Talisman

I will try and post some on here, but in the past each time I have tried it hasn't been that successful - for some reason it nevers seems to work. As for wedding ideas, we are having a very simple registry office affair for family and a few very close friends, with mine and Coran's sisters as witnesses and our good friend and next door neighbour as ring bearer. I am not being given away or any of that as it seems so old fashioned, apart from which, I don't belong to anybody ! I don't plan to change my name either, just change the Miss to a Mrs - much simpler that way. The blessing we are planning for September is in some ways the more important part - this will be at our local non denominational church (really more of a spiritual retreat centre), which has played a big and very important role in both of our lives - Coran still works there as a healer (as did I for a while) and was a trustee for a number of years. This will be for our wider circle of friends and conducted by our best friend. It will be a much bigger event with a buffet afterwards. The wedding itself is really just the legal bit.

I will post some of the better pics on Facebook in the next day or so - there are a lot of them to peruse. Today though I am feeling happy as I have spoken to my brother for the first time in almost five years, after we just sort of drifted apart. Even better, he hopes to come to our wedding, which we have to start planning in earnest now - we will be going ring shopping this weekend, just in time for the sales. After that, I have to go shoe shopping.

I got back from Iceland around 7.30pm last night after 18 fun filled days of what seemed like endless walking and endless daylight. The longest I walked in one day was 23 kms (around 15 miles) - my feet and calves ached after that one but soon recovered. The real killer was climbing that dormant volcano to have a look at the crater - well worth it though. I met some great people, ate some really tasty food, managed to fall in a river (long story), got saved by a nice Yorkshire man (even longer story) and even managed to read a few books. The only downside now will be paying for it all.

I am finally off to Iceland tomorrow - it will be a busy and fun packed 17 days filled with (hopefully) sunshine, some aching muscles and a bit of reading. The temperature in Reykjavik today was a very reasonable 15 degrees, although a bit chillier in the northwest where I am heading off to on Saturday. It will be fun exploring all those uninhabited regions that I haven't been to before, but I am sure the south and the northeast, which are slightly more populated, by birds if not people will be too !

There is that too - very often for the reasons I mentioned above, that authors get a better deal on e-books, that and the fact that they becoming more popular. I personally prefer them as both an author and a reader, but each to their own.

Finished My Name is Salma by Fadia Faqir for Jordan - easily one of the best books I have read this year - about a Bedouin woman fleeing the threat of honour killing after she becomes pregnant outside of wedlock.

My Name is Salma - Fadia Faqir In her village of Hima in the Levant, Salma has violated the honour code of her Bedouin tribe. The village decides to kill her to cleanse their honour and restore order. Salma's days as the village gathered are severed completely. She can no longer play the pipe for her goats or swim in the spring. She ends up in prison for her own protection and separated from her new baby. She seems fated to a lifetime in protective custody, but when the men of the tribe have seemingly stopped their chase, Salma flees to a monastery on the shores of the Mediterranean then is helped to England to seek asylum. Salma's journey out of Hima and through England, rippling with alienation, fear and humour, reflects my preoccupation with the fractured lives of exiles and immigrants caught up in a painful yet exhilarating cross-cultural encounter. From a rural life in Hima, to a monastery in Lebanon, to boarding a ship with a nun, to a British detention centre, to Branscombe in the house of a Quaker, to a hostel for asylum seekers in Exeter, to living with her landlady Elizabeth, a child of the British empire, to her own property in King Edward street, then back to Hima to look for her long lost daughter. Away from the colours and smells of her Bedouin village, Salma finds herself culturally dispossessed in the middle of the most English of towns, Exeter. `Now Salma the dark black iris of Hima must try to turn into a Sally, an English rose, white, confident, with an elegant English accent, and a pony.' It is with her ancient landlady that she learns the mannered ways of the English. She attempts a social life at the local pub, but refuses to drink alcohol, and forms a friendship with a feisty young Pakistani girl, Parvin, who is also running away - from an arranged marriage. Salma's escapes from strict morality of her village and ends up in a western society with few restrictions. If penalties are in place for sex out of wedlock in the Levant it is encouraged in the UK and without it she might not experience any intimacy or human contact. She is constantly drawn to her idyllic/cruel rural past in the old country, and is trying to grapple with an alien, indifferent, but liberal society in the new country. Salma is torn and is always trying to negotiate a new path. She ends up in England with a new composite identity, but with the same old, torn heart. It tugs her back to Hima, to her daughter. A fugitive Salma, Sal, Sally, watches other Muslims practicing their religion and is unable to reconcile herself with the innocent shepherdess she once was. Has she managed to break away from the social and religious structures of her old country? Or by running away and moving further from the self has she moved even closer to herself and her old culture? Living by her Immigrant Survival Guide, Salma settles down and falls in love with an English man. But deep in her heart she can still hear the cries of pain and the Bedouin keen and drums. One day, Salma decides to go back to her village to find her daughter. It is a journey that will change everything. This beautiful written and finely crafted work details the life of Salma, a Bedouin woman born into an extreme patriarchal society, where honour killings are the norm. When she commits the crime of not only falling in love, but also becoming pregnant outside of wedlock the man walks away scot free while she is forced to flee, initially to prison, the only real place of safety in order to have her child. Once she is born, her daughter is immediately taken from her. Salma though stays in prison for her own safety, eventually being forced again for her safety across the border to Lebanon and later to the UK, where she finds safety in a hostel for other women fleeing for various reasons. There she befriends Parvin, a Pakistani woman fleeing for different and yet similar reasons, for both are borne from the idea that men can do with women as they please - in Parvin's case, the threat of an arranged marriage. The two women forge an immediate bond as Parvin helps Salma to find her feet in this alien new land, so different to what she has known. The sense of guilt and conflict though never goes away - Salma believes on some deep level that she is a damaged woman who has brought her troubles on herself and attempts to prove this to herself by sleeping with a myriad of strange men. She also attempts to rectify her wickedness by helping her alcoholic landlady, refusing to press charges even when she is drunkenly attacked and needs stitches in her arm. Although she does eventually find happiness with her University Professor and the birth of their own son, Salma is haunted by dreams of her lost daughter and desperate to go back. Against the advice of all her friends and abandoning her husband and baby son she attempts to make peace with not only herself but also with her family, only to be killed anyway. This serves as a reminder that no matter how far and how fast you run, you can never completely erase your past. It also though emphasises that your actions affect others, in the shattered lives of all of those left behind - her husband and baby son, and least of all perhaps her mother, who risked all to protect her illegitimate daughter against the wishes of the male members of her community. This is a remarkable piece of writing that I suspect will stay with me for quite a while and undoubtedly one of the best books I have read this year. I would give this 4 1/2 stars, it would have been five were it not for the blurb giving the ending away.

Coran and I went to the Registry Office this afternoon to fill in all the paperwork and give proof of ID etc. We now then have our official notice of marriage and can start counting down. I am also counting down the days until I go to Iceland which is one week tomorrow. After I get back it will be all systems go ....

You can find all the details on my website which is in my signature. And no, I didn't sell just one copy, but at a guestimate between 500-600. Not all of them for 30p profit either - just the ones I sold through bookstores and online.

That LittleW is exactly how I feel (with books at least - on the issue of copying CD's etc. we will have to beg to differ). Most if not all authors are in a similar position to what you describe, mostly because of heavy discounting and the fact that the publishing world is top heavy with middle men - distributors and so on. I say this as an author who has been in the same position you describe where I earned £1.49 from a book that cost £14.99 and took me 5 years to write. I don't know many people who would work for 30p a year. I certainly found out who my friends were when a lot of them refused to buy it and borrowed it from other so-called friends instead ! They couldn't understand why I got upset about this. Publishing a book teaches you a lot about human nature. In the end I wised up and took it out of print. I now sell it online as an eBook where I earn four times that amount.

Indeed - although not for our friend, who is one of our oldest and dearest. She has surgery on Monday. She only had her diagnosis on Wednesday, so it must be very serious indeed for them to act this quickly. We are seeing my sister though this morning who according to her care team has also not been well of late and are going to tell her the good news and ask her to be a witness. We couldn't think of any better way of showing that that we want her in our lives and want her to be included. Hopefully then this will cheer her up a bit. The other witness will be Corans sister.

Exactly - and that I think is why it is illegal to sell e-books second hand and why the technology has been put in place to try (not entirely successfully - I know at least one author who has found her work on illegal sites) to prevent this. It would be (and do doubt for those in the know is) a whole lot cheaper and easier to do this with e-books than it would be to print fake copies of paper books. When you can buy used paper books for a penny online what would be the point anyway - they would cost more to produce than you would get from selling them. Personally I think that not being able to sell used e-books is a price worth paying if it protects the rights of authors and publishers. I don't just feel this way with books either, and I don't say this just because I happen to have written one, even if it is no longer in print - I am against the illegal copying of any type of material whether that be music, DVD's or anything for that matter. A lot of people complain that they don't earn enough, and wouldn't work for free themselves, so why expect authors to do this? By refusing to pay for their books that's what you're effectively doing. If you can't afford to buy books then go to the library, at least that way the author earns something. I suspect though that I am going off topic.

Don't worry about it - these things happen. Best to get things clear though, as I wouldn't want anyone to get in trouble ....

I wouldn't be too sure about that if I were you. I know that as an author myself I would not be at all happy about someone printing out my book like this and reversing that process themselves - assuming the book was not DRM protected and even allowed that. After all, what's to say that they wouldn't give it away free to all and sundry?

God I am glad this week is over - it has been a hell of a week for both of us, during which we found that one of our best friends has cancer, and also that Coran's divorce certificate from 18 years ago had not been signed or dated, so that the Registry Office where we are getting married in August would not accept it. We both wondered whether this meant that she was actually still married, but thankfully not. The solicitor who dealt with the divorce only keeps records for 15 years, so they sent her back to the court that issued it, and finally after about 3 days of trying Coran got through to them this morning and they issued 5 signed and dated copies. Normally the Registry Office needs the original, but in this case they will thankfully make an exception, provided we show them the original as well. What a tangled web !

And you would also be breaking copyright rules - there is a disclaimer in the front of most books (I quote from my own book here) to the effect that: "No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the author's prior written consent". This would include printing out a Kindle or other electronic book in this way. This is still illegal copying, even if it is for your own use.

Finished Season of Mist by McDonald Dixon for St Lucia this morning. My 33rd book this year.

That sounds like a real opportunity for your GD Muggle - actually I am a teeny bit jealous as I have always wanted to go to Alaska. Still, 20 days from now I shall be going to Iceland instead, and a lot of people want to go there too and are probably jealous of me. In typical Bank Holiday style it is tipping down with rain. I have just been paid, so Coran and I are off to Guildford later on to get bits for the Iceland trip, and to look for wedding outfits. I know we have another 3 months yet, but it will soon come round.

Just finished my fourth Jason Smart book - this time The Red Quest. This one features his hair brained scheme to visit all 15 of the former Soviet Republics (I have done 8 of them already anyway) and another 7 of the former Eastern Block countries (I have done 5 of these already too). I will no doubt continue to look for other books from the more obscure places anyway - but the countries covered in this book are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan plus Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and (East) Germany.

Thanks everyone - although it seems a bit sudden in some ways, it has been a long time coming. I am feeling tired today though after a bit of a strange week. Coran had to have an endoscope test today, so I had to take her to the hospital which meant changing all my hours at work to make up for the time off. I had to do a 10 hour day then yesterday and this morning I started an hour early at 7am - I don't know how I used to do that every day and certainly wouldn't want to go back to doing it again - 8am is an early enough start for me. We are though both looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend with plenty more sunshine - sun cream is going on the shopping list for tomorrow. The wedding news has overshadowed my forthcoming trip to Iceland somewhat, which is fast coming round as well - 4 weeks yesterday.

I have some really exciting news - Coran and I are getting married on August 22nd. I can't quite believe that after 17 years it is finally happening - it feels though like the right time. We have discussed it many times over the years, but with Coran's gender change that did complicate things. Of course we could have done it years ago as a man (which legally Coran still is) and woman but the trouble is that if Coran had legally changed gender, which at some point will happen, we would have had to get divorced as until recently men and men - or women and women (which we would then have been) couldn't get married. Not any more though - you can now marry whoever you want, and about time too in my opinion. It isn't going to be a big thing, just us and a few close family and friends, but we plan on having a blessing later on where everyone will be invited. The ceremony itself is really just to take care of the legalities.

To be honest, once I have completed the challenge I think I will still read and look for books from different countries, so I don't really see it ever ending. At the moment it is in a way just ticking boxes. That Sao Tome book was good though - probably the best I have read this year (so far).

I finished my 3rd Jason Smart book at lunchtime today - he has written a series of short travel books based on his whistle stop tours to various parts of the world. This one - Temples, Tuk Luks and Fried Fish Lips featured his tour of the Far East. These are great very cheap books which are a brilliant way of getting through loads of countries very quickly - in this case, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Philippines, Japan, Indonesia and Brunei.

It's not quite as good as the first, but then again that was always going to be a hard one to follow - still worth getting though and still a good laugh.

The Silence of the Sea - Yrsa Sigurdardottir An unmanned luxury yacht crashes into the harbour wall in Reykjavík. What happened to the crew, and to the young family who were on board when it left Lisbon? Thóra Gudmundsdóttir is hired by the father’s parents to investigate. What should she make of the rumours saying that the vessel was cursed? Where is Karítas, the glamorous wife of the yacht's former owner? And whose is the body that has washed up further along the shore? I have read all of Yrsa's books, who is rapidly becoming my favourite Icelandic author and each has been better than the last. Most feature the lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir an Icelandic woman who lives with her German partner and two children from her previous marriage in downtown Reykjavik and is a partner in a small law firm which takes on some unusual cases. In common with Icelandic literature in general, one has to know and understand the country a little to really get to grips with these books, not least the characters names and the places described. At the start of the book I got the feeling that like its predecessor, I Remember You, this would be a ghost story, but as the story began to unfold it became clear that this was more of a mystery. When an unmanned yacht crashes into Reykjavik harbour Thora is approached by the parents of a couple who were travelling on the yacht with their 2 young daughters bringing it back to Iceland to be sold as a repossession to help them ascertain what happened. We learn that the yacht belonged to a bankrupt businessman and his Icelandic socialite wife, but when a body is washed up off the coast of Iceland and another is found on board the yacht the plot thickens. The tension is palpable as the story unfolds - this is a book of two halves told in alternating chapters from the perspective of both those on board and Thora herself as the investigation unfolds and we gradually learn the identity of the bad guy and his motives. The two skilfully move slowly together in an orchestrated dance, first towards each other and then further apart as they gradually come together. The action is well paced but never drawn out with just the right amount of humour woven in to at times lighten the load - this is one of the things I like best about Yrsa's work how she manages to bring the mundane into some very exciting and sinister reads. Although not as good as her previous work I Remember You, which inspired me to visit the remote village in which it is set, this is a pretty close second, that I would give 4 1/2 stars.