My Debut Poetry Collection, Available Now (-ish)!

Posted 12 July, 2017 by Lianne in Writing / 7 Comments

I feel like this post is a long time coming, lol. Anyway, I’ve been talking about it for months over at my Bookish and Not-So-Bookish posts that I’ve been working to self-publish some of my poetry. Well, it’s finally here.

Shall I Be a Poet Instead? is my debut poetry collection. I think I mentioned it here that I started writing poetry again last year, this time on a more regular basis, and this is the culmination of that. Back in January I started sorting through my poetry (actually sorting into two chapbooks; I meant to release the second one later this year but that got pushed back as I need to reshuffle/add/remove poems into the current line-up) and went through a few rounds of editing and moving around, trying to get a feel of the book. Not to mention endlessly reading up on copyright rules regarding font (ended up using a font that’s generally available on all word processors to avoid any kefuffle, as well as my own handwriting for the titles 😛 ) and other fine print.

By the time I left for my trip I had a good feeling about the line-up but didn’t get down to the nitty-gritty of the details to upload to Lulu until I got back. Then, as I mentioned in a post before, there was the details about getting an ISBN with the Canadian government before I finally uploaded my baby to Lulu for proofing. The proofing came back and I was pretty happy with it (a bit bigger than I had expected, dimensions-wise, but I can live with that, lol). Just the fact that it’s in my hands was quite something, really. Took me a bit more time between the time that I got the proof to posting about it because of some details about the approval; I’ve sent it to be included in the search over at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc., but it won’t be showing up over there for up to 6-8 weeks (boo).

But! In the meantime you can purchase it directly from Lulu.com: Shall I Be a Poet Instead? 🙂 My understanding is that it does ship worldwide but do let me know if it doesn’t. I admit, I’m not quite so organised just yet, I haven’t ordered a crate of copies myself to distribute or whatnot but I hope to do so shortly. But expect a little more activity on my end in the coming days and weeks as I get up to speed on that end and get the word out! I just wanted to share with you all in the meantime what I’ve been up to all this time :3

I’ll be posting more of my poetry over at my Instagram as well but there’s a bit of a preview of what’s inside 😉

Travel: My Time in Denmark (Days 1 & 2)

Posted 21 July, 2017 by Lianne in Travel / 0 Comments

At long last I am making my travel posts! Oh yes, that’s right, for about the next two weeks I am going to be posting, day by day, photos from my trip back in April and May to Iceland and Denmark 😀

So here we are, at the second leg of my trip, which was spent in Denmark. This post contains photos from my first two days spent wandering around Copenhagen 🙂 I think what startled me when I first arrived was just the amount of people, haha. After spending how many days in Iceland where there weren’t that many people and being out in nature, it took some readjusting being back in a city filled with people xD But despite Copenhagen having all the trappings of a cosmopolitan city, there’s a relaxed atmosphere to it, so despite having this itinerary I made myself on how I wanted to spend my time in Denmark, it still felt pretty relaxed, I didn’t feel at all rushed like “OMG I need to see everythig” which is good.

Anyhow, on to Copenhagen! As before, you can click on the images to enlarge and read the caption:

Travel: My Time in Iceland (Day 4)

Posted 20 July, 2017 by Lianne in Travel / 0 Comments

At long last I am making my travel posts! Oh yes, that’s right, for about the next two weeks I am going to be posting, day by day, photos from my trip back in April and May to Iceland and Denmark 😀

Day four in Iceland and at last I embark on my day tour to the Golden Circle 😛 It’s a popular area in Iceland, showcasing the best and highlights of the land. I got rather comfortable the previous two days as the tour bus wasn’t packed, there was room to plop my day bag beside me and stretch a bit but here we were packed to the brim and I didn’t get a window seat so it was hard to take photos whilst we were on the road. But that’s okay…Oh, and the weather was finally clearing on this day, hurrah!

We started the day visiting an organic farm, which was pretty cool. Had arguably the best tomato soup I had ever tasted…and that homemade bread was just yum…I’m getting kinda dreamy just recalling that nice little meal *hearts* But anywho what was interesting about this particular day tour as well was how different the region was…it was interesting, the three day tours I took around Iceland, every area was different, shaped and developed differently. The Golden Circle was certainly greener and more lush compared to the isolation of South Iceland or the ruggedness of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. It was very interesting.

You can click on the images to enlarge and read the caption:

Travel: My Time in Iceland (Day 3)

Posted 19 July, 2017 by Lianne in Travel / 0 Comments

At long last I am making my travel posts! Oh yes, that’s right, for about the next two weeks I am going to be posting, day by day, photos from my trip back in April and May to Iceland and Denmark 😀

Day three of my time in Iceland, and today’s day trip took me to South Iceland. Unfortunately not as many photos as yesterday in the following post as the weather was dismal from start to end; it rained almost nonstop this day which had be greatly concerned for my camera as it didn’t have those waterproof covers or wahtever so like me it really was tested amidst the elements. Actually it was quite a test for me too as I’m not terribly outdoors-y and I’m like a cat, I only like the rain when I’m inside listening to it come down, so yeah, that was quite an experience. I came back not sure whether I knew what it was like to be warm and dry again, haha, but it’s something to talk about.

You can click on the images to enlarge and read the caption:

Okay, no photos taken between the time we left untl we hit Reynifjara Beach, it was just too foggy and rainy and you couldn’t see much out of the window. Which was unfortunate as we passed by places like where Eyjafjallajökull stands, the volcano that erupted in 2010. It was informative to hear our tour guide talk about it and the effects that the eruption had in the region with the ground and the livelihoods of the people living in the region. It was also cool to pass between the North American and European plates xP

Travel: My Time in Iceland (Day 2)

Posted 18 July, 2017 by Lianne in Travel / 0 Comments

At long last I am making my travel posts! Oh yes, that’s right, for about the next two weeks I am going to be posting, day by day, photos from my trip back in April and May to Iceland and Denmark 😀

Here we go, the first of three day trips I took whilst in Iceland. I had booked the following excursions with Reykjavik Excursions, which was not only easy, but their services were great: everything they said on the website that we’d visit we more or less did, the buses were nice (with free wi-fi, hence I was able to post some of my photos on Instagram as we were going along), and the tour guides were very knowledgeable and friendly.

Anyhow my first day trip was to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, northwest of Reykjavik. It was also the longest of the three day trips I took so I figured I’d do that first, just jump in. The weather was variable–it rained for a bit that day–but thankfully it cleared later in the day, as my photos show. Which was great too as I clocked quite a number of photos this day xD And again, we saw a lot, lol.

You can click on the images to enlarge and read the caption:

Travel: My Time in Iceland (Day 1)

Posted 17 July, 2017 by Lianne in Travel / 0 Comments

At long last I am making my travel posts! Oh yes, that’s right, for about the next two weeks I am going to be posting, day by day, photos from my trip back in April and May to Iceland and Denmark 😀

This was a trip long in the making. I had been dreaming for years of taking this trip–so long that in fact, when a coworker asked me “Why Denmark?” I couldn’t really answer because I’ve been wanting to go for so long that I’ve forgotten why it was so high up my bucket list. I had been aiming for around April to go–even earlier, in fact, but plans kept changing and falling apart that in the end I booked for the end of April and into early May. I went solo, which apparently surprises people when they ask me who I went with; maybe because I look so young, maybe because I’m tiny (and possibly both, judging by a conversation I had with another coworker of mine when I got back). But it’s not the first time I’ve travelled solo, and suffice to say I had a good time with the change of pace.

Anyhow if you follow me on my main Instagram I did try to chronicle a bit of what I did each day from the time I left to the airport (a grey day) right up to my return (night time drama). Here I will elaborate a bit, and the following photos I took are a mix of photos taken on my camera as well as on my iPhone 🙂 Mind you, the photos that I post here are select, but I tried xD

So, my flight left at 9pm and I arrived in Reykjavik at 6:20am (pretty prompt, I should say). Yeah, sure, I had about 4 hours of sleep going for me but I made my way around Reykjavik anyway 🙂 Whilst the photos for from this day featured here are a bit on the low side, partly because I was still sleepy, I really enjoyed my day walking around Reykjavik because unlike other cities, it’s pretty relaxed. Yeah, sure, the low population compared to, say, my own city, does contribute, but I liked it, I didn’t feel rushed to see everything or do everything. Sure, the weather was a bit dismal overall during my time in Iceland but I knew I was in for a proper R&R vacation wandering around Reykjavik 🙂

You can click on the images to enlarge and read the caption: