My new books blog from now is here at Diary of an Adventurer.

Now, this is wonderful. I googled my pseudonym, having used it just once so far on my Twitter account. It comes up tops straightaway. This means that I can now be readily found using that pseudonym on the Google search engine. This is extremely encouraging for me as a writer to begin a substantial body of work for the web, where my stories and thoughts can be found and and read easily and so too, printed work recorded on the web, as when compared to my real name, which currently begs at least 8,910,000 listings thereabouts.  My pseudonym only has 13. This is cool. At least, I have a place; even a public search domain on the web with which to develop and finally call my own.

Settling for a Pseudonym

Do you know that there are presently 8,910,000 listings for the name Susan Abraham on the internet? That would explain why of late, I can’t get a word in edgeways.

No matter, that I open up a Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter etc. account or even for that matter when you consider the publication of early online reviews and poetry; each one is subsequently drowned by a deluge of many many other Susan Abrahams who may have got there first. There are sculptors, boutique owners, engineers, chemical scientists, the odd poet and yes, authors…who are all thriving well on the internet complete with their own websites and other important accounts.

I  understand this since I decided to return to serious writing so late in the day. It really is the case of The early bird catches the worm.

Even Susie Abraham, Suzan Abrams etc are all popular.

Hence, I have decided on a pseudonym for the future, to be called Suzella Abrams.  Plus, it only has 13 listings.  And this by initials which means that the first and last names link up to others.  In other words, it will just be me, shifting to a whole new home on the Internet. I hope from now to create a sustainable body of work with the new name.  So  that is what you want to google from today to read new work by me.

I will add it first of all on my Twitter account  and probably for Diary of an Adventurer. I will open a new blog on books and literature. My  inspirations on Interlude, I will publish into a little P.O.D. book so at least in later years if I want to dwell on my own reflections, they’re all in one place and not scattered on the web. It will also contain other verses that I’ve placed on the web.  I will leave some permanent links here later.

I will continue to use suzanabrams as my long-time poster name on the Guardian.

I’m reading Louis de Bernieres’s newest novel called Nothwithstanding. The title, holding the name of a forgotten English village carries the appropriate flavour of country life tales reminiscent of HE Bates & Henry Williamson.  Its comedy composed of everyday bungling escapades also reminds me of H.G. Well’s Mr. Britling Sees it Through.  Nothwithstanding is so funny with its community of eccentric characters and this too, imbued with the author’s  dry humour that I have to stop myself from laughing aloud in public.

After a gap, I will continue to use this blog to post my thoughts on books and writing from a personal perspective but… I have to finish a couple of writing deadlines first so I’d say in a fortnight’s time.
I have another one above but that  is more inspirational. Those posts reflect my constant  joy at life.

2009 Man Booker Prize shortlist

Just seen the Man Booker Prize shortlist for the year.

Here it is:

The Children’s Book by A S Byatt (Random House, Chatto and Windus)

Summertime by J M Coetzee (Random House, Harvill Secker)

The Quickening Maze by Adam Fould (Random House, Jonathan Cape)

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer (Little, Brown)

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Little, Brown, Virago)

Notes

This morning in Dublin, I did something I wasn’t able to do since I first moved to my new apartment, just 2 days before flying off to East Africa.

I was able to enjoy the balcony view of the skyline with a mug of tea in my hand!  One of life’s simple but priceless pleasures.  I forget that it’s September and officially autumn now. There’s a strong cold wind blowing and I saw only 3 birds. The gulls are nowhere at all and I fear could be migratory with the changing season. How I shall miss them!

The sky wore a fat black cloud that later, spread to a thin veil of grey.  But at the time that its skin was so thick with a nimbus, the cloud’s black coat had collapsed into countless wrinkly folds like that of a very old man or woman posing with a large flaccid stomach.  Everything feels homey and I am just lounging about  at the minute.

I have a wealth of material in my head with which to write stories but it’s perplexing knowing where to start.

Back in Dublin at last.

So much writing to do and I feel quite excited about this.  Can’ t believe I’ve been to 7 cities in just over a week. Both the cities of Arusha and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, then back to Dar es Salaam  for one more night and from where I first started. Then a plane on  to Dubai and I actually spent the last 4 days exactly once more in Kuala Lumpur.  Then last evening it was back to Abu Dhabi  and here I am at last in cloudy, windy Dublin.

Des just made me a super English breakfast. How long was it since I last ate one?  My favourite Dar hotel serves excellent breakfasts at its early morning buffets but Tanzanians enjoy spice with their first meal. So it isn’t unusual to happen upon a tray of potatoes fried with chilli or even curried lamb served together with tomatoes, sausages and omelettes at the break of dawn.

I have to rest a little now and go downtown but am so looking forward to writing my stories for publication now and also for the internet in the hours and days to come. Also, several backdated emails that need my attention.

Will honour your requests, Wordy.

Returning to Dublin today. Give me a day or 2 to settle down and I’ll tell you all about my trip. Des has promised to edit my videos with his professional slant. I am quite the dunce.

I want to show you the giraffes, zebras, pelicans and flamingoes and oh my God, you can’t believe how snobbish and vain the monkeys were.  And lions. This time round, by pure chance I saw packs of lions unfold in almost every safari park. It’s terribly hard to see these feline creatures. But you know, the Masai who own and live on the vast plains of the Tanzanian landscape – and I have stories to tell you of the Masai – believe that you’ve never really been to a safari unless you’ve seen a lion.

Update

I’m not yet in Ireland. Just wanted to say that I have tasted several different experiences in these last two months…including my new apartment in Dublin which I’ve still not lived in properly – I had just 3 days there I think – that it feels joyful just to be returning to my new home and of course, to Des.

It may be time for some changes on the web for me. I don’t want to open a website for the moment…the necessary one that requires me to buy a domain name until I’ve triumphed over a couple of major situations which should happen for me in the next 6 to 8 months.

But I badly need a website so I’m thinking of opening a temporary free one when I’ve settled down in Dublin in these coming days. In October, I’ll be travelling internationally again.

I think for me anyway a one-page blog doesn’t work because I hold eclectic interests. Not just books and writing but also travel which opens up many roads and stays a multi-faceted subject. I also have to seriously think now of publishing my stories.

If I caught everything on a blog, I would start meandering and my themes would not in any way be streamlined or focussed. This thought doesn’t sit well at all with me. In a website, I could have sections (that are actually weblogs and which I will update regularly either being one or the other) like Travellers’ Notes… Books… and so forth. Then readers could simply go to what interests them. And I would like a slide show for my photos or display of videos.

I would still do author interviews now and now and write book reviews for stories I hold worthy in my opinion.  However, I think too it’s important to write about my own stories and to promote my life as a writer, for a change so people don’t just see me as merely a blogger which I’m not. 

I would also like a vibrant site; one that reflects the fast pace of my life. I have found something so let’s see when I get back.

If you asked me why I’m often restless and just can’t stick to one blog, I think my most honest answer would be to blame my travels. Everytime I do something different abroad, my life, thoughts and perceptions change in numerous and major ways. My interests in literature, food, music and cinema amongst others all broaden considerably. I then find I am no longer able to even relate to a shadow of what my old blog once represented, no matter what I’ve written in it. I then shed my old blog I suppose like a reptile would of its dry scaly skin for something else new and precious. I’ve noticed this pattern and find the observation fascinating.

But of course, this wouldn’t relate to anyone who finds comfort in a parochial community or thrives on a slick everyday routine. I wouldn’t herald a parochial existence as it narrows a big world into a matchbox one. But I do find someone who conforms to a tight routine from unavoidable commitments,  a performer of a  highly admirable trait.

 However, destiny has called me to live life differently from most and you’ll know too when I tell you later what I’ve been up to.  It isn’t that one life is better than the other. Far from it as bliss knows no boundaries and can satisfy an individual from any source. It’s just that mine is unusually placed.