Earlier today I had the annual evaluation meeting with the chief nurse who is technically my boss. It went fine. Until the end when he asked if did any exercised. I told him I did yoga at home. He told me I should walk more.

I wasn’t annoyed when I left the meeting, but the more I thought about it the more pissed off I became. I know that he was trying to being helpful, since he is one of those guys that runs or bikes the 10 km to work everyday. I live too far away to do that. ( And my limit for walking to work is 3 km. Or so.)

I am the first to admit that before I began doing yoga, I was a bit skeptical, since I couldn’t see how it could be effective. Turns out that it is effective enough that I am noticing a difference both when it comes to how fit I am, but also how flexible my leg is. The fact that the yoga is low-key and something I can do when I have time, is making me more likely to keep on exercising. Which is the important thing.

Anyway. The point of this is that no matter if you are dancing like mad while dusting or walking the dog or swimming or running around getting everything done, you are exercising, so go you! And that is what counts. Gyms are good, but it isn’t the only thing. If you look at Runkeeper, Fitbit etc you will see that they count a lot of things as exercising. Some of them might surprise you!

And if you are not exercising.. that is ok too.  Cause what is important is that you are happy. 🙂

In case you don’t know, I can be a bit absentminded. I see things I want to go at, and then forget about it. ( I am tiny bit better when it comes to seeing stuff others might like.) That is what happened this spring. I remembered in May that Fantastika was this weekend. And then forget about it until this morning.

The good thing is that I can buy a membership in the door.  I do have other obligations, but they can wait. I am going on a con that doesn’t cost me a lot of money.  They are pretty rare!  It is going to be fun, though.

In between edits, I am planning for travels, of the vacation with family kind. In March I am going to Madrid to celebrate Mum’s 70th birthday. ( She is getting old. *clings to her mother*)   Which will be fun. BUT! The big, really exciting part is that I am definitely going to New York in June. This was originally planned for last year, but it fell through since everyone else couldn’t get time off from work/med school/ drama school. The hotel and plane tickets are booked, so we are going this year. (Yes, I know, I will be a melting puddle, hush.)

That isn’t the only plans that are taking shape. I am already plotting for August 2017. World con in Helsinki! It is going to be great. Seriously. I will get to see so many of my overseas friends. It will also be nice that I don’t have to spend lots of hours on a plane. Helsinki is just a hop over the baltic for me. I have been there once, briefly (= 6 hours)  but it was a nice city. I look forward to spend more time in it.

Here comes a list of 10 entirely random things that happened this year. And that made me happy. 🙂

1. Getting a renewed contract at the day job.
2. People buying my books!
3. Travelling to Prague
4. Seeing my Irish friends at Octocon! And meeting new people.
5. Publishing The Cauldron Bound
6. Finally reading Silver on the road by Laura Anne Gilman. ( She teased me for years. *sob*)
7. More Elantra! More Senyaza! More Celta! Simply more really good books.
8. Archipelacon
9. Helsinki 2017!
10. Taking the time to write just for me.

Here is to 2016! 🙂

1. I Have written 3600 words in the last two days. Yay. In addition to the other 3000 words I wrote Mon-Wed. Which means I am at 6700 words so far this week. Woot.

2. I have reached the part of the story when I begin veering away from the outline. Which is always fun. I have also realised that I began to story in the wrong spot. But I should be able to finish the draft without much problem.

3. I have decided that I am not going to Gripsholm this year, since they are only open on weekends between 12-15. Which is too short, since I do not trust the train to not be late.

4. I am plotting a London trip in February. Yay. I am also plotting things for mum’s birthday. ( It involves somewhere warm.And good food.)

5. In 6 weeks it is christmas.Eek. Since I haven’t bought christmas gifts yet. I had planned to do it today, but it was very, very windy so I just bought groceries. Also, I am making fudge tomorrow! I might send some of you some.

6. Chrysoula Tzavelas has a new book out. You should buy it!

7. I got to tell Robin D Owens, Di Pharaoh Francis and Michelle Sagara about their RT nominations before the public announcement, since I snapped up RT:s offer of a 12 month digital subscription in July, during RWA. Yay. I am always happy when good things happen to my friends.

 

So. Awhile ago, the news broke that a romance between a Nazi and a female jewish prisoner  had finaled in the RITAs. I hadn’t planned on writing anything, but then yesterday Bethany House posted a non apology.  And well, I changed my mind.

I don’t speak about my family history online, but this time I will.

While I am not Jewish, my father is, as is my aunt, uncle and several of my cousins and most of my extended family on my father’s side.None of them is practising. But my father is, even if no one in his family is a practising jews.

My great-grandfather and his siblings brought their family to Sweden from Poland before World War I, when the pogroms were common. They were choosing between Sweden and the US, but they settled on Sweden since it was close and they had already visited once.  (If you want to get a hint of how bad things would come, I recommend The Crime and the Silence by Anna Bikont. I haven’t gathered the courage to read it, yet.)

I have lost count how many times I have heard about how my grandmother had a bag packed during the war, in case she had to flee when the nazis invaded Sweden.  Yes, it is humbling to hear those stories when you are a teenager.

On the other hand, I also grew up with my non-jewish mother’s hatred for Poles, since they had managed drive away all their jews. Yet, I was taken by surprise when I idly mentioned to Father that I was considering going to Riga for my birthday. He patiently explained that Riga had been emptied by jews, and he would prefer to not go there. Which is one reason why my family doesn’t go to Eastern Europe. We go to Western Europe, and Southern Europe but not Europe. There are simply too many places were there used to a flourishing Jewish population, but they were either driven off or departed.

And this is almost 70 years after the war ended. I don’t know how it is in other European countries, but in Sweden the war is remembered. I was ten or twelve when I first read Anne Frank. I also saw it as a play. Other classes go to Auschwitz, though I never did. The takeaway is that it will be remembered for a long time, since Europe wants to avoid another war like it.

It is my birthday soon. And I am being asked by my family what gifts I want to have. And I don’t know.  Mostly because what I want are things that my family cannot give to me. I want my contract to be renewed, my books to sell, the draft to be done, the new Laura Anne Gilman book ( out in Nov), the new Nalini Singh book ( out in Sept).

All of them are out of my hands. I cannot control my sales, or the fact that all the books I want isn’t out yet ( and most of them seem to be out either in Nov or Sept. Argh.)

But! I do have the new Aliette de Bodard novel, which will be my reward for finishing the revision.  It is the first time I hold off reading a book until I am done with revisions. And it is really hard.  I think I will give in before I reach the end of the draft, but today is the first time in ages I have done any decent progress.

If I keep up this progress, I will done in 10 days or so. Which would be really nice.

And then I will either write The Silver Hand or type in Frosthold. It depends on my mood. Probably Frosthold. I have another idea, probably short story, featuring dryads and grass elementals that I want to write, but I need to get back into the universe first. And then there is Tarre, the sequel.

 

 

This is the brownie recipe I use, it is based on this recipe by Gina Homolka, except with some tweaks. I didn’t like the taste the water gave it, so I switched it out. I do think that if you replace the butter w oil, in the original recipe, you can use it for brownies in a mug. 

2-4 tbsp butter

1/3 cup sugar ( I prefer brown sugar)

1 egg

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

flavouring ( go wild. I have added a splash of coffee, cinnamon, etc.)

Pre-heat oven to 200 C

Melt the butter in a saucepan, remove from heat, stir in sugar, egg and cocoa powder. Mix until smooth, before blending in the flour, when there are no streaks, add eventual flavourings. Then, add the baking powder. Stir until the baking powder is blended in.

Grease a small pan , and pour in the batter.

Put in the hot oven for 10-12 minutes.