Lena on radio

I was interviewed on radio for about five minutes by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) today. It was only broadcasted in my own region of Norway, but still I think it was interesting, and a bit fun, even though I was very nervous before I went into the studio as it was a “live” interview. 

For those of you who understand Norwegian, you can find the interview on internet:

www.nrk.no/ho

My interview was at about 1638, so about half an hour into the program.  

Writing

I am currently writing book six in the Viking series "Sverdkvinnens Ætt”. And I thought I’d share some thoughts with you on writing. 

This book has been a work in progress for a long time now, as they always are when it comes to the time when I actually put my fingers on the keyboard and start typing. At the moment I have a very clear idea about what’s going to happen in book seven and eight, and a more vague idea about what’s going to happen in book nine, but I have faith that this will come to me eventually, as it has with all the other books. It’s been many months since the first time I thought about book six, that was when I was planning out the whole series of books, and jotted down a few details for each book. Since then some things have changed, but my newest synopsis for the series still have things in common with the first synopsis. 

I will admit, it is always a bit daunting sitting down by my computer on that day when I have decided it is time to start writing. If I can only find those first few words, and I am happy with those words, then I know that this will be another story that I can be happy with. Some times it takes a bit longer for that day to arrive when I can write the first words of a new book. I try not to stress about it. That just means that I need more time to prepare the story in my head. Because, when I sit down to write, I do know a lot of details about the story – and I also know that other details will come as a surprise to even me when I am in the process of writing. Some things just turn up, and pour out of my fingers almost without my brain noticing. It probably sounds silly, but that truly is how it feels sometimes. I’m surprised by the turn of events in my stories. 

I did struggle with book 6 for a couple of days before I got to the stage where I could finally write those first 1500 words. One evening I realized it was because something was lacking from the story, and once that thought was in my head, a new development for the story soon came to me, and that’s also when I knew where the story would begin. 

So, in the last couple of days I’ve been writing. On the first day I never write many words, probably 1000 – 1500, but when I am deep into the writing process I will on average write about 10 000 words a day. I am a very fast typist, and as I said, when I finally sit down to write I have given the story much thought. I have spent a lot of time jotting down details, and I have now also drawn three maps of the three places that will be involved in this book. On the maps I’ve drawn up buildings, and put the names of the different characters into those buildings. This helps me visualize the places they live, and hopefully makes me able to convey some of this to my readers. 

I have a very good feeling about book 6 now, and I am (as always) very eager to see it through, and finally get all the details for the story myself. For example, at the moment, I don’t really know exactly where the story will end, I hardly ever know that. I have experienced some times that I think I know where the story will end, and then suddenly as I’m typing, I realize that the end is already here, that this would be just the right place to end the story. 

Bon Jovi

Wow, the days pass so quickly. I meant to be writing about the Bon Jovi concert on Thursday, the day after I’d been to it, but here I am, on a Saturday, finally getting a couple of words down.

The concert was awesome! Everything I expected it to be, and then some… And Jon Bon Jovi, what a man! It was a lot of fun, but, I don’t like it, but I have to admit that I’m now starting to get too old to be standing on my feet for six and a half hour. It was a killer on both my feet and my back, but still worth it, I guess. 

I bought a new mobile phone the same day as the concert, a Nokia N82, so I’d be able to take some photos at the concert. I ended up taking about 70 photos, and a couple of short videos. Not very good quality I’m afraid, because it’s hard to keep the phone steady enough when using zoom. But, I’ve posted a couple of the photos here, and the rest of them are on Facebook for those of you who are among my friends there. 

My life

When I got up this morning I was very tired, apparently that’s what five days and a wedding in Ireland might do to you! Since the weather in Norway is so excellent these days, I decided I needed a walk to clear my head, so I put my iPod into my bag and set off in direction Flisa (for those of you who doesn’t know where I live, it’s aprox. a six kilometres walk from my home to the village called Flisa). I hadn’t walked very far, listening to music, before this feeling of complete happiness fell upon me. I felt a smile widening on my lips, it was so easy to walk in the sun today, it felt like walking on air. And while I was walking I just kept thinking about how happy I am about my life these days, and how completely blessed I feel. It’s as if the Norse gods themselves have reached out of their home in Åsgård and given me a favourable pat on the back, and I know I really need to enjoy this – because everyone knows how moody those gods can be!

There are of course also worries in my life, but I will try not to let them get any major control over how I live my life, and rather focus on all the good things that are happening. It’s like when I was walking today, and it was such a beautiful walk in the sun. I was wearing sandals, and from time to time there would be pebbles sneaking into them that would make me stop for a very short while to remove them. And I think my life is a bit like that now, an easy beautiful walk in the sun, but with the occasional pebble that I will just have to resolve every time it bothers me.

It sounds a bit too much of pink clouds, doesn’t it? But that is just how it is right now, today, I think I was grinning like a mad woman on that walk today – people that saw me might actually be thinking that finally I’ve now lost my mind completely. And who knows, maybe I have, but if this is what it feels like, then I don’t mind.

Have a nice day!

Back from Ireland

I’ve been to Ireland for five days, attending a wedding in Castleblayney on the weekend and then spent a couple of days in Dublin. I’ve never been to Ireland before and I had a marvellous time, the wedding of my friends Dawn and Martin at Hope Castle was so lovely. And exhausting, but I suppose that is what Irish weddings are supposed to be – I certainly felt it on Sunday that I had been to a wedding for 14 hours, till very early in the morning on Sunday.

It was also fun to see Dublin for the first time. We made a couple of trips to the Temple Bar area and got to hear some good Irish music accompanied with quite a few beers. We also went to see Dublinia, which is supposed to be a museum or exhibition from the Medieval and Viking Age Dublin, but we didn’t find it very interesting. There was nothing real there, everything was fake copies, and they looked quite cheap as well, and it seemed more to be directed at school children than adults.

Got back to Norway this afternoon and tomorrow I’m going to start editing book 4 of my Viking series. And I guess everyone who knows me have now got themselves a copy of this weeks Allers magazine and seen the article about me? If not, GO – BUY! And for all my English speaking friends, I will email it to you eventually when I’ve had the time to do the translation, so you’ll get to read it and see the photos as well.

And oh yeah, found out today that I got an E on my first exam, which kind of disappoints me a bit because I thought I’d done better, but really, it’s not that important so I’ll get over it! Just curious now how I did on the second one if the first one went this bad!

Now I’m off to bed. Five days in Ireland can be quite exhausting.