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Legacy publishing and the stamp of merit

A few days ago, my book The Little Book of the Icelanders was published by a legacy publisher (Forlagið). I had originally released it as an eBook through my website, and it had done quite well (which I'm sure scored it some merit points in the legacy department, once...

Legacy publishing vs. the speed of light

Almost a year ago to this day, I sat in a publisher's office and signed my first publishing deal. It was for a little book that I had penned and originally released as an eBook. The publication date was slated for 1 May 2012. The rather lengthy wait was intentional -...

The evolution of blogs

OK, we may as well start out with a wee confession: I'm a little bit intimidated by this new blog. Despite having written over 1,000 blog posts on my previous blog, to the point where I could write posts in my sleep, this slope here feels just a tad slippery. Maybe...

Well, hello!

.. And welcome to the first post of this new blog! Some of you may remember my previous blog, which I wrote dutifully for six years. When I quit that, about a year and a half ago, I did not want to look at another WordPress dashboard ever again. (For those of you who...

Lucky me

So having had my gripe in the last blog session, I’m delighted to announce that I’m back to being exceedingly grateful for what a great kid AAH is. Truly. Consider: here in Iceland we have community recreation centres, run by the city in conjunction with education...

De-crowned

You know what drives me bananas? The extreme self-centeredness of adolescents. I heard someone say the other day that living with a teenager was like living with an alcoholic – the same degree of self-absorption. Do adolescents eventually grasp the idea that ‘parent’...

Of pools and outlaws

Was a bit knotted in the shoulders today, and as my next massage appointment is more than two weeks away I decided on the next best thing: a trip to the pool for a water massage. On entering the showers before going into the pool, it occurred to me that while the...

Popular bollocks

Apparently, the most popular type of food consumed during the month of Þorri here in Iceland are the soured ram's testicles. Who knew? Certainly not YT, who balks at the idea of eating them, and this despite the fact that she does not call everything her grandmother*...

We now interrupt our regular programming to bring you a hissy fit

There are not many things I miss about living in North America, but one of the things I miss a lot is the high standard of service in shops and restaurants. That service-oriented mentality just does not exist in the same way in Europe, particularly not in restaurants...

The history of rotten food

Lest you think that feeding your man putrid shark on Bóndadagur is just another capricious whim dreamed up by weird Icelanders, think again! In fact, there is a perfectly logical reason: that day marks the start of the traditional midwinter festival known as...

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