Out of breath, preparing to breathe
I'll take a few minutes to resume what I'm doing with my life these days.
Till the end of February I'm working as Agenda coordinator at EN. In the meantime, I'm asked sometimes to do other things as well, since the Agenda job takes only 3 hours and a half a day. So, from tomorrow till Sunday I will also work as Le Mag coordinator. Basically, it means choosing images to propose to the producers who will use them for their stories. It's not just that, actually, but that is most of the work.
Then I'll have a very busy month in March: on the 12th I'm going to Rome, where I'm staying at my uncle's house, at Albano Laziale. If someone happens to be there, let me know. On the 15th and 16th I'm taking part in the Italian SF convention. This year I have decided to stay only on Saturday and Sunday because of budget reasons. Which are the following: on the 17th (around 2 am) I'm leaving to Istanbul, and then to Diyarbakir, where I'll join the Italian delegation for the Newroz, the Kurdish (and not only Kurdish, but well...) New Year's Day, on March 21st.
My flight from Turkey back to Rome is scheduled for the 23rd at 23.59, which realistically means the 24th. I will be back on Christian ground on Easter Monday. I haven't booked the flight to Lyon because I'm flying with a low cost Turkish company which I don't know at all, and I prefer not to take chances. I mean, if my flight from Istanbul to Rome was cancelled, I would miss the flight from Rome to Lyon. Question: why don't I fly directly back to Lyon from Istanbul? Answer: because the Turkish low-cost company doesn't fly to France, at least for now.
So, I think I'll take the first train to Milan and spend a week at my parents' house. This means I will be back in Lyon by April. If I want to have a party for my birthday, it will have to be there.
But the adventure is not over. I'm planning to go to Cyprus in July, and, maybe in the first part of the month, again to Turkey, this time for a tour with my Turkish teacher to do some interviews and have a look around. I don't know the details yet, but my teacher seems willing to do it. And I really want to visit places like the Black Sea coast.
When I go back from there, I should have enough material to finish my book. My personal deadline is August, so that I'll be free to concentrate on the French SF convention, but I know it will be hard. I'm not giving up hope anyway: I have no plans for April, May and June, so I'll try to conciliate work with writing. AND sleep, of course. Right now, having a regular timetable is helping a lot. I wake up very early in the morning, full of energy. When I'm back home, I am tired, but I know it is because I have worked, and I'm satisfied.
I've also realised that the best way for me not to be frustrated is to be a little more realistic: it's useless to plan 5 things to do in a day when I know I'll be able to do at most 2 or 3. And then I'll be exhausted. I have seen when I'm in Milan I plan to do just one thing a day, and in the end it's much more rewarding because I actually manage to do all that I have planned to do!
So, for the near future, I think I'll slow down a bit. Which doesn't mean I'll be able to write here more often. But, who knows...
Till the end of February I'm working as Agenda coordinator at EN. In the meantime, I'm asked sometimes to do other things as well, since the Agenda job takes only 3 hours and a half a day. So, from tomorrow till Sunday I will also work as Le Mag coordinator. Basically, it means choosing images to propose to the producers who will use them for their stories. It's not just that, actually, but that is most of the work.
Then I'll have a very busy month in March: on the 12th I'm going to Rome, where I'm staying at my uncle's house, at Albano Laziale. If someone happens to be there, let me know. On the 15th and 16th I'm taking part in the Italian SF convention. This year I have decided to stay only on Saturday and Sunday because of budget reasons. Which are the following: on the 17th (around 2 am) I'm leaving to Istanbul, and then to Diyarbakir, where I'll join the Italian delegation for the Newroz, the Kurdish (and not only Kurdish, but well...) New Year's Day, on March 21st.
My flight from Turkey back to Rome is scheduled for the 23rd at 23.59, which realistically means the 24th. I will be back on Christian ground on Easter Monday. I haven't booked the flight to Lyon because I'm flying with a low cost Turkish company which I don't know at all, and I prefer not to take chances. I mean, if my flight from Istanbul to Rome was cancelled, I would miss the flight from Rome to Lyon. Question: why don't I fly directly back to Lyon from Istanbul? Answer: because the Turkish low-cost company doesn't fly to France, at least for now.
So, I think I'll take the first train to Milan and spend a week at my parents' house. This means I will be back in Lyon by April. If I want to have a party for my birthday, it will have to be there.
But the adventure is not over. I'm planning to go to Cyprus in July, and, maybe in the first part of the month, again to Turkey, this time for a tour with my Turkish teacher to do some interviews and have a look around. I don't know the details yet, but my teacher seems willing to do it. And I really want to visit places like the Black Sea coast.
When I go back from there, I should have enough material to finish my book. My personal deadline is August, so that I'll be free to concentrate on the French SF convention, but I know it will be hard. I'm not giving up hope anyway: I have no plans for April, May and June, so I'll try to conciliate work with writing. AND sleep, of course. Right now, having a regular timetable is helping a lot. I wake up very early in the morning, full of energy. When I'm back home, I am tired, but I know it is because I have worked, and I'm satisfied.
I've also realised that the best way for me not to be frustrated is to be a little more realistic: it's useless to plan 5 things to do in a day when I know I'll be able to do at most 2 or 3. And then I'll be exhausted. I have seen when I'm in Milan I plan to do just one thing a day, and in the end it's much more rewarding because I actually manage to do all that I have planned to do!
So, for the near future, I think I'll slow down a bit. Which doesn't mean I'll be able to write here more often. But, who knows...