October: horizons, nano writing plans, storm roses, enjoy more & Frankfurt bookfair + documenta clips

Back home. I am typing this while October rain is falling. But it is good to be home. We were so lucky with the weather in Spain, with sunny days, the colourful and beautiful places of Mallorca. Only our last island day was cloudy, like a bridge to the autumn that waited back in Germany.

Such a difference, the island time and the water horizon. It brought space to pause, to reflect, and to spin ideas.

One idea that took shape there: maybe taking part in the National Novel Writing Month in November. And writing the book I have in mind since I went through the cancer diagnosis and treatments and recovery.

I feel, now would be a good time with some distance to it, looking more at the larger themes, the time of going through treatments but also the time afterwards. The focus would be on reflections and advice, things that can help, practical advice and emotional, too.

The idea shaped through the previous challenges, the 100 days and the 30 paintings – the way such a challenge brings energy and connects with others who are going through the ups and downs of creative challenges, too. Plus, in summer, a friend told me about a book she has written and is editing. Of course I was curious – and she sent me the edited version to read in Mallorca. She had written the first draft during Nanowrimo last year. And talking with her about it brought the theme up of joining again. And made me look at the nano page – they actually have a preparing month now, “Nanoprep”, for figuring out what to write, and for outlining and plotting. There are a lot of blog posts and youtube clips going online now with advice. It feels inspiring.



So step by step things start to take shape. I now have a nano-pinboard :)
And I started to follow some of the hashtags: #preptober #nanowrimo...

The plan to write also takes the edge of the upcoming colder and darker season: windy and rainy is good writing and reading weather. The garden here is still colorful, though, and my "storm roses" - the ones I once got as gift from a flowershop, as they had been damaged by a storm and couldn't be sold anymore - they are happily in bloom, I took the photo after October storm Xavier moved through.



What also is happily in bloom: my daily digital paintings. I paused during the island time, and thought they found an ending point, but now I am back to them. It turned into a good, colorful ritual: playing with shapes and shades at the end of the day.

This is the latest one, from this evening. Inspired by a tiny big facebook challenge: "Share your best advice in 4 words or less. - I am curious for responses. What four words of advice would you give me?"

My 4 words are the reminder i wrote once on my little travel diary, and since then, note down before each journey, as I tend to do the opposite sometimes: worrying about all that might go wrong, especially on a trip, instead of enjoying the present moment. :)

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Next week, a short trip waits for me: I will visit the Frankfurt Bookfair again. Looking forward. Last year, the visit brought a good suprise: while I was there, an art project of the upcoming Dokumenta was presented - which gave the impulse for me to finally go and visit the Documenta in Kassel. 

Here's the memory from last year:



Frankfurt Bookfair 2016: Snapshots, The Arts, documenta, forbidden books, a poetic shore + a personal reflection
..... "The Parthenon of Books" is an art project that will be shown in 2017 in Kassel at the documenta, and which now officially gets started: The argentinian artist Marta Minujín is collecting books from forbidden and persecuted authors for it."

And here's the youtube-clip that I put together after visiting the Documenta this summer, with the Parthenon of books as intro image. (or rather, that my smartphone put together, i just edited it a bit. interesting how it picked the images and combination):




Actually, there are 2 more videos... ah, all those moments:

Day 2: Green people are a recent invention


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Links + More:

For more about me, visit my webpage blueprint21.de.

For more tiny colourful moments, visit my instapage: lifeasjourney.

This blog post is part of skywatchfriday, because I really like skies.