FULL TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome to the Finding Elara Podcast building worlds with words and sharing those words with the world. A podcast for writers, worldbuilders and Artists that would like to take a mindful look inside their creations. Join me as I dive into the depths of mindfulness and explore worldbuilding in all its diversity ever searching for Elara.

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Hi Guys welcome back to the show. I am your host Dianna and this is episode 16 of the show. This week I am going to talk to you about my plans for 2019 not only with the podcast. But before we get in to the show I know that you are looking forward to hearing who won the raffle that we had going for the last fortnight. I like how rafflecopter works and you can press a button and randomorg does the hard work for you. This week the winner of the competition this time was … Brydee Karra. I have put the picture of the win on the finding Elara group. Congratulations Brydee thank you for entering the competition.

The fun doesn’t stop there though. There is a new competition for one lucky listener that I will give you the details for at the end of the show. These give aways are pretty cool I must admit.  Reafflecopter makes it really easy to set up but as I am using the free version I don’t get the cool perks like subscribe to my newsletter or anything like that. You simply have to check out the finding elara group or friend me on twitter of like me on facebook. Easy as pie.

This last week I admit that I have been taking it a little easier than I probably should be. The kids are completing local swimming lessons my hubby came down with a bug that kept him in bed for 3 whole days and I have the vampire diaries on Netflix with my middle child. I don’t want her to watch it by herself in case she has questions and as I have seen them all before I have been working and watching at the same time. It is not the most productive work mostly checking emails updating the blog and stuff like that. It’s been nice. My oldest inherited my old laptop and has been busy building his Minecraft world at the table also to the three of us have been hanging out. My youngest had been more aventurous playing with her toys and visiting friends or having friends visit. It has been very relaxed.

As always the facebook finding elara group have been great sharing their goings on, I love it when people share things on the page, it keeps things active and interesting. Now it is time for the main part of the show.

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Goal for 2019. I was looking through the previous episodes on mindset as I was setting the goals for the year as I said that I would and I found it hard to really know what I want. I had to think long and hard about what it is that I really feel will be best for this show and my writing. I know that I work better when I have some form of structure so I would like to make sure that I provide that structure for my days as often as possible. Which is much easier when school goes back.

So what is the main goal that I am after for 2019. What I came up with was to be a successful creative that can make a living from her work. I think that is a little broad so I needed to break it down a little bit more. I also think that it may not be possible in a mere 12 months. But I think it is better to aim high than low. What concerns me is the term success and make a living.

What is success to me? And how much would I have to earn to consider making a living?

Simply put success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, but there is so much subtext to that one word. I looked to the internet for some definitions from famous people and it was not really surprising to find wide and varied results. 

John Woden, legendary baskebal coach said 'Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming,' he said.

Author maya angelou said 'Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.'

 'Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm,' Churchill said.

Richard bransen 'My definition of success?' he asked himself on Virgin's blog. 'The more you're actively and practically engaged, the more successful you will feel.'

Deepak chopra 'Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realisation of worthy goals,'

Thomas Edison said 'Success is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.'

Yet for stephen Covey, success is categorically individual.

'If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience,' he told the New York Times, 'you will find your definition of success.'

So I thought to keep it focussed on my writing and my original goal I would like to complete 52 episodes of the podcast this year, so this one with make 2 down and 50 to go. I know that I am going to have to be more organised to make that happen. I am going away with the family and meeting friends in July. We have been talking about this trip for years but 2019 is the last year that we can go with the whole family in toe before my Son will be moving away from boarding.

So there will be 52 episodes of the Finding elara podcast released in 2019 and for my to consider it a success I would like for it to have some form of sponsorship to cover its costs. I have even taken the steps to work towards that goal by sending out emails to a few choice business that I think I will be able to partner up with.

I want to provide content that meets with the essence of the podcast which is world building and mindfulness. Ideally I am hoping to balance out the episodes between the two.

When it come to my writing I want to find a home for my Elara book and self publish some of my other works. At least one novels and one short story.

So the success for me is coming from the results in this case. Then there is the part where I said making a living. Now that is a little touchier, do I mean making a part time of full time income? That may take more than a year and I am not going to achieve that with only one income stream I can just say now that it costs me much more than I am making at this stage.

I have been inundated with emails from other creatives that have been sharing their lofty goals for the year and I have many minor goals that I don’t really want to share with you on the show because I have read that if you share all your goals you will get the same satisfaction in your brain as if you had completed it and hence you are less likely to complete the goal. But I am happy to share the broad stroked with you guys in the aim of mindful practices.

To provide the 52 episodes I know that I will need the encouragement and support of my family as it takes a lot of work to put the show together and I know that after a time it will get much easier. In the meantime though, I am still learning. I think that I will always be learning.

The actual writing is very personal. I still have a lot of self doubt that I have to work through. It all started with completing the work and finding the time to write, making sure that I schedule it in. I am not a prolific writer and don’t intend on becoming one but I would like to be more consistent with creating prose. Or it will never be complete and I will be plagued with what if’s for the rest of my existence.

So that is my main goal for 2019. Please share your goals with me and maybe we can help each other shine.

Buffy night

Buffy night is the segment where I review where my inspiration has come from recently, anything from books, movies, tv shows, art and music. The idea comes from an actual night where I have full access to the big TV in the lounge and watch something with some close friends of mine. I hope that by sharing what has inspired me that you too will find inspiration.

This week I’m going to talk about the second book in the nice girl series by Molly Harper. Nice girls don’t date dead men. And Ari has another review for me Wyrd by Cate Whittle.

I listened to the second book in the in the nice girls series through Audible. It was narrated by Amanda Ronconi with a duration of 10hrs and 13 minutes. The first thing that I notice when I am listening to a new audio book understandably is the narrator. After a few chapters I will know whether I love, hate or something in the middle within the first few chapters. As I had read the first book in ebook form and I had established some ideas and expectations about the characters in my mind. I am not an expert on American accents but the drawl that the narrator spoke with matched what I have in my mind which is a good thing. I enjoyed listening to her, I wouldn’t put her in the love category but definitely some where in the middle. The main character of Jane and secondary character of Joelene where great but all of her old people much the same and the males in the didn’t really work for me.

The story itself was really good. It followed what happened to Jane as she continued to settle in with the life of a vampire, and we learn much more about her best friend Zebs marriage to Joelene who happens to be a werewolf. As with most stories there is a lot of conflict, tension and drama in all the right places. This time the book that she mentions at the start of each chapter was mating rituals of the were. It was appropriate for the story and added levity on a regular basis.

There was a pretty big twist near the end that linked back to the first book and I was pleasantly surprised how it all coalesced in the climax of the story. The were’s in the story live in a large property and have done so for the last 20 generations and due to the human sensitivity of Zeb they want to make a change. This change includes living on a separate property from the land they had claimed. That isn’t the main conflict of the story, just something that I found interesting.

The relationship that Jane has with her sire in this book is also quite interesting. Jane is a reserved librarian who is trying to adapt to building a relationship with a 140+ year old vamp that seems to have trust issue hence adding to the drama. I found it quite entertaining and I am looking forward to reading the next one to review in the next buffy segment. I give this book 4 stakes.

The review from Ari the YA book WYRD by Cake Whittle. She said that at the beginning she thought that it wasn’t going to be bad because it was different to the book that she would normally read but by the end I was pleasantly surprised.

Emma’s Dad married Pips Mum but Emma and Pip don’t get along. Emma tries to be nice but Pip went too far and accidentally turns Emma into a witch and emma uses this to her advantage.

This book was a little bit different, or dare I say Weird. Aribela gave it 3.5 stakes. It is not something that she would normally read because of the way the book was written. It wasn’t full fantasy it was placed in this world more than she would prefer. She likes it when there are more fantastical elements to the story.

And as always at the end of every buffy night … grr argh.

Close

That’s all I have for you today, the music is by bensound.com If you have any question about the show then you can contact me via email dianna@dlnix.com that is Dianna with 2 n’s. Or look for me on facebook as DL Nix on twitter @ finding elara. The show notes are at dlnix.com/016. If you would like to support the show then check out my Ko-fi page. That is K O – F I.com / finding elara. You can buy me a cuppa for 3 dollars any time you like I practically live off black tea so I appreciate any boost to my supply.

I have interviewed Cassie Laelyn for the show next week. Cassie grew up in a military family, forever on the move, Cassie had a childhood filled with countless crazy adventures. Eventually, sunny Queensland stole her heart, and she now calls it home with her husband and their two BMX-crazy boys. Borderline obsessed with the paranormal world, Cassie has a passion for crafting stories involving strong, otherworldly characters in need of redemption. She’s a self-confessed book-a-holic and a sucker for a gut wrenching happily ever after.  When she isn't narrating imaginary characters, Cassie loves binging on TV shows, spending time at the beach, and curling up listening to the rain.

We had a really good talk. She has also provided a copy of her book Unforsaken the first book in her fallen guardian series as a gift to one lucky listener. I have the rafflecopter link on the show notes and on my facebook page.

I hope that you have a wonderful week and keep up the search.