Ruth Nestvold's Blog, page 38

It’s accounting time again! Me and my goals, first quarter 2014

Long, long ago, when I first came to Germany, I was given the nickname “Nessie” (for my last name), and I liked it so much, I kept it. Who wouldn’t want to be a big green sea monster, after all? Anyway, my son got me this excellent T-Shirt, which I think is very appropriate for a post where I have to fess up to all the things I didn’t accomplish in this round:

In case you can’t read the words, they’re “The important thing is that I believe in myself.”

Anyway, on to the accounting for the firs...

More from Island of Glass for #WIPpet Wednesday

My daughter arrived for a visit from the States on Monday, and this morning, she and I had the youngest in the family because of a strike in the city day care centers. In the afternoon, I did some translating, but then I had to take a break to sleep off the effects of having to look after an energetic four-year-old until early afternoon. In the evening, my daughter and I went out to dinner together to what has long been one of our favorite restaurants here, Stadtgraben. And it was wonderful a...

A little progress and a tale of a shoe for #WIPpet Wednesday

I’ve been a bit under the weather recently, which has slowed up my progress on writing projects enormously. I’m still staying mostly on schedule with the translation, but I’m largely stalled out on A Wasted Land, and not as far as I would like to be on the two novellas I want to publish soon, Island of Glass and Recontact. Most of what I’ve done in the last week has been working on a final editing pass for Island of Glass. I’d been hoping to get it finished in time for my niece’s birthday, si...

Interview with indie author K.L. Schwengel – and announcing her new book Emergence!

Today I have something special for my readers, an interview with the talented K.L. Schwengel, founder of WIPpet Wednesday and a multi-published indie author.

First off, please tell us a little bit about your work.

I mainly write fantasy, although I have delved into paranormal as well as dystopian, and there are some SF bits in my notebook. Basically, if my muse throws it out there, I run with it. My writing tends to veer toward the heavy, dark side of things, even when I try to keep it light,...

Shadow of Stone now available on B&N etc., and a snippet for my #WIPpet

First a confession: the weather in Central Europe is much too good right now for blogging. We’ve been spending all our spare time at the piece of property we have among the vineyards not far from our house. S.O. has been pruning trees, and I have been digging up weeds and replacing them with flower bulbs, mostly lilies. But now the crocuses are blooming, and some are even on the way out.

For me, keeping up with the translation and the revisions in hard copy of A Wasted Land take precedence ov...

20 Things You Didn’t Know About Dr. Seuss

Ruth Nestvold:

I absolutely love Dr. Seuss. I read the books to my kids, and now I’m reading them to my grandkids. Green Eggs and Ham was the first book Lisa ever read out loud from cover to cover in English. But I did not know that we have Theodor Geisel to thank for the word “nerd” — did you?

Originally posted on Flavorwire:

A wizard of the written word, today marks the 110th birthday of Theodor Geisel — better known as the dear Dr. Seuss. The beloved children’s author and illustrator create...

Crossing things off the to-do list – and #WIPpet Wednesday

I was over on Goodreads the other day (something I don’t actually do very often, since the ratings system there tends to depress me), and I noticed that I had a personal message. It was a note from a reader, asking if there were any plans for Shadow of Stone to be published on any other platforms like Kobo? So I had to confess that I’d been intending to for some time, but just never got around to it.

I have to admit, one of the reasons I haven’t been publishing my books like a fiend on all pl...

Yseult available used for only $999.11!

That’s right, you understood correctly: you can currently get my novel Yseult on Amazon used for under $1000!!! Since who knows how long this incredible deal will be available, I took a screen shot:

I have no idea how this amazing inflation happened, but I’m assuming it has to do with someone’s price bots going stir crazy. At least it gave me quite a laugh last night. And as of today, the price is still there. So go ahead, see for yourself if you don’t believe me.*

Given those kinds of prices,...

Travel theme: Ancient – Ireland

Fellow WIPpeteer Xina posted about a challenge the other day regarding ancient ruins. Since I love to travel, and one of the main things I like to do when traveling is visit old rocks (as I like to call them), I have a lot of travel photos of things ancient. I decided to share some pictures from a research trip to Ireland for my novel Yseult almost a decade ago.

First off, a picture from the ancient Celtic site, the Hill of Tara:

A couple of shots from the prehistoric burial grounds at Newgra...

Historical costumes and some editing

Once again, no new words for me since the last post. Today was another granddaughter birthday, and since the girls really like (or at least they claim to like) the custom-made Barbie dresses from their Grandma, I got out the sewing machine again and put together a few more creations:

The Barbie on the left is wearing a Galadriel dress I found on the Internet. I even removed some of the Barbie’s atrocious eye makeup with fingernail polish remover. But I just don’t have the time to go whole hog...