Monthly Archives: April 2012
The Versatile Blogger Award
I want to send out a big warm thank you to Zeta, an American Hermit Crab in Denmark. for the versatile blog award. Zeta’s blog is a charmingly delightful place to stop by for a cozy visit, good pictures, or a recipe. You have no idea how surprised and happy you’ve made me, Zeta. After weeks of struggling in the dashboard of my new blog, this is just the boost I needed.
The rules for the Versatile Blogger Award are as follows:
If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award.
- Thank the person who gave you the award. Thats common curtesy.
- Include a link to their blog. Also common curtesy.
- Select (if you can) 15 other blogs/bloggers that you recently discovered or are following.
- Nominate those blogs for the Versatile Blogger Award.
- Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.
I would love to nominate all the blogs I follow, because they all deserve this award. However, I see many of them have already been nominated by other bloggers. So without further ado, here are my lucky seven nominations:
1. Up-Rooted – Another American like myself doing the best she can in Norway.
2. Stories about my life, 92% true – Not too sappy nastalgia.
3. Hashi What? – Battling her way back from depression, this young girl is an inspiration.
4. Beforeiforget – Ms Katykins IS the versatile blogger!
5. Expatlogue – A place I simply love to visit.
6. Writing Between the Lines – Life from a writers point of view.
7. Momentum of Joy – Where Spirituality meets reality.
For all my blogger friends (you know who you are) and who aren’t on this list… There is another award to come in my next post!
Now for the seven things about myself:
I’m obsessed with Jane Austin and believe I could’ve very well been one of her main characters in a previous life.
I love green tea (especially with mint). I drink it ALL day long.
I wake up every morning and run to my kitchen to make fresh juice. I always use five different fruits and five different veggies…the greener the better.
I’m lazy. I hate to exercise, I’d rather lie on the sofa with a good book (or movie). With that said, I FORCE myself to the gym a couple times a week anyway.
I’ve had the same best friends for over forty years, even though we live on opposite sides of the pond.
For me writing is hard work!
I’m a hopeless romantic and will gladly read, or watch any love story.
I can’t help myself, I just have to reblog these wonderful reviews! Thank you, wordgeyser.
Like many, I’m fascinated by the lives of other people, how patterns weave themselves through the generations, how shared DNA links us to people we can never meet.
How many times in our own lives have things happened and we’ve sad, ‘Well, who would have thought we’d end up here… this would ever have happened to us?’
Memoirs are generally the domain of the rich and famous, whose public faces grace the tabloids or covers of celebrity magazines. The thing is, while I am interested the the great and the mighty, I’m far more interested in the humble and ordinary whose lives are filled with equal drama, excitement and tragedy.
Maggie Myklebust is one of those people.
She’s the same as the rest of us, taking what life throws her way, dealing with it the best she can. What makes her different is this humble, self-effacing woman decided to write…
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A Good Sense of Smell
Imagine my surprise when on a dreary day in March 2005, my Norwegian husband came home from work and made this announcement:
“There was a meeting at work today, and I was asked to work in Houston for the next two years!”
After living fifteen years in Norway, this Jersey girl was finally going home. Well, not exactly…
In a blur of packing and unpacking we made our way to the lone-star state, where we lived for the next two years in an elegant home on a quite cul-de-sac.
It was at my sons bus stop where I met the other ladies of the cul-de-sac. Congregating at eight o’clock in the morning, dressed in work-out-attire, clutching mugs of steaming hot coffee and squeezing any scrap of fresh gossip they could from one another. (Note to self…bring a cup of tea to the bus stop with me tomorrow) I felt exactly as if were on Wisteria Lane.
I showed up, introduced myself and we quickly fell into a one sided question and answer session. They already knew we were from Norway because they knew someone, who knew someone, who knew our landlord. Long after the bus had driven off with our children one of them remarked on how good I spoke English, for being Norwegian. I set the record straight, letting them know I came from New Jersey! Which in turn opened a conversation on how I met my husband and ended up living in Norway.
Long story short, I don’t think any of them made it to yoga that morning and by the time I finished telling my story one of them said, “I think I smell a book.”
Well, she must have had a very good nose because here I am seven years later, on my way to The Hague, for my book launch on Friday!
The Gods have smiled down on me once again with another great review. Many thanks go out to the Expat Alien blog. Check it out…
I used to be an avid reader. I read everything I could get my hands on. Growing up overseas it was the only real entertainment I had. Books could be hard to find so I wasn’t all that picky. I read whatever came my way. As an adult I always had a book going. I would usually read before bed just to relax and get my mind off things. People recommended things or gave me things or I would pick something up at the bookstore or library.
After I had my child I stopped reading. I just didn’t have the time or the energy anymore. I could not focus on reading at night. Several years went by and I only read a handful of books.
When I was ready to start reading again, I noticed a shift. Either the quality books that were coming out had deteriorated considerably or my…
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In a recent post I dropped a subtle hint looking for people to review my book. One brave blogger stepped forward and volunteered for the task. I waited with bated breath as my book was read for the first time by someone with no connection to either me or it.
I’ve suffered many sleepless nights since deciding to reveal my story to the world, but after reading this review I slept like a baby. Thank you Kate, and I hope others will enjoy it too…
A new chapter in book shopping
I love to shop!
Its true, and the things I like to shop most for are shoes, bags (especially Coach), scrapbook supplies and books! (and not necessarily in that order)
Reading is one of my favorite pastimes and I’m always either starting or finishing a book. Because of where I live in Norway, I haven’t always had the best selection of English books to chose from. Thats why whenever we were on vacation and came across a bookstore, my family would moan as I made a beeline to ecstasy. They know me well and therefore had good reason to moan. I’m like a kid in a candy story. It’s always been one of my greatest pleasures to wander through racks of colorful books, feeling and smelling my way through in search of a new gem. Thats right, smelling…who out there doesn’t like the fragrance of a new book?
The only problem is, I was left powerless in deciding which ones to buy and would end up taking all I could carry. Then we’d fly home with books evenly distributed amongst our suitcases. For years my husband accused me of being a book hoarder, and I would again have to explain the importance of not running out of books to read.
While I still feel an actual shop is a book-lover’s treasure trove and a novel in your hand is worth two on your Kindle, we have entered a new age. For Christmas this year my husband gave me an iPad and I must admit, its a handy little device.
I can download any book or magazine I want and now have more room in my suitcases for shoes and bags. I wile away the hours in online bookshops, drinking unimaginable amounts of tea, all in the comfort of my own home. My iPad has literally freed the book shopper with in, and my husband no longer sees how many books I buy.
I will now post the logo of my favorite online bookshop and hyperlink it so you can go directly in and take a look. It’s a warm and inviting space where book lovers from around the world can shop.
The Expat Bookshop was started in late 2011 by Jo Parfitt and the team at Summertime Publishing to showcase books by people living abroad for people living abroad.
Here you can find: anthology, fiction, how to books and memoirs, like my own. You can also get information on how to publish your book, or have it featured in the Expat bookshop.
Go on, check it out…