Dear readers and fans,
Thank you for your support. Keep reading, and be sure to enjoy the details and small joys of life, even in these difficult times. Call your friends and family, cook a nice meal, take a walk in nature, listen to classical music, laugh so you don't cry, be creative, meditate and breathe, dance your dance, and do anything else that makes you happy and is good for body and soul.
It was nearly midnight and Henrik was blissfully alone. He was on summer break at the family cabin, which provided the perfect setting for him to pursue his research in peace. The cabin was located on a peninsula between the fjord and a small bay. The fjord was wide enough so that the houses on the other landmass were not visible. During heavy storms, the far shore would disappear completely. The bay itself was surrounded by mountains on all sides. The peaks of the mountains were a blend of blue-gray depending on the cloud cover, and even appeared purple in stormy weather. Below a certain altitude, they were shrouded in green scrub that gave way to a thick skirt of forest, which extended nearly to the waterline. The forest also had its moods. On warm summer days, the trees were light green and distinguishable one from the next. During a storm, they huddled into an opaque dark green or black mass for protection. In the north, the weather changed like a man’s mood might change with his fortune; its arrival could mean the death of a fisherman out in the fjord, or the difference between a pleasant hike in the highlands, and a hastily built fire in the shelter of a cliff.
Esperanza, a small coastal town in Mexico known for its natural beauty, community spirit and quality of life, is about to have its local ecology of fishing and tourism disrupted by a group of outsiders. As Esperanza’s pro-development mayor, and Natura, a major international environmental NGO, work to shape the town’s future, a bilateral war on drugs has provoked a turf war between rival drug cartels that threatens to consume Mexico. Can Esperanza preserve its traditional values, natural resources and local economy, or will it be destroyed by the corruption, greed and violence of a global marketplace where everything is for sale?
A linocut starts with a drawing, which is then traced and transferred to the linoleum block using carbon paper. It is important to plan an image that is not too detailed and which has a good balance of positive and negative space. Once the image has been transferred to the block (note that it will print the opposite of how it was drawn), the linocutting process begins . . .