Fresh Fiction, Tote bags and records

The Viking's Captive Princess is featured in the Fresh Fiction Candy's Inside Books column. Candy kindly included a little anecdote about iolite or the Viking's sun compass.

I am at Tote Bags today discussing climate change and writing. Basically some of the things HMB and I have done/are doing to help conserve the world's finite resources. I have been so impressed with the way HMB has used technology to become a paperless office as much as possible. The blog was inspired by a Tote Bags reader who sells solar panel chargers for things like ipods, mobile phones etc. I am a big fan of solar power as it does seem less intrusive than wind power and had not realised that these things exist. Anyway, it sounds intriguing.

And yes, we do get sun in Northumberland -- although not very much of it at this time of year.

Speaking of climate change, tomorrow 5 Dec is the BBC's Tree Oclock world record attempt at tree planting. You can get involved either by planting a tree or asking some organisation like The Woodland Trust to plant one for you.

And finally speaking of records, a friend of mine, Jeremy Green just set a new national record at the bare bow. Jem has been doing archery for 2 1/2 years and when I used to take him to school who wax lyrical about archery. Well done Jem!

Emerging Ice Giants

Yesterday the Telegraph had a wonderful picture from BARCROFT MEDIA showing what appears to be a woman's face emerging from a glacier. To the photographer it represents Mother Nature's tears, but I saw it and immediately thought of ice giants from the Norse sagas. I seem to recall one story where certain nasty ice giants were imprisoned in ice to keep mankind and the gods safe. So one has to wonder if the original story teller had been inspired by something like this.

So why is she crying? And what are the consequences when she is finally released?

One of the things that does fascinate me is where did the saga writers get their stories and what inspired them.