Monday, February 25, 2013

Chinese Wedding Custom

While preparing for a wedding involving a Chinese couple, discovered a Chinese wedding symbol.

The symbol known as Double Happiness, or Double Joy is considered to bring happiness and harmony to the life of the couple and their family.

Ornamental in design, it consists of two Chinese characters which are brought together to assume a standard Chinese character.

The symbol is associated with celebrations, in particular with the wedding ceremony and wedding gifts given to the bride and groom. One Chinese couple, whose wedding I conducted, presented me with my fee in a small red envelope inscribed with the double joy symbol.

The colour of the symbol is most often red, though in the contemporary wedding a variety of colours are used including black and gold.

There is a love story attached to the symbol which, in shorthand goes something like this,

Boy meets girl.
Boy falls in love with girl.
Girl is instrumental in helping boy achieve great honours.
Boy marries girl.

On their wedding day, in order to celebrate both events, the couple doubled the Chinese character for ‘happy’ or ‘joy’, painting them on a red piece of paper which they pinned to the wall.

And thus arose the custom.

Double Joy


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Saturday, February 23, 2013

ITIN for Australian Smashwords Writers

If you want to publish your book on Smashwords  and you are an Australian citizen, your earnings will be taxed unless you have an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

To get the ITIN you need to make an application to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS). With your  application, you need a letter explaining why you need the ITIN.

If you publish your book with Smashword they will supply you with such a letter once you’ve got $10 in your account.

So this is what I did.

1. Published my book, ‘1,000+ Answers to Your WeddingQuestions’ with Smashwords.

2. Once I had the $10 in my account I asked Smashwords for a letter to submit with my application to the IRS.

3. This has to be an original letter - not an email - so it was posted to me.

4. Since the IRS requires photo ID I took my passport to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Brisbane, together with my letter from Smashwords, and had them copy my passport which they then authenticated with their seal. Before they did this, they asked me to fill a form to say why I required an ITIN.

5.I then went to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website and downloaded Form W-7, which is the application for ITIN. There is also Intructions on how to complete the form.
I completed Form W-7 on the computer and then printed it out. It has to be sent by post to the IRS department.

6. Together with a short letter explaining why I was asking for an ITIN, I sent the completed Form W-7, the letter I had received from Smashwords, and my passport authentication from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

7. I posted it all to
Internal Revenue Service ITIN Operation
PO Box 149342 Austin.
USA

8. A month or six weeks later I received my ITIN number. They even returned the authenticated copy of my passport.
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Friday, February 22, 2013

Publishing E-Books

Attended several Seminars about publishing E-books. First one was 'Digital Publishing Opportunities for Writers'. The second one was 'Getting Published: Industry tips from a professional writer'.

Both seminars were given by Louise Cusack, an international award-winning author whose best-selling fantsy and romance has been published by Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins and Pan MacMillan.

For those interested in writing and learning more about the craft check out Louise's website for writers.


Louise also holds workshops, assesses manuscripts and has helped a number of her clients to get published.



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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Baby Naming Rose Petal Ceremony

Conducted a naming ceremony with two symbolic rituals - blending of sands and showering the baby with rose petals.

Symbolisms, used in a naming ceremony, add drama as well as emphasize some of the more meaningful facets of the ceremony.

In this case the blending of sands was used immediately after the parents' promises to the baby, and included the parents, the baby and the baby's sister.

The showering of petals was used after the promises made by the Life Guardians, and included Life Guardians, Grandparents, baby's sister and the baby's parents.


As the baby was showered with the rose petals, symbolically she was showered by the many gifts of life wished for her.
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