Are you counting down the days till Christmas? Advent calendars are a fun way to celebrate the season AND to do the count. There are countless kinds of advent calendars. The easiest ones to have are the boughten ones with chocolates, truffles, perfumes, cheeses, or even alcoholic beverages. The ones that are truly personal are […]
Across the Fence
In the Book Nook with … Katherine Cobb
Author Katherine Cobb from south central Virginia splits her time between being an author and her boutique marketing communications agency. She wrote short stories, beginning in junior high. She started writing professionally in 2002 when she landed an editorial column which she wrote for 15 years, earning her a Best Lifestyle Columnist award from the […]
Across the Fence: Gemütlichkeit
Who doesn’t know the Germanism Gemütlichkeit in the English language?! Gemüt (approximately pronounced ga-‘moot) has a bunch of meanings: mind, soul, disposition, feeling. You might recognize that the English term mood is related. Gemütlichkeit (approximately pronounced ga-‘mootlih-kite) means coziness, snugness, homeliness. The concept of Gemütlichkeit seems to have developed during the German era of Biedermeier […]
Across the Fence: Sprachgefühl
We all know the power of gifts as well as of weapons. But let’s ponder that of words. Because there are so many nuances to what has to be ascribed to something Germans call Sprachgefühl (approximately pronounced ‘spruh-ga-fool), the feeling for language. This term has actually made it into the English language because it describes […]
Across the Fence: Stolperstein
They are square (ten by ten centimeters) and made from a brass plate fused with a concrete block underneath. They have been all over Europe since 1997. Usually, they are engraved with the name and birthdate of a person. And with a date that tells passers-by about their fate. They are not random persons; their […]
Author Susanne Bacon Sends Military Spouse Sleuth to France
Have you met Emma Wilde, née Schwarz already? Emma is a German journalist who works for a small daily paper in a fictional suburb of the Southern German city of Stuttgart. Though she is supposed to work on cultural and social topics only, she happens to stumble across incidents that involve criminal activity. Emma’s curiosity […]
Across the Fence: Weltpolitik
What a term! Weltpolitik … I have to be honest – until this day, as I’m writing this article, I have only known this word in its modern usage, not in its original one. I didn’t even know that it was another Germanism in the English language. I was taught history in school from grade […]
Did You Have a Clue?
Ten signed copies of the Wycliff novel “Haunted Homes” hidden in ten different places all over Steilacoom – a Halloween Book Hunt was on from October 27 through Halloween. I had given you ten clues as to where they might be found, and some of you might have wondered. So, here is the solution: 1. […]
In the Book Nook with … Blye Donovan
Author Blye Donovan is a full-time writer and lives in coastal South Carolina with her husband and their dog. She has been writing since she was a child, but didn’t pursue it as a career until the pandemic shut the world down. She started writing children’s books thinking that would be easier—it was not! Then […]