5 Swedish National Parks that I want to visit

On 05/07/2014 By MikaelaIn Life

This was prompted by Paul Weimer’s guest post at Pornokitsch about US National Parks. 🙂

There are 29 Swedish National Parks. So far, I have been to 4 of them. But I want to go to so many more.. Here are the current top 5, listed in decreasing likelihood of an actual visit. LOL! .

Gotska Sandön:

This is a largeish island located North of Gotland. It is surrounded by the Baltic Sea on all sides. The soil is sandy, the island is flat yet it is very beautiful. I have wanted to go there for years, but I haven’t gotten around to. Yet.

Ängsö:

This is also an island, with a lot of meadows and fields. And a lot of flowers. When it was formed in 1909, it was because of its many flowers. Sadly, the government believed in wild nature, so they let it grow with out keeping up the traditional farming that was the reason for the diversity in flowers. They realised their mistake, and now it is maintained the old way. It is actually closeish from Stockholm, with ferries leaving regularly. It is a great day trip if you visit Stockholm.

Abisko:

Abisko is located in Northern Sweden. It has breath taking nature, with a lot of mountains, forests, and canyon. And it is one of the northern National parks that has the best communications. It is just 3 hours from Arlanda, and the train stops just outside the hostel. It is more pure laziness that I haven’t visited it yet. Also, you are supposed to hike. And I’m not a hiking person. 🙂 But I have a feeling that if I mentioned that I would like to go to certain relatives, they would encourage me.

Tiveden:

This is an ancient forest located in Central Sweden, 2-3 hours away with car from Stockholm. It is rugged, and wild. One of the few wild places that are left in this part of Sweden. Unlike Abisko, a car is necessary since there is no buses. Or at least that’s the impression I get from the webpage.

Sarek:

I think I was 16 when I read a book about Sarek. And ever since I have wanted to go see its breath taking views. Sadly, I am not a hiking person, and that’s why you visit Sarek. But I still long for it. 🙂

I honestly think the only way I will see the Northern parts of Sweden is by booking a trip on Inlandsbanan. Which is also on the to do list, along with Hurtigrutten. 🙂

If you want to read more about Swedish National Parks, you can visit www.svenskanationalparker.se

E-reader woes

On 29/06/201405/07/2014 By MikaelaIn Life

Last night while I was reading, my faithful Cybook Odessey froze. I cursed, pressed the power button to restart it. When nothing happened, I cursed some more before letting it charge over night.

This morning, I tried to restart it and nothing happened. So I tried to do a hard reset. Did it work? Uhm. Not really. Now it is caught on the start up screen.

And when I connected it to mum’s laptop with a vague intent to reformat the internal memory, the computer didn’t recognize it. sigh.

So I guess I’ll have to get a new e-reader. The drawback is that I am not sure if I want to get another rebranded Cybook Odessey. Why? Because the Swedish bookstore that sells them insists on making their own modified firmware. Which is really annoying when add in the fact that Bookeen, the French company that makes the Cybooks, offered one of their rare firmware updates. Grr.

Except it is on sale right now. Hm…

The other option is Kobo. The problem is that Kobo isn’t available for me in Sweden. Which would mean I’d have to wait until Dublin before I get a new one. (Yes, I could get a Kindle, but I buy far more books from Kobo, plus Kobo offers me coupons.)

Oh well. I’ll read on my tablet while making up my mind.

So many things to do

On 17/05/2014 By MikaelaIn Life, Writing

A couple of days ago, Shamrokon tweeted: Just 99 days to go. I stared at the tweet for a moment, and then panicked for a moment. Let’s just say I’ll be busy this summer. I’m revising the Wild Hunt, which keeps on growing to Thrizah and Kari’s delight. But being told ” More is good, since it is a fascinating world”by Kari does boost my self-esteem. 🙂 The goal is to finish the revision in June 1st, but I don’t think I’ll manage it. But I should have it done before I get the edits back for Daughter of the Dark.

I plan to spend most of June on editing Daughter of the Dark and revising Exile. Or maybe the other way around, since Exile has a closer release date than Daughter of the Dark. Though both of them is coming soon!

I have found a reasonably priced copy editor that I plan to contact soon. ( She prefers to do a sample edit, and I’m not going to send her unedited pages.)

Oh. And deciding on a marketing plan. I think it will involve a lot of teasers. Since the only thing I got to catch the attention of readers is my novellas. There will be longer and shorter teasers. I really like the quotes that Shiloh Walker posts close to release date, so I’ll make something similar in Gimp. That much I can do at least. I am also thinking about swag for Eurocon. I want to offer a free download of either Exile or Daughter of the Dark, but I’m still thinking about how to do it. ( I know what the easy way would be, but I’m not certain if it is the best way). Which reminds me. I need to hire a cover artist. I’m leaning towards Skyla Dawn Cameron, I really like her covers.

But right now I’m running around finishing everything on my todo list before I leave for London on Monday. I’m going to see my brother for the first time in 6 months! I plan to hug him so much. 🙂 I mostly plan to visit British Museum and bookstores. And take a walk in Hyde Park, if my leg doesn’t hurt too much.

Schedules and stuff

On 05/04/2014 By MikaelaIn Life, Writing

Ever since I got a call from Dad, asking if I was interested in a job, my life has been in a slight chaos. To be fair, it isn’t the day job. It is just that the rest of my family don’t seem to realise that I’m working part time and in my spare time, I’m taking the first steps on a career that will be more hectic than the day job. The last two weeks? I’ve been home 4 nights ( or was it 5?). The main reason is that I’m too nice to say no. Yeah. Need to get better at that.

The result is that while I have made some progress, I’m not making much progress on the revision, and the B4YHS assignments I tend to catch up with during the weekends.

I have made some decisions though.

I wrote a prequel short story to Daughter of the Dark in January, Exile. Originally, it was planned to be a freebie but I’ve decided that I need a test run since I’m uncertain if Publit/Overdrive distributes to Amazon ( I don’t think they do, but it would be so much easier if they did), so it will be able for sale sometime this summer.

This means, Daughter of the Dark will be out after Exile. Not the way I had originally planned it, but things like that happens sometime. Doing it this way means that I’ll be able to release both books in the duology close together.

Meanwhile, I’m busy revising The Wild Hunt so that you will have more to read later. I have so many plans! One of the plans is to start posting snippets regularly. These snippets would either be from whatever I’m working on. Yes, this means I’ll be posting snippets from things that might be years away from being published.

So here is a snippet from the Wild Hunt ( This scene was rewritten from scratch so it is a bit rough):

Brid stepped out from the forest, grateful for the fact that the paths hadn’t made her utterly lost. All thoughts of the enchanted paths of the forest vanished when she saw the gleaming carriage in the middle of her grassy yard. It was sleek, with large wheels better suited to the paved streets of Myrddin than the rutted dirt road leading to her small hut on the outskirts of Tanglewood. Hide, her subconsious whispered. Brid took shaky breath. It was tempting, but she was the drysa of Tanglewood. She couldn’t hide every time a patient showed up.

Tea, Life and Writing

On 07/05/201313/07/2014 By mikaelalindIn Life

I bought a small tin of Kusmi Tea yesterday, and made a cup. It was really nice( except that I should have let it steep longer), so nice that my mouth protested when I had a cup of Twining’s Lady Grey last nice. sigh.

My dad made the most yummy fried rice yesterday with mild turkish peppers, garlic and mint. I was a bit suspicious that the pepper was feferoni, since dad loves it ( I don’t. Too strong for my taste)

Carrie Ryan posted about plot structure on Magical Words yesterday, and something clicked. I have felt that I have slid backwards when it comes to plotting the last year. ( Which shows in the number of partial drafts I have. ) So I cannot wait to give her structure a try!

And life… I am maybe, maybe moving sometime next year :). ( It is complicated, uncertain and a bit sad)

Third time is the charm

On 24/01/2013 By mikaelalindIn Life, Writing

A couple of days ago, I reached the point in the synopsis were I needed to re-read the first draft. I hesitated, but in the end I decided to write the beginning first. So. Yesterday, I started to write the beginning from scratch. This time, the opening is in the right place. Today, I pasted in and edited the sections of the opening scene that I’ll be able to keep. I am itching to give it a more heavy edit, but I am refraining. That can wait until the draft is finished.

Tomorrow I get write how Pinja finds out that her cousin is missing. Whee. Which is when the plot really starts. Hee.

And, I get to continue reading Människan och Naturen ( honestly, every writer should have a book about ethnobiology in their research library. Or know were to get a copy). And the non fiction book about Vikings I also borrowed :).

Edit:

Except Dad just told me it will take at least 24 hours before my jacket is dry enough to wear. Which means no writing. sigh.
*eyes Dad’s bookshelves* But probably a lot of reading.

Oh, and I just discovered that Dad has a small stack of Post its. In A6 format. Perfect for revising. *rubs her hands*

World Fantasy Con!

On 21/01/2013 By mikaelalindIn Life

I just paid my membership for WFC in Brighton. Right now I am crossing my fingers that I will not get a refund, due to it being full booked. *twitches*

( I had planned to go to P-Con, but it was cancelled…)

Decoupage ramblings

On 19/01/2013 By mikaelalindIn Life1 Comment

Lillian’s post about her new craft store ( And yay for Lillian :)) made me want to take up decoupage again. I have dabbled in it, primarily serviette decoupage. Which is fun. But, I want to move on from it. I just haven’t been sure what to do next.

But today I discovered that Panduro has Art Deco decoupage paper. 🙂 So, I plan to buy a couple of sheets and depending on the size of the pictures I’ll decide wheter or not to buy paper boxes or a ringbinder.

Things like this just don’t happen here

On 16/01/2013 By mikaelalindIn Life2 Comments

First, a train crashed into a house in southern Stockholm ( thank god the train was out of traffic and the house empty). The incident is really embarrassing for the train company, since it was a cleaning lady that drove the train (!) and someone had forgotten the key in the ignition (!!). Oh, and the house is newish, and the county hadn’t ” noticed there was a railway so close to the house.” ( Really? The railway has been there since the mid 1900’s.)

Second, a big car accident happened in the South of Sweden. It was foggy and the road was covered with ice, and a driver lost control of the car. The end result was a pile up with multiple cars and 18 wheelers, 9 injured and 1 dead. While car accidents do happen, it is rare that they are so massive. 🙁

To do list

On 13/01/2013 By mikaelalindIn Life

This is one of those dull and boring posts, that are more a reminder for me 🙂

To do:

Operation Shelfpurge:

~~Start sorting through books in bags, and decides which I want to keep ( I have a feeling it wont be many…)~~
~~Enter them into the spreadsheet~~
~~Upload them to Bokbörsen~~

General:

Go to the camera store, to see if they can replace the cord
Clean the apartment. ( Enough said)
Wait for answer on the job. *twitches*
~~Go to the post office and pick up the book Di sent me. ( Which means I have two copies, since bought one earlier this month. )~~

Writing:

~~Keep on working at Trollkungens dotter.~~
Resist the temptation to post mini snippets on the blog ( since it is, you know, in Swedish)