5 Swedish National Parks that I want to visit

On 05/07/2014 By MikaelaIn Life

This was prompted by Paul Weimer’s guest post at Pornokitsch about US National Parks. 🙂

There are 29 Swedish National Parks. So far, I have been to 4 of them. But I want to go to so many more.. Here are the current top 5, listed in decreasing likelihood of an actual visit. LOL! .

Gotska Sandön:

This is a largeish island located North of Gotland. It is surrounded by the Baltic Sea on all sides. The soil is sandy, the island is flat yet it is very beautiful. I have wanted to go there for years, but I haven’t gotten around to. Yet.

Ängsö:

This is also an island, with a lot of meadows and fields. And a lot of flowers. When it was formed in 1909, it was because of its many flowers. Sadly, the government believed in wild nature, so they let it grow with out keeping up the traditional farming that was the reason for the diversity in flowers. They realised their mistake, and now it is maintained the old way. It is actually closeish from Stockholm, with ferries leaving regularly. It is a great day trip if you visit Stockholm.

Abisko:

Abisko is located in Northern Sweden. It has breath taking nature, with a lot of mountains, forests, and canyon. And it is one of the northern National parks that has the best communications. It is just 3 hours from Arlanda, and the train stops just outside the hostel. It is more pure laziness that I haven’t visited it yet. Also, you are supposed to hike. And I’m not a hiking person. 🙂 But I have a feeling that if I mentioned that I would like to go to certain relatives, they would encourage me.

Tiveden:

This is an ancient forest located in Central Sweden, 2-3 hours away with car from Stockholm. It is rugged, and wild. One of the few wild places that are left in this part of Sweden. Unlike Abisko, a car is necessary since there is no buses. Or at least that’s the impression I get from the webpage.

Sarek:

I think I was 16 when I read a book about Sarek. And ever since I have wanted to go see its breath taking views. Sadly, I am not a hiking person, and that’s why you visit Sarek. But I still long for it. 🙂

I honestly think the only way I will see the Northern parts of Sweden is by booking a trip on Inlandsbanan. Which is also on the to do list, along with Hurtigrutten. 🙂

If you want to read more about Swedish National Parks, you can visit www.svenskanationalparker.se

E-reader woes

On 29/06/201405/07/2014 By MikaelaIn Life

Last night while I was reading, my faithful Cybook Odessey froze. I cursed, pressed the power button to restart it. When nothing happened, I cursed some more before letting it charge over night.

This morning, I tried to restart it and nothing happened. So I tried to do a hard reset. Did it work? Uhm. Not really. Now it is caught on the start up screen.

And when I connected it to mum’s laptop with a vague intent to reformat the internal memory, the computer didn’t recognize it. sigh.

So I guess I’ll have to get a new e-reader. The drawback is that I am not sure if I want to get another rebranded Cybook Odessey. Why? Because the Swedish bookstore that sells them insists on making their own modified firmware. Which is really annoying when add in the fact that Bookeen, the French company that makes the Cybooks, offered one of their rare firmware updates. Grr.

Except it is on sale right now. Hm…

The other option is Kobo. The problem is that Kobo isn’t available for me in Sweden. Which would mean I’d have to wait until Dublin before I get a new one. (Yes, I could get a Kindle, but I buy far more books from Kobo, plus Kobo offers me coupons.)

Oh well. I’ll read on my tablet while making up my mind.

So many things to do

On 17/05/2014 By MikaelaIn Life, Writing

A couple of days ago, Shamrokon tweeted: Just 99 days to go. I stared at the tweet for a moment, and then panicked for a moment. Let’s just say I’ll be busy this summer. I’m revising the Wild Hunt, which keeps on growing to Thrizah and Kari’s delight. But being told ” More is good, since it is a fascinating world”by Kari does boost my self-esteem. 🙂 The goal is to finish the revision in June 1st, but I don’t think I’ll manage it. But I should have it done before I get the edits back for Daughter of the Dark.

I plan to spend most of June on editing Daughter of the Dark and revising Exile. Or maybe the other way around, since Exile has a closer release date than Daughter of the Dark. Though both of them is coming soon!

I have found a reasonably priced copy editor that I plan to contact soon. ( She prefers to do a sample edit, and I’m not going to send her unedited pages.)

Oh. And deciding on a marketing plan. I think it will involve a lot of teasers. Since the only thing I got to catch the attention of readers is my novellas. There will be longer and shorter teasers. I really like the quotes that Shiloh Walker posts close to release date, so I’ll make something similar in Gimp. That much I can do at least. I am also thinking about swag for Eurocon. I want to offer a free download of either Exile or Daughter of the Dark, but I’m still thinking about how to do it. ( I know what the easy way would be, but I’m not certain if it is the best way). Which reminds me. I need to hire a cover artist. I’m leaning towards Skyla Dawn Cameron, I really like her covers.

But right now I’m running around finishing everything on my todo list before I leave for London on Monday. I’m going to see my brother for the first time in 6 months! I plan to hug him so much. 🙂 I mostly plan to visit British Museum and bookstores. And take a walk in Hyde Park, if my leg doesn’t hurt too much.

Utterly random update

On 04/05/201406/07/2014 By MikaelaIn Life, musings, Writing

I went offline during easter, and revised a whopping 11 000 words. After I got home it has been slower though. Part of it is because I’ve had health issues and part of it is because I need to recharge. ( That’s always the case for me. ) But I’m slogging along on the revisions of the Wild Hunt. I’m 2/3rds through right now, and the draft is at 33000 words. The goal is 35 000 words.

Once these revisions are done I’m going to work on Exile. Actually, that isn’t true. Once I’m done, I’m going to readthrough Daughter of the Dark before sending it to the editor. Then I’m revising Exile.

I think I’ve already mentioned that I signed up for Publit awhile ago. They are a Swedish distributor and one of the options they offer is a Widgetshop. Right now I’m thinking of how to best utilize their Widgetshop for promo. The reason is that I want to do somekind of free read/exclusive for Eurocon, but I’m not sure what. Hrm. It is still a couple of months left. I’m still thinking about promo in general.

I like the way Anne Bishop and Yasmine Galenorn posts stuff from their characters POV on Facebook and Tumblr. I’m thinking about doing something similar.

I’m also getting back the urge to blog about books. Not reviews, though, but more recommending authors and reading updates.

Oh, and I’m going to London in May! Just 2 days, but I’m happy. No firm plans, except hopefully seeing Kari and my brother.

Schedules and stuff

On 05/04/2014 By MikaelaIn Life, Writing

Ever since I got a call from Dad, asking if I was interested in a job, my life has been in a slight chaos. To be fair, it isn’t the day job. It is just that the rest of my family don’t seem to realise that I’m working part time and in my spare time, I’m taking the first steps on a career that will be more hectic than the day job. The last two weeks? I’ve been home 4 nights ( or was it 5?). The main reason is that I’m too nice to say no. Yeah. Need to get better at that.

The result is that while I have made some progress, I’m not making much progress on the revision, and the B4YHS assignments I tend to catch up with during the weekends.

I have made some decisions though.

I wrote a prequel short story to Daughter of the Dark in January, Exile. Originally, it was planned to be a freebie but I’ve decided that I need a test run since I’m uncertain if Publit/Overdrive distributes to Amazon ( I don’t think they do, but it would be so much easier if they did), so it will be able for sale sometime this summer.

This means, Daughter of the Dark will be out after Exile. Not the way I had originally planned it, but things like that happens sometime. Doing it this way means that I’ll be able to release both books in the duology close together.

Meanwhile, I’m busy revising The Wild Hunt so that you will have more to read later. I have so many plans! One of the plans is to start posting snippets regularly. These snippets would either be from whatever I’m working on. Yes, this means I’ll be posting snippets from things that might be years away from being published.

So here is a snippet from the Wild Hunt ( This scene was rewritten from scratch so it is a bit rough):

Brid stepped out from the forest, grateful for the fact that the paths hadn’t made her utterly lost. All thoughts of the enchanted paths of the forest vanished when she saw the gleaming carriage in the middle of her grassy yard. It was sleek, with large wheels better suited to the paved streets of Myrddin than the rutted dirt road leading to her small hut on the outskirts of Tanglewood. Hide, her subconsious whispered. Brid took shaky breath. It was tempting, but she was the drysa of Tanglewood. She couldn’t hide every time a patient showed up.

Ramblings about travels

On 01/08/201313/07/2014 By mikaelalindIn Life

The writing is progressing. Right now I am doing type in, which will take me the rest of August, probably. Or at least until the 19th, since I am leaving for Sicily the 20th. I look forward to it, even if it will be hot. If I had been asked, I would have suggested Dublin or Edinburgh.

And I just booked my lodgings for World Fantasy Con. Yay! I am staying at Amblecliff. It seems nice, have decent reviews and is reasonably priced 🙂 Now to I need to book plane tickets. Which I’ll probably do in Sept/ Early Oct.

I would love to go to WorldCon next year, but I am not sure if I can afford it. *checks Loncon’s webpage* Ooh. Loncon have an Instalment Membership Plan. Which means I can afford the membership. Yay! In fact, I think it will be a perfect birthday gift either to myself or from dad :).

An life update

On 29/06/201313/07/2014 By mikaelalindIn Life

I know, I know. I haven’t posted in ages, but to be truthful I am not sure how many people is actually reading this blog. *g* The main reason for not posting in ages is because I spent most of June studying botany. Which was intense, but fun. It also meant I was online for most of the month. So everything was basically on hold. ( And yet I somehow managed to collect 5 ARCs… ). Which means July should be calmer, right?

Uhm. Not so much. See, all the things that I put on hold during June still needs to be done. Like deciding which subjects I’ll blog about over at Ecology for Writers ( I think Invasive Species are first up), and write reviews and other blog posts for Book Recommendations.

And write, of course. I have been really productive the last days. I have typed in 2000 words, so far. A part of me is whispering that I could finish the type in this weekend, but at the same time it is summer and I have been in door for the last two days since I got a cold. ( Or at least the beginnings of one.)

And I have discovered that most publicizing sites wants to follow new people for me at Twitter. My reaction to that: Hell no! I’ll just keep on being spotty with marketing my blogposts. ( Although I really should do it more often, esp for Book Recommendations)

I have come to the conclusion that I need a desk. Except the only place for a desk is the corner were I keep the bags with books that I don’t want to keep…

Traditional Swedish Raspberry pie

On 27/05/201313/07/2014 By mikaelalindIn Life

It was Mother’s Day in Sweden yesterday, and I decided to make raspberry pie. Which turned out yummy but too much berries vs dough. So I made it again with less berries:).

Pie dough:
1 ½ dl flour
100 g butter
1 tablespoon sugar

Filling:
250 g frozen berries
½ dl sugar
1 tablespoon potatoe starch

Heat the oven to 225 C
Measure up the flour and sugar in a bowl. Cut the butter into cubes. Mix the butter and flour mixture until a crumbly dough have formed.

Let the berries thaw a bit. Mix the berries, the sugar and the starch. (Either in a bowl or in the form). Pour the berry mix into the form, and spread the dough on top. Make sure the dough more or less covers the berries, and put it into the oven for 15-20 minutes.

To do for May and June:

On 14/05/201313/07/2014 By mikaelalindIn Life

*Apply for a new passport
* Book lodgings for Brighton
* Start a business account at the bank
* Decide if I should create a separate Paypal Account ( Yes. Need to separate personal money and company money)
* No matter what: Add my bank account to my Paypal account
* Register the company with Skatteverket
* Maybe ask the Job Center for help
~~* Tell my family. *g*~~ ( On facebook. Still haven’t told mum.)
* Write the material for the webpage ( Or, well, wordpress blog. Right now)
* Buy birthday gifts and ~~graduation gift~~s, and what not ( Still need to buy the birthday gift)
Oh, and Try not to freak out. ( Eee. I am really doing this!)

There are probably a thousand things I am forgetting 🙂

Tea, Life and Writing

On 07/05/201313/07/2014 By mikaelalindIn Life

I bought a small tin of Kusmi Tea yesterday, and made a cup. It was really nice( except that I should have let it steep longer), so nice that my mouth protested when I had a cup of Twining’s Lady Grey last nice. sigh.

My dad made the most yummy fried rice yesterday with mild turkish peppers, garlic and mint. I was a bit suspicious that the pepper was feferoni, since dad loves it ( I don’t. Too strong for my taste)

Carrie Ryan posted about plot structure on Magical Words yesterday, and something clicked. I have felt that I have slid backwards when it comes to plotting the last year. ( Which shows in the number of partial drafts I have. ) So I cannot wait to give her structure a try!

And life… I am maybe, maybe moving sometime next year :). ( It is complicated, uncertain and a bit sad)