Pull up a chair by the fire. Ignore the subzero temperatures.
Welcome to my author blog!
A hearty welcome to my author blog.
Pull up a chair with me beside the fire and let us get to know each other. It might be brisk and cold outside where I am, but I'm going to pretend, for the next few minute at least, that it's hot and sunny and I'm on a beach.
This beach looks amazing, and private enough to have a good conversation. (click picture for link to photographer via Unsplash.com)
Although I've been blogging on my writing advice site (KelsieEngen.com) for several years now, I have decided it's about time that I create a less writing focused site for the readers in my life.
This blog will be updated less frequently than my other, and the focus will be more eclectic. Topics might be about books that I am currently enjoying, recipes I love and/or create, TV shows I'm currently binge-watching, as well as the occasional random thing that catches my eye. My goal is to create a reader centered blog for those who love books but don't write them.
More about me (and where I live and why it's so blasted cold right now)
So since we're getting to know one another, here's a little more about me that didn't make it into my official bio. Like most writers of multiple genres, I have such eclectic interests that narrowing my focus into a short blurb is often difficult and almost haphazard.
It's true I grew up in North Pole, Alaska. No, it's not an iceberg up at the North Pole, it's a little town of about 2000 people (in city proper). We have several schools there, and my graduating class was about 200 students. It's near Fairbanks, which is where I currently live. Alaska is . . . well, it's different. There are certain sacrifices that you make by living here.
Yep. North Pole, Alaska. It really exists. Click on the image to be taken to Bing Maps.
Don't get me wrong, Fairbanks is special. Alaska is very special. But it's definitely not for everyone. It has an allure to it that is rough around the edges and yet such natural beauty that it is often breath taking. It's not a beauty to be treated lightly, but with respect. Out here, if I leave my house and start walking, within ten miles, I could get lost in the woods. And I mean really lost.
It's that kind of idea that can spur a story in my mind, like my short story Bernadette & the Stranger. I'm not a huge outdoors person, to be honest. I like my creature comforts, I love my MacBook and iPad, but I also have that bit of Alaskan in me that sometimes prefers the Moleskine notebook and a good fountain pen and a bit of writing under a scrawny little black spruce tree outside. I'm a mixture of traditional and modern, adventurer and homebody. I like to say that I never get bored, because I always have something written, some book on the back burner that I can focus on, or some editing project going on . . . I always have something to keep busy with.
But I'm also a master at procrastinating! I love binge-watching TV shows. I love true crime shows and documentaries, British history, fairy tales, and Jane Austen.
Speaking of Miss Austen, she's one of my favorite authors. Another would be Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo being my all-time favorite book--besides the Bible). I feel like I don't have a lot of favorite modern authors, as I may like one modern author's first book, and then detest the next, it makes it a little difficult to say that they're a favorite.
If I'm not reading or writing, you can find me bullet journaling and scheduling my week, or playing cars with my two-year-old.
Currently, I'm hunkered down in my home office avoiding the outdoors, as it's officially -51F at the Fairbanks airport. True story. Don't believe me?
Yeah, so there's proof. It's real. And it's real cold. It's a good thing I have a home office.
But you know, the flip side of the coin (there always is a flip side, you know), is that in the summers, we get some nice weather. Sure, it's no beach or something, but it's warm. We can reach 90F+. And there are millions of places to go camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, and all sorts of outdoor adventures. It's grand.
In the long winters though, I light a fire, give the toddler a new car, or set him in front of Cars and I get to writing. I'm working on a fairy tale series right now, the first book of which is tentatively titled "Fog & Mist." The Alaskan winters are perfect inspiration for the Canens winters. And so I'm going to get off to work delving into the fantasy world of perpetual winter which is, sometimes, too real to be ignored.
