into October (news, an invitation + roads)

News
today, i put the blueprint newsletter for October together. it turned into an own reflection, to revisit and celebrate the editions and features that came into being. here's the online version of it: blueprint newsletter October

BluePrintReview will be pausing for a bit - the focus in October will be on the language/place carnival, which now is reaching its first anniversary. it was in October last year, during the Frankfurt book fair, that the idea for it surfaced. still happy about the way the first edition turned out back then: "language/place #1: a joined blog cyber journey featuring international perspectives on language and place".

invitation: Streets, Signs, Directions
now, for the anniversary edition, i am excited to be the carnival host again. looking forward to receiving contributions for it - the feature theme for the anniversary edition is “Streets, Signs, Directions”, inspired by a recent road trip to France, and the moments of disorientation and finding ones way there. it reminded of the question that is part of every journey, but especially when crossing language borders: how to find the way to ones destination? how to navigate in a foreign place and surrounding - what to do when we don't understand / or aren't understood, when we are travelling in a place that comes with another language?

also, there's this other dimension of street, or a way: the ability to read the atmosphere, the mood of a place, both when it comes to persons and places, and to nature. to be able to read the sky - the signs of a weather change approaching. like on the road above - what still looked pictoresque in the photo turned into an "Orage". that's what the highway signs said. we tried to guess the meaning: "rain showers", "slippery". a bit later, we learned the correct translation: "Thunderstorm".

invited are blog notes, travelogues, photos, poems, videos .. any blog format is fine. deadline is October 20th looking forward to blog entries that take the theme of steets and signs in their own direction. and of course, the edition isn't limited to this topic - a wide range of contributions that connects to language and place is welcome. the guidelines and details of the carnival are up here: how to join.

Roads..
the road from France now also brought me back to the road-label in this blog. i just updated some blog notes with it: life as a journey / road.