my journey as a civil war novel writer

These days I pay more attention to my professional blog. Study and clients don't leave me much time for personal blogging. But there are occasions that I feel I have to write something. Last week someone destroyed the Glastonbury thorn on Wearyall Hill. Glastonbury is my all time favorite place in the world. I come there as often as I can as it has a very special admosphere. Glastonbury is one of those few places in the world that is im portant to more than one religion. It is important to christians and to pagans. To christians it was the site of the very first christian church above ground. When christians in Rome were still coming together in secret, here people could gather together in a church. Today the remains of the abbey built on the foundations of that church can still be seen. But Glastonbury is also very important to pagans. The Tor hill is said to be one of the gateways to th e ohterworld. And when you walk in town you can feel the energy in the town. So who would wan...

Had a very nice weekend break in Limburg with some friends and Nina the dog. We went to at tend the Elf fantasy fair in Arcen. It 's the second year it's been held in Arcen as well, before it only used to be in April in Haarzuilen. We arrived at the cottage Friday evening, rented in Landal green parc Roekenbosch which was close to Arcen. It is indeed a very nice location. T he castle gardens are well worth a visit ev en when there is no festival going on, I can really recommend th em. The reason that we went all this way were the lectures of Prof. Rotherham . This time the lecture was on woodland creatures. Very entertaining as always and learned some new things as well. Then for a few hours we wandered around the terrain , taking in the beautifull surroundings and of course admiring all the beautifull costumes. Some people come up with something new and wonderful for every fair, and by now there are a few around the year in the Netherlands. The grounds were so large that we b...

One of the interresting things in Lithuania was meeting the local people and seeing life not as a tourist. A lot of people living in the flats in Vilnius have a small summr cottage in what they call the garden. It is outside Vilnius and the last part to getting there is a very bad dirt road. One reason you don't want to be go ing there in the winter. On there are mostly small houses with a garden for vegetables, f ruit and flowers and often a small outside sauna. On the saturday evening we went to meet my friend's mother there. She is a very nice lady, does not speak anything but Lithuanian and Russian so direct communication was impossible. And yet she made me feel so welco me! I was fed homemade cake and tea from leaves in the garden and it was wonderful tea! Prett y soon the arcordeon came out and I was treated to her playing and singing traditio nal music. These are the things you just don't get to see when you stay on the tourist track. The generosity and kindness of ...

Two days of the trip to Lithuania were spend in Latvia. Now they are in the European union there are no bordercontrols anymore. But the roads are pretty bad, so it took us 4 hours to travel the 300 km from Vilnius to Riga. Riga has a very different feel from Vilnius. As it is situated on the coast it was one of the medieval hanse cities. With a lot of German influence, therefor the medieva l houses have much more of a west european feel to it. A very beautifull city, but not as different as Vilnius is. We did spend a lovely day there going into a few of the houses and looking at it all from the outside. Amongst the highlights were the cats house famous for two cat castiron statues on the roof and in the new part of town the very big russian church. Unfortunately I could not take pictures in there as it was fascinating . And very busy as well. We drove back to just over the border were we spend the night in Lithuania. Getting to Birzai was an adven ture as well, we had to travel ove...

I am back from Lithuania and now I don't even know why I was worried to go. It was a brilliant holiday! Lithuania is not that well known as a holiday destination here despite Vilnius being cultural capital last year. It is really a pity not many people do know about it as it is well worth the visit. In this blog entry I will be talking about that capital Vilnius. It does not have the feel of most old European towns I know. As it is not situation at the seaside but a few hours inland it does not have the feel we are used to here in Western Europe. The feature that stands out in Vilnius are it's many churches. Most of those are catholic, the most beautiful of those is without a doubt the St Paul and St Peter church a little outside of the centre. The white inside filled with statues and ornaments takes my breath away. Outside it has more Eastern europe an influences. On the other hand the Cathedral looks more like a Greek temple on the outside. Inside it is more like a church and...

I am going to go quiet for a little while again. Leaving for Lithuania early tomorrow morning. [and no the house is not empty] My first time flying in over 2 years and not looking forward to that. Am looking forward very much to the trip and seeing my friends again. It is also my first time on holiday without a pile of books along but a sleek little ereader. I will let you know how I liked it after I get back.

There are those places in Belgium, Holland and France were you can be upon British, Canadian, American and Polish ground without leaving the country. These are the cemetaries dedicated to those who gave their live for us during WWII. Last month I visited the landing beaches in Normandy. I had never been there before and during this tour we took them all in. When I stood there overlooking pointe du hoc I had to think of the young men on the ships who saw those cliffs an d knew they would have to climb them. It was madness and yet they went. For many of them it was not their own country they came to f ree, but they went. And many of them died down there on the early morning of June the 6th so that I can now write this blog in freedom. We went to those fields were they lie forever now. There is collevil le sur mer. The graveyard lies overlooking the beaches, it is a lovely spot. Here the American fallen lay. They lay in neat rows of white crosses. On the stones there is a name and the...

The king Arthur stories are my passion, have been for 30 years. I think it started with my mother reading them to me when I was very young.Then later I read the prince Valiant comics and that is when I became hooked on Gawain. For me he is the ultimate hero. He went against the wishes of his parents to serve his uncle were he could have been king of Lothian in his own right. As Arthur's nephew he held a high position in court and was known to be chivelrous. It is his end that had me in tears every time. When Lancelot was finally fo und out with Guinevere, Arthur had to sentence his wife to death. He asked Gawain to escort her to her death, but he could not do it and asked his brothers Gareth and Gaheris to do it. Lancelot rode in to save his love and in the confusion he killed the Orkney brothers. Filled with guilt and hatred Gawain urged Arthur to sail for France and to confront Lancelot. Arthur did so and every day Gawain called Lancelot out to fight him. The equally guilt ridden...

A bit of a backpost really. But I want to do some blogs about my recent holiday in Normandy and Agincourt. I am going to start with the last weeken d, the one we spend in Agincourt. To be honest there is nothing left of the origin al battlefield. Just one informationtablet and a small monument. It was such a long time ago of course, 1415. And because it was such a huge French defeat , the French don't really flock there. T he museum in the village however is very nicely done. Lot's of information and nice displays. The next day was the day of the reenactments and we made sure we were early as we wanted our car up front as in the evening we had to drive back home. I was amazed at how many Dutch stands there were, but then again it is not that far. The reenactors kept us busy the whole day and that was very nicely done. We also met up with a facebook friend of mine who was on e of the reena ctors and it was very nice meeting him. It gave the day certainly something extra. The ...

I have gone and done it. Untill recently I said I never would, but panic can change your mind pretty quick.I was looking at the ever bigger pile of books that I wanted to take with me to Lithuania, then looked at my suitcase that may only hold 20 kilo and was ready to scream. Thus behold my new baby, I am now the proud owner of a Sony Touch 600 ereader. Earlier this year Jaco lend me his kindle so I could read the new David Weber book. I liked the screen very much but I did not like the buttons to turn the pages at all. Nor do I like that the kindle only uses the mobi format. Which means you cannot read Dutch books, who use the the epub format. Quick research told me that many other big english language book firms use epub as well, so getting English books would not be a problem. After many reviews I decided on the Sony as I can use both the buttons and the touch screen. It does not have WiFi, but before a holiday I can cram it so full that I don't need WiFi. it's features are ...

The carboot sale was yesterday. It was not easy to get up at 5.30 AM, i can tell you that. But the drive there was nice, you could see the mist on the polder fields and that is actually very pretty. We arrived in good time and set up our stuff. Mostly books, some DVD's and CD's and Sandy had her cherished teddies with her. This is the view we had when we turned around .And Nina loved playing on the beach with her ball. Did we sell well? Yes and no. Dutch books went fast, DVD and CD's went okay and I had one customer who took about 30 of my english language books. So all in all not bad. Only the ending of the day was not so good. It had been a mostly bright sunny day with some clouds coming over. But quarter to four it started to rain! And I mean rain. From dry and sunny one moment it went to a torrential downpour the next. We were not able to save all the books, when I am less tired than today I have to go and see what I can still save. All three of us were drenched to the...

Going to my first carboot sale tomorrow. Well my first carboot sale as a seller that is. I have been to some in England as a customer. It is fairly new here in the Netherlands but the one in Oss is supposed to be the biggest. Over the years I have sold a lot of my stuff on Ebay and Marktplaats, so these are the left over books, some DVD's and some Cd's. Books don't sell too well on marktplaats because they are heavy and the postage cost is just too much. It would have to be pretty rare or very popular books for them to sell well. I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, if I will come home again with my seven boxes or if everything will be gone, maybe something in between? The drawback will be having to get up at sick on a sunday, gulp! To be there on time. There will be one rule and as we are going with three of us, we will need to help the others to be strong, only selling and ABSOLUTELY no buying. Well I doubt that they will be selling the kind of books I like, they won...

I have been bad about the blog lately. Yeah I know. So much going on, setting up my own business takes time, keeping up with friends take time. And I try to invest in my work blog but right now I feel the need to write and strongly. In 2 weeks time I am going to Lithuania for a week, on my own. [will be staying with friends there] and I am restless, nervous about it and I can't figure out why, so am going to try to do that here, to write my troubles away. What am I afraid of? getting ill. This is not far fetched. I am prone to headaches, especially when I am nervous. And the last time I was in Lithuania [with a collegue and only 3 days] food was a problem.Yeah I have a delicate stomac as well, such a healthy body. and lately my right knee has been playing up cramping when I have to sit still in the backseat of cars for too long. getting bored. How many books to take, no laptop [space and weight] Highly sensitive playing up. It does when I am not feeling well and in a strange place....