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East of the Sun, West of the Moon: A work-in-progress
Myth, mist, and magic combine in a fairy tale for grown-up girls. Oh, will no one stop Sara Sonnenschein? Clouds sweep restlessly past the moon above the dragon-tailed tower as she stands shivering on a windy Copenhagen corner, wobbling on red high-heeled boots, on her way to meet yet […]
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East of the Sun, West of the Moon: Chapter 1
Chapter 1 Walpurgis Spring had come at last. High overhead, seagulls screeched and dove and floated on the wind, for the wind…the wind is always blowing in Denmark. Sometimes the lusty wind would billow her long coat behind her so fiercely that she felt it could carry her upward like a kite, up above the […]
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Video: A Weaver in Denmark
In 1970, I arrived in Denmark for a study-abroad semester. I fell in love and decided to stay. I apprenticed myself to a tapestry weaver, Jette Gemzoe, and after a year spread my wings and set up my own studio. This marked the start of an incredible creative breakthrough, a period of freedom and expansion. […]
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Wise words from 2 great writers
I wanted to share with you these quotes from 2 of my favorite writers. These quotes also form the epigraph of my work-in-progress, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon.” …Is it not a sweet thing to think that, if only you have patience, all that has ever been will come back to you? […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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“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 […]
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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 […]
