Monthly Archives: October 2013

Be the Solution Not the Problem

27 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Brazil, Working Life

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Export Team with Visiting ClientExport Team with Visiting Client
In the rear: Window overlooking leather factory
Cascavel – Ceará – July 2001

 

When I joined the Export Department at Italbras Leather Producer & Exporter,* I was the oldest woman on the team. The much younger and well-qualified Brazilian export manager put me to shame. She was fluent in three languages: her native language Portuguese, English, and Italian. What’s more, she was adept at navigating the factory’s electronic system for control of production and shipments.

After experiencing the vulnerability of MS Excel spreadsheets for controlling foreign exchange contracts and payment receipts, I proposed the development of a program specific to our needs. Fernando*, the handsome, young newcomer to the Finance Department, was assigned the task. To facilitate collaboration, his desk was aligned with mine, facing each other. His presence unsettled my female co-workers.

“Watch out, Rose. He’s after your job,” one said.
“He even listens to your phone conversations with the banks,” another added.
“Don’t teach him everything.”

How could he develop the program if I didn’t explain every small detail to him? Italbras was a year-old company preparing to take off. Now was the time to put sound systems in place for increased performance and accuracy. If Administration intended to hand over my work to Fernando, they must have other plans for me. I hoped.

Be part of the solution, I told myself. Don’t create any problems for Fernando. Perhaps I was being naïve.

Weeks later, when the Finance Department was moved to a large spacious office on the top floor of the Administrative Building, Fernando and I joined them. Oh, blessed reprieve! No more noise of rumbling drums and battering machines. At last, I could think straight.

In the beginning, the export manager forwarded clients’ payment details by e-mail. Soon thereafter, Mr. Leonelli,* our Italian Commercial Director, instructed all clients to forward payment details directly to my e-mail address. With the addition of new clients and increased exports, I began working with several banks in Fortaleza and São Paulo. When Fernando completed each phase of the program (Access), I tested it for errors.

At lunchtime, I joined my import-export co-workers in the company’s dining hall, located on the first floor of the Administrative Building. All was well between us.

Then the bomb fell. A Friday afternoon. Our export manager was fired. I was summoned to an emergency departmental meeting the next day.

Why was she fired? We could only speculate. Leaving earlier that day, she did not return to Fortaleza with us on the company bus. Her qualifications, hard work, and dedication were not enough to secure her position. When we become a problem—for whatever reason, within our control or not—we lose our value to the company. It was a lesson I could not afford to forget.

At the meeting that Saturday, Mr. Leonelli formed a new three-person export team. Each one of us was directly responsible to him. On Monday morning, I handed over my workload to Fernando.

Back again to the rumbling drums.

 

* Fictitious name

Treading Unknown Waters of America’s Book Industry

20 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in The Writer's Life, United States

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Books by Authors of the Greater Los Angeles Writers SocietyBooks by Authors of the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society (GLAWS)
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books – University of Southern California
April 2013

 

As a newbie to the book industry, I learned early that there is much more to the writer’s life than writing a book. The creative process, the fun part, is only the first of three phases of producing a book. With my manuscript completed, I must now navigate the business side of writing: publication and promotion.

Book production has its own business model and specialists. One such specialist—I’m happy to note—is the literary agent. In an article published in Poets & Writers 2012, literary agent Rebecca Gradinger of Fletcher & Company defined her role, as follows:

The agent is the writer’s sounding board, creative adviser, business partner, and advocate. The agent negotiates the best possible deal for the writer and then stays in regular contact with the editor, who becomes the cheerleader in-house, working with marketing, publicity, sales, and everyone else who has a hand in getting the book out into the world…

Contracting the services of a literary agent comes with its challenges. With so many great writers vying for representation, the demand for agents is highly competitive. One agent equated the process to applying for a job (Writer’s Digest, October 2012).

With so much at stake, a simple letter to a literary agent, known as a query letter, becomes almost as important as one’s manuscript. I had to get it right. Here are the jottings I made of advice from literary agents—published in the Writer’s Digest and Poets & Writers magazine—on how to grab their attention.

  • Address query to one specific agent;
  • Limit letter to one page;
  • Be as professional as possible;
  • No spelling, punctuation, or grammar errors;
  • Style is important, but clarity is key;
  • Identify book by genre;
  • Sell the work, not yourself;
  • Short tease of the plot—identify main characters, include only the most important conflict and action points;
  • Indicate you’re familiar with agent’s client list, books he or she represents;
  • Brief background of writing credits.

Due to thousands of query letters they receive monthly, literary agents cannot respond to them all. On the agency websites I’ve visited, several of them advise that failure to receive a response to one’s query letter within four to six weeks indicates that they are not interested in the project.

Rejections are inevitable. Patience and persistence are a must.

Regardless of how special my book may be to me as its creator, it’s a consumer product that must be marketable. Does my mainstream/literary, multicultural novel have the literary qualities and marketable ingredients for attracting a traditional publisher? Will I find a literary agent to champion my novel? Without the willingness to tread in unknown waters, I will never know.

Drawing on My Guyanese Work Experience

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Brazil, Guyana, Working Life

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Georgetown - GuyanaGeorgetown – Capital and Chief Port of Guyana
Photo by John Greene from MeGuyana.com

My fifteen-year work experience in Guyana played an important role in my success as an international trade professional in Brazil. This was especially the case in the tough work environment at Italbras Leather Producer & Exporter Ltd.*

In Guyana, I had worked in both the public and private sectors: high school teacher (geography and art), university assistant librarian trainee, and executive secretary (equivalent to today’s executive administrative assistant) at local Head Office branches of a multinational oil company and bank.

My teaching skills at simplifying difficult concepts in a step-by-step process came into play in identifying bottlenecks in work processes. At the end of my ill-fated, three-month probationary period at Italbras, my proposed flow chart for a more effective and time-saving control and record of foreign payments and export finance contracts saved the day.

Working in the private sector, I had observed that knowledge was power to guard for one’s own personal advancement within a company. This appeared counterintuitive. My inclination to share know-how appeared ingenuous to some of my colleagues. But my teacher-mentality and training skills paved the way for my professional growth.

The five years I had worked as an executive secretary to top-tier managers—four Guyanese and one Jamaican—prepared me for anticipating the needs of clients worldwide. In viewing a company as interconnected units working together for a common goal, I could appreciate the importance of each person’s role, including my own. Aware of the company’s plan for expansion, I knew that the export department would need restructuring for optimizing the control and flow of information.

Over the years in the workforce, we also pick up people skills. We learn how to work with others, to be part of a team, and to relate with demanding bosses and clients. With each conflict, with each mistake, we learn. We grow. Sometimes, our bosses throw us in the deep end, expecting us to know how to stay afloat.

My first experience of this kind occurred during the year I worked at the government secondary school in Guyana’s hinterland region. After the first term on the job, the headmaster announced his transfer to another school district, leaving me in charge as the acting headmistress. No time for understudy. The Ministry of Education showed no concern for my predicament. His replacement never materialized.

Criticism, opposition, and obstruction came from several fronts. I floundered. I was not up to the task.

The lessons learned during those months of struggle and eventual failure prepared me for rising above Italbras’ company politics and co-worker schemes to undermine my work. When our performance stands out, we can become a threat to our supervisors and co-workers, insecure about losing their promotion or their jobs.

Problem-solving and people skills don’t develop overnight. They are born of risk-taking and putting ourselves out there, of innumerable gaffes and mistakes, of ridicule and failure. It’s what gives the edge to older workers who often lack the high technological skills of our younger colleagues.

* Fictitious name

Tenth Anniversary of Arrival in the USA

06 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Family Life, Relationships, United States

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Rosaliene and Sons - Hollywood Boulevard - Los Angeles - October 2003Rosaliene and Sons – Shopping Mall on Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles – October 2003

This month marks the tenth anniversary of our arrival in the United States. Before setting foot on American soil, my sons and I knew that there would be challenges to overcome. My elation at reuniting with my mother and siblings, after over thirty years of separation, lasted for only two days.

Day One: Arrival.
Day Two: Visit to Hollywood Boulevard. (Captioned photo taken that day.)
Day Three: Showdown.

My mother had expectations that I could not fulfill. Past hurts and differences found expression. You were a problem since you were three. I helped you raise your children so you could work. (I was her firstborn.)

Day Four: My mother moved out.

You don’t give me what I want, you’re on your own, her action said. I had failed my sons. I had promised them that they would have a family in the USA. Within three weeks, with my sister’s help, we found an apartment that suited our needs and purse.

In the months and years that followed, I had hard lessons to learn. I had changed. My mother and siblings had changed. We no longer shared the same values and goals. I had been naïve to believe that our companionship and love would have meaning for them.

When my sons started to work, our relationship slowly changed. I had to learn to let go of control. That did not come easy. You don’t trust us to do the right thing, they complained. I had to work at building that trust. They were no longer kids. Overnight, they had become men.

My sons have had their own individual challenges in adapting to life in the United States. I shared the joys of their early achievements: learning to drive, buying their first vehicle. One learned a trade and became an independent contractor. The other is an electronic games designer. They continue to support each other and provide for my needs. They know that I’m there for them whenever they need me.

When we left Brazil, I had no plans of becoming a writer. I began keeping a journal as a form of therapy. Over time, my writing developed into a hobby to stimulate my mind bored with the repetitive tasks of a retail job.

On my writer’s website, I share my journey as a writer. In December 2011, after four years of research and writing, I completed my first novel, Under the Tamarind Tree. The next eighteen months were spent in revisions, cutting, and polishing. I am currently seeking a literary agent.

My sons and I have forged friendships with generous and caring Americans who treat us with respect and accept us among them. Without their help and fellowship, we could not have made Los Angeles our home. For each one of my friends and my sons’ friends, I give thanks.

“Machine-Man” – Poem by Brazilian Poet Helena Kolody

02 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Poetry

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US Government Shutdown October 2013U.S. Government Shutdown – October 2013
Photo Credit: Weasel Zippers

In my Poetry Corner October 2013, I feature the poem “Maquinomem” by Brazilian poet Helena Kolody (1912-2004). The title of the poem is a combination of the words máquina (machine) and homem (man); hence my English translation, “Machine-Man.”

Translating a poem from Portuguese to English is always a challenge for me. A word can have several meanings. Which one does the poet intend? In some cases, in order to maintain the original rhythm of the poem, I have changed the word order or omitted a word.

As Helena Kolody was born in the State of Paraná, in South Brazil, to Ukrainian immigrants, I have selected a musical presentation by the Barvinok Ukrainian Folklore Orchestra of Curitiba, capital of Paraná.

My Haiku poem “Prisoners” was inspired by Helena Kolody’s reflections on man’s relationship with the machines of his creation. We have made great strides in our technological inventions but our ways of thinking and relating with our fellowman have not evolved at the same pace. At times—like the present state of affairs in the USA—we seem to have retrogressed as human beings.

Where is our compassion for those in need? Where is our concern for the planet that sustains us? Where is our respect for each other? Where is fairness and justice? Where is love?

Where is our humanity?

Does man run the risk of becoming more like the machines he has created?

You can read Helena Kolody’s poem in its original Portuguese and English versions at my Writer’s Website.