Inviting you to The Writer's International Culture Share

[Juliette Wade]

The more writing I do, the more I find myself searching around the internet looking for information and inspiration. One of the sources I have come to appreciate a lot is the Folkroots column at Realms of Fantasy (here's a wonderful example by Theodora Goss). I've also been following the discussion of World SF with great interest. Thus, I was very intrigued and inspired when my friend Harry Markov started posting information and stories about his native country of Bulgaria. His posts seemed to have a lot in common with my own articles about living in Japan, and when I spoke about this with Harry, a new idea started to come together:

What if there were a place on the web where writers from all over the world - including the US - could share folklore, local culture, religious stories and details of daily life that would be difficult or nearly impossible to discover through ordinary web research avenues?

Thus was born the idea for The Writer's International Culture Share.

The culture share will start small at first, but with your help I'm hoping it can grow much bigger. I have received much positive feedback on the idea and already offers for posts are coming in (for example, for the Netherlands, Singapore, and England). I'm deeply grateful to these writers for offering to share their native cultures, and I'll be posting Culture Share posts at TalkToYoUniverse every Thursday, compiling an index in three categories: folklore, religion, and daily cultural practices. Check it out here and peek at the inaugural entries... I hope they inspire you to share something about somewhere unique that you have lived.

My sincere thanks to SaraP and poetinahat for allowing me to post this announcement here.

 

[SaraP]

Like I told Juliette when we discussed how best to share this with our International folks, here on AW, I think this is an awesome idea.

There's so much you learn by living in a country that you can't find out by doing online searches. I treasure my time spent in the US quite a lot because of how much it influenced my life, and it was the little things I missed the most when we left. The first time I went back, almost 15 years later, it was the same little things that had me grinning ear to ear.

*prepares participation*

 

[Juliette Wade]

SaraP, thanks so much for your interest and support! I would love to see something about the US from a visiting resident's perspective. I just had a Philippines entry come in, and the Singapore entry will be going up tomorrow. I'm very excited to be learning new things from these entries, as well as to be contributing myself!

 

[SaraP]

I've been thinking about a lot of stuff I could talk about. I've been having some pretty crazy days lately, but your blog has certainly been on my mind.

 

[Snitchcat]

Interesting. Hopping in very late to this thread, but just wondering: would you be interested in an 'inside-out' article (if I get one going, that is)?

 

[Juliette Wade]

Snitchcat, I'm intrigued. What did you have in mind? Usually what I'm getting are people who either live or have lived in a particular location talking about little-known aspects of that location. Some are what I call "insiders" who have grown up in the culture, and others are "residents" who have lived there but come from a different place. Feel free to direct-message me and I'll give you an email where you can contact me.

 

[Chessny]

Hello!

What an amazing idea, I fully support this.

I would be honored to help, if you need it.

I am a norwegian traveller, also known as "Romani", but not to be confused with Gypsy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_and_Swedish_Travellers

I could provide information about this, if you would like.
I have also studied Norwegian folkore, and if this is of interest I could provide information about that.
I spent some months in Africa travelling between Kenya and Tanzania where I spent a lot of time with a Maasai tribe, If this would be of interest.

Hope it's going well for you!

All the best,
Chessny.

 

[Juliette Wade]

Sounds fascinating, Chessny! I'll send you a private message. Thanks for your interest!

 

[Juliette Wade]

Chessny's article is up, and it's awesome! "Travelers in Scandinavia, and no, I don't mean backpackers" http://bit.ly/l6FCk7

Thanks so much, Chessny!

 

[PrincessofPersia]

If you want something about Jewish culture (including Orthodox), let me know. Great idea.

 

[Chessny]

Chessny's article is up, and it's awesome! "Travelers in Scandinavia, and no, I don't mean backpackers" http://bit.ly/l6FCk7

Thanks so much, Chessny!

Hi Juliette!

Thanks so much, was a lot of fun

Good luck with everything!