A place to 'be'

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:34:08 -0800

I’ve found it surprising to realise how ‘noisy’ and chaotic most of my life has been. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however it’s been interesting for me to look back at my life and see that even as a child I always sought ways to find a place just to ‘be’, no distractions, no chaos; just me, my thoughts and I. From around the age of nine or ten I used to spend a fair amount ...

Have I told you that I'm married to a genius?

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:01:26 -0800

Last week I proudly showed Gina’s books that are on display in the window of Waterstones, Weston-super-Mare, to two bewildered security officers. They were bewildered because their reason for being there was to apprehend me in a shopping centre for taking unauthorised photos within the mall area. Although I had been busy with my camera and tripod, their stealth and skill in executing a covert ...

Coffee coloured conversations

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:06:55 -0700

A particularly happy day today. Gina is an intensely focused writer, often working from the moment she wakes up until 4 or 5 in the morning. As anyone who follows my blogs knows, I am very proud of her and certainly do not begrudge her working practices. It’s always been my opinion that any creative person should never be interrupted when they are in the zone, as I call it, even if it means ...

'Keep kissing the frogs' and wonderful ‘Gina’ stuff!

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:56:10 -0700

I had another first interview today. It went badly, I made rookie mistakes, and, to top it off, I felt that there wasn’t a good match between their needs and my background anyway. So, overall, was it a waste of time? Possibly, but at the same time, maybe not. It just shows that I have become over-confident. I prepared heavily for the meeting and was certain I had all the bases covered. I ...

Love sick - A new interpretation

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:50:01 -0700

I love Gina. Actually, I’m ‘in’ love with Gina, more everyday, if that were possible.You’d think this is a good thing, but according to some people, it’s something that needs to be moderated, analysed and perhaps even made illegal! Deary, deary me.Let me expand on this before you jump to any wild conclusions. A few years ago, an older couple who had an interest in buying our property, ...

Reality bites.. or does it?

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:33:12 -0700

I see myself as a very realistic person, but a realism that has a sprinkle of optimism and hope that is a permanent feature after realising years ago that laying the firm foundations of success has a lot to do with good planning, energy, determination, hard work and belief. And perhaps, a bit of luck.I am not blind to the issues we face. We, as a country, as an economy, have ...

Mesmerised

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:32:02 -0700

Tonight, as I walked towards our home, I paused for a moment and looked at the way it stood, silhouetted against the clear, starry night sky. I took in the grand old shape of the building, a converted Victorian mansion built in the 1850s, and then looked to the left to see the dark outline of the tree-lined hill that dominates the skyline where we live. Above it, the Plough and the North Star, ...

How to get a job - Marketing like an author

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:44:33 -0700

I'm a salesperson of over 23 years. Blimey, I've sold all sorts, from Avon Cosmetics to women in their homes (yep, the only Avon Man my customers had ever seen, which was a laugh in itself, hehe), office equipment, high security paper to governments and banks all over the world, and large scale Enterprise software, hardware and services solutions, to name just a few. During most of my career, as ...

I used to know everything

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:13:16 -0700

Today, Gina and myself were talking about the saying, 'with age comes wisdom'. We know of people where this applies, but they are just a few. A surprising few considering the number of people I have met, let alone compared to the population of the world.This led on to a discussion about my own experiences and how age has never been consistent with what people think I should have been doing in ...

A Writer's 'work' is... non-existent

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:50:43 -0700

Rant alert.I’ve worked some pretty long hours over the years in my job. 80-90 hours a week was not unusual for a very long time and there have been times in our life where, to make ends meet, I have held down 4 jobs at the same time. The thing is, I have never claimed that I worked harder than Gina (Collia-Suzuki), as she sat at home, working almost every waking moment on her true passion in ...

Being a writer’s husband - outside looking in.

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Sun, 10 May 2009 06:16:04 -0700

Following on from my blogs about 'Being a writer's husband' and 'Being a writer's husband at booksignings', I thought I'd post about the tough part of being an observer standing on the outside of a creative process. Over the years I’ve watched Gina ‘create’ through writing, drawing, painting and any other media that happens to be on hand. I’ve watched her (not over her shoulder!) make ...

Long distance connections

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:19:24 -0700

I believe that certain people are meant to connect, wether those connections take the form of spouses or true friends. I think that those people are soul mates who are meant to connect in this life. I believe that if it’s meant to be, no matter what, it will happen. What has surprised me about this phenomena is that, for us at least, is that the connections seem deeper than just meeting. ...

How to get quality promotional bookmarks for just under a penny or just over a cent. :)

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:06:54 -0700

Leading on from my blog about helping Gina at booksignings called 'Being a writer's husband at booksignings', I thought I'd write up a blog about how to get bookmarks for just over a cent each in the hope it would help any of you who do booksignings and wanted some extra promotional collateral. :)If you like this guide, please visit Gina's Red Room page or her own website. We are also on Twitter. ...

Being a writer's husband at book signings

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:10:03 -0700

Following my blog about ‘Being a writer's husband’ I thought that I’d follow it up with a blog about book signings from my perspective, particularly as Gina is five stores into a Waterstone’s Bookseller book signing tour for The Wonderful Demise of Benjamin Arnold Guppy.First of all I run around like a headless chicken the night before and the morning of the book signing. I iron Gina’s ...

Being a writer’s husband

Ryoma-Collia-Suzuki — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:04:29 -0700

I’ve wanted to blog about being a writer’s husband for a while now but have struggled to do it since I feel that my blog entries would end up looking like a to-do list stuck to a fridge with a smiley fridge-magnet or list of single line ‘tweets’ (or ‘twinks’ as I call them) for Twitter. In the end I thought I’d just put down a list of random to-do’s that I try to remember to keep ...