(Calmly?) Awaiting

Andrea had glazed eyes. Robert understands it all, she had said. The voices were growing weak, infirm, as if after echoing from various angles of the house had met again behind the door. Robert had slept a while, but something, footsteps on the gravel of the yard or the noise of some vehicle, had awakened him in Joaquim’s banned room, where adults had told him to pass the night.

Self-translated excerpt of my novella, L'habitació de les mans (Room of Hands) 

After two months I have no news about the publication of my book. I'm not worried at all, as it is likely to be published on April, the month par excellence for promoting any book in Catalonia — for further info about it, you can read my Saint George Day posts here and here. The only thing is it's boring to have nothing to say about the process. Do they not know that I have a blog, like everyone else? I need topics for my posts.

Luckily, as I work in a publishing house, I can try and imagine at what point of the process the publication of the book is currently at:

Two months ago I received a call from the publishers asking me to send them the text in digital format. It is almost mandatory that after two months of doing nothing with that text, they loose it. Right now they still do not know that they have lost it, and another month will pass without incident. Then, when they realize the loss, the process will enter the phase of waiting a reasonable time, let's say two more months, until they forget that they once called me. After this reasonable time, I will receive a call from the publishers asking me to send them the text in digital format!

It's good to know all of this in advance. I'm focused on writing my next book, and still have the foolish dream of translating my novella into English myself. I said I'm not worried, but I'm starting to think that, although I have translated only seven pages out of fifty, this foolish dream may be available on Amazon or Smashwords before the original version reaches the bookstores.

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A Walk around the Pond

This weekend we took a walk around the pond of Ivars i Vila-sana (Lleida, Catalonia). It was dried for farming use during the twentieth century and refilled in the nineties as claimed by the neighbours for long years.

The pond was filled with a one-year irrigation water quota used in the fields it now occupies, and is renewed each year. So it is the water that would have been used in these fields anyway. It soon has become again a lesure area... and an excellent place for birdwatching.

These trees were not uprooted when flooding again the fields. They no longer grow leaves — but birds think the whole thing was an excellent idea.

Watery Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday

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Book Review: Miss Otis Regrets and Other Short Stories, by Dieter Moitzi

"[Her existence] will be changed forever by a whimsical decision of hers. But did she have a choice to act in any other fashion? Or wasn't she somehow predestined to do what she's about to do?"

I've been lucky enough to have the chance to read Miss Otis regrets and Other Short Stories and I've had so much fun with it. Let me recommend this book to all those who like good storytelling in small doses and appreciate having a wide range of genres in one book. However, the quote above may suggest a common thread between the different stories — characters making their choices, being fated to making them, facing what to do. Let's see four out of the eight stories in this volume:

Miss Otis goes out her mansion on the highest point of High Street following her sense of duty in a downward path to Market Street and the past. The main character of "The Dump" knows that he shouldn't but just can't go straight past the 'Do not enter!' sign. Farmer Will knows the secrets of nature but at some point has to decide whether or not to keep using this knowledge to meet the needs of men, including his own needs. In the story that closes the book, "Cheat", a young Paris yuppie makes his life's decision.

Who actually made those decisions? This is the question that resonates in my mind after reading the book, due to the complexity, reflected in a readable style, of each of the characters, which is what I like the most of these stories. My favourite is the rural story "Before the Rain", as I live in the countryside and farmer Will somehow reminded me of my late father. You will surely find your favourite among these eight stories and mind you, once you start reading you won't be able to stop.

Dieter Moitzi, raised in Austria and living in Paris, works as a graphic designer besides being a writer. Dieter published Miss Otis Regrets and Other Short Stories and his collection of poems And Somewhere Under on Smashwords and Amazon. Make sure you visit his blog Confessions of a Wannabe Writer for further info about his books and upcoming works.

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Wrought Iron and Tiles

Building an Andalusian balcony is no laughing matter. Visit more Wordless Wednesday participants.

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Green Carnation

It is the first green carnation I have ever seen. When I ordered it online, I thought it was red. I felt free to make a Yellow Monday post with it.

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Orange Trees

I'm sharing more photos from our trip to Seville. Seville is full of orange trees, and when we first arrived there we couldn't believe that there were oranges all over the ground in every street, among parked cars and sideways. And no one seemed to care about them! 

Locals told us that these trees produce sour oranges (esp. azahar, eng. orange blossom). While the fruit is too acid to eat out of hand, it has good flavor and is used to make marmalade and marinades. They also told us that these marmalades used to be exported to Great Britain as they were only appreciated by the British. Orange oil extracted from the peels and flowers is used as orange flavoring and in perfumes.

View of Cathedral and Orange trees Courtyard from La Giralda Tower. The best time of the year to visit the city is spring, when the air is full of the scent of orange blossom. That is, they say, the smell of Seville.

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