If you have wondered, why I’m not posting anything, the reason has been the focusing on writing a book. yes, a book! Just like I didn’t have enough to do 😀 Originally I thought that I’d make it into a small project. Just few facts and some pretty pictures and then releasing it, but I should have learned by now, that I can’t really do things in that way.

The fact is that I’m a biologist. Everything I write or accept through editing, must be scientifically true. No hear say, no rumor, no “I feel like”. It needs to be a hard fact, that has been tested and approved by scientific methods. After all, I am a published scientist; you can find my name (I mean my actual Finnish name) in here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0098847214001567

And what did I write about? Was it about climate change? Maybe about organic farming? What about dog genetics and breeding? Or was it about practical guide to crafting? Noooo. It was about mindfulness. And it’s really a bit funny, at least to me. The reason for it is that those topics that I mentioned are the ones that I was first thinking of, but they became too big projects to me, at least at the moment. Because no matter how much time there has been since my studies, I want to translate these difficult scientific studies to be easily understood by everybody. That is the reason why I started this project so that I can test how ebook publishing is actually working and which ways would be best to work on it.

When I was actively breeding dogs, I kind of drowned those poor new dog owners with a big pile of information. That pile of papers had all the details needed for the first year of the puppy, explained all the genetic issues in that dog breed and basics of how to train a puppy. I’m not sure how many of them actually read it through, but they couldn’t say that they were not informed. I’m putting that information into updated version, and will most likely publish it in the near future.

This first book is just a trial, and I learned so much about editing. I used so many hours for nothing just because I didn’t know how that page will turn out to be on a digital platform. After this process I will be able to focus on more essential work with next books. The beautiful thing in the future is that I will possibly be able to get book covers etc graphic materials from one of my children, who is studying to become a graphic designer. In that way we can join forces and create masterpieces for people to learn and enjoy. This time I used some generated picture without that personal touch that I want to have in future.

Like I said, it has been an interesting path to get it all together and I can admit, that I used a shortcut. The topic was something that I’ve been interested in for some time now, and the foundation of this book was an open source material, which I edited and modified based on my experiences. I have a feeling that I will end up editing it so much further, practically into a new book, when I have more time, but at the moment I will let it be like that. I thought that it would be a good idea to start from the basics and mindfulness seemed to be the first step. That book is the first one of the series about “Finding your path” and I already know how I will continue with it. That series will provide help in different stages and changes in life, and I will use my own experiences in order to help others in the similar cases.

There are so many times when I would have needed some kind of advice or hint how to make my life easier, especially mentally, but that kind of help wasn’t available or at least I didn’t know about it. Writing is a very easy way for me to express my thoughts and feelings, and this possibility to self-publish without high costs is more than welcome to me as I’m still financially responsible for my children. And writing in English is still a bit challenging to me, but fortunately these apps and platforms have some automatic corrections available. If I mix words between British and American English, the reason is that I was originally taught at school to use British English but nowadays most of the services and movies use mainly American English. I still rather say autumn instead of fall or elevator instead of lift, I can’t help it. I ask you to be understanding with my English, and if I write something funny, go ahead and comment about it, I don’t feel offended by it. This is a learning process for me, and I’m happy to help if you need help in Finnish language.

With lots of love

Joana