This past weekend, I was away celebrating midsummer ‘Juhannus’ in traditional Finnish style. This involved going to a summer cottage (they can be super rustic, but at least, in our case, the cottage came with electricity and running water), eating grilled sausages, going to the sauna, lighting a bonfire and doing as little as possible…
Photo taken around midnight
Every year since living in Finland, we have joined our friends at their summer cottage and, despite waging war with mosquitoes, we have a fantastic time. Yes, a fantastic time can be had even without the convenience of modern sanitation. The lake views are simply magnificent, and waking up to the sound of honking swans or noisy cranes just makes it that more spectacular. This year we took our shiba inu, Lego, for his first summer cottage experience, and he ran himself ragged.
Lego, going belly up on the couch
It was a wonderful break away, particularly useful at clearing the cobwebs in my head. I’ve been struggling with this YA science fiction I’ve been writing. I did kind of mess it up at the start by trying to outline the novel. Now, returning to pantsing, I just can’t seem to get past 15, 000 words. Since I have this burning new idea just itching to spill onto the screen, I’ll give the Callisto book a break and start working on my other idea instead. The time seems right to tackle a story involving Finnish mythology.
So, as promised, here is the quote and song of the week:
“He played the piano as if the instrument were only incidental, a convenient conduit for thoughts that became music when exposed to air.”
A Separate Country by Robert Hicks
This is ‘Corrupt’ by Depeche Mode. I love the song and lyrics – it sort of ties in with my new story idea. The video footage is from Season 2 of True Blood. And no, there will be no vampires in my story. Be warned, this video might not be for the squeamish.
