Writing

Little Karin and the King – A Valentine Blog Hop post

I am thrilled to be part of the Valentine Blog Hop, organized by Maria Grace and David Pilling! I do hope that once you’ve finished reading my little piece plus taken the time to enter the giveaway contest you will rush off to visit all the other participants – you find the complete list right at the

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A book, a book, a kingdom for a … (hang on; wasn’t that a horse?)

I have fallen in love with my Kindle. Totally, unequivocally in love. I smirk (yupp, no other word for it) when I consider just how MANY books I can carry around in this versatile little device, thereby avoiding strained shoulders due to heavy hand luggage. BUT. Major but … there’s a lack of sensory impressions.

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When middle age beckons …

A colleague of mine came into my office today, expressing concerns that he might be becoming a bit staid. I was hard put not to laugh; okay, so my colleague is no longer 25, bright eyed and bushy tailed, instead he’s 45 – just as bright eyed if somewhat less bushy tailed – but age

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2036 is 23 years from now – thank heavens!

No sooner have we celebrated the fact that we’ve all survived the end of the world as predicted by the Maya calendar (which, BTW, seems to have been a TOTAL misunderstanding as the Mayans mainly concluded one cycle of time would end on the 21 of December 2012 and be replaced by a new one)

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White lies, big fibs and horrible truthsayers

Truth hurts, they say. And yet most of us will at some point or another stare our children in the eyes and tell them to always tell the truth. In actual fact, we don’t want to hear the truth – at least not always. When a small child backs away from its elderly relative, clasps

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Man, mud and jeeps – a reflection on human perseverance

I spent Christmas away from home – very far away. On Christmas Eve, I lay awake most of the night listening to the hyenas scrabbling at the canvas of our tent. On Christmas Day, I lay just as awake, listening to the two lions that roared in chorus (or maybe they were roaring AT each

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No rest for the weary

Is it only me, or are more and more of us living lives that balance on a cutting edge? So much to do, so many social media to keep up with, and so very little time … Of course, we have as much time now as people did fifty years ago, or a century ago.

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The end of the world

Since man took his first shaky intellectual steps, we’ve been thinking about The Final Day. All religious beliefs contain some sort of Day of Reckoning, and implicit in this is the belief that Someday It Will All End. The Maya Indians believed that this would come to happen on December 21 of 2012. Okay, so

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Making my day

There are various rewards to writing, starting with the exotic experience of being sucked into a fantasy world of one’s own creation. I suspect all authors experience moments of such utter absorption everyday life becomes a fuzzy noise in the background, an inconsequential little irritant in an existence that is entirely focused on the story

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Pavlov’s dogs and all that

Whenever I approach my house, I am overtaken by an urge to pee. I insert my key into the lock and have to twist my legs together – entirely ridiculous as quite often there should be no such need. Into the hallway, kick off shoes, dump my rucksack and after setting yet another new record

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