Nothing Sensible Here

October was fabulous. My art exhibition showed me that I can still dream, I have hopes.

I saw a lot of people during October, had a really social life, unfamiliar to this hermit, and I've spent November cherishing still life.

I did publish my seventh book, a collection of short stories, The Portrait Of The Clown, this week, though, but writing is very silent doing.

To cheer you up and to warn you from not doing the same (unless you're able to cope with horrible noise)...

Hospital Diary

My latest book has come out. It’s self-published like the earlier ones. The book is called Hospital Diary –texts and images from the closed ward.

Now I think I lay down and do nothing for a while. Some paintings are on their way, but I’m empty of textes.

If you’re interested in purchasing the book, you can get it via net.

It’s in Finnish, of course, but the images are internationally understood.

Meet My New Book

Meet my new book: it’s called Keskiäkäisiä hajatelmia which is impossible to translate into English. But I’ll tell you what you’ll find in the book.

The book contains comics, poems and stories about a woman, who has reached a certain point in her life. She’s not so young anymore, she’s more likely to be hit by lumbago than by the arrow of Amor, and she’s reached the age when she wants desperately to have a seat in the bus. She wonders about her life, the new facts days bring along, and she’s anxious to know why the seats in bars are so high nowadays. She remembers the days when she had ten drinks in the evening and two aspirins the next day, and can’t figure how it is nowadays two drinks and ten aspirins.

It was fun doing this book. I published it myself, like my earlier books, with the help of BoD.

And suddenly there was light

I went out today. In the morning.

For real.

The sun was climbing slowly, sleepily, deciding finally to settle low. The sky became blue. It was amazing.

I don’t remember when was the last time I saw light. The sky has been grey for weeks.

Or so it seems.

When I returned home, the weak hug of sun had begun to melt the powdery snow on the branches.

Now the trees are bare, the sky has gathered clouds of every shade of grey and black, and the sheltering shield is hanging once again over me.

Darkness.

It's out

and I'm off for a couple of days.

White Houses

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been busy finishing the manuscript of my novel. I’m going to, like the other two, self-publish the novel at Books on Demand.

It’s tedious to rewrite old text, I’ve been bored to death. I don’t like to read my old texts, they are familiar, and there’s nothing surprising in them. Boring, boring, boring, but now I’ve done it.

I had this manuscript, but no name for the novel, so I arranged a query in my main Finnish blog and asked the readers to come up with a name. They gave plenty of suggestions, and the name was found.

Having got the name, I made some sketches for the book cover, and made a poll.

Doing all this, has left me very little time to visit your blogs, less leaving comments. Sorry about that.

The novel’s name is Valkoiset talot, White Houses, and it’s a story about four white houses and their residents. There’s going to be a lot of misery, hope, love, every day life in the book. It’s a novel about us, here and now.

Hopefully, the novel sees daylight in June. 

Almost November

I’ve been reading a lot lately, written less. Yesterday I went to the Helsinki Book Fair, didn’t buy any books but met some friends and had a few drinks.

Nice.

I have enough books.

I’ve been doing some new videos, mostly in Finnish. They are here.

Less writing, more photos.

It’s raining and blowing too much. It’s dark. It’s almost November, the gloomiest month of the year, but I’ll survive.

Doing Is Enough

My plan to write and blog less has succeeded quite well, and I’ve found time to play as I planned earlier. I’ve also had time to read and do some singing, since the singing lessons started once again with the fall.

It’s been enjoyable to play the piano, not necessarily for the ears but to the mind. It’s pacifying to run fingers through scales, hit a note, and find a melody. They are all there: the notes. You don’t have to invent any.
Same as in writing: all the words already exist; you just have to put them in some kind of order. Or disorder. It’s up to you, and that’s the enchanting part of creating.
You’re able to do everything.
At least you can try. Attempt can also be satisfying, and you may notice that in the end the result means less. You don’t have to achieve to be content.

Doing is enough.

More time

I wish I had more time. More hours in a day. There’s so much I’d like to do, so little time. I have to work, I love to sleep –these two require a lot of my time.

I used to play the piano a lot when I was younger, but nowadays it’s a rare thing for me to do. My time is spent –besides work, everyday life and sleep- in writing, taking pictures, reading and socializing. Some blogging, too. One day I sat by the piano and started to play, and I remembered the joy playing used to bring to me.

Well, to hear the tunes I managed to get out of the piano was not a joy; my fingers are stiff, my skills rusty, but nevertheless, I had a sensation similar to the one a long time ago.

Joy.

I grabbed also the guitar in my enthusiasm, the 12-string. Oh no. Far too difficult, so I took the six-string beauty in my lap and tried to lure some blues out of her.

It was quite awful, and now my fingertips are sore.

I must practise. I really have to. Maybe it means less writing, less picture making. Less blogging.

I believe it’s worth it.

No sense and nonsense

I’d like to write something in English, but I don’t know what I should write. I have nothing to say.

Well, tell me something new.

I’ve been reading a lot lately. It has been enjoyable, just to read others texts, not having to make up my own.

Great. I should do that more often. Reading that is.

Yes, a little bit bored with my own words. That is why I prefer to post photos. Like this. It’s the cover for my collection of short stories I published last week.

I believe the cover is better than the short stories.

Well, anyhow, now I’ve written in English, my desire has been fulfilled and I can stop and move to something else.

I think I’ll read a book.

On the Move

Summer is to be on the move, and while I have been home, I’ve been rewriting some of my old short stories, that have been published in Finnish women’s magazines in the 90’s. My intention is to self publish a collection of these short stories. Why? Because it’s fun. Not to rewrite old stories, that can be a bore, but to publish.

In my Finnish main blog I’ve told about this project, and I asked the readers to come up with a name for the collection, and I’ve got plenty of good titles. I have also been making some cover designs for the collection and I shall set up a vote for the cover I shall use in my collection.

Blogging is interactive indeed.

Because of the rewriting, I haven’t had so much time to post in my blogs. Hey, I do have eight blogs….but, autumn is coming, and there will be those long, dark days and the time to post more again.

Tomorrow I’ll leave for Stockholm for a few days. Meanwhile, here is a photo story I made after staying in the countryside. I’ve published it in my Finnish photo blog and in my Swedish blog, so if it’s familiar to you, that is why.

See you.

The Real Book

1.

-You should be a writer!
-But...I am a writer...?

-I mean a real writer!
-Is there a thing called a false writer?

-You should publish books!
-Should I?

-Yes, absolutely! Then you would be a real writer.
-Just wait a minute. Do you mean my writing isn’t now for real?

-Well, you can hardly call writing to blogs writing, can you?
-I can.

-Anyway, it isn’t real writing. Only books matter. Only if you’ve published a real book, you’re a real writer. Blogging doesn’t count. Anyone can blog. It’s for amateurs, mainly. Not professional writers.
-Hmmm. Books doesn’t sell very well, not in Finland anyway. If I’d publish a book, would I get as many readers as I do with my blogs?

-That doesn’t matter. Not the readers nor the sale.
-Only the book matters?

-Yes.
-But if I’d write a book, I wouldn’t have time to write to my blogs!

-That’s my point. Instead you’d be doing something worth while.
-A book.

-Yes.
-That no one would buy. That no one would read.

-Yes.
-Life is weird.

-You are. You lack passion.

2.

-Have you been thinking about that publishing?
-OK, I’ll humour you. I’ll publish a book. A collection of poems.

-Which publisher?
-I’ll publish it myself, there are plenty of that kind of service. You just send your manuscript via net and home comes the book. Would you buy my book?

-Self-publishing is not real publishing. How much?
-How much what?

-Your collection of poems?
-Don’t know. Maybe twenty euros.

-Are they any good?
-You should know, you’ve read them.

-What? Where?
-In my blogs.

-Forget it. You do lack passion.

The Toddler

The first picture ever
in my first blog

Today my main blog SusuPetal celebrates the honourable age of a toddler, 2 years! That’s not a long time, although it absurdly sometimes feels like an eternity.
It’s quite unbelievable that for three years ago I didn’t even know the existence of blogs. In fact, I spent very little time in the net.
Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe…

I started my blog to keep up with writing. Before my blog I’d spent almost six years –due to various reasons- without writing. I had a need to write, just didn’t have the means. I’d seldom fantasized myself writing a book, because I had difficulties with longer texts. I just didn’t have the patience to write one story for a long time. I had to get rid of the text as soon as possible.
I knew, and know, that short stories are my thing. Very short stories.

And when I found blogs, I knew I had found my way, because like all writers, I also wanted readers. If that wouldn’t be so, you might as well put your writings into a cupboard.

When I started publishing my very short stories in my blog, I wanted to illustrate the stories as well. I didn’t want to use other people’s pictures, didn’t want to mess with rights of this and that, so I had no other possibility than to start to draw myself. I had only Paint in my computer, so I opened it and started to draw, having never before drawn anything with a computer. Having actually never drawn much at all…

Nothing is impossible, I figured, and I’ve noticed that it is sometimes true.

After having written very short stories for some time, I decided to put up another blog for photos, a blog with fewer words. . I’d acquired a digital camera, but didn’t take much photos, just occasional shots now and then. After starting my second blog SusuPetal –kuva ja sana (SusuPetal –picture and word) I began to have my camera always with me. Photos gave me a holiday from words, which I sometimes needed, being occasionally fed up, and tired of words.

Toying with Paint and digital photos made me want to learn more about picture making and I loaded some free programs from the net (Pixia, Picasa) and started to manipulate my pics. This proved to be very addictive and very satisfying also.

Somewhere along the manipulating, I started my third blog SusuPetal –RunoSaari (SusuPetal –the Poem Island) where I publish my poems for children.

Blogging is a global thing, and when I found my way through some Finnish bloggers to bloggers from other countries, I was struck by the urge of writing in English. Therefore, I started my fourth blog, the one you are reading just now. If you got this far….

And when you start, why stop? The fifth blog was in Swedish.

(I’m not talking now anything about my homepages, got to spare you)

And maybe you already know about this….

Really, two years ago I had no idea of where this addiction could lead to! I’ve found the possibility to write, to take photos, to draw and manipulate photos and while doing all that, I’ve had the luck in getting to know a lot of wonderful people. Other bloggers, their posts, their comments, are the thing that keeps me going. Therefore, I’d like to thank you all and say cheers!

Babel Fish

I installed a Babel Fish-tool into this blog today, so now it's possible to read this blog in other languages, too. If the translation is correct, I wouldn't know, but it looks fun:)

So, just scroll down, you'll find the translator on the right side of this blog.

My Childhood Scene

In the photo gallery of my homepages, you’ll find some manipulated photos from Turku, the town I was born in. With these photos I’ve travelled back to my childhood (I’m so old that life was black and white back then, no Technicolor yet -as you can see from the photos, ha-ha). Going back to my roots has borne some stories, which I’ve published in my Swedish blog. The stories are not necessarily documentation of my childhood. Some of them have got the inspiration from a real memory, but the story has turned into fiction.

SusuPetal in Swedish

has been born and it is here.

The Language of My Childhood

When I met HPY last week, she told me that one of the reasons she had started her blog. was to keep up with her Finnish. She has been living abroad for thirty years, now living in France.

From HPY I got the idea to start a new blog (yes, I know, it will be my fifth, not counting my homepages...addicted? Me?).

When I was a child, I spoke as fluently both Finnish and Swedish, my mother being of Finland’s Swede origin. When I grew older and left my childhood’s home, my Swedish became poorer and nowadays I’m afraid the language of my mother will vanish from me all together.

This is why I’ll start a new blog in Swedish. To keep up with the language of my childhood times, the source of my origin. I’ve written short stories, memories of days gone by. Some are pure fiction, some may have a hint of truth in them.

When the time is due, I’ll let you know the address of my new blog. I’m not in a hurry.

Thank you, HPY, it seems that the impossible keeps on turning into the possible.

Here I go again

The joy of summer has made me find once again the joy of writing. Ideas rush through my head, stories seem to write themselves. Thoughts just don’t occur to me, they make their way in a very persistent way and force me to make small –usually mental- notes what to write about. I feel the flood of inspiration throbbing through my veins, the heart beats enthusiastically and words chant in my mind.

The poems and the stories that come out, are not necessarily happy, they don’t hale the glory of the sun and warmth. I’m able to linger in dark shades even if the light is bright outside my window, that’s no problem for me. The most important thing is that I feel happiness in writing and that I do right now.

So, I must go on writing before the sun forces me to abandon my laptop and makes me lie down on the pier. You know –after that stretching out in the sun, there will be no hope of writing anything! Summer and laziness is a good combination, too!

Trees and roots

A week without writing is heaven. A week without the net is paradise.
I had a nice week.

I took many photos, mostly of trees and roots. Someone could find it boring, I found it soothing to my nerves. To photograph things that just wait for you, don’t move and hide in the shadows, is very easy, and I’ve craved easiness into my life.
Something simple, something stable, something undemanding and yet solid.

Trees and roots.

Although I’m a city born creature, I find peace in the woods. I wouldn’t want to live in the country side, that would be no life for me, but once in a while I like to dust off the city lights. For some time, at least.

And then come back –to write, to live in the net. Among other things.

The Award

SusuPetal was given the Thinking Blogger Award by HPY, and once in her life, SusuPetal became out of words.
After some stunning moments, I (and maybe SusuPetal too) have regained some words and I want to give the Thinking Blogger Award to five bloggers, who make me think while reading their blogs.

In her blog Kehräsaari, Vintti writes about her life as a mother, as a woman, as a human being. She has such amount of courage, hope and persistence, that I can do no more than raise my hat and give her all the respect I’ve got. She writes about things that make one think, that life is not impossibility, but a possibility called now.

The poet Hannu Helin is somewhat obsessed with words and I find it quite charming, because his toying with words and etymology makes me strain my poor brain in a good way when I’m reading his blog Work in Progress.

Lurker makes me feel nostalgic and nostalgia is a way to find safeness. I admire Lurker’s skill to tell about things plainly, but yet in an interesting way. The blog Populaari makes me think about the past and look for the future.

Kirsi has several blogs and they all tell me, that the world is a beautiful place, which is a very important thought(especially for me, who tend to be a little morbid...). Her colours make me purr like a kitten, and her skill to visualise, reminds me that the beauty in life is not far away –it’s right here.

Runotorstai is a collective blog, which challenges its readers every Thursday to write a poem of the weekly given word. Through the links of Runotorstai I find constantly new bloggers who make me think what a great way of expressing yourself a blog is.

*****

This meme was started by the Thinking Blogger. If the awarded are tempted to continue with this meme, here are the rules:

1. If, and only if you get tagged, write a post with links to five blogs that make you think.

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

3. Optional. Proudly display the Thinking Blog Award with a link to the post that you wrote.