Category: Uncategorised (Page 1 of 24)

Name that Word

As a writer, I’m fascinated with words. I love the way they sound. I love the weird spellings of the English language. I even have a list of “beautiful words” that includes lilac, haze, mauve, sigh, lullaby, lily, sly. . .   Notice how many soft consonants are in my list. Maybe it is that melodic (another favourite word) sound tht marks them as beautiful in my mind.

Among my favourite books are Simon Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman, and Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words. Both tell of the development of an English dictionary, how words were discovered and researched and used and, eventually, added to our word list. 

The study of words, and particularly their origin is called “etyology,” not to be confused with “entomology” which is the study of insects.  Notice the “ology” in both words. It means study of. Hence theology, astrology, geology, biology . . . etc.

Obviously, I could go on forever about words, but what caught my attention recently was the number of words (usually nouns) in our language that are actually the name of a person.  Did you know the word “Hansom” as used in a “Hansom Cab” is named for James Hansom (handsome), an English engineer who designed the vehicle?

Nathaniel Bigot (1575 -1660) was a Puritan preacher born in Ipswich. His intolerance and zeal were such that none of the sects of the Puritan religion would admit him to membership. He frequently stood up and began preaching at the Globe theatre during Shakespeare’s plays, railing against the vanity and depravity he perceived on the stage. For his pains, he was ejected from the theatre. A supporter of Cromwell, even that dour dogmatic found Bigot a nuisance and had him arrested. He was a staunch Parliamentarian who called for the execution of Charles I. He died of apoplexy when he saw Charles II entering London at the time of the Restoration. It is questionable whether his name was given to our word, “bigot” but he certainly embodied its meaning!

I’ve always considered gingham a very homey, wholesome pattern, but  one source tells me that  Martha Gingham (1580-1648) was a bawdy-house keeper who dressed her “girls” in clean petticoats and neat frocks of striped or checked cloth. So much for my preconceived notion!

Don’t forget the fourth Earl of Sandwich who bestowed his name on the snack we eat between slices of bread. There are several stories about him. In one, he is credited with sponsoring Captain James Cook’s voyages. In gratitude, Cook named the Sandwich Islands in his honour. In a less flattering story, the earl, who was an inveterate gambler,  didn’t want to interupt his play to eat. He created the sandwich so he could eat without getting his fingers greasy, and thus remain at the card table.

There are endless examples of men and women giving their names to the language. The examples I’ve  cited are historical, but just think of how we use “Google” as a verb. A Shirley Temple is a non-alcoholic drink, Reaganomics, an economic theory named after a former president of the United States, or Scrooge to describe a miser.

The study of words provides endless fascination for a wordsmith. I’d love to hear your favourite words, just add them to the comments section of this post.

 

 

Views: 0

5 Body Language Surprises

I had a very strange start to the year — I lost my voice. I don’t mean I lost my ability to sing or declaim from the stage. I mean I lost the ability to make any sound using my vocal cords. (Aphonia)  Never happened to me before and was, frankly, scary. Here’s how.

  • I couldn’t call for help. If I fell in a ditch, I couldn’t cry out. I had to attract attention by banging things, or throwing things, or physically assaulting my hearers. Not an efficient way to get help quickly. 
  • By the same token, I couldn’t sound a warning. When I saw danger approaching someone else, I could not call out an alarm. It made me feel helpless and culpable in another’s misfortune.
  • My sense of identity suffered. I am a singer, my voice has always been an important part of my make-up. To suddenly be silenced struck at the core of my self-confidence.
  • I was isolated. I could not carry on a conversation. Meeting with friends left me feeling left out since I could not participate in the exchange of news and ideas.
  • I couldn’t use the telephone. When my brother called from 2000 miles away, I couldn’t even say hello. How disappointing is that?

Writers often study body language as a means of making their words on the page more powerful. Well, being mute for three days, I had lots of time to practice body language! I got a stiff neck from all the nodding and head-shaking. My eyeballs rolled up and down so often they needed a massage. My mother told me it was impolite to point, but I pointed at everything, big, stabbing, forefinger pointing. How else could I tell my husband to feed the cat?

Surprises

I referenced surprises in the title of this post.

  1. Here is the first one. As a writer I’m familiar with the importance of body language in our fiction.   On the page, we use things like “pursed lips” or “clenched fists” or “narrowed eyes” to convey mood or emotion.    In real life, those cues are too small to make up for the lack of words. If no one is looking, pulling your lips into a prune shape accomplishes nothing but to create  facial lines.   Maggie Lawson talks about “amplifying” important moments in a novel.  She adds metaphor and cadence to amplify those pursed lips. i.e. “She pursed her lips so tightly I thought she might choke.”                                                                                                                                                 
  2. Voice is elusive. We are born able to make sound, even if it is just a wail. Every day of my life, I have had a voice — until I didn’t. In writing, the author’s “voice” is just as necessary and just as hard to define. It is that indefinable something that marks a passage as unique to that particular writer. Stephen Sondheim and Oscar Hammerstein II used the same notes of the scale, but the music – voice – they produced was entirely different. It is that distinction that marks an author’s voice.                                              
  3. Characters have voice. Here the possibilities for a writer are endless. We can speak of specific characteristics like a “gravelly voice” or a “breathless whisper” or “as shrill as nails on a chalkboard.” But once we have decided on a defining trait for our character’s voice, we need to stick to it.  Just as a baby can recognize his mother’s voice, we want our readers to recognize the voice of a character without having to use dialogue tags. What a protagonist says and how he says it, should identify him. If the hero and the villain sound the same, the story needs a rewrite.                                                                                                 
  4. Authors can use speech, or lack of it, to advance the plot. When I was mute, I was easily overlooked in group settings. Just like the servants in a Regency novel, I was invisible, discounted. If you write a story about a woman who struggles with self-confidence, make her silent in a crowd. She’ll have plenty of time to observe and won’t be seen as a threat to anyone. Think Miss Marple.                                                                                     
  5. Life experience is a marvellous teacher.  Until I lost my voice I’d never considered the implications of being mute. I expect life experiences used in fiction to be huge–earth-shattering, monumental –things like life and death and love. But small things have consequences. Those small things just might be the trigger to lift your writing to the next level.

Life is full of lessons. As authors we can use every experience to enhance our writing. We need to train ourselves to be aware and take note of all the moments, big or small, that make up our own backstory. That is the well from which we draw when creating compelling characters.

Please share in the comments any surprising discoveries from small events in your own life.

Views: 0

2 Lessons for the New Year

I hope everyone enjoyed a good break at Christmas. I know I did, although with the holiday falling on a Wednesday I was mixed up a good deal of the time about what day of the week we were on. It seemed I had two or three Sundays in every seven day stretch.

I got my Christmas wish with a pile of books under the tree — mystery, romance, literary and non-fiction. Love all the choices. I’ve finished Louise Penny’s latest mystery and am now reading a literary novel set in Ireland.

I also found time to listen to a webinar by Alessandra Torre on goal-setting and read an eye-opening article by Donald Maass on Writer Unboxed about taking your moral inventory. Moral inventory? What’s that? And what does it have to do with being a writer? As it turns out, according to the post, quite a lot.

Maass holds that there are two types of story-telling, the mirror and the arrow. The mirror reflects the culture, the arrow points the way to something else (better.) He offers a little quiz to help readers determine which category they fall into by determining their moral inventory, i.e. does the writer believe fate (mirror) determines our path, or does she believe in destiny (self-determination.) Try the quiz for yourself. It’s in the link I posted above. 

When I answered the questions and scored myself, I came down almost in the middle 5/7. That’s my usual fate when faced with a self-knowledge quiz of any sort. Still, I found it useful to consider that I fell slightly more on the arrow side of the equation. At one time I was a teacher and I guess I never got over it. I do want to tell readers what to do. 🙂 

Apart from the total score, I found my answers to the questions enlightening.  I chose faith over reason. I saw each day as opportunity rather than peril. If those are my deeply held convictions, then, if I write characters with the same mind-set, they are more likely to resonate with readers since they are “true” to my beliefs.

Now, I’m not about to sit down and write a story based only on my answers to the quiz, but if I keep in mind that my moral inventory leans toward arrow, it will give me a new way to look at plot points that get tangled up or characters who won’t behave. Are those characters arrows or mirrors?

And, getting back to Alessandra Torre’s webinar, do my readers want to read stories of arrows or mirrors? Which do I want my “brand” to reflect? Torre’s notes were very focussed on marketing and finding an audience. Her own experience shows that readers like an author to “stay in her lane.” That is, they want to know, when they pick up an Alice Valdal novel that it will be like the last one and the next one. 

The Louise Penny novel I just finished is her 19th in the series and the characters and setting are familiar to me. I look forward to spending time with those people in those places. I would be disappointed if Armand Gamache suddenly became a hippie, or Ruth Zardo played nice. The books are not boring, the suspense goes right through to the last page, but they are on brand and I can shell out my dollars knowing I’ll be happy with the book.

I’ve given up on New Year’s resolutions, but I’m happy to have two new lessons to apply to my writing career.

What about you? Any resolutions? Changes? Goals? 

 

Views: 0

Christmas Short Story

This year’s Christmas short story is titled, Christmas Lost and Found.

Below is an excerpt.

 

Mary Margaret Murphy slammed on the brakes and wrenched the steering wheel of her late grandmother’s prized 1924 Maxwell, then watched in horror as the big, touring car slid soundlessly into a deep snow drift.

“No! No! No!” she slammed her palm against the steering wheel, then pressed on the accelerator, hoping to ram her way through. She shifted into reverse, then forward, then reverse again, working the clutch, trying to rock the vehicle free, but she was hopelessly stuck. Snow fell, so thick and fast it obliterated her tire tracks within minutes. Soon it would be impossible to tell the difference between roadway and ditch. She covered her face with her hands, despair and frustration clouding out judgement. Judgement! She snorted in self-derision. If she’d exercised even a modicum of good judgement she would never have set forth on a two-day journey to a wilderness cabin to celebrate Christmas.

She’d made a foolish choice because she could not bear the thought of Christmas all alone. Tears stung her eyes and she let them fall. There was no one to see. She was tired of pretending she was all right. The truth was she missed her grandmother dreadfully. Her grief was made worse by the fact there was no one to share it – no sibling, no aunts and uncles, not even a shirt-tail cousin. As the last of the Murphy line in Canada, she was utterly alone. So, when Helen, her friend from the school, invited her to come for Christmas, Mary jumped at the chance.

“Bah, humbug,” she muttered and swiped the tears away. Grandma would not approve. . . . To read more, join my newsletter list using the box at right.

Views: 0

7 Priorities for Writers

Welcome to December and all the hustle, bustle and delight of the Christms season. In Canada our usual frenzy of shopping, wrapping and shipping has been upended by the strike at Canada Post. All the little tokens I had assembled to send to my faraway family, now sit in a box, waiting. The absolutely best Christmas present I ordered for my godson, sits in a post office 3000 miles away, waiting. The special baking I do for my brother sits in the freezer, waiting.

All that waiting is getting me down, especially as the two sides in the strike aren’t even talking to each other. Then again, Advent, is a season of waiting, so maybe I should take advantage of that “waiting” time to plan the rest of the month.

As I’ve written about before, I’m a great advocate for making lists. I make lists for the grocery store. I make lists for Christms presents and Christmas cards. I make lists for writing tasks. I even make lists for coffee with friends. Sadly, my list-making has fallen by the wayside as I’ve been overwhelmed by too many items to put on the lists. But today I read about an “Advent Jar” which seems a wonderful visual for setting priorities on my list.

The idea is to take a pint jar and fill it with sunflower seeds and seven walnuts.(The example at right uses rocks and sand but the principle is the same.) It won’t take more than one try to realize that if you put in the sunflower seeds first, there is no room for the walnuts. But, if you put in the walnuts — your top priorities–first, then the sunflower seeds can find space around them.

My desk already has too much clutter, so I’m not rushing out to find a pint jar and sunflower seeds, but I’m using that visual to think about my priorities and hone my lists into managable order.

  1. As a writer, one of the walnuts in my jar must be time at the keyboard. 
  2. Another walunt is my obligation to others. If I took on a task, I must show up and finish it. 
  3. Walnut three would be reading. I’ve just finished a large tome that my book club chose for discussion. It was not a work I enjoyed and it was very long. I set myself a goal of 40 pages a day in order to finish it in time. While I didn’t enjoy the story, the writing was beautiful. Reading the work of talented authors is like taking a writing class.
  4. Relationships. For writers, readers and everyone else, our relationships are central to life and writers need a life. It is important to prioritize time with the people who nurture our spirits.
  5. Giving. As much as we gain from relationships, we must also give to those relationships. Call a friend who is hurting. Have coffee with a colleague who struggles. At this time of year especially, take a gift to someone who is lonely.
  6. Social media. Not my favourite way to spend time, but posting regularly on social media will raise an author’s profile. If we want to sell books, we must engage on at least one social media platform.
  7. Write a blog.  My blog makes me adhere to a schedule, encourages me to research a number of topics and connects me to readers. Not all authors maintain a blog but I do, so I must make it one of my walnuts.

Now that the big items, walnuts, are in the jar, I can pour in the seeds of less importance. Things like tidying my desk, organizing research notes, doing laundry, buying groceries, playing with the cat, singing in the choir, caring for my health . . . All activities that bring me joy, and there is room to fit them around the big things.

Just like lists, life events will impact my priorities, but the idea of starting with the big ones first can reduce the sense of overwhelm that listing every single item that needs doing in a day may generate.

I’ve given you my seven “walnuts” but each of us is different. What are the important things in your jar of neverending tasks?

Views: 0

Agony in Amethyst

I’ve mentioned my friend, A.M. Stuart, on this blog before. She writes the Harriet Gordon series, set in early twentieth century Singapore. Well, she has just published the fifth and final installment, Agony in Amethyst. Perhaps she ran out of jewels. In any case, this tale tidies up a few loose ends left over from Terror in Topaz and brings Harriet and Curran to their HEA –finally!

If you want more background on Harriet and her times, go to A.M. Stuart books. You can see all the books in the series, watch a short video and get a free copy of the prequel The Umbrella, when you sign up for Ms Stuart’s newsletter.

In our splintered world, I often find myself railing against social media for spreading hatred and lies and fomenting anger. 

And yet, when I consider my long friendship with an author on the other side of the world — I don’t think one can get farther from my home in Canada, to hers in Australia — I laud the wonders of electronic communication which make that possible. 

Twenty years ago I picked her name off a registration list for an on-line course. The instructor wanted the students to pair up as a way of making us accountable. I decided to choose someone from far away. She picked me too and for the same reason. We’ve discovered so many commmonalities, apart from the obvious English language heritage. We’re both married. We both love cats. We both attend church. We share similar outlooks on the state of the world. We write and read historical fiction. We belong to romance writing groups.

We do have at least one difference. She is a much faster writer. When the pressure is on she can settle in front of her computer and churn out the words and storyline much, much faster than I can. I envy her on that front. To even things out a bit, I have a great neighbour and she has issues over the back fence. 😊

Over the course of our friendship we have endured a worldwide pandemic, seen a shift in world attitudes, watched our democracies come under threat, grieved at wars in Europe and the Middle East. We’ve seen the weakening of traditional publishing and the explosion of self-publishing in our industry. We’ve confronted the physical ailments associated with aging.  And we’ve seen our friendship grow and deepen — all through weekly letters. 

Through the power of words I’ve gained a friend oceans and continents away from me. Through the power of words we’ll keep on sharing our thoughts, our troubles and our triumphs. Through the power of words we have a friend to lean on.

Words have great power — good and evil. The maxim, “the pen is mightier than the sword,” still holds true. Like my friend and I, let us all use that power to learn and grow and understand the “other.” 

 

Views: 0

Optimism

It has been a while since I posted anything on this blog, three months, to be exact. One reason is that it was summer and I spent more time gardening and less time writing. In fact, I took a sabbatical from writing while I waged war on the weeds, the slugs, the deer and the rabbits. This year’s garden took more work for less reward than I have ever experienced before.

Weather was the major culprit. The days were unseasonably warm early in the spring, then, after we’d seeded, the mercury dropped and anything that had sprouted stopped growing or died altogether. In mid-June I replanted most of my vegetables, gave up on various flower beds and tried to salvage something in the berry patch. 

Scientists have been warning us for years that climate change will have a drastic effect on our agriculture, not to mention the forests, the oceans and the fresh water lakes. This summer I had practical experience of their dire predictions. 

But, I’m a farmer’s daughter so the mantra of “next year” runs through my thinking. As I dig out stunted carrots, I plan that “next year” I’ll plump up my soil. Next year I’ll put floating covers over the seeds. Next year I’ll get a better deer fence. 

Thank goodness for the optimism of farmers. Our newscasts have been filled with images of drought-stricken fields, smoke damaged fruit, and flooded barns. Farmers have every reason to give up, to sell their land to developers and look for an easier life. Fortunately for the rest of us, they hang in there, with plans and promises for “next year.”

As I return to my neglected stories, I seek to carry that optimism forward. This time, the scene that just wouldn’t come together last spring, will, somehow, write itself. This time the flat, cardboard character I created in the early drafts, will come to life with personality quirks, secrets, and dreams. This time, I’ll find the joy of telling a story.

How was your summer? What are your plans for “next year?”

 

Views: 0

Generation Gap

doing homeworkI didn’t post to this blog last week because I had out-of-town company. In fact, I had out-of-province company. It was wonderful to have family come for a visit — a reminder of the special bond of kinship. I was thrilled to discover my great niece is a reader. A visit to my local book store was a highlight of the trip for her. Her brother was more intrigued by the toy store next door. 🙂 Her choices were all unknown to me. In fact, we didn’t have any book references in common. 

 

Co-incidentally I read an interesting paper at Writer Unboxed on the need to “explain” our use of language. The question was whether the reader would “get” the author’s references. I was astonished to learn that a seasoned author presented draft ms to young critique partner only to find the reader didn’t understand the allusion to women in the 1950’s attending university in order to obtain an MRS. degree.  That was such a common conception in my day I simply assumed it was part of our collective conscience.  Now I question all the idioms I thought were universal. How many people who hear “David and Goliath” know the Biblical story? If a rogue “meets his Waterloo,” does the average reader understand Napoleon’s defeat at that place?

My aforementioned great-niece is a “tween” and very specific about the books she reads. The Baby-Sitters Club is top of the wish list. She’s also keen on mysteries, however, despite high praise from her mother, grandmother and great-aunt, she refuses to read Nancy Drew! 

How will our generations talk to each other if we don’t have the same reference points?  If coming generations don’t read the classics like Little Women, or Anne of Green Gables, where will we find common ground for conversation let alone for reading? To be fair, I haven’t rushed off to the YA section of my library in search of Dog Man either. 

My book club meets today. The book under discussion involves a different culture and contains many culturally specific words. The author made no attempt to explain these terms to the reader, leaving us with the choice of putting the book down while we hunted up a dictionary, or skipping the unknown word and carrying on with the story. The approach did not resonate with me. I would have preferred that the author make some attempt to describe a piece of clothing rather than merely assign a foreign word and put the reader to the trouble of researching the vocabulary. Again, I must review my own writing for references that may be meaningless to some readers.

It seems authors must always be prepared for new challenges. And we must seek the balance between assuming our readers share our background and education and treating them like preschoolers who must have every word explained.

What do you think? Do you want plentiful explanation in  your fiction reading or do you just want to get on with the story?

 

Views: 90

History Matters

Canadians landing at June Beach June 6 1944

June 6, 2024 will mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Already, around the world countries, armed forces, and ordinary citizens are preparing to commemorate this historical milestone. We are talking about our history.

Earlier this week, Americans marked Memorial Day with tributes to men and women who fell while serving in the armed forces. They are talking about history.

“. . . the most important thing I learned from Dr. Sloan and Ancient History 101 was that there is more to history than facts, more to truth than reality. . . . once upon a time, I thought that history was carved in stone.” Diane Schoemperlen in Our Lady of the Lost and Found. 

The above quote was an eye-opener for me. I, too, am of the generation who believed that history was carved in stone. Events happened. Facts are facts. If the textbook records it, it must be true. So, it is not surprising that the revisionism of our modern age disturbs me. But if there is more to history than facts, it is equally true that we must consider the facts when studying history.

As a lover of history I have been unsettled by the “cancel culture” rampant in my world. Men and women I considered heroes are being villified as racists. Accomplishments of past generations are rewritten as disasters. Values, once honoured, are mocked as Imperialist propoganda. 

As a writer of historical fiction, my dilemma grows. Do I portray the past by the standards of the time or through the lens of modern sensibilities?

Do I throw up my hands in despair and retire from public discussion altogether? Given the amount of venom spewed on social media, that last option seems wise. 

But, did men die on the beaches on D-Day in order for me to play the coward? Is their heroism to be crushed into the sands of time and forgotten?  To bury my head in the sand while the voices of tyrants and aggressors grow louder, is unconscionable.  As one who has benefited from the vision and courage and sacrifice of previous generations, I am honour-bound to “remember them.”

Sir John A. MacDonald, the founding father of Canada, is one historical figure who has been recast as a villain, given his record on residential schools. But that reading of his character disregards the time he lived in, the society he was born into, and the many other facets of his characters. This article has its own bias, but is at least a scholarly approach to the man and his times. 

A recent essay at Writer Unboxed also touched on our understanding of history and our response to war. What lifted my spirits on reading this article was the author’s desire to commemorate hope.

Finally, a story in my local newspaper, the Times-Colonist filled me with optimism. It is the story of a piano teacher who has assigned her students to write musical compositions in memory of a fallen soldier from World War II. The program, called “Music for Veterans Project,” connects students and veterans in a unique way. The young musicians are given a package with information about a fallen soldier. They are told to research the life of the solider, find his family if possible, learn about his likes and dislikes. What was his favourite food? Did he play in instrument?

Armed with this detailed knowledge, the young musician composes a piano piece in honour of the man who died. They then play their composition at a Veteran’s Lodge.

Through the life of someone who may not have lived beyond his twenty-first birthday, old soldiers and young students are brought together in a very meaningful way. I still believe that those who do not remember their history are doomed to repeat it. So, knowing that these dedicated piano students are remembering and connecting with the past gives me hope.

I am of a generation who has only known peace, but I have studied history. The parallels between today and the 1930’s is frightening. I pray to God that enough of us will remember history and work to avert the forces of hatred and greed, that we will subdue the desire for power, and recognize the “other” as a fellow human being. 

History has shown us the disaster that will follow if we fail.

Views: 30

Jane and the Brand

 

This week my book club meets and we are each bringing a different book by Jane Austen. I chose The Watson’s, which was an unfinished fragment left by Miss Austen when she died. Various members of her family tried to complete the ms using Jane’s notes and her sister’s (Cassandra) recollections. Each of these writers used the original manuscript and then tagged on an ending of his/her own, trying to imitate Jane Austen. The version I read is one completed by John Coates — no relation of the Austen’s — that is a rewrite of the whole book, including the part that Miss Austen left unfinished.

It must have taken considerable confidence to re-write the famous author’s original words, but Coates argues that she left only a rough draft and would have edited it herself if she had ever finished it for publication. The result is seamless. I cannot tell what is original to Austen and what was added by John Coates.

This book was a very enjoyable read, but I felt it hadn’t the depth of Austen’s finished works and lacked the humour and gentle mocking of “society” so wonderfully achieved in the major novels. Still, reading what is essentially a rough draft makes it easier to recognize the main characteristics of a Jane Austen novel.

To use modern terminology, the book follows the Austen “brand.” We have a gaggle of sisters, an ailing father, a great need for husbands, faithless suitors, a worthy but awkward hero, a country ball, gossip, and the many restrictions placed upon young ladies of this age. (If reading about the powerlessness of women of that era, whether rich or poor, doesn’t get your women’s lib passion frothing, you’re missing the point!)

Over the years I’ve read many articles and attended many lectures on “branding.” Often the emphasis is on visual similarity like covers and websites being instantly recognizable as belonging to a particular author. Since Jane Austen’s books were first published, they have gone through many editions and different publishers, so the “look-alike” covers don’t apply. But, I think, her story elements are just as reconizable as production elements like cover-art and author name. 

The branding lectures often focus so much on the art, the colours, the fonts, and the back blurb that they overlook what is between the covers. But, when it comes down to it, don’t readers come back to their favourite authors because of the story, the style, the voice, and the reliability of the writer to spin a tale that resonates and satisfies.

Spending my last week in Jane Austen world, I’ve wondered far from the Canadian frontier, and gold prospectors, and building a new country, but it has been fun to take a ” walk on the tame side,” just for a change.

What about you? Are you a confirmed “Janeite?” Do you have a favourite Jane Austen novel? A favourite character? Or are you firmly in the modern world and have no time for picnics and balls and changing your clothes five times a day?

 

Views: 42

« Older posts

© 2025 Alice Valdal

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑