Happy New Year!

With roughly twelve hours left of 2013, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year. It's been quite the year, and I have high hopes for 2014, as well. For you as well as for myself. "A Thousand Sunsets" will be published next summer, and I have so many interesting projects and plans - all of it stuff that I can't wait to share.

I'm sure a lot of you will be putting on your party hats tonight - be safe out there! <3

Merry Christmas!

It's that time of year again. Merry Christmas to everyone -- I hope your holidays are blessed with all the Christmas cheer.

I will be celebrating Christmas at home with my family this year. Hopefully with the chance to relax and recharge the batteries after a long, hectic fall. We well be enjoying a traditional Danish Christmas dinner of roasted duck and rice pudding, sing carrols, and exchange gifts on Christmas Eve.

If you find yourself bored during the holidays (caution, self-promotion alert!), allow me to remind you of the little story that is Clear as Glass. If you're Danish and have forgotten the mandelgave (prize for whoever finds the hidden almond in the rice pudding on Christmas eve), it will serve you nicely for that, as well.

Merry Christmas from me to you! 

A Short Story With a TV Appearance

 

Yes, it's a picture of a TV screen. Yes, I took it. Yes, the short story on the screen is mine. And yes, it's in a TV commercial. The story is featured in a Best of edition of a Christmas anthology that comes with a Danish magazine this week, which is what the commercial is about. Imagine my surprise when I saw it this morning as I knew nothing about it!

 

 

VJS Cover 2013

This year's Ved julelampens skær cover:

My story is called "Den tossede julenisse," and it's the sixth year running I'm contributing to what is the oldest Christmas anthology in Denmark. This year, sadly, we lost one of it's most faithful authors, Lissi Scheel-Thomsen, who inspired me to gather my courage and submit for the first time. That was six years ago, and it will be strange to see an edition without her words in it. I never had the pleasure to meet her even though she was local, but she was a true inspiration.

Release day is sometime next month.

Novel to be Published in 2014

Exciting news! (Though not exactly new--sorry!) I will have more details to share at a later date, but I can let you know that a certain novel that I have mentioned before will be published next year. I'm so excited about it, and I really wish I could say more, but I can't. Not yet, anyway.

Keep Going!

Sometimes it’s hard to keep going. It seems hopeless when all you get out of your hard work are rejection letters – editors turning down their thumbs at your blood, sweat, and tears – the best you felt you had to give. It seems pointless when reader response is non-existent and even your friends don’t read what you write. It hurts. You give a little slice of your soul, and it feels like no one gives a damn.

The cure for your heartache?

Remind yourself why you write. You don’t write for faceless editors. You don’t write for readers. You certainly don’t write for your friends. You write because you can’t help yourself. You write because your head is overflowing with stories you think would look good on paper. And you know what? Chances are that you’re right. People just haven’t noticed yet.

Feel better? I do.