Wow, I can't believe it...

I knew it was a long time since I last posted something on my blog, but 14 August? Seriously? Oh, well, what can I say, it's been a busy weekend. I started in a new job on 1 September, was on a 3 week course in September/October - and then was quite ill for 2 weeks. Nothing serious, just your typical flu/cold/sore throat thingy, but enough to keep me in bed for quite a long time. Now I'm back on my feet, still coughing a bit, but a lot better, and have actually been at work for 2 weeks again. And on Wednesday I'm going to Gran Canaria for 17 days, can hardly wait. We booked this vacation in April, so it has been a really long wait. This time we're staying in Puerto Rico for the first week, and I've only been there on day trips earlier, so I'm looking forward to examining that place a bit closer.

I have NOT stopped writing. Still busy working on my new project, and it seems very good so far. I have showed quite a bit of my work to a publisher, and they have shown interest, so I am fairly optimistic, but still haven't got a contract so will still have to wait and see. Will tell you all about it if and when I eventually do get a new contract to have something published.

What else? I might have mentioned earlier on this blog that I tend to watch quite a lot of TV-series, probably a bit too much but... And I'm always happy when autumn comes and all my favourite shows are one again: NCIS, Bones, Fringe, The Mentalist, Castle, Grey's anatomy, Sanctuary... just to mention some. And I've discovered a new series this autumn as well: FlashForward - just LOVE it so far!

This evening I'm busy packing for my vacation, will be tough, as always, to pack within the weight limits, but will do my best. And I will try very hard to not stay quiet on the blog for another 2 - 3 months as well.

Short

I know I've been awfully quiet here on the blog for a while. I've been a bit "out of it" for a month or so, spending a lot of time thinking. I guess that was to be expected after I'd finished my 12 books series from the Viking age, and are changes happening in my life. I choose to believe that most changes are for the good: new opportunities, new adventures, new people, perhaps even new friends. But it is a challenge, and thus demands some thinking. So does my writing. I've spent quite a lot of time thinking about that, not so much writing, but making short notes about ideas, and thinking thinking thinking... Those of you out there who are creative in some way yourself knows how much time is spent thinking...

And I've got a new fulltime job, starting on 1st of September. I'm thrilled and looking forward to that, should be a great opportunity to learn something new from and/or about life!

Heat wave

I could always blame it on the warm weather these days, and say that this is the reason why my blog is so quiet lately. But the truth is; I can’t really do that. I live in a basement apartment, and I’m one of the lucky ones who live with a pretty constant temperature of 24°C not matter how warm it is outside. So as long as I’m inside I’m really not that bothered with the heat.
Still, I find I lack a bit of energy nowadays. The only thing I do manage to do is writing job applications, and that is almost a fulltime job in itself. Everything was supposed to become a lot easier when nothing was to be written on paper and only on the internet. Perhaps some day it will be easier too. So far however I find that most of the employers do want you to apply through the internet, and quite a lot of them have different systems to do so. This means that over and over and over again I have to register and fill in every detail of my CV, and by now that is rather long, so now it quite often takes me 1 – 2 hours to register my CV and then write the job application. But, fair enough, I have time to do this, so… it’s just… Oh well, today I’ve been on a job interview, and I was told they will let all the candidates know next week who they’re going to offer the job to, so I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed. 

On the creative side… I’m not completely “off”, but pretty close. Mostly jotting down words and thinking a lot. But that is how life is at times, you can’t always feel inspired and full of energy, I’m sure it’ll get better, eventually.

So far I haven’t got any big vacation plans this summer. I was supposed to go to England for a week in September, to see Michael Jackson… Now I still have some flight tickets to use, and I have been thinking about moving the vacation up, and perhaps go for a week late this summer. But right now I’m just waiting to hear back on some of my job application, when a new job is sorted out, it’s a lot easier to think about all the other stuff in life. 

This just makes me very sad...

On Friday morning I woke to the dreadful news that Våler church had burnt down to the ground. I am not a very religious person, and this isn't even our local church, but it still just made me very sad. I was baptized in this church, and two of my grandparents and lots of relatives and a few friends are buried here. When I read about it I instantly started crying. 

Today I went there, together with my parents, to see the damage myself. It truly is devastating. The police now knows that someone did this, someone intentionally set fire to the church, I really hope they get the person responsible for hurting so many people. 

The end for The Sword Woman’s kin

Another adventure must come to an end. I have now handed in book nr 12 of the series The Sword Woman’s Kin (Sverdkvinnens Ætt) to the publisher, and this will also be the final book in the series.

Those who have been following my adventure know that I have on several occasions claimed to have enough ideas to write 28 books – and this is still true. It is with the book market as many other areas in life; it is the money that rules. There is a tough competition in the series market in Norway, with about 30 series on sales in the stores today. Unfortunately my series, The Sword Woman’s Kin did not do very well in this competition. I have been told that those who do read my series really enjoy it, but unfortunately there aren’t enough readers who actually do read it – and thus The Sword Woman’s Kin can’t go on.

Am I sad? I will have to say, yes, in some ways I am. I still have many good ideas that I think would have made great and entertaining books for those who really enjoyed the series. But, I have known about this for a couple of months now, that there would only be 12 books, I’m learning to accept it. If there’s one thing I know about life it is this: nothing will get better if you spend your time thinking about all the things that could have been, you have to look to the future. If things don’t go according to plan – you have to adjust the plan.

At the moment I’m working on not 1, not 2, but 3 new ideas for series. One of these is a series set on a farm a bit back in time; the two others are taking place in our time. Because the competition is so hard in this market I don’t want to say anything more about these series right now, as there might be people out there shopping for good ideas for series. And I think I have some great ideas, it only remains to be seen if I can find someone who agree and wants to publish my new stories. Time will show.

Hopefully the story about The Sword Woman’s Kin won’t be the last you get to read from this author.

I am not only working on new ideas these days, I’m also applying for jobs. As you’ve probably guessed; I didn’t get rich on writing The Sword Woman’s Kin, and that means that now I have to find a more “regular” job again. I feel very blessed to have been given the chance to write full time for as long as I have, and I think it will be quite a transition to go back to a normal “day job”. But, believe it or not, even though there has been a lot of freedom in the life I’ve been living, I am looking forward to getting back to work. One of the things I have been missing is colleagues. Earlier I have worked in big places of work, where there have been lots of people and interesting tasks and problems – and that have been something that I have been missing when I’ve spent all my time in my “cave” in Solør, thinking up new plots for books. It will be both exciting and interesting to see what life now has in store for me. 

But, as I’ve mentioned earlier, for those of you who enjoyed The Sword Woman’s Kin and the others who read series – remember me – hopefully you will see me on the shelves again in a not too distant future, with new stories and new books. 

Eurovision Song Contest 2009

The day is finally here: today the huge Eurovision Song Contest Circus finally starts again. Everyone who knows me also knows that I’m almost a bit fanatical about this competition, and I am just SO excited about both the semi finals (today and Thursday) and the final on Saturday. 

Earlier years I have usually had a lot more time to listen to the different songs before the competition starts. This year I’ve had other things to do, but have managed to listen to about one and a half minute of every song, and on basis of that, my choice in Semi Final 1 of which ten countries should go on to the final would be:

Montenegro, Armenia, Andorra, Switzerland, Turkey, Iceland, Romania, Finland, Malta and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

This means that these are the countries that I don’t want to go through to the final:
The Czech Republic, Belgium, Belarus, Sweden, Israel, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Portugal.

I do fear though that many of the countries will give high votes to their neighbouring countries. That’s just how it is; we’ve always been doing that a lot in the Nordic countries. So based on this I’d say that the actual list of countries that will go through from tonight’s semi final looks something like this:

Montenegro
Armenia
Turkey
Belarus
Romania
Bulgaria
Macedonia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Switzerland
Malta

And then there is Semi Final 2 on Thursday, - oh what an exciting night that will we, that’s when Norway’s very own Alexander Rybak will have to do his best, and… My wish for the outcome of the second semi final is this:

Poland
Norway
Denmark
Slovenia
Azerbaijan
Greece
Lithuania
Albania
Ukraine
The Netherlands

I truly believe in Norway and Alexander Rybak, but at the same time I fear the fact that there are in Semi Final 2 as many as 15 countries that are either former East Block countries, or neighbours to such countries. With a lot of votes from their neighbours, it might be that Norway will in the end not be one of the ten to go through to the final on Saturday, no matter how good our song is. It will be a very scary night indeed. 

But, today I am optimistic, and I still think that Norway will make it through to the final on Saturday, and I believe the end-result on Saturday will be this:

1. Norway
2. Greece
3. Turkey or Bosnia & Herzegovina

Based solely on my favourites the list would look something like this:
1. Norway
2. Denmark
3. Greece 

Back and off again!

I made it safe back from my vacation this time also. Had a great time, and will try to publish some photos and comments about the vacation here on the blog in the next couple of days. Now, how ever, I'm heading out the door again, off to Oslo, where I'll be seeing the musical Les Miserables this evening. Haven't seen it in about 20 years, so I'm really looking forward to that.