writing

Summer 2020

Alina tran 65

On account of this stupid virus and since Madde is so little, we decided not to go anywhere this summer. Instead, we’ve been waiting for the sun to come back and although the hot days of June seem to be gone for now, we’ve done our best with the Scandinavian temperatures of 18-21 degrees. We’ve been meeting friends for coffee or beer, roaming the woods with Sam and Madde (in a pram!) or cooking a better meal at home. And is there anything more summerly than a bottle of bubbles? Sometimes a label catches my eye and this is how we ended up with this cremant– it tasted like unripe apples and the sea.  Continue reading →

Madeleines

How are you, my darlings? I feel nobody’s reading blogs anymore, at least nobody seems to be interested in anything I have to say, or am I mistanken? Anyways, I like to write, so I’ll keep on writing regardless of readers. It’s mainly for therapeutic reasons, to keep me from talking to myself- haha! 😉

I’m living my best life for the time being, going to photography courses twice a week, working either too much or too little and in between sitting with a beer or a glass of wine in cafés and writing short stories. I think I might just have cracked the code, writing comes easier and so do the stories that want to be put down on paper. (No, I don’t write them down with a pen, I’m not that old-fashioned!)

53450750_10156031860536711_108702448280928256_n.jpg

Continue reading →

Days Towards Something that’s Never Been

My cousin’s New Year’s toast was “Let 2019 be full of things that have never been”. I wish the same for both you and myself. Let there be less heartbreak and sorrow, let there be more joy, let us be kinder, be better, let us dare to be ourselves. And last, but not least, let our dreams come true! ❤ 49484265_10155909500826711_1879174000182034432_n.jpg Continue reading →

Creativity

41677253_274157716536328_7490539108729618432_n

I´ve been in court for 4 days and I’m beat. The intensity of the case drained me of what little energy I’d manage to build up and now I’m back to square one. Lying in bed, coffee beside me, listening to the janitor mowing the lawn outside, I can’t help but think how fortunate I am to be a freelancer. I have an entire day to myself and nobody can take that away from me. I don’t have any plans today, originally I was thinking of staying in and writing a bit,  but now I decided to take my laptop with me, meet a friend for coffee and hunt for props while in town.  And then write for a couple of hours.  Continue reading →

Writing

At night, words are bubbling up from the depths of my conscience and they won’t let me sleep. I could write a whole novel in one breath, yet I feel paralyzed by the fear that I’ll lose “a good night’s sleep” and ruin my next day, so I keep struggling, one foot out of the duvet at a time, stretching my muscles, I’m so tense one would think I was carrying rocks on my back all day long, not interpreting.

Continue reading →

Fall

Summer is gone. Instead, the rain has come and washed over its last traces, making me cringe inside and not feel like leaving the house. Fortunately, Sam is with me and I have to walk him, otherwise, I would have invented any number of excuses not to get wet. I don’t have rubber boots any more, I threw them out when I moved, suddenly they felt ugly and dirty (they were red!) and I couldn’t be bothered to clean them up. haha! Now I need to find a pair of black ones, so the dirt won’t show.

Skjermbilde 2017-09-06 11.01.05.png

This days all I ever feel like doing is write, but it seems I have nothing to write about. It feels like stories are buried under my skin, where the thought can’t touch them, they need to be lured out and I don’t know how. Also I don’t feel like disclosing anything about anyone close to me, so all I can write about is me, but I don’t exist in a void, I’m a contextual person, so you see my dilemma.

The rain depresses me, I hate getting wet.  There’s a grey mist outside my window and the cobwebs are heavy with rain drops. Some days I could give up the whole city for the prospect of living in a house with a small garden. I miss having a cat and I miss having a garden. I grew up in a house with my grandma until I was 13. There were not many flowers to speak of in our garden, but we had the freedom to step outside and sit under the quince tree. In spring the lilac tree was in bloom and in summer we could pick sour cherries straight from the tree. And the quinces started ripening about this time of year. It’s amazing how that never leaves me, I have this recurrent memory of sitting under the quince tree in a T-shirt, dangling my legs.

I should get going. I have lots of errands to run and no energy whatsoever. I could sleep the fall away.

xxx, Alina

“Migrant writers”

Yesterday I attended an exciting event where three writers who´d escaped war or oppressive regimes talked about their story and discussed literature as being universally relevant, no matter what one chooses to write about. I couldn´t agree more with the last part, in fact, that´s why reading is such a journey, both for the mind and for the soul, in my opinion. If you only read about things you already know about, it wouldn´t be this enriching.

howtoovercomewritersblock

 

The concept of “migrant writers” was launched and one of them said that the politically correct term now would be “intercultural writers”. I like both appellations, but I agree that the second is better constructed. In fact, the migration part is hardly the interesting one, the fact that one has combined different cultures within oneself is the point.

They touched the topic of how one changes personality from language to language and I smiled to myself, knowing that it´s so true in my case, although I feel at ease in both Romanian, Norwegian and English, it´s in Romanian I can really make people crack up.

I realised the only thing I´ve ever really wanted was to write. I don´t think I have the commitment and discipline to become a “real writer”, but there´s nobody stopping me from writing, nevertheless.

Cheers for that! Have a great weekend! I´m set on having a good one! 😉

xxx, Alina