Do you often find yourself between two fires? How does the role of the peacemaker fit you? Are your successful at it? Our friend Mary, the main female character from a fantasy novel with romance ‘Out of the Forest and into the City’ was not able to alleviate the following bickering between her boyfriend’s mother Gertrude and her daughter-in-law Alice: ‘Gertrude really started shouting this time. She hoped she could chase the little devil from the staircase with her deep voice, but Alice wouldn’t give in: “Old women like you belong in a home. Instead we are putting up with you...

Does it ever happen to you that you get yelled at and you know you are not the right reason for yelling? Does it feel like stepping on land mine? It could be called transferred anger. The person is actually not angry at you. The anger to the right person could not be expressed for various reasons. Perhaps the person is already dead, or it is the boss, who is too tricky to be yelled at. Or it even might be a very sensitive person, who starts crying easily, that is why it is better not to yell at him/her. The bottled-up anger gets carried around and when there is a suitable victim to release the anger...

For as long as I can remember I have been trying to help the less fortunate. I helped a classmate in primary school and she finished it. I helped a dyslectic high-school student and he finished high-school. I wrote a book about coping with mental illness Balancing the Beast – A Bright View of Schizoaffective Disorder, mostly because I wanted to inspire other people in a similar situation. Of course there were many cases, in which I could not help the person. I remember a mother who kept hugging her four-year-old son, whenever he had hit his younger brother, who was two. She explained to me that her...

When I am angry, I like to sing rebellious songs, for instance ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra. I find a video on Youtube with lyrics and simply sing along. I dive deeply into the melody, but I am also aware of the words. Which should not come as a surprise, for I am a writer by profession. I feel the lyrics physically in my chest, along with the emotional tunes. Similarly, I listen to sad songs, for example ‘November Rain’ by Guns N’ Roses, when I feel blue. I sing along long enough to come in touch with the pain inside, yet I must be mindful of the moment, when it is time to switch to...

After having heard so many individual stories of couples in numerous personal growth seminars I had taken, one fine day I got the idea to write an inspirational story for couples going through a crisis. And we all go through it. I figured there were enough how-to-books on the market and perhaps I could contribute a simple source of inspiration. Often in a pinch we know exactly what we should do, but we lack the courage to do it. And my fantasy novel for adults or in other words a fantasy novel with romance is about that courage. My first draft of ‘Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf – Book 1’ included...