Helena Halme's Blog, page 45

Feeling poorly...

For weeks now I've been battling against a cold. I've tried everything; various nasal sprays, copious amounts of vitamin C and other potions, but last weekend my body finally caved in and I ended up in bed, having to cancel going to all sorts of lovely events, like the Finnish and Danish Christmas Markets.

Father Christmas at last year's Finnish Christmas Market
Lovely Danish wares at last year's MarketYesterday I thought I was better again and went off to my new office in Camden. Once there, though, I felt awful and had to leave early. Same happened again at another office in Southwark today, and this afternoon I feel even worse than I did over the weekend.

I should have listened to my Big Sis who warned me against going to work when still feeling unwell. I never did listen to her advice!

The Next Big Thing?

I’ve been invited by Chris Chalmers, author of the wonderful award-winning novel, Five to One (he blogs at www.chrischalmers.net ) to take the Next Big Thing questionnaire, where authors talk about what they’re publishing next.

So here goes...


What is the title of your next book?

Pappa's Girl 

Where did the idea for the book come from?

The idea for Pappa's Girl first came to me when I took part in a non-fiction seminar during the last term of my MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. I immediately thought of writing about Finns who emigrated to Sweden in the 1970's. Instead, however, a story about a fictional family grew in my mind, and I wrote a short piece for my next class. Eventually on firm advice from my excellent tutor, Lucy English, I changed my MA project at the last minute and started writing Pappa's Girl.   

What genre do your book fall under?


Romantic fiction.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

This must be the most difficult question! I think I'd love to see Finnish actors 'do' all the parts but really couldn't tell you who. Can I take a rain check on this one…?

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Emotionally anaesthetised by her displaced childhood, and her parents' violent break-up, Swedish teacher Ulla learns how to love and be loved through going back to her Finnish roots.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?


Pappa's Girl will be published on Kindle later this month.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Three to four months. Finishing it has taken me years, though!

What other book would you compare the story to within your genre?

There is an excellent Swedish novel on the same subject, Beyond, by Susanna Alakoski. It's much darker than Pappa's Girl.  The novel has also been made into a film starring the then married couple Noomi and Ola Rapace. (You may have noticed I have something of a crush on Ola, but I digress).

Who or What inspired you to write the novel?

The inspiration for Pappa's Girl came from my mother. Although the novel is not biographical by any stretch of imagination, I wanted to write about some of the difficulties I knew she had encountered when she first moved from Finland to Sweden.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

As well as a story of love, Pappa's Girl, also shows the reader, through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl, Ulla, what it's like to move to strange new country, where according to her beloved Pappa 'everything is bigger and better'. 

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed reading about My Next Big Thing. I will now pass the task of answering these same questions to another writer. Next week in the spotlight will be the veritable authoress and blogger extraordinaire, Karen Gowen.  
I look forward to reading about her new project.

My Mowember Boys

No bumfluff 'taches here!

Both the Englishman and Son are again growing moustaches this November to raise money and awareness for men's health, specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer, through an inspirational charity called Mowember.


Last weekend, when I asked how come both of them could grow facial hair so quickly, the response was unanimous and immediate, 'Testosterone! Because we're real men!'

As a Mo Sista (a woman who loves a Mo), you have to get used to this kind of Alpha Male behaviour during Mowember. There's nothing like a bit of facial hair to make your perfectly normal partner (or Son) into a chest beating cave dweller….

Oh well, only 13 days to go.

You can support my Mos here and here.

The Englishman is an Awesome Indie!

I was absolutely bowled over earlier today when I had an email telling me that the wonderful and discerning folks at the Awesome Indies site had selected The Englishman to be one of their new titles! This after my novel was one of the October reads at Alliance of Independent Authors! It's more than incredible to be recognised in this way by your peers.

Especially as The Awesome Indies site lists only 'quality books written by independently published authors'.

As the blurb on the site further says,


The difference between this site and others that showcase Indie books is that the only criteria for inclusion on this list is quality, and the quality is determined by publishing professionals.Well….The Englishman is listed as one of the new titles and the link to the site is here. Do go and visit Awesome Indies, there are some other (!) great titles at great prices listed there too.Off to make myself a well deserved cup of coffee…think there will be a requirement something cold & bubbly later this evening!?

Five tips for the 5:2 diet

I've never been a great dieter. I've tried a few of the popular ones in my time, like the no-carbs Atkins, but the only one that ever has truly worked on me in the 'Less food, more exercise' one, which is the hardest one to do. ;-)

But in the last year or so, with my bad back and frozen shoulder, I've not been able to exercise as much as I'd like to (dog walking not withstanding) and it's been really difficult to keep my weight down. Besides, it seems that as soon as I start to do regular sessions in the gym, my appetite shoots up and I lose no weight whatsoever.

So when, after seeing a BBC programme on it, the Englishman suggested we should try the 5:2 diet, I was game. When I was younger and living in Helsinki I did a few complete fasting sessions with my father. This fast would last five days and you were only allowed to drink fruit juices on the first and last days. So I thought I knew what I was getting into to.

But the 5:2 diet, which basically means you eat less on two days per week, is much easier. You're allowed 500 calories (600 for men - so unfair!), which when you think about it isn't that bad. And unlike on the fasts of my youth on this one you're allowed to drink coffee! (Coffee is the one thing I cannot give up these days…)

As well as weight loss, this diet is supposed to be good for your brain cells (cancelling out the damage done by wine), lower your cholesterol and blood pressure. It seems us humans need to feel a bit of hunger now and then. (I always knew this, really.)

I've been doing the 5:2 fasting for about three months now, and have lost 5 kilos. I feel so much better on it, not only because of the weight loss, but because I seem to have more energy and control over my eating. Not that I was ever out of control exactly. (Honest, Gov.)

And that's exactly how this 5:2 diet works. After the initial shock to the system, your stomach actually contracts and you feel less hungry, more aware of how much you eat on any given day, whether it is one of the 2 or one of the 5 days of the week.

So here are my 5 tips to successfully do this diet:

1. Do not do consecutive days - it's too hard and I at least find the second day in a row gruelling. And don't do weekends - we tried a Friday and nearly killed each other.

2. Get busy - the more you have to think about something else other than food, the easier it is. I work from home half of the week, so I try to fast when I'm in the office. And don't watch Nigella on TV while fasting. She's like a Domestic Devil to a me on one of my 2 days.

3. Get yourself an app. I use MyFitnessPal which is a simple tool to count the calories. And that is all you need it for, really, so any other means to do that (a notepad) is equally good. But for those of you, like me, who love apps, this one also records the foods you've used, the exercise you take and the weight you are losing (and predicts what you would lose in 5 weeks if each day was like the one you've just recorded). You can scan the packets to get the correct calorie amount, or you can make up your own meals, or just enter calories.

4. Don't be too hard on yourself. I have missed a couple of fasting days during the past three months. Just because you do that, there's no need to throw in the towel. There's always tomorrow, or next week!

5. Don't go alone. Doing this with some-one is so much easier. Some weeks because of schedules the Englishman and I've had to do different days, and it just doesn't work. Plus it makes TV viewing harder (see Nigella above).

So give it a go…but obviously if you suffer from a medical condition you have to see your doc first.

Happy fasting…!

The Crouch End Festival 2013

This morning I had a great breakfast meeting in the award winning Crouch End cafe, The Haberdashery, with James Bridgman and Vicci Parker about next year's Crouch End Festival.

The dates of the of the 2013 festival have now been set ( 7 -16 June 2013 ), and the planning process is in full swing. There will be a bigger and better website, more exclusive news Tweets, much gossip on a new Facebook page, a tiered sponsorship scheme, and many new events and acts.

Last year's Crouch End Festival exceeded everyone's expectations with over 170 acts, and thousands of festival goes enjoying, for the most part, free events in venues across N8. (My blogs about last year are here.)

This year we want the festival to be even bigger and better.

I am also delighted to announce that I will be organising new and exciting literary events during the festival. I can't say much about it yet, but I am very very thrilled to be doing this and cannot wait to spill the beans on the whole thing!

If you have a real connection to the N8 area, and would like to take part, please go here for contact details. Or if you'd like to be a sponsor, see here. With as little as £50 you or your business can have a visible presence in this year's Crouch End Festival.

So, put the dates 7 to 16 June in your diary, and keep checking here and all over Crouch End for more news on the 2013 Crouch End Festival. It will be a corker!

Alex Gough Erämaa Exhibition

Alex Gough is a talented Finnish/British painter whose work has previously brought me to tears.

I first came across Alex through a good friend who's been following his progress for some time. A couple of years ago, she took me to his exhibition at Orion Contemporary Gallery in St James's in London. One look at Alex's paintings depicting the blue hour (the time between dusk and complete darkness) in Finnish Lapland, and I felt a lump in my throat. I'd just returned from a skiing trip to Ylläs at the time, and the landscape had made me so homesick that looking at the excellent way Alex had captured the essence of the place and time made my eyes well up. (Even now gazing at the image of Polku, which means 'Path' in English, I have to fight back the tears)

Polku.
OIl Acrylic and Indian Ink on Canvas. 35x65cm. 2009
Alex GoughLast night's private preview showed how Alex has developed as an artist (and here I must admit to being in no way an expert at art - I'll have to refer you to History-of-Art-student Daughter for that). Instead of painting the actual landscape, Alex has taken a completely abstract route and shows us instead the feel of nature. He wants his work to reflect back to us, so that we experience optical illusions and a deeper sense of landscape.

His methods are varied, he makes his own acrylic colours, and then pours them, mixes them, dabs them and 'lets the chemicals react with the canvas'. In his largest piece, a painting which filled most of one wall at the exhibition, turquoise and deep black is combined with white and all shades in between.


No.17.  180x245cm
Cobalt Turquoise, Spinel Black pigment, acrylic binder, gesso, gouache canvas.2012Alex GoughBut my eyes were drawn to a smaller piece which to me, under the excellent lighting of the gallery, looked salmon pink, but which Alex said was actually orange. Here, and in all the other smaller pieces, the canvas was covered with a fine nylon netting, allowing the colours to shift and shine. At the left hand corner, the artists had placed a matt spot of turquoise, which draws the eye and in a pleasurable way distracts and disturbs the movement of the painting. He'd also painted on top of the netting, giving the work even more depth.

No.15. 78x110cm
Irgazine Orange, Cobalt Turquoise pigment,
acrylic binder, gesso, gouache canvas and polyester. Alex Gough 2012I must also say how wonderful it was to hear Alex speak Finnish. He was born in the UK but has the fluency of a native speaker. Some feat with a difficult language like ours!

Me with the Artist last night.Do go and see Alex Gough's excellent exhibition, if you are anywhere near London before the 11 November 2012.

Erämaa
Wilderness
****Extended to 21 November*** 
10 Georgian House
10 Bury Street
St James's
London SW1Y 2AA
By appoinment only
www.orioncontemporary.com
02071938373  

The 5 most romantic places in Helsinki

Today I'm over at The Englishman blog where I reveal which places in Helsinki for me are the most romantic.  Hop over there and see if you agree (some of the venues are a bit surprising….)

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jojo Moyes is rapidly becoming one of my favourite writers. I was first introduced to her last year at Shoreditch House Literary salon in London, where Damian Barr spoke highly of her writing. I enjoyed the excerpt Jojo herself read from The Last Letter from Your Lover, and immediately wanted to read the book.

The Girl You Left Behind is the third novel which I’ve read by Moyes, and it, like the others, is well written, well plotted and beautifully constructed.

The Girl You Left Behind is a tale of two women, living nearly hundred years apart, yet whose lives are strongly connected to one another.

During the first World War, Sophie lives in a small village in Northern France, which is under German occupation. She runs a restaurant with her sister and her three children, trying to stay sane and alive while the war rages on her doorstep, and the German soldiers terrorise the locals and requisition all but the floorboards from the small establishment. Both of the sisters’ husbands have left to fight in the war, and there is scant news of their fates.

Liv Halston is similarly trying to survive, but in present day London. After her famous architect husband’s death, she is struggling both emotionally and financially to carry on living in the glass house he designed.

While both Sophie and Liv are already struggling with their lot, something happens which makes their lives even more precarious and unpredictable. Both women try to do what is right, actions which change everything for the worse.

I loved the way Jojo Moyes played with the stories of these two women, and how she connected the two lives. I don’t want to say too much here, in fear of spoiling the book for new readers, but although in hindsight the link is obvious, I didn’t see it until I was supposed to. I also didn’t expect the ending; I was so wrapped up in both of the women’s stories, that  I didn’t have time to speculate – nor the inclination to guess – the conclusion.

I wish I’d found Jojo Moyes a lot sooner, but I must admit to disliking the cover designs of her books. They’re far, far too chicklit for me, whereas Moyes’ writing is so much more literary than chick.  On the other hand, having been late to discovering her, I now have a long Jojo Moyes backlist to enjoy.


View all my reviews

James Bond is everywhere in London

I have to admit to being a bit of a Bond fan. I grew up with Roger Moore as the Bond, and have since had difficulty in thinking anyone else can be as good as him in that role (I know, I know, Sean Connery was the original but I'm too young  - ahem - to remember him). But, our current Bond, Daniel Craig is doing a pretty good job to win me over. He's so much more edgy than the Bonds of my youth. As the Telegraph Magazine yesterday said, 'There's a real sense that this man is burning up from the inside.' How true (shivers down my spine).

So I cannot wait till Friday when I'll be seeing Skyfall. Not only because it's a new Bond film, or because Craig is such a dish, but also because my current near-obession, the Swedish actor, ex-husband of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-famed, Noomi, Ola Rapace also stars in Skyfall. Such a shame he's playing a baddie…although, perhaps that's a good thing…(more spine tingling).

Ola Rapace in Syfall. Photo: Aftonbladet.se