5000 views: thank you!

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imageWe are popping the champagne bottles. Firstly, because we are wrapping up our stay Copenhagen and are saying goodbye, farewell, see you later to the people we have spent time with while here. Secondly, because I have reached an important milestone for my Pied-a-Terre blog: Today it has been accessed 5000 times by nearly 2500 unique visitors. I am overwhelmed at this level of visitation, which surprisingly comes mostly from search engine referrals.

Since I started the blog in April 2014, I have published 76 posts that trace my process through planning and executing what seemed like a pie-in-the-sky idea when it first came into my head: to spend a year in Copenhagen to reconnect with culture, people and places. Publishing my musings about this, that and the other has attracted 116 followers and I have enjoyed the support and encouragement of the WordPress community.

Thanks for reading, thanks for liking, thanks for commenting. You are amazing!

I expect to keep posting for a little while, as I wrap up my gap year. Yet, all good things must end, while the going is good, or as the Danish saying goes: Stop while playing is good.

While in Denmark I have been focussing on my creative writing. And as this blog has reached 5000 views, I launch my new author website: loneveirup.com. Please go along to have a look and let me know what you think about it.

It is an experimental site, still based on WordPress. I intend to publish short stories that have been developed to a point where feedback from readers could improve the writing, the plot, the story. With readers’ help, I then intend to rework the story and find a vehicle for publishing.

imageI write in English, not Danish, because this was the advice I got from the Queensland Writers Centre. This is no doubt good advice. However, the stories I have written are very much anchored in Denmark and in memories I have from Denmark and my Danish childhood. The stories are not autofiction, but I use what I know of place and my memories from this place as a starting point. This fact challenges me in coming up with the best English expressions.

As an experiment I have translated the stories to Danish. This has been a really interesting process because the starting point was experiences I have had in Danish. And as Nabokov I found the translation stimulating other ideas and thoughts that compelled me revise the story as I went.

I invite you to visit loneveirup.com and have a look at the three stories I have published. And I invite you to give me feedback, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Thank you for reading, liking and commenting. It means a lot.

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6 thoughts on “5000 views: thank you!”

  2. Vera ding

    I have loved reading your reflections Lone … You have provided a wonderful portal into Your Danemark and the layers of experiences in an eloquent and engaging narrative

    I have to say that from a selfish point of view I am looking forward to your return to Oz and hearing some more of your reflections over a nice cold glass of Chardonnay !!! Xxxxx

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  4. kvd

    Hi from Aus, and thank you for some very interesting posts. Another blog I follow is written by a fellow who has just returned from a trip to your part of the world and, in describing his journeys, made a passing connection between the concepts of hygge and mateship – which is how I stumbled upon your blog this afternoon.

    Now, I’m wondering – for my education – if you might care to comment upon this possible connection from your own perspective? Here’s the link to Jim’s latest post, but there are a couple of earlier ones which he mentions as well:

    http://belshaw.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/hygge-ethnocentricity-and-war-musings.html

    I wish you well in your travels, and I thank you for some very interesting posts – and good luck with the writing! You have a quite refreshing ‘clear voice’.

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  5. lonebonekaffekone Post author

    Thanks so much for your comment and your referral to belshaw’s blog. Really interesting reading.

    I agree that mateship as an Australian concept and hygge as a Danish one are similar in so far as they become defining for identity and they are concepts that cover a whole myriad of ideas that are not easily translated or understood outside their cultural context.

    However, I think mateship is slightly different concep from hygge. Mateship is a more public idea: to me it is a visual and externalised relationship with one or more people which in my mind is closely associated with the idea of a fair go, and therefore exists in a public sphere. In contrast, hygge is very private, with very close friends or even alone, but almost exclusively associated with the in-doors, which of course is a good place to be when you live in a climate like the Danish.

    Perhaps mateship more aligned to the cooperative movement (Andelsbevægelsen) in Denmark – the idea that by working together we are stronger and can achieve more, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_cooperative_movement.

    Thanks for reading and commenting. It means a lot to me.

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