tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70561629364817877932024-03-13T11:33:40.359+01:00Mariam KobrasThe Happy Author on the PorchMariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-14022258556069407632016-09-10T00:47:00.000+02:002016-09-12T03:00:09.306+02:00An Open Letter to the Passengers on my Lufthansa Flight<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1">Let me start by saying that you were all wonderful. No really, <i>fantastic</i>. All of you. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Yes, even the two teenage boys in the row right in front of me. It was okay that you kept your seats <i>all the</i> <i>way</i> back, even through the meals, and that you were restless. I understand. It was a very, very long flight. But taking off your shoes and sticking your feet up over the headrest, that was <i>not okay</i>. Your socks positively reeked. It took me a while to figure out that the obnoxious stench wafting through the plane was actually the ripe odor of your apparently dirty teenage feet and socks. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I didn’t complain because you were kids, but I do think your parents across the aisle should have.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I also won’t complain about the young couple with the baby two rows in front of me. Actually, I liked your dreadlocks, casual attitude to baby-rearing, and your personal clothing style. All was good. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">But–guys, seriously. If you travel long distances with an infant, I have a suggestion: </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Pack <i>all</i> your baby stuff in one bag. Really, it’s not difficult. That way, you’ll have everything in <i>one bloody place,</i> and you won’t have to climb on other passengers’ seats or armrests to dig through your three bags in the overhead bin while dear dads trousers slipped and showed off your pubic hair to your hapless fellow travelers. We really didn’t want to see that, and certainly not every thirty minutes. Those diapers, crackers, bottles, baby food, and pacifiers would have been so much happier together in one bag stowed under the seat in front of you. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">And to the sweet elderly Italian lady next to me: You would have felt much better if you’d accepted and drunk the water and juice they kept offering us. Yes, I know you felt dizzy; trust me, it’s called dehydration. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">And that medical emergency: “Is there a doctor or nurse aboard?” came over the PA while we were flying over Greenland with nothing below us but rocks, ice, and snow,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I was picturing a rough emergency landing in Goose Bay or some other God-forsaken glacier-surrounded village, but thankfully the emergency passed, and we flew on.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">So, dear passengers, thank you for such an exciting flight. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I could have done without the smelly socks, the exposed lower belly, and the dizzy old lady, but the food was great, the service was friendly, and we were on time. </span></div>
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-25813822349067339602016-09-06T20:42:00.002+02:002016-09-06T20:48:53.727+02:00Hello, Again, Hello!<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1">Once again I’m packed… </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Tomorrow I leave on another trip across the ocean to visit friends in Canada and America. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">This is my fourth big trips on my own, and I thought I’d be cooler about it by now, but no; last night was pretty sleepless, and I’m sure tonight will be as well. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">This morning, as I was packing, I thought of fellow writer Ellie Dias and her upcoming book, <i>Big Red</i>, her affectionate name for the huge suitcase she lugged—stuffed to the gills—through airports around the globe. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">My husband, walking past me as I was packing, pointed at my rubber boots and rain jacket, and said, “Since you’re packing those I expect the weather in Tofino to be very nice and sunny and warm. You do know Murphy’s Law, right?”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">He has a point; and I have a heavy suitcase.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Yes, it’s heavy, but I’m traveling for five weeks. And now that I’m sixty I figure that I’m entitled to an extra change of shirts, jeans, or shoes.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Ah, shoes. I remember traveling with the pair I was wearing, and one pair of sandals. That was all I needed. But now? Won’t work. My feet are old, too. They need respite. Oh well. They’ve carried me through sixty years on this planet of ours, I suppose I should be kind to them.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Sue had to bribe me into visiting her in 2011. She came all the way to London to pick me up and then worked the flight back to Vancouver (she was a flight attendant for Air Canada) because I was <i>so</i> afraid of making that long flight.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Now, I can’t wait to get on that plane so I can go hang out with her. She’s such a great friend, funny, patient, incredibly talented—especially with her camera—and her family is a riot of kids, and high spirits. Being with them is like being immersed in a big Irish family–which they in fact are. </span></div>
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I remember how Sue and I stepped out on Chesterman Beach for the first time, and we both caught our breaths. I never wanted to leave. I could easily have turned into one of those driftwood tree boles and sat there just watching the ocean for eternity. I hadn’t expected the Pacific to be so different from the Atlantic, but it is. </div>
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<span class="s1">Then, for the first time ever, I’ll visit Texas!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">My dear friend Sharon is waiting there for me, and I can’t wait to finally meet her in person. She had read my books and posted to my Facebook author page about how much she loved my writing, and we took it from there. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Now I’m going to visit her and I hope she won’t be disappointed. I’m just a fat, old granny in real life. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Patsy is in Orlando, and she’s my third stop this year.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I’ll be honest, I never expected to visit Florida, let alone have someone invite me there! </span></div>
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<span class="s1">But Patsy and I and my other homies in our little twitter group, we chat daily, and have been twitter friends for so long, that I have to admit I’m crazy excited about meeting her in person. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Patsy, to me, is a cross between the Angela girl from <i>Bones</i> on TV and Joan Baez: Quirky, very musical, a bit eccentric, funny, a girl who loves life. I think we will have an amazing time together.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">As always, my last stop will be glorious New Jersey.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I know, I can hear you moan, and you have every reason to. It’s really an incredibly boring place. And the highways? <i>OMG ROAD RAGE!</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1">But my dear friend and publisher resides there, and so, to me, it’s a fabulous place. How can I travel to America and not visit Buddhapuss Ink? Right?</span><br />
<span class="s1">And have lunch with her and my author buddy Sam Hilliard in Princeton?</span><br />
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<span class="s1">So–here we are. One more night, and I’ll be on my way to the sky. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">“Hello again, America, hello, again, hello.”</span><br />
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-83739128262680688592016-08-26T15:52:00.002+02:002016-08-26T16:11:46.654+02:00Dear Publisher… <div class="p1">
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<span class="s1">Dear Publisher, </span></div>
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<span class="s1">As I sort and iron my clothes before I pack my suitcase to travel across the ocean to visit you yet again there are a few words that I’d like to say to you.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Working with you over the past five years wasn’t always easy.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">You made me write blog posts for blog hops, you made me write blurbs for book covers and Amazon pages, you wanted me to write my own bio, and hold still while my picture was taken. Me, the one who usually hides behind the camera!</span></div>
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<span class="s1">You made me think before I wrote, you even tried to wheedle me into plotting my novels—which hasn’t worked until now, but will change in the future.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">You made me challenge my ideas and push limits, always patient, always giving me the time to work through my resistance and figure out why you wanted me to do something differently. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">When you followed me on twitter I was a nobody. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I’d never written a novel before, let alone thought of publishing it. That was in the distant future, if at all. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I remember so well that day when we chatted on twitter and you offered me a mug of virtual coffee, and I replied, “Would you like the first three chapters of my novel in return?” and you said, “Sure!”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I broke out in a sweat, panicked, I had no idea what to do. My younger son came home from school, asking for lunch, and I yelled, “Just grab anything, I can’t talk to you, I’m submitting my novel!”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“Uh huh,” he mumbled, and finished off all the tomatoes and mozzarella he could find in the fridge. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I sent the file eventually, with no query letter, a synopsis not worth mentioning, and my marketing plan was, “Anything you want me to do, except dance naked on tables!”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">You offered, I signed. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Suddenly I had a publisher.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">We’ve released five books together so far; there were some tears, there were some altercations, which felt like I was a bolting horse, and you were my patient, understanding trainer. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">You never lost your sense of humor, and you never let go of that gently guiding rein.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">To this day I believe you made a huge mistake. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I don’t know what happened when you decided to sign me as your author, but I’m sure of one thing: you were utterly deluded. Maybe someone had brought you a huge mug of fresh coffee and you were dazed by the scent. Maybe someone had sent you a package of Droste chocolate and you were in a sugar coma.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I’m still waiting for you to wake up, look at my writing and say, “Hey, wait a minute, missy! I’m sorry, but you don’t belong here!”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Honestly, I do. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Five released books later, three Independent Publisher Book Awards, a brilliant new project waiting to be tackled, and I still wonder: Did she really mean <i>me</i>?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The label “author” sits uncomfortably on my shoulders. It feels like an honor I haven’t earned, but as long as you, dear publisher, believe I’m worth your time and money I’ll pretend that yes, I can write well enough to merit it.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">My suitcase is almost packed. There’s Droste chocolate for you, and coffee, tucked in with my clothes.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I’ll once again sit at the desk you point out to me and sign that tower of books, the bookmarks, the postcards. I’ll stare at those books, so pretty, so well designed, and I’ll open one and read a few lines. Once again the wonder will pour over me; I wrote this. Wow.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">My amazement will never end. I’m an author, and you, dear publisher, believed in me, and made me into one.</span></div>
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-71963121268914349692016-06-10T11:00:00.000+02:002016-06-10T12:44:16.342+02:00"If it doesn’t exist, then go ahead and write it"– Interviewing Sue Barnard<div style="font-family: AmericanTypewriter;">
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Today I'm very honored and thrilled to interview Sue Barnard, the author of <i>The Ghostly Father, Nice Girls Don't</i>, and <i>The Unkindest Cut of All. </i><br />
Sue and I met on twitter many years ago. We started our writing career almost at the same time, and it's been fun to watch our books being picked up and published!<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Hi Sue, before we get down to the real author questions, tell us a bit about yourself. </span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Where are you from? </span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Originally from North Wales, but apart from three years at Durham University I’ve lived most of my life in and around Manchester, UK.</span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Cat or dog?</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’m fond of both, but don’t own either.</span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">What’s your favorite dish? </span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">That varies according to the seasons. At the moment, it’s fresh asparagus.</span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Your favorite subject at school?</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I enjoyed most of them, apart from sport, which I was (and still am) rubbish at. I didn’t like art very much either, but that could have been because we had a rubbish teacher – one who wasn’t interested in anyone who wasn’t already a budding artisic genius. So out of a class of 29, at least 28 of us were doomed to mediocrity before we’d even picked up a pencil. Even now, more than 40 years later, that particular sense of failure has never really left me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I particularly enjoyed languages, and went on to read French at university. When I try to speak French I’m often asked if I’m from Belgium, and I’m never sure whether to be flattered or offended.</span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Tea or coffee? </span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Tea on waking (we have a teasmade by the bed!), tea with breakfast, coffee mid-morning, coffee after lunch, tea mid-afternoon, coffee after dinner (provided it isn’t too late – otherwise it would keep me awake at night). </span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">If you watch TV - What’s your favorite crime show?</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Jonathan Creek</i>, written by David Renwick. It’s a perfect blend of quirkiness, ingenuity and humour.</span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The last movie you saw?</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Florence Foster Jenkins,</i> about the life of the great(?) singer. Funny and moving by turns. Highly recommended.</span></div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Last book you read? </span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Kindred Spirits: Tower of London</i>, by fellow-Crooked Cat author Jennifer C Wilson. It’s a refreshing new take on the story of King Richard III and the Princes in the Tower.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Okay, now that we know more about you let’s talk about the author part.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If you exclude all those compulsory Composition exercises at school, my first attempt was a short story in the whodunit style. That was more than 30 years ago. I found it recently, re-read it, and cringed. Enough said.</span><br />
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2. Your first published novel was <i>The Ghostly Father</i>. In it you give the Romeo and Juliet story a totally new twist. How did you come up with that idea? </div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve always loved the story of Romeo & Juliet but hated the ending. But a few years ago I came across one of those lists of <i>Things You Should Do Before You Die</i>, and the one which leapt off the page and grabbed me by the throat was <i>Write The Book You Want To Read</i>. The book I’ve always wanted to read is the version of R&J in which they don’t fall victim to a maddeningly-preventable double-suicide. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Why, I asked myself, should there not be such a book? And the answer came straight back: <i>Why not indeed? And if it doesn’t exist, then go ahead and write it.</i></span><br />
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3.What has changed for you since you’ve become a published author?</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In terms of my day-to-day life, not very much. But it has meant that I can now describe myself as a writer, and can give a positive answer to the inevitable question <i>Have you had anything published?</i></span><br />
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<i> 4.</i>Has it lived up to your expectations?</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If by that you mean “<i>Have I Earned Millions?</i>”, then the answer has to be No – but unless you’re one of the very lucky few, it’s very hard to make a fortune (or even a living) from writing. Having said that, the rewards in other respects have been overwhelming. It’s really satisfying when someone – especially a total stranger – tells me how much he or she has enjoyed what I’ve written! </span></div>
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5.<span style="font-family: helvetica;">What advice would you give your younger self? Would you encourage a young Sue to become a writer?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Yes, I would – and I’d tell her not to leave it until she’s the wrong side of 50!</span><br />
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6.Which authors influenced you most? </div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Shakespeare (obviously), but also John Wyndham, Joanne Harris, and my dear friend and mentor Sally Quilford, who taught me everything I know about writing romance.</span><br />
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7.How do you feel about giving away books (Kindle) for free as a marketing technique? Have you done it yet, and were you pleased with the outcome?</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I haven’t given away any of my books for free; my publisher doesn’t do that. But we have had promotions in which the Kindle versions of the books have been reduced in price for an introductory or limited period, and those have been reasonably successful in terms of increasing sales and raising the books‘ profiles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I must confess I’m a bit wary of totally free promotions; I can’t help wondering if their overall effect is to undervalue the work of the author. One writer once told me that someone had said to her, “I really want to read your books, but I’m waiting for them to become free before I download them!” Shocking, I know – but apparently there are people out there who always want something for nothing, and there is a strong risk that free promotions will simply fuel that kind of greed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span> 8. What are you working on right now?<br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">I’ve just blown the dust off a long-running poetry project. Don’t stay in specially waiting for it to be finished, though.</span><br />
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9.Where can we buy your books?</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The paperbacks are all available from Amazon. The e-books are available from Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks. The links are here:</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: americantypewriter; font-size: small;">The Ghostly Father</i><span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: x-small;">: </span><a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fauthl.it%2FB00IBZ96JC&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" style="font-family: americantypewriter; font-size: small;" target="_blank">Amazon</a><span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: x-small;">, </span><a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smashwords.com%2Fbooks%2Fview%2F408193&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" style="font-family: americantypewriter; font-size: small;" target="_blank">Smashwords</a><span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: x-small;">, </span><a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.kobobooks.com%2Fen-ca%2Febook%2Fthe-ghostly-father-1&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" style="font-family: americantypewriter; font-size: small;" target="_blank">Kobo</a><span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: x-small;">, </span><a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%2Fw%2Fthe-ghostly-father-sue-barnard%2F1118061011%3Fean%3D2940152107425&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" style="font-family: americantypewriter; font-size: small;" target="_blank">Nook</a><span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: x-small;">, </span><a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fgb%2Fbook%2Fthe-ghostly-father%2Fid1033559529%3Fmt%3D11&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" style="font-family: americantypewriter; font-size: small;" target="_blank">Apple iBooks</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Nice Girls Don’t</i>: <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fauthl.it%2FB00LNCDF3I&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smashwords.com%2Fbooks%2Fview%2F457765&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Smashwords</a>, <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.kobobooks.com%2Fen-ca%2Febook%2Fnice-girls-don-t-1&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%2Fw%2Fnice-girls-dont-sue-barnard%2F1119840450%3Fean%3D2940045659956&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fgb%2Fbook%2Fnice-girls-dont%2Fid903674695%3Fmt%3D11&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Apple iBooks</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12px;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Unkindest Cut of All</i>: <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fauthl.it%2FB00XA4XPPK&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smashwords.com%2Fbooks%2Fview%2F549238&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Smashwords</a>, <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.kobobooks.com%2Fen-ca%2Febook%2Fthe-unkindest-cut-of-all&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Kobo</a>, <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.barnesandnoble.com%2Fw%2Fthe-unkindest-cut-of-all-sue-barnard%2F1122106799%3Fean%3D2940151963961&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Nook</a>, <a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fgb%2Fbook%2Fthe-unkindest-cut-of-all%2Fid1004646678%3Fmt%3D11&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Apple iBooks</a></span></div>
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Editor at <i><a href="http://t.sidekickopen53.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg63BfN-W4XHqqv1qMTvFW8r4TLx56dzF_f5vV6wg02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fcrookedcatpublishing.com%2F&si=6504215224778752&pi=8014bec8-07bf-49ab-8497-654de781de78" target="_blank">Crooked Cat Publishing</a></i></div>
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Oh–here's a reminder from me: If you haven't signed up for my <a href="https://confirmsubscription.com/h/i/FE7C3C36AF791B54">newsletter</a> yet, you can do it now, and read all the chapters of Fireflies that have been published there EXCLUSIVELY and for FREE!<br />
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<br />Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-90209863644677849722016-05-27T16:06:00.000+02:002016-05-27T16:06:01.522+02:00Flamingos, Fireflies, and GREAT NEWS! <div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">My new novel, For the Fireflies, is being released via my NEWSLETTER! We're eleven chapters in, but it's not too late to catch up!</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Also, there's a MAJOR announcement in this weeks newsletter. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">The subscription form is right here, in the right-hand column of the blog! </span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8uza5Nyu6f8/V0hTtagb7CI/AAAAAAAABoM/WkqZslPXzVQDyuPPyF6AqMW0tNgskYVQwCLcB/s1600/flamingosandfireflies-WEB.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8uza5Nyu6f8/V0hTtagb7CI/AAAAAAAABoM/WkqZslPXzVQDyuPPyF6AqMW0tNgskYVQwCLcB/s400/flamingosandfireflies-WEB.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">Welcome to Key West!</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1">At last, the family is reunited.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1">While Josh can’t believe his parents bought an RV and drove all the way from Brooklyn, Allie can’t wait to be on the beach and feel the surf on her feet. Standing there, she wonders about Earth, Saturn, and the universe in general…</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1">Meanwhile, Claude is surprised to learn who Joshua’s father is. Will it change their friendship, and how will Annabelle react when she hears the news?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Enjoy the sunset,</span></div>
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<div class="p2">
<span class="s1">~ <i>Mariam</i></span></div>
Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-14829044975172307192016-05-21T17:15:00.001+02:002016-05-22T14:31:19.159+02:00Memories of 9/11, Flamingos, and New Hope.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r0nVKrW6s5Y/V0B6Ry_BM_I/AAAAAAAABnw/dtvWOQGPcUE_fCkmxHuGwY9bqNO9_atoQCLcB/s1600/mariamandpinkflamingos.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r0nVKrW6s5Y/V0B6Ry_BM_I/AAAAAAAABnw/dtvWOQGPcUE_fCkmxHuGwY9bqNO9_atoQCLcB/s400/mariamandpinkflamingos.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">Most people in and around Manhattan couldn’t walk away from the city after 9/11, they had to stay and deal with what happened on that day. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">For those who remained, the sorrow may never pass, the memories may never dim, yet life goes on the same way Spring follows Winter. Everywhere, tiny buds of new life blossom into renewed hope for the future. Buildings are rebuilt, babies are born, and the music of the city flows through the canyons between the skyscrapers.</span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In the same way, Jon and Naomi get to see New York through their daughter’s young eyes, and they finally find the courage to return to the house and the city where they were so happy.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">What does all this have to do with flamingos? You'll have to read Chapter 10 of <i>For the Fireflies</i> to find out!</span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KdTPOsbuuU8/V0B7mSOVsxI/AAAAAAAABn4/8APYgew_Z_otDK71E7UrhxbFhJRNdrhQQCLcB/s1600/Joshua%2Bfront%2B2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KdTPOsbuuU8/V0B7mSOVsxI/AAAAAAAABn4/8APYgew_Z_otDK71E7UrhxbFhJRNdrhQQCLcB/s400/Joshua%2Bfront%2B2.png" width="258" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1">Here's a short excerpt:</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Raising his head, he seemed to shake off a heavy cloak. “Then something
happened, and I never wanted to come back here, ever again. Your mom and I had
to, though, because of the musical. But we never stayed any longer than we had to.
Now, though…” </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Smiling at her, he let his hand glide over her braids. “With you here,
it’s like I can look at it with fresh eyes, with your eyes.” </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Allie tried to imagine it: Was he somehow sitting inside her head, a mini version of
Dad crouching somewhere behind her eyes, and using them like glasses? </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">“A bad thing happened in this city not long after you were born, Allie.” He put
down his coffee cup on the table by his elbow. “It drove out the memories of the good
times, and left only black and dreary days in their place.” </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">(psst… the signup form for the newsletter is right here, at the top of the right-hand column! Sign up, read the novel!)</span></div>
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-91263486758279940982016-05-09T16:09:00.006+02:002016-05-09T21:02:07.161+02:00Flowers and Blue SkiesLet me share this lovely day with you.<br />
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My walk today took me past the magnolia tree again. Sadly, all its wonderful blooms have gone, and it looks tired and limp like it was to a wild party and now is suffering from a murderous hangover.<br />
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There are other blooms out now though, like this beautiful azaleas (maybe they're rhododendrons, don't ask me!):<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Og1ZH_pQY6Y/VzCZB7i0T6I/AAAAAAAABm8/Ad8QbfZCa8sv6iyk6GTdFnR137ssRqPfQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0878.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Og1ZH_pQY6Y/VzCZB7i0T6I/AAAAAAAABm8/Ad8QbfZCa8sv6iyk6GTdFnR137ssRqPfQCLcB/s400/IMG_0878.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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And this dandelion, totally ignoring the park fence and growing where it wants:<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-huQ45PCGmus/VzCZSuLnh6I/AAAAAAAABnA/YdtI2sl18M0OHbJMQeMdxJm737kU8R4bQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0881.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-huQ45PCGmus/VzCZSuLnh6I/AAAAAAAABnA/YdtI2sl18M0OHbJMQeMdxJm737kU8R4bQCLcB/s400/IMG_0881.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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A bit farther down the road, and there are more azaleas (or rhododendrons):<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eBxFMvxvQ0A/VzCZhchIGSI/AAAAAAAABnE/9hHpqR0WVosxAwE0lEBnURCumAjS6nXZQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0883.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eBxFMvxvQ0A/VzCZhchIGSI/AAAAAAAABnE/9hHpqR0WVosxAwE0lEBnURCumAjS6nXZQCLcB/s400/IMG_0883.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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And lilac. Have I mentioned how I love lilac? I could smell the sweet scent of this tree from far away.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fDjFmdkRvyM/VzCZxtoQoiI/AAAAAAAABnM/awQJ73_4XI03dVgQChTpdpiY-l8LIStrgCLcB/s1600/IMG_0885.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fDjFmdkRvyM/VzCZxtoQoiI/AAAAAAAABnM/awQJ73_4XI03dVgQChTpdpiY-l8LIStrgCLcB/s400/IMG_0885.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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There were some violets, too, but they were too deep in shadow to get a good photo of them.<br />
Did you notice the blue sky? The beautiful sunshine?<br />
It's definitely spring here!Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-79686507823635040462016-05-06T21:44:00.001+02:002016-05-07T16:13:27.888+02:00A Starry Night<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Last night I was trying to explain description to a friend. You know what I’m talking about, right? Description is when your characters see something and describe it to the reader. Or when you, the author, want to describe something to the reader. It’s what you do to get whatever you want to describe getting across? Is it enough to say the ocean was blue and rough or the trees were tall, and the mountains were high? The reader will know what you mean, but will they enjoy reading it? Will it transport them to that place you’re trying to create in their minds?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Ah, give me a second. I think what we have here is the difference between showing and telling! I know that this has been discussed in many, many, many blog posts before but perhaps I should add my own version. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Don’t tell me what you saw. Show me what you felt seeing it. Do you know Monet? Or any other impressionist painter? Gauguin, van Gogh, Turner. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"> When you think of their paintings, do you see a <i>thing</i> first, or the mood the artist was in?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">Think of van Gogh’s <i>Starry Night</i>. Stars don’t really look like that.They’re not visible to us as great wheels of light in the night sky; and we rarely get to see the Milky Way. What van Gogh shows us is his <i>impression</i> of stars in the sky, reality filtered through his mind. He shows us the light of the stars that he <i>imagines</i>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"> What those impressionist artists did with their paintings, we authors strive to do with our writing. We want to take our readers with us on a journey through our fantasies, we want to show you the world as we see it. That ocean? It’s not just blue and rough. It breathes, and throws tantrums, it talks back to the sky, it dances with the beach. I throws its salty spray onto our faces to lure us into its waves, it tells stories from other continents, from its long trek around the globe. Writers must look beyond the obvious. We reach for the soul of things, and try to bring it out into the light.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"> A forest is a forest, and its trees are tall, but it’s also a living thing. It has its own scent, its own air, its sounds and mysteries.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">We writers look through the veil of reality, we seek the deeper meaning, we prod and wheedle and tap until it’s revealed to us. We peel away layers of fabric, of the mind, of feelings, until we get to the root of things, and then, when we’ve looked at it for long enough, we bring it forth and present it to the world. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">The trees stretched all the way into the sky, their highest branches reaching for the passing clouds. Rain dripped through the foliage, moving from leaf to leaf ever downward until it came to rest on the mossy ground. The air was rich with scent, a heavy perfume of earth, dampness, cedar resin.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Or you could say, of course, the trees were tall. </span></span></div>
Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-56972913424105504812016-04-17T13:02:00.001+02:002016-04-17T13:02:08.225+02:00For the Fireflies – a sequel to the Stone Trilogy!<span style="font-size: large;">Did you know that I'm writing a novel exclusively for my newsletter subscribers? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's a sequel to the Stone Trilogy, and it tells the stories of Joshua and Allie, Jon and Naomi's children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you want to read along, sign up for my newsletter! At this point we're releasing a new chapter every Friday.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I promise that you'll NEVER be spammed! You can find the subscription field right here >>>> at the top of the right-hand column of this blog! </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I'm sharing the opening of the novel with you to whet your appetite. Enjoy!</span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-44s-M-WWcTM/VxNslEC23tI/AAAAAAAABmE/K8HgojFVOD8gD13x1vAiaF9oZYj__OWpwCLcB/s1600/Joshua%2Bfront%2B2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-44s-M-WWcTM/VxNslEC23tI/AAAAAAAABmE/K8HgojFVOD8gD13x1vAiaF9oZYj__OWpwCLcB/s400/Joshua%2Bfront%2B2.png" width="258" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was early morning when he left.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dawn had barely crept over the tops of the trees, and the world was silent save for the lonely cry of a loon, piercing the mist over the water.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">His backpack in hand, guitar case over his shoulder, he followed the driveway through the property until he reached the road. At the gate, he stopped to look back. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pausing, Joshua drew a deep breath. One more step, and he’d be outside. He’d be free of his past; now just another stranger lost in the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Once they realized he wasn’t going to show up for breakfast, his mother would go to his room, and find the note he’d left on his pillow. It wasn’t a long letter, but she’d understand right away. She always did. She always knew.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Hoisting his backpack, Joshua moved forward, the sun at his back, the empty road ahead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It didn’t take long for a driver to stop. He thought it was hilarious that something as mundane as a milk truck would aid him in his flight. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Where to?” the driver asked, his shoulders shaking in rhythm with Gloria Estefan’s “Conga.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“The airport. I have an early flight and didn’t want to make anyone drive me. I was pretty sure I could catch a ride.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“You got lucky then.” He was wearing a muddy-blue baseball cap ringed with sweat stains that resembled waves as they crashed on the beach. “Where are you headed?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“New York.” Would his family find his friendly chauffeur? How much information was it safe to give away? A grin tugged at Joshua’s lips. As if it mattered. “I have a new job waiting for me.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The man shot him a dubious glance. “I’m only going into Kleinburg. How are you going to get to the airport? You’re not going to hitchhike all the way, are you?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“I’ll take the bus.” Another lie. Yes, he was going to try to hitch a ride, but not toward the airport. He wanted to cross the border on foot, or as a passenger in the car of a friendly stranger. He has certain no one would expect that of him. His parents would check the airports, heliports, car rentals, maybe even the train station, but they’d never imagine that he’d set out on foot. </span></div>
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-71519135397805113452016-04-12T17:02:00.001+02:002016-04-12T17:25:05.032+02:00Magnolias!Remember when I promised you photos of the magnolia tree across the street?<br />
Well, here they are! The tree is in full bloom.<br />
The owners were sitting outside on their front steps, enjoying the lovely spring day, when I stopped to take the pictures. I asked if it was okay and they replied, "Of course! Go right ahead!"<br />
I think they're quite proud of that tree.<br />
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And if you ask me, with good reason.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qVeMUIEerrM/Vw0Mkf62uqI/AAAAAAAABlE/FDU37D6yjXceCsIqmZMtC496NE3NugiLQCLcB/s1600/IMG_0827.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qVeMUIEerrM/Vw0Mkf62uqI/AAAAAAAABlE/FDU37D6yjXceCsIqmZMtC496NE3NugiLQCLcB/s400/IMG_0827.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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When that magnolia tree bursts into bloom the entire neighborhood knows that it's finally spring.<br />
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I also found some bluebells (and yes, this time they're really bluebells!)<br />
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And the forsythias are out in full force!<br />
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And I found some pansies.<br />
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Hope you enjoy spring as much as I do!<br />
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Oh–and here's a recording of the nightingale that lives in our backyard! Don't worry, the video is black (because it was made during the night, duh) and the quality isn't the best. I made it with my iPhone. But you can still hear the nightingale!<br />
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<br />Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-50549596445462919242016-04-01T18:15:00.000+02:002016-04-07T21:06:34.359+02:00A Walk into Spring<br />
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It's April 1st. and spring has finally showed its pretty face!<br />
My hubby and I took a walk around the neighborhood today, and this is what we found:<br />
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An amazing blue sky!<br />
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And that blue sky and the birch tree look like a painting, but they're real!<br />
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The magnolia tree isn't in full bloom yet, but it will be soon! And I'll make sure to visit it again and take a photo when the blossoms are open.<br />
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We went a different route today and found this blooming beauty:<br />
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I have no idea what it is, but the dainty pink buds look so pretty against that wonderful blue sky.<br />
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Here are some bluebells in a front yard, raising their little faces to the warm light of the sun:<br />
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Actually, they aren't really bluebells, are they? They look more like tiny blue stars. Don't ask me what they're called. I'm botanically illiterate. No, seriously.<br />
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We came by an Easter tree that hadn't been cleared yet. I like how the people who live here stuck to the bright yellow. Doesn't it look like a little sunshine tree?<br />
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And finally, before we walked back home, these planes flew by overhead. My Vancouver friend Sue calls these crossing vapor trails "kisses in the sky".<br />
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Sue, this kiss is for you! Can't wait to see you again in September! xoMariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-78890106420579985182016-03-21T13:26:00.000+01:002016-03-21T21:28:15.514+01:00The Hardest Job in the World<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Being an author is the hardest job in the world. Yes, it is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Not the writing part, mind you. Writing is easy; it’s like breathing, like sipping hot chocolate, with whipped cream or the 100% Arabica coffee that I love. Writing is like sailing along on a morning breeze over a silvery ocean in the opaque light of a sun bleached by a night of storm and rain. It’s the sweet, scent of roses in a balmy sunset or that slice of pizza you really, really wanted. It’s an escape, a dream fulfilled, an alternate reality, a thing of beauty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">See, here’s the thing: When you start writing your first novel you don’t think about publishing. Or I didn’t. I didn’t think of going out there and submitting my story to a publisher. I had a couple of friends who read it, friends I’d met on twitter, and that was far as I was going to go. Not even my family was allowed to take a peek; I was <i>way </i>too embarrassed for that. It was my story, my fantasy, and that’s how I wanted to keep it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Of course you know by now that fate had other things planned for me. Enter Buddhapuss Ink, the publisher who found and followed me on twitter, and who eventually published <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mariam-Kobras/e/B006ZNYT3A"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">all the books</span></a> I’ve written so far. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But that’s not what I want to talk about today. When I signed my first book deal I imagined myself living like Castle in a few years. You know—Manhattan penthouse loft, Ferrari, nice restaurants, the works. That was <i>before </i>I realized that writing a book was just the tip of the iceberg, and that a lot of work was waiting for me that I’d never expected to do. Blogging, for instance. I’ve covered that ground in <a href="http://mariamkobras.blogspot.com/2016/03/suck-it-up-buttercup.html"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;">another blog post</span></a> so I won’t go to go there again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But who knew how hard it is to sell books? I had no idea. Naive little me, I’d always assumed that if you write a book that’s good enough to be picked up by a publisher, a book that wins an important award, that it would fly off the shelves. I mean, <span style="line-height: normal;">if a publisher likes it well enough to sink their money into it, and an award jury likes it well enough to give it a medal, shouldn’t that mean that other people, aka readers, will love it to? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">See, that’s exactly the point. They <i>do</i> love it. Once they’ve noticed it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I remember telling my publisher, when we first talked, before the first book contract was signed, that I was ready to do anything to market my books except dance naked on tables. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Back then I thought that I was being hysterically funny. Actually, I wasn’t. Because with the internet going crazy and Amazon offering a new release every five minutes, one single book, award-winning or not, is no more than a single ant in an anthill as large as Manhattan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That’s me; that single ant. And it’s every other author I know, too. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So basically what I’m trying to say here is, if you’re in this for money, forget it. Unless you’re E.L.James or James Patterson or George R.R. Martin you won’t be able to pay your bills with your royalty money. You might use it to help pay for part of an amazing research trip. Or you can treat your family to a fancy sushi dinner. Or buy yourself that Michael Kors purse you’ve been coveting for so long,but sorry, not enough for a Hermès Birkin bag.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As for the rest, enjoy what you’re doing. Write for fun! Write for your friends, your family, yourself, the publisher who believes in you, for awards, and most importantly, for your readers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It’s a journey, enjoy the ride, but forget the money. And if you get very, very lucky, and you do make it big, and you want to share, I'll let you know where to find me. </span><br />
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-12725241049426651082016-03-18T16:48:00.000+01:002016-03-18T23:28:33.332+01:00Thank You for the Love<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is nothing harder for me than promoting my books and myself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It’s like walking on the edge of a knife: How much is enough, and how much is <em>too </em>much? When do you reach the point where asking nicely turns into spamming, and consequently disgusting my friends?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I try very hard to entertain you, but I never want to get on your nerves, ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I hope you enjoyed my Mad about March with Mariam #MMM promo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Soon, the Stone Series will conclude with the novella, <em>For the Fireflies, </em>told by Joshua and Allie, Jon’s and Naomi’s son and daughter. The Stones have been part of my life for seven years now, and it’s time to bid them farewell. We’ll wave them off while they sail into a lovely Key West sunset, happy with each other and the lives they’ve found.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">My new co-author and I have already written the first book in a new series, The Sunset Bay Mysteries. It will be released later this year, so stay tuned! We’re taking you to Vancouver Island, and the rough and beautiful shores of the Pacific Northwest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I want to thank you all for your unwavering support and love, and for the many encouraging messages you sent me during this promo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You downloaded thousands of copies of <em>The Distant Shore</em>. There were over 600 entries in our Goodreads giveaway, and almost 400 entries in the Rafflecopter event!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I’m always grateful for every new review you leave for my books… authors <em>need </em>reviews. Reviews on Amazon make books more visible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And I want to thank my publisher, Buddhapuss Ink, for their love and support. Guys, you are nothing but <em>amazing</em>. I love every minute working with you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you, thank you, so much everyone!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now, it's time to move forward. Sunset Bay, here we come, but first, <em>For The Fireflies, Joshua & Allie's Stories</em>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We'll be releasing a new chapter of <i>For The Fireflies </i>exclusively to all newsletter subscribers, so if you want to read it, please sign up now!</span></div>
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-15107190249831892782016-03-14T15:14:00.002+01:002016-03-19T14:23:31.126+01:00Suck it up, Buttercup!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That was the question I’d been dreading when my publisher and I (well, mostly the publisher. Like, 99% mostly. Okay, all of it.) setup the three -week March promo for <i>The Distant Shore.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I <i>hear</i> her say that, and I hear <i>in my head</i> the answer she wants: Write blog posts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I hate blogging. I’m sorry, I know I’m not supposed to say that, but it’s the hard, cold truth. I hate blogging. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Every time I say this—mostly uttered in a pathetic, whiny voice while I’m sprawled across the desk like a bored cat—the publisher gives me this very stern glance over the rim of her glasses and says, “Suck it up, buttercup.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">No matter how much I groan and howl, she can be very firm and somehow <i>makes me do things. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Anyway–this time, I said, “How about I record a video of me reading from the book?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“YES!” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Did I really suggest that? Had I lost my mind?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It took me three days to work up my nerve.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Is there anything worse than staring at your own face while you try to sound calm, cool, and collected? Because, seeing yourself, and hearing yourself on a screen is the most normal, boring thing ever. Right?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So there I was. My mug of coffee was my only friend in this horrible moment of lonely terror. I’m not a makeup wearer, but my hair looked great.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I looked at my mirror image and decided that lipstick would be a good idea. Yes, I do own a lipstick, and it’s a very nice one, from a Japanese luxury cosmetics company. It was very expensive. But it’s really nice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here’s the thing. I should have gotten up from my desk chair and gone to find a mirror to apply that rather dark lippy. As it was, the result of trying to put it on with the computer screen as a mirror didn’t go well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Trying to remove the lipstick from my mouth with a tissue was even worse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now I had a big red smudge all around my lips, and it made me look like someone had hit me or I’d eaten too many raspberries. After washing my face (actually <i>scrubbing </i>it comes closer to the truth) I had to wait until my irritated skin calmed down.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I started recording. Stumbled over my own tongue. Started over. Like, ten times over.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the eleventh take I stopped caring if I stumbled over a word or not and just plowed through. YAY! I’d done it! I had recorded an author book reading! And I’d not messed up like a complete idiot either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Uploading it to Youtube and sharing it to twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest seemed like the sweet treat after a chore well done. I sat back and waited for comments. For praise and joy at how well I’d done. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Would have loved to watch and hear, but there’s no sound.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What? I’d just spent an entire morning on this, and there’s no sound?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 9px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Of course I hadn't checked. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Dudes, it’s hard enough to watch yourself read <i>once </i>while you record. But watch it again? No way. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 9px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I still haven’t figured out why there was no sound. Sigh. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This was supposed to be a gleaming, beautiful blog post about the joy of doing a virtual author reading, about how easy it is, and how easily I dealt with it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Well, it’s not. Because I failed. Miserably. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Suck it up, buttercup. </span></div>
Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-66816457300301449752016-03-05T19:55:00.000+01:002016-03-18T23:27:42.091+01:00The Secret<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Hi all, today, to celebrate the first daffodil that just showed up in my garden, I'm giving you a short story that I recently wrote. It's a mystery snippet, and it's just a bit creepy. Enjoy! </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Image by Sue Farrant</span></td></tr>
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<h4>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Secret</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I woke to find mother already dressed and bustling around the kitchen. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> She was wearing her good red skirt and embroidered blouse, with her best, white kerchief tied around the fat knot of hair at the back of her head. She hummed while she put water and roasted bread over the open hearth. There was a big jar of honey on the table, and a generous slab of the salty butter I’d churned the night before. The honey shone golden in the sunlight.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Get up, Lillemor,” Mother sang, “Get up, and hurry, I need to go to the forest today!”<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I remembered: when she’d crossed the yard on her way back from the stable and I’d seen the thin sliver of the new moon playing hide-and-seek with the wind and the clouds. It was the day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Mama,” I sat down at the table, my nightgown wrapped around my knees and feet to keep them warm against the early morning chill, “where do the babies really come from?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Mother’s shoulders drew together. “You know that, silly Lille,” she said softly, “I don’t have to tell you again, do I?” She pointed at the open window with her chin. “The stork brings them. They grow on the clouds, and when they’re ripe the storks pick them up, and bring them to the meadow in the forest where I go to find them and bring them to their families. You know that! You’ve watched me go every season, ever since you were a little girl.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Of course I knew that. For the past few years mother had allowed me to tag along all the way to the edge of the forest, but not one step farther. The forest wasn’t for everyone, she always had said, only a very few were permitted to enter. It was a dangerous and protected place, a place of mystery and secrets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Twice a year mother went into the forest, and she always came back with a new baby, and sometimes, two. Once there had been three, and stepping out of the forest she had laughed, her eyes shining, her hair plastered to her head with the effort of carrying three infants. I’d hurried to help her, and that had been the first time I’d ever felt the surprisingly solid, little body of a new baby. You’d expect them to be fragile, light, nearly ephemeral, but they aren’t. They’re little humans with strong lungs and lusty voices, and tiny hands that they know how to ball into fists even though they can hardly open their eyes yet. Like kittens, they were like new kittens. Hardly out of… </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Yes.” I spread butter and honey on my piece of bread, “But Mama, why are kittens and calves born from their mothers’s bodies, and humans, not?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “That is a mystery,” Mother replied, pouring tea for us, “And it’s useless to ask because there’s no one who can supply the answer. Now eat, and I’ll sit with you for a little while, but then I must be on my way.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I glanced over Mother’s shoulder and out the window to where the forest stood, silent, dark, its secrets hidden in the shade of its ancient trees. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Can I come, this time?” I asked, “Please? To the meadow?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “No, sweet child.” Mother reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “You can’t. No one can.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I knew that one day I’d find out. Bringing out the babies had been the task of the women in our family for as long as history could be remembered, and I knew that one day it would be my turn to discover the secret the forest and my mother guarded so well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “I’ve never seen storks with babies fly over the trees.” I hid my face behind my mug so she couldn’t see my warming cheeks, “Shouldn’t we be able to see them, when they bring the babies?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Mother opened her mouth and then closed it again. I was asking too many questions; in a moment she’d tell me to hush and go muck out the pigsty, and that would be it for the day. I’d come out smelling like a pig myself and then I’d have to walk all the way down to the river for a bath.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> But all she said was, “Patience, little mother. Your time will come. You’re just past childhood. You should sing, and play, and dance with the young folk from the village, and not worry about those deep mysteries. Not yet, Lille.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Little mother she had called me, and that went down my back like a caress. My name. It was my name, little mother. That’s what Lillemor meant. My mother’s name was Moren. She was The Mother, and that was her name. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> It had always been just the two of us; I had no brothers or sisters, no grandparents, no father. For as long as I can remember, it had been Mother, and Little Mother. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “I must leave now.” Mother stood up. She straightened the pleats of her skirt and checked her kerchief. “You can come to the edge, if you want, and wait there for me. I have a feeling that today will be…” Her words trailed away, she turned her head. I could see the tiny, stray curls on her temples glint silvery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We set off, mother and I, at a slow pace, chatting softly about the coming winter, about how the leaves on the trees had changed color, and how the meadows leading up to the forest had been mowed and the hay stored in the barns. We came to a spot where a big, flat stone served as a bench, just outside the shade of the forest. That was where we had our lunch. The march up the hill was longer than it looked. We sat there, napkins on our laps, munching the bread and cheese we’d brought, drinking tea from the flask, watching the smoke rise from the houses far below. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Who will have a new baby today?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Mother didn’t respond for a while. Nodding, she looked down toward our village. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Bethe and Emil have wanted a child for a long time now,” she finally said, “So it might be for them. But Orna and Ben have asked for another, too. Their little boy is so sickly after having fallen off the top floor of their barn. I’m not sure.” She shrugged, and began putting away the remnants of our meal. “I guess we’ll know soon enough.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> She walked away and was soon swallowed up by the shade under the trees. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I sat there in the mellow fall sunshine, my legs stretched out, letting my mind wander. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> After a while, sleepy boredom overtook me. I wished I’d stayed behind and mucked the pigsty after all. Even that odious chore would have been better than the boredom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I’d just decided to return home when something in the air changed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Where it had been mild and fragrant a moment before it was now cold, and smelled of moss and decay.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Lillemor,” the trees whispered, and then again, “Come. Come, Lillemor.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I sprang up and stared. The sun was still streaming down from a teal sky, a gentle wind ruffling the leaves of the trees. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Almost certain that I’d fallen asleep and dreamed it, I sank back down on the stone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Lillemor,” the forest sang, and this time it wasn’t a dream. “Come, Lillemor.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> My feet moved without me having even decided yet. I walked toward the forbidden forest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">~~~ </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It was different than I’d expected. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> From outside, the forest was a dark, forbidding wall that kept out everyone and everything. I’d often sat on that stone bench, my back to the village below me, and stared at the dark, silent trees and wondered how mother could find her way in there. I imagined her creeping through the thick, unwilling underbrush, twigs and thorns snagging in her skirt and hair, resenting her presence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> This time, though, it occurred to me that she always returned walking upright, not a hair out of place, and the infants in her arms, unharmed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Come,” the wind whispered, the boughs sighed, and I took my first step into the shade. It wasn’t that the trees moved, or the underbrush vanished. It was more as if, once I’d crossed that barrier of darkness, I’d entered a realm that had been hidden before. I walked on emerald, spongy moss, across sun-drenched glades that were alight with flowers and butterflies, along a brook that sparkled and glittered over marbles and pebbles in all the colors of the rainbow. Silver fish darted through swift currents, dragonflies hovered over nodding reeds. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I could hear wildlife: the soft tread of deer, the rustle of rabbits and even smaller animals, the snuffle of something with the plodding of a ponderous cow.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> There was no path; yet my feet seemed to know where they were supposed to go, gently guided by the forest. Up I went, deeper into the woods, always following the brooks meandering trail, until at last I could see green shade and the reflections of a pond through the trees.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Dread crept up my arms, my neck. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> There was mother, on her knees, bent over the still, dark water of the pond. Her hair was loose, flowing around her like a veil, and she was naked. She had stretched out her arms, her palms down, and she was chanting a phrase over and over again, the same words flowing into each other like the cadence of a waterfall. “Jord, Mormor, Moren, Lillemor…” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Over and over she chanted this while blood dropped from her wrists into the pond.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I wanted to rush to her, scream at her, shake her out of the trance, but somehow I knew that I couldn’t. So I stood there, silent like the trees around me, waiting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Mother fell silent. Her arms fell to her sides. She sank into the moss, exhausted, and wiped the last drops of blood from her skin.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Come here,” she said, her voice dry and rough, “Now you must do the rest.” She sounded like a very old woman. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I hesitated, not sure that she’d meant me.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “Come, Lillemor.” This time she sounded impatient, urgent.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I knelt beside her. The water was no longer still. Something moved in it, deep down in the darkness. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“There is no meadow,” I said. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “No.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “There are no storks,” I said.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “No.”Her hand moved to point at the water. “Watch. Listen. Learn. This will be your task from now on. I can go home. Mother Jord is calling me.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Jord. The goddess of the Earth. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “You are not Lillemor any longer. You are now Moren, The Mother.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Through the surface of the pond a bundle rose, a small, white bundle of humanity, an infant girl, pale, her eyes pinched, her head covered with the same black hair that mother had, and I.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> “She is Lillemor,” Mother said, “She is your daughter now. Teach her. You are now the Mother.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Carefully she picked the baby up, held it for a moment, and then laid it in my arms.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> One last smile, one last breeze of a kiss on my brow, then she stepped into the water and allowed it to swallow her. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The infant opened her eyes and looked at me. They were my eyes. They were mother’s eyes. They were the eyes of every child born from the pond. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“I will take you home now,” I told the little girl, “I am Mother.”</span></div>
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-60682632423562471612016-02-13T22:48:00.001+01:002016-02-17T18:26:55.666+01:00Trailers for the Stone Trilogy<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Here are the new trailers, all in one place. Enjoy!</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l-spk-7DtDU?list=PLtvLKCotpBnGh53hm5ZCSgPscSqEaDqTQ" width="560"></iframe></div>
Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-73510193621049773492016-01-17T19:48:00.001+01:002016-01-17T19:48:37.155+01:00News, Letters, and Newsletters!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I know I'm
late to the party, but I'll soon be launching my brand-new, sparkling and shiny Newsletter! </span></span><br />
<div class="Firstpara">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div class="NormalFirst">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: small;">Since I
have no idea what to actually do with a newsletter (I'm sure this will change
soon!) I'll just write a lot of short stories and side stories from my novels
which means you'll get <i>exclusive</i>
stuff to read. Sign up if you want more stories about Jon and Naomi, about
Liese and Duncan and Sunset Bay or if you want to be the <i>first</i> to know when a new book will be released!</span> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="Firstpara">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If you've
been reading my blog you already know that every now and then I post a short
story from a different genre: SciFi, fantasy, crime. I promise you'll get
more of those <i>exclusively</i> through the
newsletter! </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="Firstpara">
</div>
<div class="Firstpara">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I promise not
to spam you. This should be a fun thing for you and me. So, let's do this!<br />
You can find the sign-up box on the upper right side of my blog! Join me, let's
have some fun! >>>>>>></span></span><span style="background: white; color: #141823; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span>
</div>
<br />
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</div>
Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-13212132421751383802015-11-17T13:11:00.006+01:002016-01-17T19:50:39.444+01:00Paris <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is true that changing your profile pic on Facebook or
twitter or anywhere else to show the French flag really changes nothing.
Neither does changing your cover photo to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/noussommesunis?source=feed_text&story_id=10205152520841855">#<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">NousSommesUnis</span></a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Neither does visiting the sites of the attacks and laying down flowers or
lighting a candle. You see, it's the same thing. We aren't in Paris. Most of us
don't have a French embassy around the corner where we can go to pay our
respects. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What we CAN do though is share our stunned grief right here,
on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/facebook?source=feed_text&story_id=10205152520841855">#<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">Facebook</span></a>,
where we come to chat and play and have a good time. Yes, we'll take those
flags and peace signs and words down again. Probably soon, too. Because the
world is harsh. Because life must go on, no matter what. It does go on, and so
must we. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But for a moment, for a few days, while we had that French flag on our profile
images, we put our own lives on hold to share the grief, to try and give
comfort, and to understand that whatever is going on in our little world–there
is always worse. Always.</span></span></div>
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<![endif]-->Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-56408087347026225542015-10-18T13:30:00.000+02:002016-02-17T18:30:01.747+01:00Because Kim Asked<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Don’t think too much. Don’t worry. Don’t read writing advice, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">never</i>, ever!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Don’t let anyone
read it while you’re still writing the story, and don’t tell anyone. You’ll
only end up getting asked stupid questions.</span><br />
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<![endif]-->
<br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Don’t lose faith. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: small;"><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Don’t be afraid! </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: small;">There are no shortcuts. It takes a while to write a
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Don't ask yourself why you're writing, or if it will be
signed by a publisher. Just write. You're writing for yourself, not for an
audience. You'll always be writing for yourself. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: small;">Finish what you're writing before you allow yourself to start
something new. Always finish! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: small; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">And have fun. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: medium; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rxxew6B5h8I/ViOCamSTv3I/AAAAAAAABes/TWJ3DNTNLA4/s1600/screen-capture-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="351" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rxxew6B5h8I/ViOCamSTv3I/AAAAAAAABes/TWJ3DNTNLA4/s400/screen-capture-1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-37982773194180408832015-10-07T21:10:00.001+02:002016-02-18T20:03:26.119+01:00A Walk in the Neighborhood<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">I took a walk today. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Now that’s probably not a big thing. You go outside and walk all the time, and that’s as it should be, but since I broke my back five years ago, walking is a major undertaking for me. Not a call for sympathy, please. I’m fine!</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">But today, I walked. It wasn’t a long walk, or a dynamic one, but you have to start somewhere, right? And so I did. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">I walked my husband to his workplace. It’s only 500 yards from our house, but going there and back adds up to a 1000 yards, and that’s a hefty stretch for me. Half a mile. Wow. I walked half a mile. That’s still less than the endless hike my friend Bunny and I did in the Luray Caverns in Virginia. I thought I was going to die that day, but in the end, when we got back, I didn't expire, I just puked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Anyway, today’s a lovely fall day, perfect for a walk in the neighborhood. The sun is shining with that special mellow October golden light. Most of the trees still have their leaves, and many are still green. There were a lot of acorns underfoot though. There’s this old wives’ tale that the winter will be hard if there are a lot of acorns and chestnuts in fall. Didn’t see any chestnuts–mostly because there are no chestnut trees in the neighborhood–but a lot of acorns, and those little triangular thingies that grow on beech trees. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">I found these beauties hidden under a beech hedge: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AS-Fk23Smps/VhVr-kee1EI/AAAAAAAABcI/ZqO9DN4ZrPo/s1600/IMG_0496.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AS-Fk23Smps/VhVr-kee1EI/AAAAAAAABcI/ZqO9DN4ZrPo/s320/IMG_0496.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">There were quite a few of them, but there were no fairy folk to be seen. Maybe they don’t come out in bright daylight? Who knows!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">This huge old oak tree has always been one of my favorite trees in the neighborhood. I often wonder how old it is, and I’m glad that we have tree protection laws that would put a person in jail if they dared to cut this giant down. There are two old beech trees farther down the street; I’ll take a photo of them next time!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xonkJ9avpsU/VhVsJmHPwzI/AAAAAAAABcQ/1rvxX3WXPP8/s1600/IMG_0469.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xonkJ9avpsU/VhVsJmHPwzI/AAAAAAAABcQ/1rvxX3WXPP8/s640/IMG_0469.jpg" width="480" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Aren’t trees pure magic? I think they are. Haughty and tall they stand through every kind of weather and every season. They stand witness to the life bustling around them; listening to the chatter and song of birds nesting in their boughs. They endure the woodpecker’s need to burrow his nut stash in their rinds, they don’t even shy away when a dog needs their trunks to mark his territory. They offer shelter to the desperate cat fleeing from one of those dogs, and they patiently stand still when intrepid children climb up into their branches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">I saw a cow. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">This cow: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i0bp8RF6HqM/VhVsRQ1owGI/AAAAAAAABcY/L64b2aBImd0/s1600/IMG_0473.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i0bp8RF6HqM/VhVsRQ1owGI/AAAAAAAABcY/L64b2aBImd0/s400/IMG_0473.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">And I peeked into this beautiful front yard:</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KeAhEFZXXNY/VhVt4Dy2M7I/AAAAAAAABcs/h9_LC8OAIIA/s1600/IMG_0468.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KeAhEFZXXNY/VhVt4Dy2M7I/AAAAAAAABcs/h9_LC8OAIIA/s320/IMG_0468.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">I’m amazed by people who enjoy gardening. I think it must be a talent that they’re born with, because I know that I suck at it, totally. We have a small backyard of our own, but it’s more of a wildflower/butterfly/anything-wild-and-grow-as-you-like yard than anything else. The cats love it, and so do the dragonflies. And bees.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">It’s the small things that matter. It’s the observation of those small things that make the difference. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">I’ve always maintained–and I know I’ not alone in believing this–that a keen sense of observation is one of the skills that make a writer. There are so many stories out there, and all you have to do is see them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Look at this: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Do you see the story? I do! I see an entire novel here. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Who put that gull in that exact spot? Who chose to plant those kinds of grass around it? Where did he/she find that gull, and why? Do they live in that house behind this front yard or have they moved on? Were they happy people, alone, grieving? Do they have children?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Or that cow from earlier? Who painted it, who put it there? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">The world around us sings to us. All we have to do is to be still, and listen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">And there’s the novel you always wanted to write. </span></div>
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-79033879052007654162015-10-04T21:05:00.000+02:002015-10-04T21:13:28.012+02:00Barbie Doll<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This is a story that has been sitting unedited in my desk drawer for over three years now. It was my first tentative step into mystery writing. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I'm re-blogging it now, rewritten and polished (by my editor at Buddhapuss Ink LLC). Hope you enjoy it!</span><br />
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(Art: Eric G. Thompson – used with permission) </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> BARBIE DOLL</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I’m late for my lunch meeting with Freddy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bloody stupid traffic jam held up my cab so I jumped out and walked along the last couple of blocks to Harvard Square. Of course I’m sweaty and exhausted by the time I get to the restaurant where we like to hang out, but he’s there, good soul that he is, and has held the table for us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Damnable heat,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>is his greeting as he raises his hand to signal the waiter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Fish and chips,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>Freddy says. “Today I’m definitely going to have that.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It feels much too hot to think about food.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“What about you?”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>He hands me the faux-leather-bound menu. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Salad. Just salad.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Freddy is at his dapper best. I’ve never yet seen him in anything but those striped shirts and bowties, in winter with a tweed jacket, in summer with a straw hat. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We’ve been meeting like this for quite a while now, maybe three years or so. It has become a kind of ritual, always the same place, and nearly always the same meals, at least for Freddy. He flirts with the menu, announces he will pick something else, and then ends up with the fish and chips, and beer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“So,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>he asks when the waiter leaves, “What’s new?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He always asks that question, as if because I’m a police detective he thinks I know everything. He seems greedy for the morsels I’m allowed to spill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Nothing much this week.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>A girl brings a basket of bread and butter, and Freddy spreads the linen napkin on his lap. Very daintily he picks out a slice of the bread and begins to nibble on it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“It’s summer break, nothing much is going on. Everyone else has left Cambridge. Sorry, no gruesome tales for you today.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">His face falls at those words. “Oh. Too bad. You make me feel connected to real life with your news, my friend. You know how it is.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With <span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">a </span>wave of his hand he points in the general direction of the university. “Living and working behind those walls is like living in a different dimension sometimes.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Freddy works at one of the libraries, the Archives, but I’ve never understood exactly what he does there, and to be honest, I don’t care. That campus, Harvard, has always been a strange world to me. Just walking through those gates seems to be an act of profanity if you don’t belong there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“We did have a stalking case this week,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>I say, more to keep him amused than anything else. “But it was just that, a dropped lover who wouldn’t let go. The fact that he spent a night in jail was enough to make him skip town. Case closed.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our entrees are served. My salad looks intriguing and delicious with its mix of greens and fruit, and the thin slices of poached salmon.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Freddy rubs his hands in glee over his huge serving of fish. I know he won’t be able to even finish half of it, but will have the rest packed to take home in a doggie bag. I’ve always wondered if he has a cat who’s looking forward to his leftovers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“That’s not stalking.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>He bites into one of his fries. It’s so fresh that I can hear the crunch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“What is?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well-mannered as always, he swallows before replying. “The guy you’re talking about. That’s not really stalking. If he gives up and goes away, that’s not stalking.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Intrigued, I put down my fork. “How do you define stalking, then?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Freddy leans back into his chair. “Oh, a real stalker would never let go that easily.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“You think? Yeah, I think they do let go if you scare the living daylights out of them.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>His attitude amuses me. As if a librarian knew about stalking. As if dapper, slight and intelligently witty Freddy knew about stalking. Right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">His blue eyes regard me with cool amusement while he breaks off a piece of fish and pierces it with the fork.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Change tactics, maybe, but never let go.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The way he says it sends chills down my back. “You think so? You think a stalker can be obsessed enough to outsmart the police?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Oh, dear boy, most certainly.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>He draws his brows together. “Now if I were a stalker, I’d never let go of the object I adore.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A group of tourists stream in, chatting loudly in French, and a bright smile flashes across Freddy’s face. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Ah, Europe,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>he sighs, “So cultured.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>He puts down his fork. “Well, as I was going to say, if I were a stalker, I’d lay my plans carefully, go about it slowly, and never take a direct route.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“You’re scaring me, Fred,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>I say, and it’s true. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But he gives me a grin and pats my shoulder. “Come on, dear friend, we’re just talking hypothetically, aren’t we. I read too many books in my line of work, some more fun than others.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Okay then, tell me!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“First of all,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>he slowly says, “You have to understand the underlying motives for stalking. Why, do you think, someone turns into a stalker?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now that one’s easy enough. I’m not a detective for nothing. Before I can reply though, Freddy goes on, “A stalker doesn’t decide to become a stalker. Let’s say I was one. Let’s assume I was a stalker.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>He points at our waitress. “When I was a little boy I wanted nothing more than a Barbie doll. I wanted one with long, blond hair, and beautiful dresses, and I wanted to play with her, dress her up, do her hair, slip those high heels on her little plastic feet. I even cleared out a nook in my wardrobe for her stuff, and built a house for her over summer vacation. My mother thought it was for a rabbit or hamster, but no, I wanted my Barbie doll to live in it. I think my mother got suspicious when I started nicking scraps of fabric from her quilting chest to put on the bed and windows of my playhouse. It drove me mad that she didn’t have anything I could use for carpeting! And lace. I needed lace for the sheets on Barbie’s bed so I bribed my friend Sam to steal some from his mother, who was a quilter too. My mother asked me why I thought a hamster needed a bed with a lace sheet, but of course I didn’t tell her. My birthday was drawing close, and my only wish was for a Barbie doll.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He breaks off to take a drink of beer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Nice story,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>I say. My appetite has disappeared. His tale sounds too real for comfort.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Freddy shrugs. “It’s just a story. I’ve always thought of writing crime, and maybe you’re helping me to find the courage to do it!” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After another bite he goes on, “So my ninth birthday comes, and there’s no Barbie. Of course there isn’t. My parents would never give me, their son, a doll. I could turn into a fag, right?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">His English words always sound so elegant and sophisticated to me. Freddy is a natural born gentleman.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“And there I am, a disappointed young boy who wanted nothing but some feminine beauty.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">His tale is beginning to be amusing. This isn’t exactly how a man turns into a stalker, at least not in my book, but his narration is entertaining enough, so I let him ramble on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Of course, over the next few years, I grow out of it. Dolls and dollhouses were…not so much forgotten as pushed into the back of my mind. The girls I try to date? They are all images of Barbie. Of course not one of them is really <i>exactly</i> like her. One is too short, one too tall, the other’s waist isn’t slim enough, and the next one doesn’t have enough chest. One needs to lighten up her hair, and another one has too many curls. I’m looking for the perfect girl. The one perfect girl with cornflower-blue eyes, rosy lips, long, wavy, golden hair and the figure of a doll. The one who would wear high heels even on her way to the shower, and who’d never talk. Can you imagine Barbie talking? I can’t.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Again, he shrugs. “Or rather, I don’t want to imagine how that voice sounds. It can’t be anywhere near good enough to match her perfect body.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The blond girl who brought us our food saunters over with a jug of water to refill our glasses, and Freddy measures her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“This one?”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>he says, “She would need <i>so</i> much work to make her perfect. But it’s summer break, and there’s not much material around, so she’ll have to do.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Do? For what?” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Oh, you know. I need a Barbie in my life.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>He asks her for another beer, and she smiles at him. It makes him regard her through narrowed eyes until she gets impatient and walks away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“So why not buy all the dolls you couldn’t have as a kid and put them on a shelf now? You know you can get them on eBay easily enough. You don’t have to imagine live girls as Barbies.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Boring.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>Again, he shrugs me away. “I’ve grown out of that.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>His eyes gleaming, he leans forward and rests his elbows on the table. “And I have the ideal job! I work in the vaults of Harvard where there are rooms that are never used, totally forgotten. People would believe that if it were in a novel, wouldn’t they? And it would make a really great setting!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It would indeed. I have to agree with that. In my mind’s eye I see dark, dank corridors, creaking metal doors, muddy light from flickering bulbs. And at the end of the hallway when you think you can’t go any farther, Freddy’s secret chamber. I realize he has succeeded in planting this vision in my mind. I’m afraid he will open that door. He’s insanely good at telling this tale.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“I’d find a space in the bowels of the building,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>Freddy says.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I blink and take a big drink of tea. Now I know why I never watch CSI or Criminal Minds or anything like that. It’s so far away from my daily police reality it’s almost like a parody, but strangely enough, with Freddy’s tale, it seems so much more real.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“And I turn it into a replica of my doll house. It takes me a couple of years, I have to be very circumspect. But one day it’s finished. And then, during one Christmas night when there’s no one around, I bring in a doll. Not a Barbie, mind you, but a life-sized dummy that I found on eBay.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>He grins at me. “Isn’t it cool what you can get through the internet these days? You can buy almost anything.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I’m torn between scoffing and asking him if he really did that. My skin is crawling. But hey, this is Freddy, I’ve known him for years, and I’d be the last person he’d tell that he’s a…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“What you’re describing, Fred,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>I say, “Is not a stalker. That’s a budding serial killer, my friend. Watch it, you may have to change your premise.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Surprised, he stares at me. “Really? You think so? I’ve never thought of it as serial killing.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For a few minutes he sits musing silently. Then he shakes it off, as if he’s decided that this is something that doesn’t fit into his story.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Anyway,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>he picks up his thread, “The mannequin is all good and well, but it’s not perfect. I want a perfect, life-sized Barbie, and so I start strolling across campus with a new awareness. I attend lectures, go to the cafeteria for lunch, and sit on benches to watch girls walk by. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then one day…one day I see her. The perfect girl, Barbie come to life. And I know she has to be mine, has to be enshrined in the house I built for her. I must bring her down to that room that is now a shrine to her, and I must keep her there, until the end of days.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>He tilts his head at me. “Or at least until she fades and isn’t Barbie at all anymore but just another plain, blond girl.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“So what happens then? What happens when she turns into a real human being in your eyes?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Oh.”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>Freddie signals to the waitress. “She’ll have to go, won’t she. She’ll need to be replaced. Every toy breaks after a while and needs to be replaced.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have to ask. I just have to. It’s my instinct, and my job. “So what do you do with her, when you find a replacement?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He’s signing the bill, but that makes him pause and look up at me, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “Broken toys go with the trash, don’t they? What a stupid question.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Outside, the air hits me like a hot, wet bed sheet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Freddy walks away without lookning back, his hat at a jaunty angle on his head, his hands in his pockets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">My phone rings. It’s my partner, Jody.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Dude,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>she says, “You better get your ass moving. They just found a body in a garbage truck.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“What?”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>The small word gets stuck in my throat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Freddie is out of sight. I watched him walk through the arched gate and onto the campus just a second ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“A young woman. Blond, and quite pretty,”<span style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;"> </span>Jody is saying. “Actually, she looks like Barbie Doll.”</span></div>
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D7056162936481787793%23editor%2Ftarget%3Dpost%3BpostID%3D7903387905200765416&media=https%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-uK_tsvhjk40%2FVhF4IaRqbvI%2FAAAAAAAABb0%2FXrD4r7XBv44%2Fs640%2F532214_3856731253373_1217348234_n1.jpg&xm=h&xv=sa1.37.01&xuid=w0KPSzADqKXd&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 119px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 214px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D7056162936481787793%23editor%2Ftarget%3Dpost%3BpostID%3D7903387905200765416&media=https%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-uK_tsvhjk40%2FVhF4IaRqbvI%2FAAAAAAAABb0%2FXrD4r7XBv44%2Fs640%2F532214_3856731253373_1217348234_n1.jpg&xm=h&xv=sa1.37.01&xuid=w0KPSzADqKXd&description=" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 119px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 214px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-50292100274943139752015-09-27T13:23:00.002+02:002015-09-27T13:24:02.409+02:00Where the Heart Lives<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">A moment ago my author friend Lynn Shepherd (you can find her here: <a href="http://www.lynn-shepherd.com/">http://www.lynn-shepherd.com</a>) tweeted this: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“</span><i>Don't you just love </i><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%2523Motive"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(43, 123, 184); color: #2b7bb8;"><i>#Motive</i></span></a><i>? Canadians of Twitter - is Vancouver really that stunning?”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now I’m not Canadian, and I’ve not really watched Motive, but yes–Vancouver really is that stunning. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Lynn’s simple tweet resulted in a nostalgic flash-back for me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Oh yes, Vancouver, and Vancouver Island…<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"> </span>a dream place, a place like no other for the setting of a novel, a series of novels. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The first time I went to Vancouver was in 2011. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A twitter friend, Sue, had invited me. I didn’t want to go. It had been decades since I’d last been on a flight. <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"><i>Yes</i></span> I said decades, and nine hours on a plane scared the living daylights out of me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“No,”<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"> </span>I said, “Nuh huh. I’d love to, but no thank you.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fortunately for me, Sue was a flight attendant with Air Canada at that time. She promised to meet me in London and work on the flight back to Vancouver, and she’d make sure we got there in one piece. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Which is how I ended up in Vancouver, Canada.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Standing on the beach of English Bay I felt like I was standing on the shore of a strange planet; I’d never been that far from home before. Driving along the road to Whistler felt like scaling the mountains of a different world. Thanks to Sue and her husband I didn’t feel completely displaced. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Last year, I returned. It was like going home. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I’d started writing <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"><i>The Nobody Girl</i></span>, the first book in the Sunset Bay Series, which is set on Vancouver Island. So off to Vancouver Island we went, Sue and I, to find the places that I wanted to use as settings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Tofino,”<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"> </span>I had said, so that was our destination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why this small town on the west coast of Vancouver Island that sounded like an ice cream parlor? To my European ears Tofino<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"> </span>sounds like a place in southern Italy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, Tofino has nothing in common with an ice cream parlor. It has nothing in common with any place I know…<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"> </span>wait; it does, in fact, and now that I’m writing this I’m surprised that it didn’t occur to me earlier. Tofino has a lot in common with Florø, Norway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">My debut novel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/distant-shore-stone-trilogy/dp/0984203540/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=utf8&qid=1443202905&sr=1-2"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"><i>The Distant Shore</i></span></a> was set in Florø. For various reasons I renamed it Halmar in the book, but Florø<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"> </span>and Tofino, are pretty much alike it turns out. Now I’m wondering what that says about my writing. What is it with these western-most outposts that fascinates me so much? Why do my heroines hide in these small communities at the edge of the Earth before they find the courage to conquer the world?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Both Naomi and Liese, in an effort to escape a difficult situation, seek out the order, the open spaces of nature in the small life of a village. Both go on a journey within themselves before they’re ready for new relationships, new adventures. Both are insecure, hurt souls in search of a smaller, more structured life . </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Don’t get me wrong. They aren’t alike in any other way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Naomi is the spoiled and sheltered only daughter of a wealthy and powerful family. First she runs from her father, and then she runs from Jon Stone, the one man she loves. It seems her love for Jon has overtaken her own identity, leaving her a mere shadow floating at the edges of wildly colorful picture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Liese, on the other hand, has made life hard for herself by choosing to live in Manhattan where she works a variety of odd jobs. Her dream is to be a writer, but she never asks herself if she’s got what it takes to be one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Both women blossom in the secluded place they pick for their ultimate flight. Both come to understand that they’re not who they thought they were. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well. Who’d have thought. This post started out as a fun piece on travel experiences, and somehow it’s turned into one about writing…<span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS';"> </span>again. Seems like I’m an author after all, and that I have something to say about my craft.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I promise, the next post will be about traveling, or maybe writing, or my son’s favorite dinner dish. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Stay tuned! </span></div>
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Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-32524603570070590522015-09-14T18:45:00.001+02:002015-09-14T18:48:34.331+02:00Sunset Bay, Introduced.<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 101, 130); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #066582; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Do you know how I got my first book deal? No?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Let me tell you about it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It all began on twitter. I’d been working on <i>The Distant Shore</i> for a while when I met a publisher who had been tweeting about her new puppy, her sleepless nights, and how much she loved coffee. We didn’t talk about my novel; I wasn’t ready to submit, and I didn’t want to impose. It was unreal enough that I was talking to an actual publisher.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But then, one day in January 2011, some other writer tweeted about good ways to promote your writing, and how to get it out there for people to see. One of those ways was posting page 99 of your WIP on your blog.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So I went back to <i>Distant Shore</i> and looked up my page 99. It happened to be in the middle of a fun scene, one of my favorite parts of the novel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I posted it, sent the link to my blog to my chatty publisher friend, and within seconds they asked for the full manuscript. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The rest is history. Now five novels, and three Independent Book Publisher Awards later, I’m as happy with them as I was on the first day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This summer I started writing a new series. To celebrate that, I’m again sharing page 99 with you, this time from <i>The Nobody Girl</i>, the first novel in my new Sunset Bay series. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here goes! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I’d left the car outside Poppy’s, which meant I had to trudge back up the road.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A cold wind was blowing up from the ocean, bringing more clouds, more rain, and darkening the early afternoon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I stood on the pier in a strange town, watching the trawlers as they swayed on the gentle swell inside the protected cove. They made sounds, those ships; they were talking in their gnarly, wooden voices, telling each other of their night out on the open waters, and the wonders they’d seen: great blue whales cruising lazily in the icy waves, orcas singing their song to the stars, and maybe even mermaids, elusive, beautiful mermaids, their white skin and golden hair shining in the moonlight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Secrets, they were sharing secrets that no man had ever seen, or ever would; things that happened in the night while the humans slept. That was the time when life came up from the deep to preen in the light of the Milky Way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">That bell was tolling again, counting out heartbeats in an irregular pulse, singing a counter melody to the ocean’s song.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Rain dripped on my face and hair, rain that was somewhere between mist and water drops, it was that fine and slow. It felt like a veil, like gossamer cobwebs, like a dewy cleansing mask, and I tilted my head to catch more of it. Never before had rain seemed so good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“You don’t have to be alone, you know.” Duncan, who else. “You have friends here, Liese. I know you’re used to being alone, and you think people don’t care about you, but that’s just not true anymore. We do care. You have a new home here.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Yeah, and I knew why he was saying that, right? It wasn’t about me; it was about that precious piece of land, the forest. And maybe even the cabin. But not about me, not about the person.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“You can’t possibly say that,” I replied, pulling my sodden jacket tighter around my body, “You don’t know me, you don’t know anything about me, and you’re only talking to me because of that inheritance. I know what you want, Duncan. Go away.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“You do?” He really had a nice mouth. And nice eyes. And… well. He really looked nice. “You think you know what I want? Well, darling, you can guess all you like, but I’m telling you, you’re so totally on the wrong track. I don’t know what turned you into the sad, hostile woman that you are. But I can say this: you can stop now. You can unpack your smile, and the sweetness that you keep hidden under all that bristly behavior. You’ve passed the test. We like you.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And with that, he walked away, his hands in his pockets, whistling a merry tune.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If you liked this little excerpt stay tuned, sign up, for more! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">(All photos: Sue Farrant)</span></div>
Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-84300592863382131262015-09-11T21:01:00.004+02:002015-09-11T21:01:55.378+02:00A Day in Town<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-size: 16px;">
We don't go into Hamburg very often anymore. Once that we gave up the car it became a major undertaking, especially with so many of the subway stations under construction right now. My bad leg isn’t happy with those stairs!</div>
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But today we went, and that means a Thai lunch. I love Thai food, and so does my hubby. The kid<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">, </span>not so much. He brings his burger and fries—bought at one of those fast food places owned by a clown—with him to the Thai restaurant. No one minded. I think they're used to teenagers not liking hot and spicy food. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NusA648v0yU/VfMXTqShevI/AAAAAAAABX8/soteu8C3N10/s1600/IMG_0395.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NusA648v0yU/VfMXTqShevI/AAAAAAAABX8/soteu8C3N10/s640/IMG_0395.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Wait–he isn't a teenager anymore!<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IoYVN43qg1U/VfMXXX3yk4I/AAAAAAAABYE/6dqaOCpo6do/s1600/IMG_0394.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IoYVN43qg1U/VfMXXX3yk4I/AAAAAAAABYE/6dqaOCpo6do/s640/IMG_0394.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Or maybe he is, deep inside…<br />
I mean, really–how can you want a burger when you can eat THIS instead?<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AObJrd7uljM/VfMX5UKqCGI/AAAAAAAABYM/3cdoN64_jnU/s1600/IMG_0399.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AObJrd7uljM/VfMX5UKqCGI/AAAAAAAABYM/3cdoN64_jnU/s640/IMG_0399.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Green Thai curry with duck! Delicious!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LI3DNGHXTaM/VfMX8rZm-5I/AAAAAAAABYU/mozIAPA6wEg/s1600/IMG_0402.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LI3DNGHXTaM/VfMX8rZm-5I/AAAAAAAABYU/mozIAPA6wEg/s640/IMG_0402.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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We hadn't been to this restaurant for a few years. It's in a different part of town where we only go when we need to stock up on spices and basmati rice.</div>
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That's the reason why, coming out of the washroom, I grabbed my cell phone and returned to take a photo of their very<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span>special<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span>washroom design. I mean, really. What do <i>you</i> think of it?</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TTUfqDLPCSM/VfMYtFLEnSI/AAAAAAAABYg/KqUNVMPZx0Q/s1600/IMG_0403.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TTUfqDLPCSM/VfMYtFLEnSI/AAAAAAAABYg/KqUNVMPZx0Q/s640/IMG_0403.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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In all fairness I'll add that there was a "under construction" sign on the door. But–really? How is this under construction?<br />
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The best part of today was this, though:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mCIUGyga2qA/VfMZYi7tAhI/AAAAAAAABYo/3TEFQ834Omk/s1600/IMG_0414.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mCIUGyga2qA/VfMZYi7tAhI/AAAAAAAABYo/3TEFQ834Omk/s640/IMG_0414.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Yes, that's right. It's the kid with a suitcase. <i>My</i> suitcase! We bought a new suitcase for <i>me</i>, for my trip next year! Which means it's starting to feel real. Now, all I need is a plane ticket and I can go! </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F2y7L73D5qQ/VfMZbKcuEYI/AAAAAAAABYw/QCtsfh08XiY/s1600/IMG_0413.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F2y7L73D5qQ/VfMZbKcuEYI/AAAAAAAABYw/QCtsfh08XiY/s640/IMG_0413.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Somehow, buying this suitcase, means that it <i>will</i> indeed happen. I'll get on a plane again and visit friends I love, see new places, have new adventures. </div>
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I can hardly wait… </div>
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<br />Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7056162936481787793.post-71167008467051452022015-09-10T13:22:00.001+02:002015-09-10T20:39:06.122+02:00Jersey City Mon Amour<br />
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For some reason I always end up in New Jersey.</div>
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Of all the places I've visited in the US, New Jersey is probably the grittiest. It's where pretty meets ugly, where hip and dingy are next-door neighbors.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yG6Ge8O1yxQ/VfFkG47qU4I/AAAAAAAABWQ/1rF01bvc-08/s1600/IMG_1389.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yG6Ge8O1yxQ/VfFkG47qU4I/AAAAAAAABWQ/1rF01bvc-08/s640/IMG_1389.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Jersey City in particular, makes me stop and stare, and wonder why people would want to live there. It doesn't even have a bookstore! It's always hot and humid, not even the AC can keep out the humidity.</div>
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I had the most expensive BLT <i>ever</i> in Jersey City, in a small, totally nondescript coffee shop–it was $16. Yes, you read that right. 16$ for two slices of toast with some tomato, lettuce, and bacon smashed in between. I've had a better BLT in Manhattan, and it was only $12. And they served it on delicious challah bread with a veritable mountain of crisp bacon slices.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UeC4jNcLgdk/VfFlsGxbliI/AAAAAAAABWc/wdRTfRJa2eE/s1600/IMG_1220.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UeC4jNcLgdk/VfFlsGxbliI/AAAAAAAABWc/wdRTfRJa2eE/s640/IMG_1220.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Who wouldn't want to live in that pretty brownstone?<br />
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Or find these treasures while exploring the neighborhood?<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xH8JSs7TwrI/VfFmA6arPQI/AAAAAAAABWs/UzJr2YvdaI8/s1600/IMG_1402.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xH8JSs7TwrI/VfFmA6arPQI/AAAAAAAABWs/UzJr2YvdaI8/s640/IMG_1402.jpg" width="476" /></a></div>
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Or stand and stare at Manhattan from the promenade at J. Owen Grundy Park?<br />
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I go to New Jersey to see friends who live there. They keep telling me how they hate living in Jersey City or in Edison (and believe me; the drive from JC to Edison is mind-numbing. Those highways? Those highway <i>exits</i>? Who in the world designed this place???) and that they can't wait to move.<br />
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Of course I'll visit them wherever they go, but a tiny piece of my heart will stay in New Jersey.<br />
Because it's so unique in its mix of dirt, beauty, great places, and dinginess where you least expect it.<br />
New Jersey is for those who love the beauty of small things.<br />
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<br />Mariam Kobrashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03538911373668958558noreply@blogger.com0