Not Winning Alt for Norge

     My lips have been sealed for almost six months, which is rather remarkable for me.  I could not let anyone know who had won Alt for Norge until the show was actually shown on Norwegian TV and, after 10 episodes, the winner was revealed.  Whew!  I'm not known for keeping secrets.
     So, now I can spread the beans.  I did not win.... I only made it half way through, which was actually fine, as I am much too much of a curmudgeon to have survived the whole adventure. Tromping around Norway with a group of much younger Norwegian-Americans, having to eat salmon every day, seeing beautiful scenery and waiting, waiting, waiting for lights and cameras and to know what we are doing next.
      If you really want to know details, I made another blog just for the show and my Norwegian fans.  Yes, I have fans and even made a Facebook page and I'm not embarrassed about it.  Norwegians are really nice people and this show is terribly popular.  When I'm feeling down or trying to procrastinate, checking in with my Norwegian friends is a great ego boost.
     On my Alt for Norge blog,  I  share the back story to the weekly competitions and our adventures in Norway.  I also tell how it felt to find out that, before emigrating to the USA, my grandmother was in jail for murdering her great-aunt, an unknown detail of my ancestry that I found out ON CAMERA.
Check out: 
Altfornorgebarbara.blogspot.com/
You can also see the show as it has now been posted on You Tube - Search for:  Alt.For.Norge SE3E01
for the first episode - then change the number at the end for each consecutive episode - there are 10.  I am in episodes 1-5, but all of them are fun.  Enjoy!

ALT for Norge!!!

I can officially share that I was a contestant on Alt for Norge - a Norwegian reality TV show.  Yes, I am not kidding, that is why I was "traveling".  The show takes 12 Norwegian- Americans around Norway and every week there are "contests" during which one contestant is eliminated.  It was fun and not mean spirited.  The focus is on discovering Norway and genealogy. The winner got to meet their Norwegian family!

 It was a great experience!  The other contestants were great, the crew was wonderful, the country is beautiful and I got to eat salmon 3 times a day.  I cannot tell yet, if I won or where exactly we went or what we did.  I know, I am a tease.  The show will begin airing in Norway in September and the final episode should be in November or Dec. (They may be on You Tube)  After the final episode airs, I can share more details.

I did have a lovely time and hope to go back to Norway.  One of the reasons, I wanted to go was my ongoing obsession with Greenland.  Norway is somewhat similar and probably the ancestral home of my Greenlanders. I wanted to see the land, the flowers and the late night sun. My ancestors are also Norwegian, my grandmother left Norway for the United States in 1917, but died before I was born. I was hoping to learn more about her -which I did.  Enough to have me thinking of another book......

Home

I have been traveling a lot recently.  The Dominican Republic, the Galapagos Islands, Norway, the San Juan Islands, and soon will be going to Alaska.  As much as I love going to far away places, it is always a bit discombobulating. Especially the coming home. Its not just the jet lag or the piles of mail or the plants that have died from needed water.  Its the home itself that I see with a stranger's eyes, a home that could almost be someone else's. I find myself struggling to re-connect, to remember why I live in Portland, Oregon and not some other lovely place. I know there are people who travel constantly, but I can't imagine it. If I stay away too long I become a visitor to my own home. Yes, there are the familiar do-dahs, the pictures on the walls, the cats and dog, but it still takes me a while to settle.  I have to sit and send out psychic roots, cook a meal, do some laundry and dishes, make a To Do list.  The mundane brings me home!

Done! The End!!

I did it!  I wrote The End on the novel I have been writing for far too long. 
My goal was to finish in 2011 and I finished the edits and sent it out to my patient critique group just before midnight New Year's Eve. Aren't deadlines wonderful!
I went back and checked the computer and my first meandering attempts at this story about Greenland were written in the fall of 2008.  If I had known it would take so long, I'm not sure I could have stuck with it.
But here I am ...done.  At least with a good- almost second draft. I have been reworking it along the way as my critique group has given me feedback- not exactly the easiest process, but it seemed to work for me.  I think I needed the feedback to help me focus and give me confidence to keep moving forward.
Now comes the next stage - sending it out.  I have been stalling for a good month - writing an Author's Note -that is needed to really understand how much the story is rooted in history - and a good query letter.
Stalling...  But finally, I just did it - spent a whole afternoon personalizing my query and hitting that send button.  Started with 8 agents - the ones I would swoon over and sweat nervously if I was in the same room.  Now I'm supposed to start something new and not check my e-mail every hour.  Right!  This is a very strange profession.

Downsizing

This has been a summer dedicated to shedding extraneous stuff and, boy, has it been stressful.  As our oldest is off to college and our days of having exchange students feel over, it became clear that our house was too big.  Time to walk our talk and DOWNSIZE.
 Not as easy as it sounds.  It's hard to let go of stuff.  First you have to go through it all and decide what to let go of.  That folk art Ferris Wheel?  Throw it away - Give it away -  Recycle -  Sell!  Try not to think about all the memories. Let it go. Then, there are the trips to Goodwill, the postings on Craigslist, the showing furniture to prospective buyers.  (Of course, I had problems letting go of books - I think I ended up moving almost 20 boxes.)   I've been drinking more than usual.
And, of course, there were the projects around the house that had never been finished, or even begun.  Why didn't we carpet the bedroom years ago? How much more energy can you put into a house when you are ready to leave?  In all the flurry, there has been the, not so subtle, knowledge that this is a major transition.  Even though our son is still in high school, soon we will no longer have children at home.  We are aging.
I'm not particularly sad about this.  I'm ready to be done with the mommy thing.  As much as I love my children, I spent far too much energy caring for them. I feel a restlessness and a certain impatience, a need to get on with life.  As we downsize physically, I want to expand mentally and emotionally.  We only have so much time.

SCBWI

Just back from the Spring Oregon SCBWI conference. After 10 years of being a member of the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators, I still feel a bit like a newbie.  I still get that nervous fluttery feeling when I meet an editor or a well-known author at a conference.  I still go to workshops and get those "Oh! yes!  That will help me," moments.  But now, I also get to see old friends, congratulate them on their successes and commisserate with them over the trials of this profession. I cannot imagine having persevered without the support of this group.
Thanks!!!!!

Norway

     Since I was not selected, I can now make it public that I was a finalist for the Great Norway Adventure, a reality TV show in Norway. Yes, I'm not making this up.  The show brings a group of Americans with Norwegian roots to Norway and has them experience typical and adventurous Norwegian activites. Check out Alt for Norge on Youtube.  The first season had huge ratings in Norway.
      I found out about the show on Craigslist and thought, at first, that it was a joke. But it wasn't; it even sounded like fun, and I got excited about the prospect of really exploring Norway.  I had been thinking of traveling to Greenland for research on The Novel and then thought I should also go to Norway to look for my ancestors. This seemed to be the answer!
     My grandmother was full Norwegian and left Norway when she was in her 20's. I never got to meet her, as she died when my mother was only 10, but I have a few stories and pictures and lots of questions. It occurred to me that, as a child of an orphan of an immigrant, I am also an orphan of a culture. I have no roots and I'm curious and a bit hungry. Working on this Norse novel, I've been obsessed with the land and climate, people and culture of Scandinavia.  I was ready to go, though my family thought I was a bit crazy.
      So, I applied and they liked me, an old hippie librarian. (I sent in a video showing the front yard garden, the wood burning hot tub in the driveway and the papermache Alice in Wonderland I made in highschool.)   I even got to go to Chicago for a casting call.  But, I didn't get it and, in retropect, I think I would have missed my family too much. (They wanted an 8 week commitment). 
      But now I really want to go to Norway.  And Greenland.  And the Faroe Islands.......