Hi @Murkas, welcome from me too! Glad you decided to say something 
Are you feeling inspired to share a little about yourself? What brought you to Edgeryders?
Waving from Brussels in the strangest January of them all… 
Hi everyone. I’m a sci-fi writer from Chicago.
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Nice to meet you Bill, and feel free to link us to any of your work or interests! I suspect you’ll be in great company in the Economic Sci Fi discussions here on the platform!
Waving from Brussels,
Nice to meet you too, Noemi. I’ve participated in one and truly enjoyed it. Since I’m lazy I have all my internet stuff in one place at BillMcSciFi.
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Hi Bill! Welcome! I’ve seen your website 
I’m a librarian, always happy to meet writers. I think I read on your website that some of your work has been published. What’s your experience with this, how easy or hard it is to publish books in your community? Does it entirely depends on you and your finances or are the publishers open enough to everyone? Also I’m interested to know more about how do you promote your work now with the Covid situation happening, are public events/literature programs being organized with audience or you do it all ‘‘digitally’’ ?
As of right now I do everything digitally. I’m lucky to have a few literary agents who like me and include me in their events. As to my books, everything is published. I don’t self publish anything. In my case Azoth Khem knew of my writing and reached out to me. I’ve been with them for five years now and am happy. That said, publishers are always looking for new content. If you go to Authors Publish they constantly have companies posting what they need.
One thing is true, people are reading more at the moment.
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Send a short message to introduce yourself!
Hi. I am Slavko Knezevic from Serbia.
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Very nice meeting you and thank you for your generosity and courage to share a personal story!
I will leave a comment on the story page and for whoever is reading - head over here and read something very real:
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Thanks for replying, Bill!
It would definately be interesting to address the subject of the overal impact of COVID-19 measures especially in fields of art and culture.
In Serbia, for example, the plan is to digitalise the cultural institutions (libraries, museums, archives, theaters and such) in the next couple of years. Right now many are not digitalised, except the ones in bigger cities. The challenge lies within small town or rural communities. Serbia had lockdowns and police curfews last year. Many cultural institutions were to transfer their acitivites online and some of the staff is still almost digitally iliterate (again, mostly in rural communities). Not to mention the equipment . And arts and culture always had a small budget. Last year, the Ministry of Culture and Information got 0, 73 % from the budget and after the budget rebalance in July 2020, it went down to 0, 49 %.
During the so called relaxation of the covid19 measures, caffees, restaurants, night clubs and sport events were allowing almost mass gatherings and public events and were relatively free to continue their main activites. Almost everyone, except libraries, museums and theaters. Using the library I work in as an example, this directly led to decline in library membership and usage of library services for 50% .
If one would only look at the statistics, at least in Serbia, it could read that people read less than ever. But the reality is that this indicates a different problem.
Have a great weekend!
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One of the artists I work with lives in Serbia and has kept me up to date. She lives in a rural area and her church claimed that lockdowns lead to lesbianism. As far as I could tell she was looking forward to that. Other than that, yeah, arts and service industries are getting killed. I hope this finds you well.
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Send a short message to introduce yourself!
Hello!
Today I am sharing my story and I am curious of your stories.
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Welcome @Slo-wik, where are you from? I’m looking forward to read your story,
Here are a few you might like… click on the link to read and don’t forget to leave a comment to their authors, it’s very nice when someone who put the effort to share feels heard and appreciated:
- ‘’I Came Back To Stay: Story About A Young Woman, A Mayor Of An Isolated Village In Serbia ’’
- Kooperatywa Izerska: how did it build a rural community and what attracts people to it? (A story from Poland)
I will recommend others after I learn more about your interests 
Send a short message to introduce yourself!
Send a short message to introduce yourself!
Location
Plzen, Czechia
Bio
Researcher, journalist, psychotherapy trainee. Provided with blue collar experience in the UK, white collar exposure in Romania, Dutch degree in neuropsychology and ten years of writing experience, I am parting my time between teaching & research at the faculty of medicine in Pilsen and freelance media activities.
Online presence:
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Hello all!
Curious what are you learning from your grandmothers in these times of covid19?
@marijana wrote a nice and quite archetipal story about an elderly person in the Balkans these days…
I am under the impression that we have a lot to learn from our elderly, but unfortunately it’s not obvious what exactly are we learning. Maybe you have an experience to share?
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Thanks, again, @noemi, I’m glad the story inspired you to ask some questions regarding our grandparents and what we can learn from them.
A small digression:
The story about Vinka, which I translated and edited in Serbian language, was published by the popular local online media portal and it got a nice feedback and - most importantly - many have recognized the patterns in their own lives or in the lives of their mothers and grandmothers. My ‘‘agenda’’ with publishing this story one day before the International Women’s Day was to shed some light on women who came before us and to maybe provide some part of ‘‘the bigger picture’’ when it comes to (fight for) women’s rights. Unfortunately, many of my peers and contemporaries, those whom I’d consider educated and independent women still reside within a deep patriarchal code and some are denying the feminist struggle and heritage which enabled them to be what they are today . In fact, I organized a one-question interview with 20 Serbian and Hungarian women, where they were to give a video-answer to one question: what does the March 8. mean to you? Except one actress, a journalist and a graphic designer, the majority of women talked about ‘‘the special treatment’’ they deserve on this day, the flowers and expectations what men should do in order for women to feel loved and valued. One of the women providing the response about the importance of receiving flowers from men on this day was a judge specialized in domestic violence, where women (and children) are commonly the victims (by the end of 2020., Serbia had 22 femicide cases in a year).
Now, back to the subject 
I agree that we have a lot to learn from our elderly, but I reckon we best learn after there’s a certain time distance between our generation and theirs. I might be wrong. In some communities, the stereotypes and prejudgments are very much alive and in use when it comes to this specific relation between the younger generations and the elder ones.
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I still don’t know what the ‘right’ answer to the question is. I’ve seen in my own feminist bubble that people reject it because of a special day for being a woman, that we should celebrate being a woman every day. Beyond the idea itself, I don’t quite understand (apologies!) if then we, as good feminists, should throw the gifts or attention out the window to replace them with…? Is it about making a point or claiming something else in return?
Yes, I also don’t know what the ‘‘right’’ answer is to this question. Maybe, trying to give a response to it could offer a glimpse into how women in our surroundings perceive the whole ‘‘female matter’’, are they aware of it? It does seem that the ‘‘celebration of being a woman’’ on this particular day mostly is about consumerism and the pressure put both on women and men to act in a certain way, sometimes even the banalization of the women’s rights in the form of - women have the right not to wash the dishes today.
It seems to me that the gifts and that type of attention are not the main issue. For me, it’s not a ‘‘this or that’’ situation, the gifts don’t have to be ‘‘replaced’’ with anything , but I see a challenge if it’s only about one day’s unwritten ‘‘protocol’’: when all the same things are said over and over and the flowers are given while, at the same time, the ‘‘top subjects’’ of Women’s day in 2021. are violence against women and abortion.
But, I am just observing really - not making any conclusions. 