Oscar K- Danish children's book author

T'S NOT THE FACT THAT IT IS SAID
Yes, it is. Because it’s said. Journalists wallow incoherently through terror, war and destruction, sex scandals, raw violence and bestial murder. There is not much gentle grace there – at most, quickly pronounced judgments and titillating warnings about clips with bloody scenes.

But a book can be something else. A nuanced, artistic presentation of characters and worlds – without condemnation – can provide a completely different and complex experience from that of the disjointed assaults of the news. It is not about what you say but how and why you say it. It is not about provoking or offending someone but telling a story that means something. Books should not necessarily be understood but elicit a desire to understand.

http://www.oscar-k.dk/textdetail.php?id=6

The Struggle

isn't it the struggle that makes it just that more appealing?

if you get something too easily, like winning the lottery, do you really enjoy it rather than having earned it by yourself?

I don't want to win the lottery, but i would like a job, or to be published, or just doing something which I enjoy- it's not about the money it's about living, it's about feeling like you're alive, like you make an impact on the world, on the people around you and the new ones you meet.

I have the education I have the experience i have the interests, but maybe I simply don't have the -umpf! I've lost the umpf! on the way. I have a feeling it might not come back.

What would get it back? Encouragement? A break? Someone to point me in the right direction-someone to tell me that all of my hard work and anxiety will eventually pay off. Or are my ambitions too high? Am i trying to reach the top before even reaching the bottom? Maybe I've already decided what to do, but the is still so much more that I want to do that I can't seem to settle.

Or should i run away? Go sit on an island far far away, stop reading the news, stop contacting friends, skip weddings, birthdays, holidays and simply live in my cocoon. I can do it. But would it solve anything? Would it make me feel better? Would it make the people around me feel better? Should I forget about my dreams, my ambitions, what i've been striving for for years and simply be? Should I simply push all my negative thoughts and my struggles into a closet and think if they're meant to happen they will happen. Or should I continue on and just hope that my day will eventually come if I work hard enough. Not by winning the lottery or by a contact offering me a job but because it is something which i really want to do and because it is something in which I have fought for.

World Water Day 22 March 2010

The World Water Day 2010 and its campaign is envisaged to:

• Raise awareness about sustaining healthy ecosystems and human well-being through addressing the increasing water quality challenges in water management and
  
  
• Raise the profile of water quality by encouraging governments, organizations, communities, and individuals around the world to actively engage in proactively addressing water quality e.g. in pollution prevention, clean up and restoration.

There is 1 385 984 100 km3 of water on the planet. Out of this less then 1% is available fresh water.

Why is this not more discussed?

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/flashindex.html

one of my favourite authors... Kendare Blake

very funny and incredibly bright!

enjoy the read

hope it never ends...

check it out: www.kendareblake.com

JD Salinger

Been struggling to decide on which book to read next when I read about JD Salinger's passing in the paper and therefore decided to read 'Franny and Zooey'. I don't know anything about the book. I was given it by a friend, who had recommended it. I'm looking forward in starting it.
Tonight I am defiantly going to bed earlier so that I will! We'll see how those plans go.

Also read in the paper (Dagens Nyheter) that there are rumours going around about JD Salinger having had a whole collection of unpublished novels at home to be published after his death. Lets hope those rumours are true.
I can absolutely understand that authors and writers in general are too influenced and affected by the views of their audience, readers, publishers and critics. Which has an impact on their writing. One becomes paranoid and self critical only thinking about what people might say about ones work and not concentrating about the message you want to send out and the reason you set out to write in the first place.
Is being a writer overrated? Can anyone be a writer? Does writing a fashion blog make you a writer? Does being a paid writer make you an official writer? Or is it when you personally achieve your writing aim? When you yourself are satisfied with what you have written?
They say writers are never happy with what they write, because once they are they stop writing. You've achieved your goal.

So far I've never been entirely happy with anything I've ever written, and I hope I never will be.

Snow in winter? No, really?

There have been no real problems here in Sweden, but it's ridiculous when you compare it to Britain and especially Scotland. I mean it is on the same latitude as Stockholm, so it shouldn't be that different.
Differences: Swedes don't put water into their screen wash-yes if the temperature goes under 0 degrees Celsius it will freeze. They put 100% anti-freeze in it instead-quite basic stuff. And they have studs on their tires so that when it gets icy on the roads the cars don't skid everywhere! There are ploughed side-walks and there are laws that say that people are in charge of their own driveways as well as the side-walks outside of their homes, which is important in case you need to turn your car around. It is well stocked up on salt and grit so the roads are always well ploughed, salted and gritted. The schools don't close if it snows, the transport system still runs and although there might be delays people aren't advised to stay indoors.
People wear the right shoes and coats for this kind of weather and less people leave their homes in just t-shirts. But nobody is perfect and Sweden also has oldies falling and breaking hips and homeless needing extra help during the cold snaps, but that's the same as every year.Why is Britain so far behind? Can it really simply be because everyone wants a snow day?

the struggle vs. the dream

On to a new book now: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
I had heard about the author for a long time, and I had one of his books, but I hadn't read anything by him. A friend got really into him and has recently been reading a lot of his books so when I was trawling a second hand book store in Inverness over the holidays to replace Desai's book, I came over this book. I read the back of the book and I was sold, and so was the book...It captured my feelings exactly at the time and is still making me think.

The story line is quite basic and in some ways simple, but i think that is what makes it special. It's not trying to be something it's not, like for example Desai's book which feels like it's trying too hard.
Desai has been taught from an early age what sells and how she should write, being influenced by her mother, that she's lost the feeling for it. It has no personality of its own.

In Coelho's book it's the simplicity that captures you, the plain language, the basic storyline. The survival of the believer, of the fighter, the lover and the dreamer. You can achieve anything as long as you believe it yourself, but that doesn't mean you won't have to fight for it. Nothing arrives on a silver plate and even if you face drawbacks you can't let them win.
It's an easy story to read if these thoughts and beliefs are already in you when you set out to read the book, but it's interesting to see how others believe the same thing you aspire towards.

There is one thing I don't like though and that is the magical angle. If you believe in the struggle and you believe in omens and working hard to get where you are today then the magical part ruins it. I don't believe that there is a selected few that are lucky and will get it right while others struggle. I believe everyone has the same chance without luck. I don't believe in luck. I believe that you have to work hard at things and you yourself will get to where you are today with that belief not because you've been the chosen one, but because you achieved your destiny by not giving up. And I hope that this book will lead to this aspect.
I don't want magic in my life. It will make me think that when something bad happens it's because some higher power is working against me. If I miss the bus in the morning it's not because I'm unlucky, or that someone wants me to be late, it's because I couldn't be bothered to leave the house on time.
Saying that though I do believe in omens and signs. But I also believe you can influence the signs and turn them into what you want t believe. I think these signs come from a higher force than religion or magic. I believe they come from the soil, the earth our atmosphere and our surroundings. I believe our human and natural instincts are stronger than any force of magic or religion and that these are the signs which will guide us to our destiny.