Kathy L. Salt's Blog, page 5

Review of “Paper Love” by Jae

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Paper Love by Jae.

Anyone who knows me knows I have a special place in my heart for Jae’s books; her “Backwards to Oregon” was the first lesfic novel I ever read and since then I’ve also fallen in love with “Just Physical”, “Something in the Wine”, “Next of Kin” and “Second Nature”. I interviewed Jae last year – you can find that interview here.

But let’s turn our focus to “Paper Love”, her 18th novel.

“Paper Love” is set in Freiburg, a small town in Germany and is about the romance between Susanne Wolff and Anja Lamm. Susanne is an emotionally distant workaholic who lets fear get in the way of making choices for herself and Anja is an incredibly sweet and down to earth woman who knows what she wants in life but like Susanne, sometimes she lets fear rule her.

Susanne is a consultant and moves temporarily to Freiburg to save her uncle’s stationary shop. Anja happens to work there and she doesn’t like when Susanne becomes her boss and wants to do things very differently than she’s used to. I liked both of these characters equally and I enjoyed how similar they were underneath the surface and how well they complemented each other. I’m also a sucker for relationships with a height difference and enjoyed that Anja was described as short.

I also really liked the side-characters too, the uncle, Susanne’s twin-sister and Anja’s best friend. I liked that these people had their own stories, they weren’t just two-dimensional voices that popped up from time to time. They were believable as well.

What I really loved about this book and what made it stand out was the description of Freiburg. I’ve never fallen in love with a setting before but the way the author described everything made it seem so beautiful. I could see it in front of me. The little streets and shops, the bäckle, the cobblestone sidewalks, it felt like I was there. I understand why the author, and the character Anja, loves living there, even if I have never seen it in real life. The only thing that makes me chuckle though is that “the sunniest city in Germany” seems to get a lot (A LOT) of rain.

All in all, I loved this book and it falls into the pile of “will be re-read”. It has a lovely setting, believable characters, a clingy cat not to mention advice on how to turn around a business. What more could a novel need?

If you’re interested in it, you can find it here.

Thanks for reading!

Lesbian (or almost lesbian) series worth watching

A new week has started. For some of us that means back to work and some of us are on vacation, some of us have jobs that doesn’t allow for regular vacations – authors, stay-at-home-mothers, farmers and others. Monday comes for all of us.

…and I don’t know about you but one of the nicest things to do on a Monday night, once you’re home from work, once the kids are asleep or the cows are tucked in at night, is to plop myself down on the sofa and watch one, two, or three depending on length of a nice series. Movies can be good too and sure, maybe I’ll make a list like that sometime but here is a list of my five favourite TV-series that has lesbian or queer elements to them.

Gentleman Jack

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It seems like Gentleman Jack has become a little bit of a phenomena in the lesbian world and for good reason! Gentleman Jack (a very old British derogatory term, similar to the word “dyke”) is about Anne Lister, a lesbian, who lived during the late 1700s.  You can read an awesome and very long article about the real Anne Lister here. The series follows Anne as she falls in love with another Ann, a miss Walker. This series has almost anything you can ask for. Horses, drama, relationship, love and sex between women, and I don’t think I’ve been touched by a series so much all my life. The fact that it’s based on real life events just makes it that much better (or more horrible if you read the previous article all the way to the end.) I also love how Anne Lister sometimes stare right into the camera (and therefore your soul). If you haven’t seen it, you should. It can be viewed and enjoyed by anyone, straight or not.

Lip service

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Lip Service is not a new series and the last episode aired in 2012. I don’t remember how I first found it but it’s a series worth watching. At least the first season. I loved that it wasn’t just about lesbian drama and girls falling in love or breaking up, but there was a mystery element to it. It also starred some incredibly good looking women so there is that, just saying. I like it because it’s set in Glasgow, Scotland and the characters are very human and not perfect, in fact, most of them make a lot of mistakes. It’s very, very funny and quite embarrassing at times, but I love it.

Van Helsing

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Van Helsing “only” get’s its first lesbian couple in the third season and it’s not a couple that I’m particularly invested in BUT it’s so worth watching anyway. I don’t even care that they “queer-bated” us in the first season, but I digress. Van Helsing is about a Vanessa who wakes up after being in a coma for a few years. The world she wakes up in is not the same. Vampires have taken over. Ancient prophecies are coming to fruition. Old monsters are waking up. Van Helsing is rather fast paced at times and perfect for binge watching. It’s also rather unpredictable.

Wynona Earp 

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Wynona Earp seem to be only watched for one reason and that reason is the relationship between Waverly and officer Haught, or wayhaught as they’re also called. The series is about a descendent of the famous Wyatt Earp who is a real person.  Wynona has inherited Wyatt’s gun and is supposed to use it to kill monsters or demons or witches. If you liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Charmed or Supernatural you *might* like this one. It’s in the same genre but a little bit different.

Legends of Tomorrow

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Legends of Tomorrow is a marvel series and I honestly only fell in love with it during the second season but it is pretty badass. It’s a gang of heroes led by a bisexual woman who prefers women and has a monogamous relationship during the latest season. If you like marvel movies I suggest giving Legends of Tomorrow a go. It’s about the Legends who travel through time to save the world over and over, but it’s so much more than that. It’s not just a silly series about heroes with supernatural powers, it’s a series about people finding out who they are, learning to face their fears, learning to face themselves. I also have a bit of a crush on the aforementioned captain, Sarah Lance, she is the typical “only learned to kill, never learned to love” character but I love it. She is one of my most favorite female characters ever.

…. and then we have two bonuses: 

Brooklyn 99

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Brooklyn 99 only gets it first main character in a “lesbian” (she’s bi) relationship in season 5. However, this character named Rosa Diaz, makes it worth watching it from the very beginning. Brooklyn 99 is a comedy phenomena about a small precinct in the police force of New York. Rosa Diaz is just a secondary character and I sometimes have trouble stomaching the main character Jake Peralta but as the series goes on, you fall in love with him too.

Z Nation

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Z nation has no lesbian relationships (well, maybe Addison Carver flirted with that women that one time) but it’s full of badass women (and the absolutely gorgeous actress Katy M. O’Brian) and I needed to get at least one zombie serie on here since I love zombies. It’s about a small group of survivors, making their way through America during a zombie apocalypse. You might say to yourself that you’ve watched The Walking Dead and Fear of the Walking dead and that you don’t need another. But that’s where you would be wrong. Z Nation is The Walking Dead and so much more. There are different plant zombies, sentient zombies, zombie-balls, episodes that make no sense but in a good way. Please guys, you need to watch Z Nation .

There you have it, my list of very watchable series. Do you have any recommendations for me?

 

Am I an Out and Proud Lesfic Author?

While doing my writing this morning, I found myself listening to Lesbians Who Write podcast with Clare Lydon and T.B. Markinson. Specifically episode 17 which asks the question “Are you an out and proud lesbian fiction author?” which, naturally, made me wonder.

So… am I?

I’m very out as a lesbian. To my family (including the muslim side). To my coworker and boss. To my students. Not in the way that I announce that I’m gay (although I have of course said these words) but more like “oh yeah, we’ve always wanted to try that too. My wife and I, that is.” I bring her up in regular conversation, just like straight people do.

…but when it comes to my writing? Am I proud to write for the genre that I do?

I am out as a lesfic writer but I do feel silly when I say it, I admit. Occasionally my writing comes up in conversation and I’m like “yeah, I’ve published four books.” It usually begs the question “oh what are they about?”. And my answer depends who I’m talking to. Occasionally I’ve left the lesbian bit out.

About Out of Hand I may say “it’s about a kidnapping and then they fall in love.” Or about A Tale of Spiders and Canned Soup I might say “it’s about a twin whose sister died and then she falls in love with a professor.” I don’t mind saying that there is romance in every story I write, no worries. So why do I mind putting the label of lesbian romance on myself and my writing?

I think it becomes too big then. Then I’m not just an author writing books but a lesbian writing lesbian books and it becomes too… niche-y. I think my books can be enjoyed by anyone. Sure, I write for me and for women like me and for the books that we so desperately need.

When I discovered lesfic novels I came alive. I have always loved books and stories but gosh… reading about women falling in love with other women? It was a game changer and it was something I wish I had discovered as a teenager, it would have helped me figure out who I was a bit earlier.

Actually, I am proud. I’m filling a need that people like me have. What is there to be ashamed of?

I think the reason that it stops me from saying it is the ever gnawing fear of meeting homophobia or maybe not being taken seriously. You know? It’s scary when people suddenly change their demeanor to you and it’s exhausting to always be vary. Even in a country where I’m free to live like anyone else.

I’m grateful to Clare and TB for making this podcast. I think this is an issue for all of us lesfic authors to ponder.

 

Lesfic Novels I’m Planning to Read this Summer

It is summer. A lot of people are finding themselves with more free time than usual, myself as usual. As a teacher, I have about two months off spanning over June, July and August. It is awesome and I usually take the time to play full-time author. It is also a time I try to read more books. Before the term finished I had been rereading all the Harry Potter books BUT I want to mix it up with some lesfics I haven’t read yet too.

Anybody who knows me is familiar with the fact that I’m a master re-reader. In fact, I usually don’t feel like I know a story before Ive read the same book at least twice or thrice. This can lead to crazy stuff, like me spending all of 2016 reading all of Radclyffe’s Honor-series just over and over but I digress. This summer I want to broaden my horizon with some new books and also some authors I haven’t checked out yet. Some of the titles are books I’ve been meaning to get around to but haven’t.

Read on to see which five books I have put on my list!

 

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Paper Love by Jae.

“Falling in love wasn’t part of the plan in this lesbian romance from best-selling author Jae. Susanne Wolff isn’t thrilled when her mother sends her all the way across the country to Freiburg to save her uncle’s stationery store from bankruptcy. Freiburg is too provincial for her taste, and besides, pen and paper are outdated anyway.

Anja Lamm, Paper Love’s only full-time employee, takes an instant dislike to the arrogant, digital-loving snob who’s supposed to be her temporary boss.

But thanks to a meddling cat, a business trip to a stationery fair, and an armada of origami boats, Anja soon starts to see beneath Susanne’s aloof exterior, and Susanne discovers how sexy pens and notebooks can be—at least when Anja handles them.

As the end of Susanne’s three-month stay approaches, will she stick to her plan to leave, or will she open her heart to more than just paper love?”

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Take Me Home by Ria M Apple

“21-year-old Mia Alfred moved to New Jersey over a year ago leaving her beloved small town of Missouri with its 5000 residents behind. It was a good town and served its purpose but she wanted more, she wanted to become a successful journalist. Mia wanted to believe she was better then her job flipping burgers at a greasy burger joint and struggling to pay rent. But a year of smelling like fries with no leads into the writing world was making it almost impossible to be happy . If that wasn’t bad enough Heather her best friend and roommate was keeping a secret that ticked like a bottle rocket waiting to destroy them both. On the eve of her 21st birthday Gen Bennett stood outside in the cold, bags in hand rethinking how she got here. Hours earlier she was living in her parents luxury pent house suite painting the day away and the next, she was getting kick to the curb by her parents because being a lesbian wasn’t what one did in their family. She begged them to reconsider, begged them to love her. They simple turned away and told her to get out. Now here she stood waiting on a ride to take her to Boston Ma where something had to give, something better had to be out there. Can two unlikely people become best of friends in 24 hours, or will they kill each other on the six hour journey from New Jersey to Boston Ma. If only they had found each other earlier maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad or maybe turning back was the better option.”

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Awakened by Fate by Lynn Lawler

(Okay, one re-read) “Jackie is a woman living life according to her own rules. She’s married, but it’s the unspoken, open kind. She can have as many female lovers as she likes; she just can’t talk about them.

After a bizarre encounter turns her world upside down, things slowly begin to change. She finds herself in desperation as she searches for answers. What she discovers is nothing is delivered in a neatly wrapped box.

Now that everything has been brought out into the open, she finds she can’t run away from her truth anymore. With her new life, comes new responsibilities and a different outcome than what she was expecting.

Jackie isn’t alone in the story. She meets several new people who help her along her journey.”

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Price of Honor by Radclyffe

(The only book in the Honor-series I haven’t read) “Blair Powell and Jane Graves have much in common and even more that sets them apart in an invisible battle raging on home soil. Blair’s father is the president of the United States, while Jane’s is a domestic terrorist bent on bringing about a new world order at the expense of the present one. When Blair takes to the campaign trail to support her father’s re-election, Cameron Roberts and the newest members of Blair’s security detail must protect the president and his daughter from foes bent on revenge. Jane and her secret ally within the president’s inner circle vow to destroy them all, at any cost.”

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Survival Instincts by May Dawney

(Can’t wait to read this one!) “Civilization ended long before Lynn Tanner was born. Wild animals roam the streets, but mankind is still the biggest threat to a woman alone in the ruins of a world reclaimed by nature. Lynn survives by sleeping with one eye open at all times and trusting no one but her dog.

When she is forced to go on a dangerous journey through the concrete jungle of New York City, Lynn does all she can to scheme her way to safety. Her guard, Dani Wilson, won’t be played that easily, however. As their lives become entwined, Lynn finds herself developing feelings for Dani and is forced to find the answer to the question that scares her most: is staying alone really the best way to survive?

Fast-paced and full of adventure, Survival Instincts introduces a post-war dystopian world where the only person you can rely on is yourself…unless you fall in love”

In addition to these books I’m still working my way through Harry Potter. Most likely I will also do a fair share of re-reading some of the books I’ve already read.

Come back in August to see what I thought about these books and any other I read along the way!

R is for Re: My Place of Work (on teaching and chaos)

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Actual picture from my place of work. There are more of them.

It’s strange to think, that there are schools out there where no one in staff cries. Where there arent mousetraps set out in the teacher’s lounge. Where there are working computers. 

It has started to come to my attention that the school where I work isn’t normal. That it isn’t normal to have such an overworked staff that there is crying on the daily. From adults. That it isn’t normal for your work to take so much from you that all you have energy for after work is to sleep. 

Don’t take this the wrong way, I love my job. I gladly give all of me to it. Which might not be a healthy attitude but I digress.

I love my school because it has the most brilliant staff. We are a tightknit group who are so flexible we somehow manages to fix things magically.

But it isn’t normal.

It isn’t normal to not run out of lined papers so we started copying the one sheet we had left. Then we ran out white paper so we started copying on yellow. 

It isn’t normal to have to do national tests that required calculators only to notice that sadly there are no calculators. Eventually the principal bought a set of circa twenty calculators that you could book. At a school with over 300 students. The older students used their mobile phones. 

This isn’t normal. 

It isn’t normal that I had a student with severe autism and couldn’t read or write. All she did was stare and sit and I tore my hair out trying to find assignements and classes that worked for everyone, including her. I failed with her. She had the right to a student assistant but the school couldn’t afford it.

It isn’t okay that it’s required to use technology in the classroom when all you have is 15 old macbooks that doesn’t properly work and somehow divide these over 24 students.

It isn’t okay that I don’t have enough color pencils and only broken pencil sharpeners. 

It isn’t okay that my old boss walked in on me TWICE crying my eyes out, said ”oh” and walked out. 

It isn’t okay that my coworker sat with our two bosses crying FOUR or FIVE times saying that she couldn’t handle her boys and she recieved nada help. 

It isn’t okay that I sometimes feel like I can’t protect my kids from being beaten up in the schoolyard by other children who have such bad mental health that they shouldn’t be in school. 

And apparently it isn’t normal that someone is always crying. Men, women, young, old. There is always someone feeling that they’re not quite managing. 

It isn’t normal to have such bad air in some of the rooms that the teachers get headaches from being in there. 

It’s not okay to have a principal that backs the parents and not the teachers. 

It isn’t normal to not have enough offices for the teachers and this year, us teachers of the second grade have been a bit homeless. We didn’t have offices to work in 

This is my place of work. This is why I fail to do much writing during the year. I am busy helping with the holding up the sinking ship that is my school. 

….and yet. A place is only as good as it’s people. There isn’t another place on earth I’d rather spend the next year in. There is no other place where I can turn to almost anyone and say ”I need help,” and they’ll help. When we’re not crying the people here exhibit such positivism I believe we can do anything. We are all brilliant and engaging teachers. There is no room for laziness. There is no room for second guessing. There is only room for doing. 

I have one more year here. I need to follow my class for one more year, the third grade, and then Im done. Then Im onto new adventures at hopefully more normal schools. 

Q is for Quintessential Catharsis

Tw sadness and infertility

It was february 2018 when I had my miscarriage. We had been delighted that we managed on the first try and even as I cried when it happened, I thought that managing on the first try was *good news*. ”This means I can get pregnant easily”. Boy was I wrong.

The rest of 2018 was lost in several more attempts, but I never got pregnant again. 

In December the same year we started our IVF journey (one that we’re still on, I suppose, even though it’s been on hold for the past six months). Two injections a day, then three injections a day, medicine that made me anxious, bloated, hungry and sad. On Christmas Eve I had four injections and then we were off to Denmark. The last couple of days before we left I had cried, scared of dying. People have died during IVF or suffered complications. I was scared. And in some ways I did die, during that time in Denmark.

I was okay when I was there, I think. I was hopeful. It was exciting. I had a lump of pain in my lower abdomen that made it hard to walk. But that was normal. After all, I was trying to grow over 10 eggs in one month, instead of just one. We went out to eat, I have a silly love affair with Wagamama – a chain of asian food – and to my joy they have a resturant in Copenhagen. We went for slow walks and saw Den Lille Havfrue (The Little Mermaid). We joked that this was our honeymoon since we never had gone for one and that our little one would be a ”honeymoon baby”.

The visit to the doctor was… okay. It hurt. And I bled a lot. They gave me morphine which made me feel like I was enveloped in cotton candy. I kept almost passing out but they gave me fluid through an IV. After a couple of hours they sent us on our way. We celebrated. I felt so proud. 14 freaking eggs they had harvested. They told me they would email me in two days and in three days I would come back for the egg pickup. I was sore but happy. Excited. Finally. I had been trying all of 2018. Finally I would get to be a mom. Maybe. Hopefully. 

They didn’t email me after two days which was surprising but I thought ”no news is good news”. I don’t believe that anymore. 

We woke up that day, it was a friday. We went down to breakfast and I took my pill for the day. Pills that were preparing me for the pick up. Pills that made me smell like vanilla yoghurt and feel kind of gross. 

We came up from breakfast. I went into the shower. I remember because when I picked up my phone and saw that I had an email on it, I was just in a towel and still wet. I opened it. Read it. I don’t remember my reaction. I know I went down to the floor because I got lint stuck on my bare, wet legs. It hadn’t worked. My hard work hadn’t paid off. None of the eggs had fertilised. Not a single one. 

And in that moment I couldn’t handle it. My wife became very determined, sure that the doctor had screwed it up, she got angry. I got depressed. We went to the clinic to have a quick talk which didn’t exactly help. My eggs were immature, some empty chells, some just plain wrong.  All 14 of them. 

…and that’s when I died. I came back to Sweden feeling absolutely upside down. The meds had messed with my body so much one of my hands swelled up. Everyone wanted to keep a positive outlook whereas I just wanted to crawl up somewhere and die in peace. I didn’t want to be positive. What was there to be positive about? I had failed. I was the problem. Not to the doctor. It was me. 

It’s been six months and I never got over that feeling. The feeling of personal failure. Of grief. I live with it. Breathe it and eat it every day. 

It came back when my wife started commuting in the same time as I recived an endometriosis diagnosis. Which I’m now medicated for. Her leaving during the week put me in the right mindset for my old, latent, eating disorder to come back. So I stopped eating, with only my best friend in Germany really knowing and poor thing, trying to check up on me. Which I’m grateful for but it is not his job to care for me (I know you try and I love you for it). 

These past six months have been a roller coaster. That’s why I came back after new years and didn’t have any new year’s resolutions or anything. The old Kathy had died and I didn’t know the new one yet. 

I’m an adult. I turn 30 in 6 months. I’ve got 6 months to shape up. Start eating properly again. Try to treat my endometriosis as well as I can (this month I’m in pain in spite of my medication!?), find hope again. I am a happy person in spite of crippling sense of failure… I want 30 to be the best year of my life.

And it’s summer. In just a week and a half I’m off work for the summer holidays.

And my writing? I feel like this wonderful opportunity of having my books published that Triplicity Publishing has given me is so wasted on me. I don’t know how to market my books, I don’t know how to be active on social media during most of the school year, I don’t know how to be *an author*. How to be creative during the school year. The summers aren’t enough. And since January 2018 I’ve been crippled by infertility, ED behaviour or plain sadness. Mika was born from it.

But no more. Here it is. My truth. I’m acknowledging it. Sharing it even. Maybe I can move on now. I have 47 days of holiday, that’s a hell of lot of days to create good habits on.

Summer goals:

Finish writing my still unnamed 1940s story.
Eat healthy and not too little.
Be active on social media once a day.
Promote someone else on my blog once a week. A new author I like, a new book I read that I like, a good blog etc. Just talk about other people too. 
Try to blog twice a week at least. 
Finish writing one short story.
Finish planning my zombie book. 

As soon as work is finished I’m going to make myself a weekly schedule. I like order even during my holiday and since wife will still be working, it’s important to keep busy. Maybe some day in the future I could be a full time author, then I’d need to be organised too. 

Let’s do this.

A Tale of Spiders and Canned Soup is here!

Pick up your kindle copy here. It will be available in physical format at a later time.

Coming soon – A Tale of Spiders and Canned Soup

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Teaser – click here.

Blurb – click here.

P is for Pressure

“Maybe it isn’t worth it,” Leaghanda said out loud, not caring who heard it.

Arakiss, her demon, lay by Leaghanda’s feet as usual, picking lint from the bedspread. At Leaghanda’s words, she sat up and pinched her little toe.

“Ouch.” Arakiss had claws.

“What do you mean it isn’t worth it?”

“Modern living.” Leaghanda bit her bottom lip. “Would it be so bad to just leave it all? There are cheap cabins and houses up north. I could buy one and just live there. Far away from society.”

“Are you stupid?” Arakiss slapped her own forehead. “You love people. You can’t even write if there is nobody near you.”

“I know but–”

“No buts. What would you eat? What about internet?”

“Maybe I could live without the internet.”

“Oh.” Arakiss smiled cruelly as if she just realised what was really up. Which she might have had, Leaghanda admitted to herself. “So it’s the internet again, is it? What is it this time? Social media or just writing in general.”

“I just wish I didn’t have to, you know.”

“No I don’t know.” Arakiss flapped her little wings and sat herself in front of Leaghanda’s computer, looking up at her. “Tell me.”

“It’s just too much pressure. I don’t dare to talk to anyone.”

“You’re overthinking it.” Arakiss poked her finger at Leaghanda’s forehead.

“I keep forgetting and…”

“You’re overthinking it.” Arakiss pursed her lips. “Put an alarm on your phone.”

“I tried that!” Leaghanda pushed Arakiss and her laptop off of her belly and got up from the bed. “I still didn’t do it. I just closed the reminder and didn’t do anything.”

“So you’re lazy.”

“No!”

“Just try again then.”

“I feel ridiculous.”

Arakiss shook her head.

“And since when do you care about that?”

Leaghanda chewed on her, by now, abused lower lip. Arakiss did have a point. But then dread filled her again and she fell down to the bed. Maybe a bit too dramatic.

“It’s not as bad as you think it is. How about do ten minutes after work? Or how about every time you sit on public transport?” Arakiss climbed up on her forehead, suddenly very small. Once there, she started jumping up and down. “You–” thump “are–” thump “overthinking–” thump “it.”

“Get off!” Leaghanda pushed the little demon and sat up. “Fine! You win! Maybe I am just lazy. But I have good reasons. Work. Real work and–”

“You’re saying that being an author isn’t real work?”

“No, I–”

“Maybe, my dear, idiotic, Leaghanda Amell, you haven’t been treating it like real work. I know you love to blame your wife but maybe it’s all you.”

Leaghanda’s head fell forward, her fringe shielding her from Arakiss’s eyes. Arakiss was right but she didn’t want the demon to know that.

“But I’m not lazy,” she said after a little while. “I do things all the time. Cooking, tidying, teaching, planning, walking the dog, going to the gym… umm…”

“Yet somehow you find time for video games.”

“Yes but -”

“And you like watching shows. Don’t lie, I live with you, remember?”

Arakiss flew near her face like an annoying fly. Leaghanda swatted at her.

“Sure, fine. I don’t deserve downtime then?”

“That’s not what I said.” Arakiss sat down on her knee. “I just want you to admit that you’ve been slacking off with your author duties. Which are just as important.”

“December.” Leaghanda’s tone of voice trembled. It was her last weapon, she knew that.

“Pfft.” Arakiss smiled cruelly. “December schmecember. When was the last time you cried about what happened then?”

“I felt sad about it yesterday.” Leaghanda crossed her arms over her chest.

“I said,” Arakiss showed off all her little demon teeth as she spoke. “When was the last time you cried about it?”

“I don’t know!” Leaghanda put her face in her hands, slowly giving up. “Last week? The week before? January?”

“You haven’t cried about it once in February, my dear.” Arakiss knew she had won and the triumph in her voice made Leaghanda want to kick her.

“So?”

“Don’t so me.” Arakiss’s tone gentled and she flew to sit on Leaghanda’s shoulder where she actually belonged. “You know where I’m going with this. You know what I need you to do. For both of us.”

Leaghanda nodded. She was defeated and she knew it.

“So what do you suppose I do today?” She had to ask.

Arakiss snuggled her neck, more parrot than demon all of a sudden.

“You’ll fill the dishwasher so you stop thinking about it. You’ll make another cup of lemon water after that and grab your laptop. You will write for an hour on Frozen Symphony, then you’ll check your twitter.”

And then? Leaghanda didn’t even need to utter the question out loud, Arakiss heard her anyway.

“After that you can do whatever you want.” Arakiss sighed and shook her head. “Honestly, you overthink things. All I’m asking for is an hour. Perhaps an hour and a half. Surely you can give me that.”

Leaghanda nodded. Arakiss was right. She had been overthinking it. With no more time to waste, she put her now sleepy demon on her pillow and went into the kitchen. All of a sudden she couldn’t wait to get on with the day.

 

A Tale of Spiders and Canned Soup – teaser

In a few weeks my new novel “A Tale of Spiders and Canned Soup” will be out.

The blurb can be found here.

“A knock on the open door brought her back to reality. And there Mika was. Light blue eyes, widened as if from exertion and a panting, strawberry mouth. Her hair, a golden messy thing, stood out in every direction as if she had been running against the wind. She was wearing a small green T-shirt that accentuated her slim waist and sinewy arms and combined with baggy jeans she gave the impression of a rag doll. A pretty rag doll. But a rag doll nonetheless.

Pauline shook her head to get rid of her stray thoughts and plastered a professional smile on her face.  

“Ms Lister?” The rag doll’s voice was soft and held together despite the breathlessness.

“Mika?” Pauline made a gesture to the chair in front of her desk. “Come in and sit down.”

*

Mika felt her cheeks strain as she met her new mentor’s smile. She sat down on the chair, willing her heart to stop trying to hammer its way out of her chest. She couldn’t believe she was late for her first meeting with her mentor; she could have physically slapped herself. Sorry, Molly, I can’t believe I’m screwing up already. She reached into her pockets and closed her fingers around her keychain. As the edges of the key dug into the flesh of her palm, she felt herself grow calmer.

“Hello.” Apparently her mentor was Australian. “My name is Pauline Lister.”

“Mika Sinclair,” Mika murmured even though Pauline already knew her name. “Nice to meet you.” Her mentor had short brown hair and was wearing a burgundy shirt. She looked nice. Professional and put together.

“You too.” Pauline said curtly. “I trust you found your way here no problem?”

“Yes, yes. I’m sorry for being late.” Mika nodded. And I would have come on time if I hadn’t decided to visit Philip, Becky and Natalie. She sighed when she thought about how her little foster siblings had cried when she said goodbye. She had had to pry Natalie’s fingers from her neck to even be able to leave.

“So I think we should go through the classes you’re having this semester, and you also have some choices to make.”

 “Oh?” Mika took out her notepad and a pen and got ready. She hoped that Pauline wouldn’t make her opt out of her health and social care class.

“First, I need to ask you what kind of degree you’re hoping for at the end of your studies.”

Mika felt her face heat.

“Well, I applied for a joint degree of sociology and history, but…” Her face was getting hotter and hotter and she prayed to God that her cheeks weren’t as red as she dreaded they were. “I wanted to exchange my sociology classes for anatomy, and a health and social class.”

 Pauline raised one eyebrow.

“It let me do that online.”

“Did it now?” Pauline looked at her own screen and clicked at something.  “You need to take at least one sociology class, I’m afraid. Introduction to sociology is mandatory.”

Mika frowned. She had hoped to trick the system somehow.

“Mika?”

She raised her head and their gazes met.

“Why are you studying sociology if you’re not interested in it?”

Because it’s what Molly would have wanted to study.

 Mika sighed.

“It doesn’t matter. Can I keep my anatomy class?”

Pauline looked puzzled but didn’t say anything else. She looked at the screen again.

“Yes you can. This semester you can take Introduction to sociology, one history class and one anatomy class.”

Mika nodded. She hugged the key tighter, not caring if it broke the skin. She fixated Pauline with her gaze, pleading her not to ask anything more.

“I can see here that you want to take Vikings class.” Pauline smiled and this time her smile looked more genuine and less out of politeness.

“Yes.” Mika nodded. She had looked at the different history classes the university offered and that had been the least boring one.

“Then I can only congratulate you on an amazing choice.” Pauline looked back at her screen but kept the easy smile.

“Huh?”

“That’s one of mine.””