targeting the female consumer market ignored by Microsoft and Sony.. of course this is only happening b/c Nintendo is in last place in the competition for men but innovation is rarely done without necessity.... so Nintendo is losing market share in the men's market but there is a huge untapped women's market... Thank Goodness they are not stubborn and stupid... both women and Nintendo. I am interested to know how are they planning to get women to buy this console and where are they going to sell it. How are they going to convince women that this product is for them and get them to buy it when they are a classic video brand and all the retail space is dedicated to men. How do you get women to venture into the men's section of the department store? How do you get a women to venture into the men's section of the gym.. you know, where all the free weights are located and testosterone fills the air...
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