my journey as a civil war novel writer

  You can't do Gettysburg well in one day at least I can't. And I also wanted to spend some time in the town itself, so today we had an early start for a second day in and around Gettysburg. We spent most of the morning on the battlefield doing the bits we had missed out on the first day. Cemetery hill and the remainder of confederate avenue. I just love being amongst the statues and other memorials of the past. In fact I think I could spend weeks or months here just exploring or sitting quietly. Most of my friends do not understand this. I already often get the same questions. Are you going to do those battlefields again? You have seen them by now.  We took a break for lunch. A holiday around Gettysburg is not complete for me without at least one meal at the Dobbin house. I love the atmosphere and they serve great food. It is one of the few times I splash out on food. But going into town was a bit of a dissapointment for me. A lot of my favorite shops were just gone. The...

  Finally I was going back to Gettysburg. It had been nearly ten years. The last time had been during the 150th anniversary. That was cool. We walked Pickett's charge at the exact same time at the same day 150 years later and we saw a lot of the reenactments. For many years if I went to Gettysburg during the anniversary. It was great fun but it had some drawbacks as well. More expensive The town would be absolutely crowded So would the battlefield The humid heat of July could get to me In that regard a May visit was much nicer. We headed out in the morning and it was about 75 minutes drive from the airbnb to Gettysburg where we arrived around ten. As Koen had never been we decided to do the visitor centre first. I may not be making friends here but I am not a big fan of the new visitor centre. True, it gives a good overview of the whole civil war and the battle and it looks really slick. There lies the rub. I don't like slick. I much prefer the old one with its shelves full of ...

Boy was this a year of ups and downs. I started the year cramming for an exam, for my first year degree in counseling & coaching. It involved going through 4 books full of facts and they asked tiny details. I make it! And passed the exam. The next two months I delved into preparations for my practice, I was well on track to start in July and full of confidence and got a lot of work done. In april some breaks were planned. With my then boyfriend and a group of english friends coming over for the elf fair. That is when things started to go to hell in a handbasket. I had some doubts about my relationship for a while now and that was making me unhappy. But it took me some time to voice them because he is such a nice guy and we shared a lot of the same hobbies. Round the same time my dad fell ill and was admitted to hospital. I set every thing aside to be able to take my mum to hospital everyday. For me with the RSI it is physically tough to do that and it meant that I could spend less ...

So last week I talked a little bit about the upcoming trip to Britain. I am really addicted to Britain and the US. And this year I am lucky enough to be able to visit both. Went to the East coast of the US this summer for the Gettysburg reenactments, and thursday ev ening leaving for Britain to see a play with Kenneth Branagh in London. Ivanov at the donmar warehouse. Looking forward to that hugely. I have seen him on stage before but that was more then 20 years ago. On holiday in Denmark I saw him play Hamlet next to castle Kronborg, that was really amazing. But the reviews for this play are pretty good as well. And yes next to books I am a theatre addict. I have seen some pretty great names on the London stage over the years. I am most proud of seeing John Gielgud on stage during the last play he did. That was one of the times I came over especially to see an actor and I never regretted it. Another one of my favorites was Antony and Cleopatra with Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins. This...