Posts Tagged ‘NaNoWriMo’

Guðríðarkirja – meaningful design

Posted in children's books, creative living, life in general, Norse, Writing today on January 22nd, 2012 by JAZ – Be the first to comment

For the past year I have been working on a YA novel about a Norse teen from 1,000 A.D. I read about Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir in two of the Icelandic sagas where she is shown to have had a truly amazing life. I’ve tried to show her in 3D in What Else is There? The story is in the beta reader stage, so I asked my Icelandic daughter-in-law Inga to read it, then brought a copy of the manuscript last week when we were there. When we arrived, she asked if I would like instead to have the pastor of a new church in Reykjavik, which is named after Gudrid, read it first. What a wonderful opportunity.

So, we went to meet Dr. Sigríður Guðmarsdóttir at the Guðríðarkirja. She was charming. Naming the church after this strong, early Christian figure was Dr. Guðmarsdóttir’s idea. She was also read more »

Norse myths performed

Posted in children's books, creative living, Norse, reviews, Writing today on November 6th, 2011 by JAZ – Be the first to comment

For last year’s NaNoWriMo I laid the groundwork for What Else is There?, my YA historical novel about Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir. It is set in Iceland, Greenland, and America about 1,000 A.D. Approaching the end of the story, I am meanwhile exploring references to Norse mythology in books and other media. In the past two days I saw an intriguing juxtaposition of Thor, the Marvel Comics movie on that Norse god’s story, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Siegfried a sophisticated, but no less funky, narrative side by side. read more »

NaNoWriMo over

Posted in children's books, creative living, Norse, process on December 2nd, 2010 by JAZ – Be the first to comment

Like many other writers, I committed myself to the National Novel Writing Month website’s competition on November 2 and started a new young adult manuscript now titled What else is there?. The goal for each of the thousands of writers who also took the plunge was to write a 50,000 word novel between Nov. 1 and 30. Well, I only got to 26,000 words because life does get in the way, but NaNoWriMo did give me the excuse to get a good beginning going. What else is there? is about a young Norsewoman and is set in Viking era Iceland, Greenland and the new world. More on that later.