January, 2014
Kraka’s Paradox
The Story of Kraka and Ragnar Lodbrok by Barbara Bluestone Published in Parabola‘s “Imagination” issue, Vol 34/1 Imagination is a heroic trait in Norse lore, as seen in stories as diverse as the pranks of the trickster god Loki and this legend, adapted from Ragnar Lodbrog’s Saga, which tells how a young girl won the […]
How to make everything easy
I once visited the Priory of Notre-Dame d’Orsan in the Loire Valley. Some years earlier, two young architects had left Paris and bought the medieval ruins set in a fertile farming landscape. Laboriously they renovated old stone buildings and created an extraordinary series of gardens inspired by the MIddle Ages. From the utiliarian kitchen garden, […]
“Finishing Touch,” a mystery story
EXCERPT March 6, 1936 dawned cold on a quiet Paris. A brisk breeze churned the dark waters of the Seine as I hurried across the narrow Pont des Arts, hanging on to my fedora with one hand and buttoning my tweed coat with the other. Early mornings are not my café au lait – but […]
Paris, 1936. As clouds of war gather over Europe…
Behind its elegant façades Europe was a violent battlefield. Warmongers harangued against pacifists, fascists attacked socialists, workers fought for their rights. In March, Hitler defied all treaties, sending his troops into the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland. As the Luftwaffe swooped over Cologne, its citizens cheered, church bells rang, military bands played a song whose refrain […]
…a courageous American photographer must choose between her heart and her country.
Adventurous, headstrong Ray Gordon ventures into forbidden territory, a camera her only weapon. Traumatized by her father’s death in World War I, she believes fiercely in pacifism. But as she roams Paris, documenting the misery of refugees fleeing from oppression in Germany, she realizes that she too must stand up and fight. What can a lone […]
Other People’s Words
For some years when I lived in Denmark, I worked as a translator. Viking ships, Bronze Age barrows, Greenland mummies, Renaissance castles, modern housing developments, pig farming –any book, article, or film that came my way was grist for my churning translation mill. Translator’s method Fueled by endless cups of coffee, I would plunge into […]