Christoffer Petersen

Plain Clothes Problems – revamped!

February 1, 2022 by Christoffer Petersen Leave a Comment

I’ve been playing around with covers, delivery systems, stores, and a whole host of things.

But, without getting too deep into the weeds, here’s your chance to grab a new copy of Petra and Atii’s antics in Nuuk. Plain Clothes Problems is a fun short story available to download free via the different links on the story page.

If you think it sounds familiar, you’re right. Plain Clothes Problems was originally posted directly onto this website. The new version has been compiled as an eBook.

I hope you enjoy this silly story.

Chris

Don’t mention the challenge!

January 31, 2022 by Christoffer Petersen 4 Comments

I thought about calling this post “back to school” because that’s where I am and what I’ve done.

A short-term teaching job came up with a Danish boarding school just before Christmas and I applied for it. Don’t think British boarding school – that’s a whole other thing! Danish efterskole is a tradition deeply embedded in the Danish culture, and best describes a school with a focus on personal and social development, mutual respect, and the opportunity to experience and study additional non-traditional subjects, and to be a part of a community. I started last Monday. It’s a great school, a good job, good colleagues, and fabulous teenagers, but my writing challenge of a million words has taken a big hit.

Naturally.

I hadn’t anticipated returning to a so-called normal job, but then neither had I – or anyone else I know – anticipated the sudden hike in fuel, energy, and food prices. In other words: I got blindsided by inflation! Writing is not the easiest way to make a living, and Jane and I are often living on the edge, as it were. So this is a short-term gig until the end of June during which time I hope to top up the tanks.

Yes, I’m still writing.

Yes, more books are on the way.

But the challenge is going to take a little longer. However, I have decided to do what I said I wouldn’t do, and add the blog posts to the challenge word count. Late last year, I set myself a quiet challenge of blogging every day – you might have noticed. 😉 I started on November 1st, thinking that if I could could blog for a month then I could blog for a year. Of course, some of the stories I’m posting to the blog have been written before 2022, so there’s some serious cheating going on! But if I bend the rules a little, and distinguish the two lots of word counts between blogging and fiction (new this year) then it’s all good.

And fun! 😉

Of course, if I included emails in this challenge – well, I’d been done by now! That’s for you Mr Drinkwater!

Chris

P.S.

The photo is from January 31st in Qaanaaq, Greenland: our house with Herbert Island in the background.

Challenge word count to date:

Fiction = 14,502
Blog = 9,347

Total = 23,869

Yep, got a long way to go! 🙂

The Boreal Tattoo

January 30, 2022 by Christoffer Petersen 2 Comments

This was never meant to happen. What began as a short story has developed some … perhaps a lot. It’s still novella length, but while Petra (no spoilers) is convalescing in her hospital bed in Nuuk, she gets a new assignment.

She’s meant to be in Australia!

Which means The Crocodile Beat has been pushed to number 14* in the Greenland Missing Persons series. Yep, like that’s never happened before! Sigh.

So, The Boreal Tattoo – publishing soon – will be the 13th in the series.

The Orchard – a poem

January 29, 2022 by Christoffer Petersen Leave a Comment

The Orchard

I binged the news and
Ran out of things to write,
So I escaped to the garden.

The mouse beneath the planks,
Salvaged from the playhouse, scampered
Under the pile of dressed granite rocks,

While I stacked the wood,
Putting the good pieces to one side
For raised beds and bird boxes.

I thought about boxes for bats,
Remembering the little fellow who
Clung to the wall, low, between the tulips,

But bats are a no-go
In these pandemic times,
Another species in human crosshairs.

I took my dead mother-in-law’s garden
Chair, placed it by the iron tracks,
Looking back at the future orchard.

Every bush needs berries, every
Tree will need fruit as
Nothing must grow to waste.

I’ll start small – remove the fence and
Plant the trees – apples and pears,
In the shade of the big cherry.

If I trim the branches, keep them
Low, then we’ll both be able to pick the fruit –
My wife and I, bent beneath future rays of sun.

Prepping for the Organic Apocalypse!

January 28, 2022 by Christoffer Petersen 2 Comments

We’re getting there!

I’ve teased this, and here’s a slightly more official teaser with a link. 😉

I’ve teamed up with fellow indie author Karl Drinkwater to make premade covers for other indie authors and publishers. Organic Apocalypse is still in the fledgling stage as we feverishly create and upload covers. Actually, there’s nothing feverish about it. It’s so much fun! And then the rendering… well, that’s coverspeak for “put the kettle on, this is going to take some time.”

The design process is fun. It’s all in the head. Getting it out of my head and onto the screen is interesting. Sometimes frustrating. However, with audiobooks or Led Zeppelin in the background, it just works.

The text and fonts can be tweaked, but the covers are very much WYSIWYG. (Took me ages to figure out that one: what you see is what you get.)

So yeah, this side hustle is simply awful. Zero fun. 🙂

It will take time to build up a portfolio, but there are plenty more covers on the way.

Chris

The dogs arrive!

January 26, 2022 by Christoffer Petersen 5 Comments

Also in January 2007, against my better judgment we agreed to look after a hunter’s dogs for the winter, and to give them back when he came to pick them up in the summer.

He never came back.

And that was the beginning of a whole new series of adventures!

From left to right: Piska, Trip, Nansen, and Ninja – so named for what turned out to be obvious reasons! Four of the seven ‘big’ Greenland dogs we inherited. This photo is of the ‘dog yard’, which translates as: the rocks above our house. I spent an awful lot of time here!

The photo of Jane with the rakish tilt of the hat, is after an enthusiastic welcome from the dogs!

Chris