The post If Technology, Screens and Social Media are the Solution to the World’s Problems, Why are So Many People So Much Unhappier Than They Were Four Decades Ago When I Was a Child? appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

In a very short space of time, after moving to another company to try a different form of computing known as database management, I resigned late one Christmas Eve Eve. I was sat in a cellar-like office, alone and supporting machines around the world – more specifically the people in charge of them – in case any of them shouldn’t work. Because if they didn’t, the company I worked for wouldn’t be able to provide insurance for the people who were trying to purchase it. I sat that evening and pondered a while before I resigned. All I knew was that spending time with my loved ones seemed a lot more important than sitting in front of a screen in a windowless room where no-one really seemed that interested in either my presence, or my well-being.

Over the following decades, being very competent technologically owing to my training, I have followed developments in the world of technology – and more recently AI – with much interest. Where would they lead? Would it be a good or a bad thing for our world? And how could any one person – myself included – ultimately judge whether or not these developments would be a positive or a negative for Planet Earth?

I remain today where I have always been on the issue of technology. My aim in life is to be happy rather than to be right. I wish to live in joy and peace, rather than to decide that I must have an opinion – or, if I do, share it with others. Opinions shared so very often provide an opportunity for others to disagree. And disagreement can result, inadvertently, in conflict – energetically-speaking, at the very least. At the most fundamental level of my being, I keep coming back to the question “Is more conflict, of any kind whatsoever, needed in our world, no matter how small, or relatively trivial?” Do I wish to perpetuate a world in which conflict already has a significant presence? Or do I wish to create a world without conflict? Disagreement need not, of course, result in conflict. But as someone who works with energy every day, I understand the principles of it very well. For every type of energy there is an equal and opposite force. I therefore choose to emit happiness, positivity and love energy.  I already appreciate these will always come up against the opposing forces, but it feels better than using my precious energy for opinions. Any ‘opinions’ I do have change regularly as I obtain more new information about the world. I therefore enjoy being an observer, reaching my own personal conclusions, and using those to inform my own life and decisions.

And so it is with AI. I have had many differing thoughts about it over time. At a very personal level, I am a highly sentient being. Consequently, I very much enjoy interacting with other highly sentient beings, most of which are created by nature – other humans, animals, flowers, plants, oceans, air – rather than by humans themselves. Does this mean that I must therefore have a singular opinion with regard to AI because it has been created by humans? Do I, indeed, need to have a singular opinion on any topic at all? No. I really do not. I can simply choose to engage with what makes me happy each day, vibrating energetically as highly as I am able to, and leaving the need to have opinions, or to express them openly, to others.

The only opinion I am ever really interested in is the one my heart has each day about what will make it feel full of joy and peace in this moment. So far, for the majority of my life, that has led me to the most serene and contented existence. For me, therefore, that feels the most wonderful way to continue. 💜

The post AI – Must We Have an Opinion? appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

I hope it gives you as much to contemplate as the creation of it has given me.

Claire X

Less Screen More Green report

The post ‘Less Screen, More Green’ Report appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

You can check it out here!

Claire’s World of Kindness and Compassion: The Little Helpers (mysticmag.com)

The post Interview with Mystic Mag – Claire’s World of Kindness and Compassion: The Little Helpers appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

This week, after two and a half of years of effort which involved having to resort to the law, my book series and I are back in the land of liberty. We can do what we want, when we want, and it feels fantastic. Like any mother, if you try to take away my babies, I will fight for them. And that’s exactly what I did for The Little Helpers. Because they are my creation. Mine and my amazing partner in creativity, Emma’s. And there is no way I was going to let anyone try and kidnap and hold them to ransom.

At the start of 2020, after seven years of self-publishing, I was fortunate to receive interest from a London publisher. They had lots of other authors on their books, they had been operating for a long time, and they were incredibly kind and pleasant when I went down to London to meet them. We spent a number of months negotiating the legal contract for them to take on the rights to my book series – a legal contract which in retrospect I am so grateful I understood and took advice over to ensure it was watertight. I was overjoyed at the prospect that they would be able to help me do what it was getting increasingly harder to do as a writer on my own – to get the books out there to even more children.

By 2021, owing to changing world events, all of us were in a slightly different situation from the one we expected. I’m a creative problem-solver and an optimist, however. And my publisher reassured me they were as well. So we delayed the release of a few books, but we decided we were going to keep going come what may. Resilience, persistence and determination are some of the things that The Little Helpers series and I are all about, so I loved that strategy. At least I loved it until…I didn’t receive payment for something I had been promised under our contract. And then I didn’t receive payment for royalty statements on time. And then my excitement at the team I had enthusiastically joined forces with turned into a battle. A battle to get back my rights to my books, as my publisher showed me that they were prepared to fight to keep hold of them, despite not paying me what was due for the sales of them.

Thanks to an incredible team of legal advisors at The Society of Authors, after two and half years, we have won that battle. And I am grateful, so very, very grateful. I have never and will never need the external validation of others to make me feel as though I’m a competent writer. I write because I love it. I create stories because that is what I adore doing. So I didn’t, and I don’t, need any outside recognition for it. Consequently, I am able to step away from anyone who attempts to exploit me for my creativity, my talent or my skill.

That’s why I stepped away from the opportunity to write in Hollywood circles as well, just as that particular door opened itself up to me a year or two before I signed my book deal. At the same time the door opened, I realised that the person holding it ajar for me was also trying to exploit my creative talent financially and would gladly have slammed it in my face if need be. So I left them behind as well. Because no ambition is worth selling your soul for. My self-respect and sense of the treatment I am worthy of means that I don’t stick around anywhere where either are in jeopardy. It’s an approach I would advocate to any creative out there. Create because you are passionate about it and you couldn’t not. Don’t ever do it because you think people liking what you do, or selling more of it, will in some way make you more of a success at what you do. The minute you create something you have already achieved. The act of creation is success in itself.

And so, a few weeks ago, when the Hollywood door-opener returned to visit me – for some reason I still cannot fathom – I was able to tell them that I had made peace with everything.  I suggested they may want to do the same. For I am a creative. I invent. I innovate. I produce the new, and what hasn’t gone before. I do not grasp on to the old. I hold on to nothing. I surrender and let everything go, exactly as the universe intends. My creations are not anyone else’s, and not even really my own. My art belongs to the world. As soon as it is out there, it belongs to the ever-disappearing winds of time that blow all around us every day. Present for a period, only to be replaced forever after by new creations, new innovations, new art.

To every artist, to every creator out there – and I direct this particularly to younger creatives who I have a heartfelt desire to nurture and protect – please know and trust in the value of what you do. And that value really doesn’t have a price. Because what every single artist creates is so unique that it is priceless. If it serves to light up people’s lives, or to educate them, and some people want to show their appreciation for that with money, how wonderful. But when that becomes anyone’s main goal for your art and your creative talent, then do please be careful that you don’t compromise your creative expression, your freedom or your self-respect in the process.

Love, Claire X

The post On the Beauty of Creative Freedom, Self-Respect and Valuing your own Art appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

Today, I finalised the distribution of one of my new books through the worldwide distributor Nielsen, so that it can be purchased in bricks and mortar bookshops. An exciting moment every time. I’m a huge fan of book shops. I have been since I was a small child. In fact, I used to get so excited by being in them that we’d no sooner arrive than my parents had to locate a toilet for me because I got a bit too overwhelmed by all those delicious books and had to cross my legs! I’ve grown of that now, thankfully…

Why do I love book shops? Well, there’s the quiet tranquility of the browsing process. Space just to contemplate the covers that attract you most and then read the back blurb to see if the pages themselves merit further investigation. And the scent and feel of freshly (or conversely, extremely aged) printed paper. Plus the ability to escape into other worlds for just a few moments, taking some respite from the big wide one outside of the shop’s front door (my favourite version of which tends to have a little bell that rings on opening and closing!) And then there’s the knowledge and expertise of those who work in book shops. Their recommendations on what’s good, and what’s not. You don’t generally find anyone but true book lovers behind the counter. Many of them dedicate their life to books, and only books. They deserve to be able to make a living from them. It’s an experience that I like to think all of the children in my life will get to have as they grow up. It’s so very unique.

Today, however, I also got a rude awakening, once again, to the way in which traditional book shops are now fighting to survive in the face of online equivalents. Owing to the quantity of a book’s retail price that is held back by book shops – because of course they have to lease or purchase premises, pay rates, employ staff and so on – I have had to price one of my books at almost twice the price it retails for in stores like Amazon, which operate purely online. £25.99 versus £14.99 to be exact. I didn’t want to do this. And in fact, I’ve done it knowing that as a result, after printing costs, I’ll make but a few pence from each book sale. Yet to price it any higher would risk making it inaccessible to the majority of readers. So sometimes, you have to act on principle. In the new world we’re all creating together (and which my book just happens to have as its title), social impact prevails over profit. If there is a way for more people to access what I write – which is designed to entertain, educate and provide words for both comfort and contemplation – then more access I want to provide. Money doesn’t come in to it. Helping to maintain those things in the world which provide me and many others with beauty, sanctuary and uplift feels more important now than ever.

So, should you be a fan of book shops, and should you want to keep on supporting them (and I very much hope you will), then know that there are many authors out there offering their art up via this route, not because they will get the recompense commensurate with their creative work, but simply because they value the very existence of book shops themselves.

Note to reader: If you fancy a signed copy of ‘A New World’, they’re still just £14.99 P&P included. Drop me an email at claire@claireculliford.com.

The post Why I’m selling my new book through bricks and mortar book shops for twice the price it retails at in online stores. appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

My first task of the day – an attempt to send an email to apply for a committee position for an organisation which I hold in great esteem – failed. It transpires that my email address remains on a blocked list (named spamhaus.org, should anyone fancy a linguist laugh at my expense). Both of my email addresses have been on this list for the last week or two, for reasons my service provider and I cannot fathom given we’ve run the necessary virus/IP checks. My service provider said they would “look into the issue” when I phoned them once again to request their assistance.

After another ten minutes of rather meditative holding on the line whilst listening to the background music of choice for the day, I was put through to a lovely young man. (His voice was somewhat recognisable, so either he was the same person I have spoken to previously, or I’m now speaking to robots with very authentic-sounding, AI-programmed voices – these days, anything would seem possible…). He assured me that he was going to take the matter in hand, but sadly, he could not currently open the resolution ticket they had created on their IT system last week to resolve my issue. Thus, all he could do was apologise profusely for the inconvenience caused to me. I always find it somewhat ironic when a poor soul at the end of an IT phone support line is saying sorry for problems that a technological system, rather than they themselves, has caused. Humans apologising for the malfunctions of the machines they have created leaves me with a little smile on my face. Thankfully, that smile arrived at a most beneficial moment today.

Accepting of the situation – because I’m a huge believer in acceptance of all things just as they are – I realised that there was little I could do regarding my two email accounts at this point, other than wait. Feeling that problems arise so that we may find innovative ways to solve them, however, I came up up with a new idea. I determined I would try using an old hotmail address to dispatch my email instead. I added an explanatory message as to why I was communicating from this old account, saying that I hoped the recipient would be able to contact me at my more usual email address in the very near future – optimism is something I am also a huge fan of. Fortunately, this email flew off into the internet ether without a hiccup. #happytobeahotmailer

Feeling relieved at having had this third email address as a back-up – not to mention a fourth gmail address in the wings, should hotmail ever decide to internally combust at the same time as my service provider is malfunctioning – I was delighted to see an invite had arrived from a client for a proofreading job. The email had arrived some ten minutes earlier. As I logged in to the client’s automated system to accept the work, I received a follow-on email to tell me that the work had now been re-assigned. If I had I already accepted it, I was to unaccept it as it was now no longer mine to complete.

Cue my sitting in silence, staring at my computer screen, and beginning to intone the Nichirin Buddhist chant ‘nam myoho renge kyo‘ (which translated from the original Japanese expression means ‘Glory to the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra’). The aim of this practice is to preserve one’s peace, reveal one’s greatest potential and express one’s determination to bring forth their Buddha nature. Has anyone not yet tried this as a way of handling life’s little challenges, I can highly recommend it. It works a treat.

So, I now find myself with a bit more time to ponder this morning’s occurrences. It seems that the technology that is supposed be facilitating and supporting my professional life has in fact either thwarted my ability to work or caused me to need to participate in competitive sprints to acquire some. I have always been a collaborator rather than a competitor, so trying to coerce me into becoming something I am not by nature is unlikely to be successful. The Nichirin Buddhist viewpoint is that the reason I did not make it ‘in time’ to acquire this latest piece of sprint-to-the-finish-line work is that I am not a competitor internally. Thus my external world will mirror this fact. As within, so without, so to speak. I would concur entirely with that belief in this instance.

I think I shall now consider these recent happenings away from my computer, somewhere beautiful, in nature, like the garden, or my local park. The flora and fauna around me, just like my ‘nam myoho renge kyo‘ chant, deliver time and time again when it comes to facilitating both my professional – and my personal – life. I wonder, therefore, if I shouldn’t perhaps spend this unexpected period of free time considering what future occupation may enable me to use both to good effect. To return to my original comment on perspective, it may be that this whole turn of events was designed to have technology bring about more peace, equality (or should that be equanimity?) and justice in my world – and by extrapolation the collective world at large – in the most surprising of ways.

The post We Need to Talk About Technology and Buddhism appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

The average person who buys a book online or at their local bookshop probably has no idea this is the case – which is why I always feel the need to raise awareness among readers. If the current situation continues, then being an author as a profession will become untenable for all but celebrities and a very wealthy few (which is almost where we’re at right now). And the resulting decline in innovative books of all kinds and representation of minority groups and voices will be an inevitable consequence. As an author whose books include a series for children, this is something that I personally am passionate about countering. The next generation deserve to be surrounded by as many original and inspiring books as possible.

When I explain in some detail how things work in book publishing, people are often extremely surprised, and rightly so. A published author may get somewhere between 10 and 50 pence for each of their books that is sold, and selling between 14 000 books and 70 000 books a year (to reach the £7000 average earnings) is something many authors can only dream of. This explains the decision by many writers to remain or return to self-publishing, as the proportion of a book’s sale price which they can retain – whether through purchases online, in bricks and mortar bookshops, or at book events – is a much fairer representation of the hours they have spent creating their work (…not to mention editing it, making it available for sale in the right places and then marketing it.) Income from their creations and the ability to pay bills with it are, after all, what frees up an author to write more books.

Recently, I had an interesting conversation with a friend who had departed the publishing industry after a number of decades. He left not because he didn’t love books – he does – but because of the attitudes and culture within the industry. Everything tends to be about bottom line, meaning that publishing houses are risk-averse and will generally focus the majority of their time and efforts on publicising the work of already successful authors. They will often go so far as to prescribe the kind of content they wish those authors to put in future books; hence the ‘recognisability’ of the style and content of many well-known authors. Publishing houses simply wish to give readers more of the predictable and formulaic content they are already familiar with – and which publishers know will sell – because it turns out that many readers are risk-averse as well. This is, in some ways, a bit insulting to those readers who are not aware this is happening and opt for something off of a ‘bestseller’ list, believing that because a book is popularised then it must be a better work of literature than many others.

The thing is, risk is inherent in life. And if risks cannot be taken in the very fundamental art of creation, then where can they? Hence the constant upsurge in indie (self-published) authors, who understand that true art leaps over boundaries and breaks down barriers, introducing style and content that veers away from the ‘norm’ and generates new perspectives. In this, a book is no different from a painting, a sculpture or a piece of music – its aim is always to convey what the creator, via their particular medium, feels in their heart and the point of view they wish to share with the world.

So what can be done to help authors who wish to continue ‘authoring’, despite the challenges? In fact, there is much that readers can do to help all authors nowadays.

Reviews – firstly, providing reviews (online, in printed publications, or even by word of mouth) for any books that have been read and enjoyed is a really simple way of helping other readers decide what books may be right for them.

Library books – where a library can be accessed, borrowing a book ensures a small amount is received by the author for their work. Some readers are not aware this is the case and every little most definitely helps.

Buy, borrow and read more books – Reading a book generally takes a number of hours. That means hours of healthy pleasure for a relatively small sum of money (or for free) when compared to what a meal out, drinks in a bar or even a theatre visit may cost. And a book can be exchanged with friends, family and neighbours to bring the cost for all down even further. Books are, therefore, one of the cheapest forms of arts entertainment around.

Share this article – Sharing this article and the facts contained within it with others helps to spread the word so that people become more aware of the struggles the writing profession currently face. Given it is a profession that dates back to the first papyrus scrolls of Ancient Egypt in around 3000 BCE and is the source of much of humanity’s learning, it really needs to be supported if its existence is to be guaranteed for the next few millennia and beyond.

The post An Author’s Life – The Modern Realities of an Age-Old Profession (and what readers can do to help!) appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

Wildlife corridors, in their most natural form, are a very positive part of the global ecological network, enabling birds, insects, mammals and amphibians to continue to thrive. Depending on what they consist of, a wildlife corridor will be favourable to certain species. Originally, natural wildlife corridors were a means of ensuring species could survive and thrive and biodiversity could be sustained.

In the modern world, as urban areas grow ever larger and often amalgamate, wildlife corridors can come to be the dual carriageway going from one side of a large urban area to the other, or an underground train line. Nowadays even a plane travelling between two destinations in different countries can act as a wildlife corridor in some ways.

The newer urban wildlife corridors being created (which often include metal, plastic, concrete, tarmac travel channels and the human or animal bodies using them) tend to favour species which like to live on humans and the animals which can withstand such man-made environments – rats, mice and so on. These species therefore tend to be things like parasites and pests. Just as in natural wildlife corridors, these species move, disperse, migrate and reproduce by travelling along the urban wildlife corridors. Unfortunately, this can mean an increase in problematic species, pests, parasites and thus pathogens and diseases.

It is therefore important that people are aware of what a wildlife corridor is and does. It is essential that natural wildlife corridors are maintained, and even recreated where they have been lost. This is to ensure that species which are useful for pollination and the sustaining of constructive biodiversity can be helped to thrive.

Creating a wildlife corridor could be as simple as allowing bits of greenery to appear along the side of a road between a park and a field. Or it could involve making sure there are plants and flowers around the pathway from the front garden of a house to the back garden. Ensuring green spaces are plentiful and appear throughout urban areas is also vital. This helps to provide a corridor between the core wildlife areas on either side of a a town or city.

The post The Significance of Wildlife Corridors appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.

Developing the ability to solve problems

The Little Helpers series is very effective in naturally activating children’s inherent mechanism for learning. The stories, owing to the subjects that they deal with, provide young readers with challenges that they may not have the tools to overcome, whether through lack of knowledge, or owing to their age and thus a lack of experience. When students are initially confronted by the problems dealt with in the stories, few will be aware of all of the related solutions which already exist in the real world. For this reason, when they discover the creative solutions adopted by the animal characters, they are able to activate their innate ability to learn, by inventing other innovative solutions for the same problems. In part through social learning (Bandura, 1987), which is also referred to as observational learning, upon seeing the behaviour of the animal characters, children assimilate the creative skills of these invented characters. This enables children to replicate, to a certain extent, the type of creativity shown by the characters in the stories; that is, a creativity that contributes to constructing the new world in which they would like to live. Ultimately, it is with this purpose that the innate ability to learn exists in every human being – to develop the capacity to solve problems in their immediate environment, thereby improving this same environment. Centuries ago, it was simply a question of searching for and hunting down food for the family and being able to raise younger members so that they in turn could follow the same pattern. Over time, and with the evolution of our planet, the problems have become more complicated, but the principle remains the same.

Holistic learning

Owing to their design, in part, and also owing to good fortune, the books in the series are also an effective tool for holistic learning (Mujica-Sequera, online). Each one enables teachers to exploit it for its environmental, social, linguistic and artistic content, and also to help learn maths (through elements in the illustrations), geography (the regions of the world where the stories take place), natural sciences (wildlife and natural habitats) and any other subject that may seem appropriate. According to Theodotu (2017: 489) interdisciplinarity is important in education as it tries to unite divided school-based learning to support students in effectively building up their knowledge. In fact, the books in The Little Helpers series can even form part of a programme such as “Play and Learn through the Arts”, which is mentioned by Theodotu.

References

Bandura, A. (1987) Teoría del aprendizaje social. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe

Mujica-Sequera, R. Características Del Aprendizaje Holístico | DOCENTES 2.0 – Docentes 2.0 (docentes20.com)

Last accessed 7 January 2023 https://blog.docentes20.com/2022/07/%E2%9C%8Dcaracteristicas-del-aprendizaje-holistico-docentes-2-0/https://blog.docentes20.com/2022/07/%E2%9C%8Dcaracteristicas-del-aprendizaje-holistico-docentes-2-0/ 

Theodotou E. (Jan 2019 – print) (16 May 2017 – online)

Examining Literacy Development Holistically using the Play and Learn through the Arts (PLA) Programme: A Case Study For: Early Child Development and Care Journal 189 (3), pp. 488-499.(Last accessed 22 December 2022) https://repository.uel.ac.uk/download/500c20fa8f9ab9533a8bf4316ee111d1573565c37d2a716e7a743c5c8350ba90/280129/Theododotu%20ECDC%20-%20Case%20study.pdf

(2015). Can we play again with Picasso Miss? The effects of the arts in children’s involvement during literacy activities in the Early Years Settings: A case study in the Greek context. Istanbul: EBSCO

The post The Little Helpers book series as a tool for promoting problem solving and holistic learning appeared first on Claire Culliford - Fiction & Educational Children's Author.