Category: Life

Springsteen!

On By mikaelalindIn Life

I went and saw Bruce Springsteen last night in the new megadont Friends Arena.   And he played the whole Darkness on the edge of Town record!  Which was a nice treat 🙂 (The first night, he played Born to run, which makes me wonder which one he will play  May 11th…)

I am glad I had a chance to go, my only nitpickety is that the venue was too big which made everything feel a bit diluted.  Anyway, if he plays at Friends the next time, I think I’ll pass.   But if he plays at Ullevi? I am there. His concerts at Ullevi are *magical*. 🙂

My writer brain was happy too, since it gave me not one, but two ideas (!).  First during Leap of faith when he sang ” Clarence is gone.”  Which I heard as ” Clearance is gone.”  Which made me wonder why and who 🙂 ( It might be tied to the notion of writing a steampunk version of WW II I also got yesterday).  Then  during Radio Nowhere, I got  a flash of a character sitting in a radio studio saying ” This is Radio Nowhere. Is anyone alive out there?”    Probably a short story, and post apocalyptic.  No idea what  catastrophe though.  ( I know it isn’t a disease, but except for that it is wide open.  )

 

 

Random food related curiosa

On By mikaelalindIn Life

 

* If you write European set Epic fantasy, it is more likely that the food your heroes eat is flavored using herbs rather than spices, since spices were expensive, and had to be imported.

* In Sweden,  mushrooms were viewed to be cattle food, until the 20th century.  Which meant that they did not eat them ,even if it was a famine.

* The eggs used in baking during the winter was conserved (!), which was unsuitable to eating, but fine in baking.

*   It is easy to forget but all the farm animals were much smaller before 1900’s, than they are today.   So if you describe a cow based on modern day cows? They wouldn’t have fit inside the barn.

*  If you want a colder climate growing sugar? Use sugar beets, not sugar canes.   Or honey, since Sugar beets wasn’t in use until the 1700’s.

*  Beer get’s the taste from hops, which wasn’t in use in Sweden until the 12th century.

*  Hop growing etc was covered buy the law.  And theft was punished severly.

 

 

Random life stuff

On By mikaelalindIn Life
  •  Well, I figured out why I couldn’t update my e-reader.  The firmware update isn’t compatible with my e-reader.  Which annoys me a bit, to put it mildly.
  •   My colon disease decided to flare up last week, which means my immune system is overly active right now. And because of that,  I am running a really llow grade fever. Fun. Not.  It isn’t bad enough that I need to lay in bed, but it is bad enough that I easily get tired.
  •  I finally got around to repair my cellphone. And.. the replacement phone didn’t work. So now I have an non fancy cellphone for awhile.
  •  The synopsis is progressing slowly. Actually, right now it is on hold due to the health reasons.  I love what I got , though.

Third time is the charm

On By mikaelalindIn Life, Writing

A couple of days ago, I reached the point in the synopsis were I needed to re-read the first draft.   I hesitated, but in the end I decided to write the beginning first.   So. Yesterday, I started to write the beginning from scratch. This time, the opening is in the right place.  Today, I pasted in and edited the  sections of the opening scene that I’ll be able to keep.  I am itching to give it a more heavy edit, but I am refraining.    That can wait until the draft is finished.

Tomorrow I get write how Pinja finds out that her cousin is missing. Whee. Which is when the plot really starts. Hee.

And, I get to continue reading Människan och Naturen ( honestly, every writer should have a book about ethnobiology in their research library. Or know were to get a copy).   And the non fiction book about Vikings I also borrowed :).

Edit:

Except Dad just told me it will take at least 24 hours before my jacket is dry enough to wear. Which means no writing. sigh.
*eyes Dad’s bookshelves*  But probably a lot of reading.

Oh, and I just discovered that Dad has a small stack of Post its. In A6 format. Perfect for revising. *rubs her hands*

World Fantasy Con!

On By mikaelalindIn Life

I just paid my membership for WFC in Brighton. Right now I am crossing my fingers that I will not get a refund, due to it being full booked. *twitches*  

( I had planned to go to P-Con, but it was cancelled…)

Decoupage ramblings

On By mikaelalindIn Life1 Comment

Lillian’s post about her new craft store ( And yay for Lillian :))  made me want to take up decoupage again.   I have dabbled in it, primarily serviette decoupage.  Which is fun. But, I want to move on from it. I just haven’t been sure what to do next.   

But today I discovered that Panduro has Art Deco decoupage paper. 🙂 So, I plan to buy a couple of sheets and depending on the size of the pictures I’ll decide wheter or not to buy paper boxes or a ringbinder. 

 

Things like this just don’t happen here

On By mikaelalindIn Life2 Comments

 

First, a train crashed into a house in southern Stockholm ( thank god the train was out of traffic and the house empty).   The incident is really embarrassing for the train company, since  it was a cleaning lady that drove  the train (!) and someone had forgotten the key in the ignition (!!).  Oh, and the house is newish, and the county hadn’t ” noticed there was a railway so close to the house.” ( Really? The railway has been there since the mid 1900’s.)

 

Second, a big car accident happened in the South of Sweden.  It was foggy and the road was covered with ice, and a driver lost control of the car.  The end result was a pile up with multiple cars and 18 wheelers, 9 injured and 1 dead.   While car accidents do happen, it is rare that they are so massive. 🙁

 

 

To do list

On By mikaelalindIn Life

This is one of those dull and boring posts, that are more a reminder for me 🙂

To do:

Operation Shelfpurge:

  • Start sorting through books in bags, and decides which I want to keep ( I have a feeling it wont be many…)
  •  Enter them into the spreadsheet
  •  Upload them  to Bokbörsen

General:

  •   Go to the camera store, to see if they can replace the cord
  •   Clean the apartment. ( Enough said)
  •  Wait for answer on the job. *twitches*
  •  Go to the post office  and pick up the book Di sent me. ( Which means I have two copies, since bought one earlier this month. )

Writing:

  • Keep on working at  Trollkungens dotter.
  •  Resist the temptation to post mini snippets on the blog ( since it is, you know, in Swedish)

Operation Shelfpurge

On By mikaelalindIn Books, Life2 Comments

Earlier this week ( or was it last week?)  Laura Anne Gilman purged her shelves of non-fiction books on twitter.  Yesterday, I realised that I need to do the same but with fiction.   Let’s be honest: I live in a small apartment, I have a cupboard filled with books, and  I have  a lot of books at my mom’s as well.  And… most of them I haven’t read in years. Some of the books are on the keeper shelf, but most of them aren’t.

So, the plan is to  go through them, and sort out the keepers from the not keepers. And then sell the culled books on Bokbörsen.  I am a bit sad that Alibris didn’t work, but I can understand the buyers ( If I priced a paperback at 2 dollar, Alibris added 12 dollar in shipping, which put the price at 14 dollars.).

But I am toying with idea of putting up a list the books I am culling at the blog, and let  interested blog readers buy directly from me.    Well, we will see.

( You can see the Fantasy books I am currently selling here.)

Let’s try this again

On By mikaelalindIn Life, Writing

So.. Last year I deleted my previous WordPress blog since I never posted there. Which I am regretting right now, since LJ is in death throes. :(.   Hopefully I’ll be better about updating it than I was the last time around….

Here is to a new and brave 2013