Chissick Chat, part twenty-six, with Syldinada
Hi, and welcome to my blog. Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself and your books?
Hi, Syldinada from Syldinada's Blog. And yes, one word. I came to social media late, on purpose, putting it off as long as possible. At the time I was finally pushed into it, most people then knew me as Syldinada, a gaming name I had kept across various games, in forums and so on. It really was the only option for social media at the time. I didn't even have a photo of myself. Was just never an issue, especially during my adventures. Those are indirectly connected to my writing. I write about the *Application* of Understanding, Awareness, Ways-of-Being and Ways-of-Living, the underlying psychology and philosophy involved. Writing came about as pressure to communicate what I had spent a lifetime developing, which is a comprehensive Way-of-Living, or a Practical-Personal-Philosophy. The comprehensivity of the world-view involved, of the psychology, the practice and application, especially since it involves many concepts and perspective somewhat unique, present a huge writing challenge. The uniqueness of many of the fundamentals not necessarily in their conception, but in their Application and their interconnection. Especially that interconnection. When one connects to the Abstract Concepts of it all, the connections cease to be linear, they become spherical, 3D. Each concept connecting with multiple threads in many directions. This presents a massive problem when it comes to communicating and relating it all. It can't be laid out in a linear fashion. Any attempts to write it in a non-fiction way leads to an inadvertent prioritising, simply via the order. This led to me present it all in a fictional setting, that way as the story unfolds, as we interact, we get to see the philosophy and concepts applied and explained. Repetition and overlap not a problem, but adding to it all. Thus my writing focuses on Utopian and Philosophical Fiction as genres. What, or who, inspires you? An incident when I was ten inspired me and set me on a path I am still on. A singular incident, which in my personal stories, marks the transition from The Young Boy's Story, to The Young Young Man's Story: At age ten, a year in which so incredibly much happened in my life, one particular incident resulted in a personal change and inspiration that is still with me.
I would cut strips of rubber from the inner tubes of car tires, (they still had them then) for the purposes of shooting them at things by grabbing one tip between thumb and forefinger, looping it over the forefinger, stretching as far as needed and releasing simultaneously. I became adept at this, being able to shoot mosquitos or flies with impunity, or knock the ash of a cigarette in my brother's mouth. (Also the year I started smoking.) One monumental day, I aimed at a fly sitting on a naked light bulb hanging in a hallway of our home. My shot accidentally hit the light bulb, causing it to explode. This had never happened before, despite having done so many many times. I was put out, bothered, and upset at my miss. When my mother came to investigate and saw how upset I was, she said: "Well we can't all be perfect." This statement had a profound impact on me. I replied with total sincere earnestness, "Why not?" But my response was not aimed at my mother, in that moment I knew already that she was locked into a conventional perspective and had not thought the matter through. I then went to my room, closed the door, lay down, and proceeded to think the matter through to its end. I developed my very first act of philosophising then, which was to define what exactly perfection meant. This led me in turn to Application, and what would be necessary in life if the pursuit of some form of perfection was undertaken. I realised that Awareness was the key ingredient. From that moment on, my entire life was inspired and focused on the Development of Awareness. This still inspires me, as I see it being the point and purpose of life itself.
Do you enjoy reading the same genre as the one you write in? Yes. Although I have enjoyed most genres and was a most prolific reader in my youth, averaging well over a book a day for decades. Lol, my reading story is a story in itself, there is a lot more to it. But in response to the question, yes, but there is precious little similar to what I write, unfortunately.
Has any of your research taken you to an unusual place? Yes. However not research for my books themselves, but further research into the underlying of it all. This led to a reading project, a massive effort, the end result of which was to become aware that I was seeing by philosophy in print. It was a freaky moment when this first happened. I encountered an exact sentence I had thought up before. Especially peculiar because the writing was a translation from German. I was astounded at how it could be possible. At first, I put it down to coincidence, but as more and more ideas corresponded, I realised that some thinking simply develops and leads to the same ends, or so it seemed at the time. But, I came to see those correspondences more as manifestations of intent, than of similarity of thinking. This all led to the Application of it all, actually *living* my philosophy. This led to many many strange places, wonderful experiences, and adventures. Many I wouldn't easily believe if I had not experienced them myself. But after a while, they became so numerous, I had no choice. Life for me changed then, I had to acknowledge that the way we think the world works, is not so. :) :D What are you working on at the moment?
A few different projects. Getting book one of The Biella Series finalised for publication, continuing to write on a few different books, some related to the series. I am also setting up an online university, Anew U University, focused on personal development. A huge project integrated with the books.
What are your future writing plans? Getting all the tons of content and material I already have edited and published. I have a few dozen books already, or mostly, written. Another big project is to further expand the supplemental works for my Biella Series universe. These are books, written by the characters in the series, or academics, journalists, researchers and so on. Many are only fragments of old works, many short collections of quotes or essays, but many are full books also. Like on education in that universe, or law, politics, and so on.
Also personal matters of interest, like my main character writes a surprising book called Golf With Grace. Golf is not mentioned in the early books of the series. Might never be. But it is a very real book, not only as a spiritual and philosophical work, but as a very real golf instruction book. And more similarly which provide depth and insight into the broader life in the series universe. I love series that develop their universes horizontally. Lol, I have literally millions of words of content and material. I need a team of editors! :) :D Is there anything you don’t like about writing/being an author? No, nothing about writing itself. I love it, enjoy it, find it easy and fun.
*Perceptions* regarding writing can be a trifle bothersome. These lead to distorted reader expectations which can be problematic. Like "Stick to a genre." Bah. Such formulations lead to narrowness of perception and Awareness that leads to limited writing, and reading. A waste. Similarly with the "rules' of writing. like "Show don't tell." I see this come up regularly in the many writing groups I belong to. Typically the "Show" example provided to me are not nearly as good as the "tell" example that supposedly needs to be remedied. But this subscription to formula and convention corrupts more than just writing. I am not saying the "rule' is bad, simply, like everything else, it is about appropriateness, and depends on the story. But this is sadly seldom emphasised.
Quick Fire Questions …
Tea or coffee?
Sweet snack or savoury snack?
Real book or ebook?
Cinema or DVD?
Cat or dog?
Weepie or action movie? None of these are answerable for me. I change a lot as a person. It's a continuous process. All of these depend and vary depending on circumstances. In addition, I make a conscious and deliberate effort not to fall into habits, breaking them and changing them simply for the awareness exercise of it. I switched from being right handed to left handed for this reason, among a bunch of others. And I had no reason that necessitated this switch, purely done for philosophical reasons of Application. Like there have been times when it was more tea than coffee, or the opposite. But atm it's mostly a custom blend of cocao and hot chocolate.
With the books for a long while I only listened to audio books. Preference doesn't matter to me much, it's more what's most Appropriate. Lol, the root of my entire philosophy. I truly do live it. It's useless as I see it otherwise. :) :D My entire life has been unconventional and the way I now live and am is also so. I don't mean to be difficult with these questions, it's just that they are pretty much unanswerable as asked.
And to Finish, What is your favourite …
Food?
Drink?
Movie?
Book?
Colour?
Saying/Proverb?
Song? Same applies here. I refuse to have favourites. This started as a boy. I always felt having favourites limited the world, limited our enjoyment and fun, limited awareness and perception. Like in food or drink, everything I like is a favourite. Otherwise, I don't like it. :) :D
But, having said that, I do have One Favourite, and that is the concept: Appropriateness. From it, everything else follows. Awareness, perception, understanding, perspective, variation, changes etc. Everything. Many thanks for taking part in my blog. I hope things are progressing well with the publication of the first book your Biella series, and good luck with your University.
