Author: Lene Fogelberg

(Beginnings)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on January 12, 2017. Posted in Blog. 10 Comments on (Beginnings)

Hello friends! A new year has begun, and I was excited to celebrate its first days in Sydney, Australia, which has been a place I’ve dreamed of visiting for a long time. I took the pictures at Bondi Beach, which was even more amazing in real life; even more golden and actually less crowded than I had anticipated.

This is the street above the beach, with that lovely “beachy” vibe:

It was the perfect holiday! We, my husband and I, watched the fireworks from our hotel room overlooking Darling harbour, walked along the ocean, took the ferry to the famous Opera house, and bought more than one boomerang, a Crocodile Dundee hat, and even two Aboriginal paintings.

Here’s the mandatory photo of the Opera house, taken from the ferry:

If you want more pictures from our adventure in Australia, there’s a bunch over at my Instagram account, link can be found on the main menu.

Now we are back home in Kuala Lumpur, our girls are back from Sweden and school has started, and the cold I contracted on New Year’s Eve is finally gone. Time to get busy again! I have a couple of deadlines, and the last round of edits for my novel to look into, and then I am eager to start a new project! I have a few ideas that I am planning to outline to see where they take me. Exciting!

Oh, and did you see the German cover of Beautiful Affliction? It’s got a new title and new cover image, if you’re curious you can check the “BOOK” page or the “NEWS” page on this site. I like it, even though it’s very different from the original.

I am hoping that you all have had a great start to the new year, and wishing you lots of love, health and happiness.

Hugs,

Lene

(One Year)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on September 15, 2016. Posted in Blog. 16 Comments on (One Year)

One year ago today was pub day for Beautiful Affliction! So much has happened this past year, more than I dared dream of, and I am just so grateful. Grateful to my publishers; the whole team at SheWrites Press, my team of agents and especially David, my readers, bloggers, friends, and family; everyone who has supported me on this journey of publishing my debut book! Thank you!

Even before pub day, September 15, 2015, I was overwhelmed by the endorsements given by authors that I admire, and then on pub day, my book got a review in BookPage, which left me speechless and tearfully grateful. Some ten weeks later I was contacted by David, who would become my literary agent at Abrams Artists Agency, and one week after that, Beautiful Affliction climbed to #3 on The Wall Street Journal Bestseller list. I had told myself early on during this process that I would try not to expect too much, but rather learn as much as possible, and by this time, around Christmas, I just wide-eyed soaked it all in, while we relocated from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, with a stop in Sweden on the way.

Now Beautiful Affliction has been sold to a German publisher, and it has won awards, even National Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2016, and just yesterday my article was featured in the The Huffington Post, something I could never have imagined a year ago.

Sometimes I still feel like the Swedish girl living in Asia who has no clue how to publish a book, but then I remind myself how far we have come, my book and I, and how much we have learned (and I’m still the Swedish girl living in Asia! 🙂 ). Before Beautiful Affliction was published I came across a quote by Wayne Dyer: “The future is promised to no one, so go for it!” and it really helped me realize that success is not only promised to already famous and successful authors, but anything might happen, and it is always worthwhile to work hard for a goal one is passionate about.

These days I am working on editing my next novel, and I love it! This is my favorite part of the writing process, but also very time consuming. I easily get lost in details, so I have to push myself to move forward instead of rewriting the same words over and over (and over) again. I really do love writing, and I am grateful that I get to spend my time doing what I love.

Thanks for stopping by and celebrating my book baby’s first birthday with me!

With Love,

Lene

(Yay!)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on July 25, 2016. Posted in Blog. 7 Comments on (Yay!)

It’s been more than a week since we returned from Sweden to Kuala Lumpur, but I am still a bit jet lagged. Very happy though, that we got the chance to go back home and meet family and friends and enjoy Swedish nature and Swedish food. If you follow me on Instagram, you have been able to see some of the scenery I have enjoyed, and even a few sneak peeks of my small hometown Kungsbacka, where a couple of scenes in Beautiful Affliction take place. It was wonderful meeting my parents again, who I haven’t seen, only spoken to, since the book came out. Yay! We got the opportunity to sit down and share thoughts and feelings and I once again marvelled at their tremendous support through this entire journey of telling my story.

Another highlight in Sweden was that Independent Publisher Book Awards sent the award package to Sweden, so I got my gold medal, certificate, and gold seals to put on copies of Beautiful Affliction! Yay! I just had to take a picture to show you; it’s getting pretty crowded on the cover these days. 🙂

Also, my writer buddy from California was in Sweden with her family, and they were able to come visit me! Yay! We talked and talked like old pals, and it didn’t seem at all like it was the first time we met in real life!

It was wonderful meeting new friends as well as old friends, and one special occasion I must mention was meeting my little niece for the first time! I have eight nieces that I always enjoy catching up with tremendously, but this little lady and her parents live quite far away (well, we live even further away, so I have no right to complain). This time my brother and his wife were able to make the journey to visit us, and I got to hug my youngest little niece for the first time! She said my name and hugged me back! Yay!

We also got to celebrate the first birthday of my husband’s little nephew, we have nine cousins to the girls on his side, and as always it’s wonderful to catch up with everyone while we enjoy my parents-in-law’s delicious cooking. Yay!

Apart from all the partying, we also sorted through our house that we are renting out to new tenants, since the ones we had are moving, and my husband had a work conference for a full week, and we also got to go for walks and enjoy Swedish nature: the lakes and the forest as well as the ocean. Yay! I had been hoping we would find time for that.

Well, this is what’s been going on over at my end, hope you’re having a beautiful summer as well, and take care friends!

With love,

Lene

PS. Did you see that I did an interview for Soul Sciences? It was wonderful talking to Charlene Jones about Beautiful Affliction and the writing process, and you are very welcome to listen in! I try to post news as they come in on my Facebook Author Page, so be sure to follow not to miss anything! I also post news on this website, on the “News” page.

(Poetry)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on June 18, 2016. Posted in Blog. 8 Comments on (Poetry)

For a long time I hesitated calling myself a poet (and I still do, to be honest). Poetry seemed like something elevated and refined that was difficult to grasp, and at the same time something that suggested that I walk around with my head in the clouds (which might be true…) Also, at times, it seems to me like there is no place for poetry in a world where tragic events follow each other week after week, and lately I have felt the words of Tennessee Williams resonate with me stronger than usual:

“The world is violent and mercurial—it will have its way with you. We are saved only by love—love for each other and the love that we pour into the art we feel compelled to share: being a parent, being a writer, being a painter, being a friend. We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.”

And there we have it. Sharing our art and our poetry, when we pour our love into it, is in and of itself a fight against chaos, silence, violence, cruelty, greed, hatred.

Words poured from love, line upon line, are by their very definition order, meaning, nurturing, good, generous, love.

This past year since my debut book has been published I have found my way back to writing poetry, which I did in abundance in my youth and young adult years. Somehow I lost it when my hidden heart disease progressed and I was dying without knowing why. It was like the words deserted me in many ways, but now it is such a joy to find my way back to them. I have always enjoyed reading poetry, and as readers of my book Beautiful Affliction know, poetry often helped me feel less alone, like I could borrow the words and make them mine, when my own words failed me.

Words have such power over us. It is a tremendous difference, in my experience, between having a word and not having a word for something. It was not until I was given the diagnosis of congenital heart disease, three powerful words, that my fatigue, shortness of breath and dizzy spells made sense. It was not until the words came that I could receive treatment. The words earlier assigned to me certainly didn’t help: sensitive, lazy, hypochondriac.

Many things in life are not easily contained in words, not only mysterious medical conditions, and I believe that is why I love poetry. For me, there has always been a need to find words for things that hide outside the boundaries of language, in the land where all art forms reside, and where artists and poets wander wide-eyed, collecting what they can, to pour into the art they feel compelled to share: words and paintings and friendships …

With love,

Lene

PS. If you want to check out a few of my poems you are welcome to visit my poetry page on this website. (Lately I have been experimenting with what I call a “mirror technique” where the poem’s stanzas mirror each other, but with a twist… Three of the poems explore this technique.)

(Editing…)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on May 5, 2016. Posted in Blog. 14 Comments on (Editing…)

Hello friends! I meant to tell you that I am completely immersed in editing my new novel, because that was the plan, but my goodness, so much stuff is coming in the way! And not in a bad making-me-frustrated-way, but in wonderful ways that just make me shake my head in disbelief that all this is happening to me. Like the other day, when I suddenly spent the day being interviewed by a major US national publication, or the day before, when I was interviewed by Canadian radio… I will post links when they are up, on Facebook and also on the “news” page on this website, where I try to post news that I am aware of. I know I can’t gather everything there, but I try as far as I hear about them, so that news about Beautiful Affliction can be easily accessed in case you want to check them out.

And oh, I haven’t forgotten that we spoke about a home tour of our new apartment! So if you are curious to see our home, you can just head over to Instagram (I am “lenefogelberg” on Instagram, there’s a link in the main menu above), where I am currently posting pictures of our home, or you can check out the “about” page on this website, where the latest pics from Instagram are featured. We are getting more and more settled here in Kuala Lumpur, and it’s nice to have the routines up and running again with school and work… But in only four weeks the summer holidays will start, I think I’ll need to really get serious about editing!

I’m sorry for not blogging as frequently as I used to, but these coming weeks I’ll need to focus on editing… It is actually a part of writing that I really love. The first draft is all there, and I can focus on clarifying and enriching the text, as well as occasionally dive deeply into research.

And also, thank you everyone who congratulated me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, after Beautiful Affliction received a national gold medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards! I am so grateful for everyone who reaches out to encourage me, it really does means a lot!

Love,

Lene

(Paradise)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on April 4, 2016. Posted in Blog. 8 Comments on (Paradise)

We came back last night from our Spring break adventure on a small island just off the Malaysian coast, named Pangkor Laut. It was magical! We fell asleep to the sounds of the waves, in our huts standing on pillars over the ocean, and we woke up to that same sound enveloping us. We dined like Maharajas, and bathed like Maharajas in the traditional spa where we got soaked and scrubbed and washed and massaged with oil and filled up with ginger tea so strong that it burned in the throat but left the sinuses uncommonly clear.

We went to the beach on the other side of the island, with the inspired name Emerald Bay. The girls buried each other in the sand and went for swims in the green sea and were pinched by crabs and found seashells and a dead fish that they buried properly behind a rock.

Anders and the girls went for a jungle walk across the island and that same morning a family of monkeys played outside our huts with an empty water bottle, chatting and chasing each other like children on a playground. Every morning on our way to breakfast we passed a tree full of sleeping bats hanging like ripe fruits from the branches, and one day black-and-white hornbills with their characteristic orange beaks joined us for watermelons that they brought to their chick back in their nest.

It was also a business trip for my husband’s job, and we made new friends during long Chinese and Malay dinners. One night we met Uncle Lim, the famous Chinese chef who is still working at age eighty plus in the restaurant named after him: Uncle Lim’s Restaurant. The next day we happened to meet him on the island and he offered us sticks of grilled chicken sate from a pink plastic bag that he hugged to his chest.

I wondered more than once how I would ever manage to leave this paradise island! When the time came to climb into the boat that would take us back to the mainland, the only consolation was that we had decided to return again, as soon as possible!

I wish everyone could visit a paradise island once in a while: to leave all worries behind as the beauty and wonders of nature cleanse the soul from stress and anxiety, and just inhale the ocean air and feel the warm breeze caress the skin as the waves whisper their eternal lullaby.

Oh, how I wish that!

♥Lene

PS. Visit my Instagram account for more pictures from our island adventure!

(Home)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on February 26, 2016. Posted in Blog. 16 Comments on (Home)

We are finally starting to feel at home here in Kuala Lumpur. We have found the grocery stores and unpacked all the boxes and even managed to put our Indonesian carved wood artworks on the walls. (The picture is the view from our living room, I just love the green and blue hills surrounding Kuala Lumpur here in the Klang Valley.)

And last week I was able to dive into my manuscript for my next novel! I tweaked it a little bit and worked on some parts that needed a bit more polishing, and I am happy to report that this week I am finally able to say that I have the first draft finished! Yay!

My head is already spinning with new book ideas, and even though it is always a little sad when the work on a book you love nears the end, it is such great fun to think about the next one!

I am looking forward to settle into our life here in Kuala Lumpur so that I can dive into the next book. The one I just finished was a real challenge to write at times, especially since we moved two times, which always takes a lot of work (especially to a new country!), but we also travelled a lot, and I find it difficult to write when we are on the road. It is inspiring for sure to experience new places, but very difficut to actually get some work done. And I think I am the kind of writer who is happiest when I see the story grow every day, totally immersed in the writing.

So now my question is: what to write next? I can’t wait to start outlining possible storylines, and ponder characters and scenes. Truth be told, I have already started, even though it’s not written down yet. So we’ll just see who speaks the loudest in my head coming days and weeks. 🙂

And oh, if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you already now this, (I have not mentioned it here on the blog I believe,) but in January I signed up with Abrams Artists Agency, Literary Division in New York, who now represents me. I was contacted by my literary agent David Doerrer after he found Beautiful Affliction on Amazon, some ten weeks after publication. A week later my book hit #3 on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list and I was contacted by a number of agents, but I felt that Abrams would be the right fit for me. Exciting times!

Thanks for swinging by my blog, and wishing you beautiful days my friends,

Cheers,

Lene

(Letters)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on February 7, 2016. Posted in Blog. 12 Comments on (Letters)

I have received so many letters from readers of Beautiful Affliction, and I am just so very grateful for every reader who writes to me to share their story and experience of reading my book.

I have been deeply touched and shed many tears as I’ve been reading and I would love to share one story with you, telling of the miraculous journey my book made that I never could have imagined, it is just so incredible.

“Dear Lene,

I found your book through an online subscription service that emails reading suggestions. I read the great reviews and downloaded the eBook on Nov 22 2015. The very next day, before I even had a chance to start reading your book, my mother, at 56 years old, was hospitalized in Illinois for a sudden heart problem. After learning that she had a bicuspid aortic valve that had calcified causing stenosis, my family prepared ourselves for the emotional journey ahead of us. She had open heart surgery to insert a new tissue valve on Dec 1 2015. As I sat in the waiting room with my weeping father and tried to hold myself together, I wondered if by chance the author of this new memoir I downloaded had had a similar heart problem. How strange would that be? Impatient, I searched Google for the answer to your riddle but the results came back empty. I would have to read to find out. Of course, I was going to read it anyway, but now I was even more curious. I started to read it as my mother returned from her very successful surgery and we waited until she had the tube removed from her throat and could respond better to us. She was so thirsty, just like you were, that she signed ICE with her finger on her bed though she couldn’t talk or barely open her eyes. It wasn’t until I was back at my home in Kentucky on Dec 9, Mom recovering quickly in her home, that I read about your diagnosis. Lene, I was so shocked and in disbelief at this crazy coincidence that I had to put the book down and walk away. I emailed everyone who knew about my mom before I even finished the chapter. As you described everything — the explanation of the diagnosis, the decision about the tissue vs. metal valve, the fear of such a big, serious surgery, and the worry over genetics — it all resonated so deeply with me that I laid in my bed and wept as I read. I am so grateful to my mother’s surgeon — that “sculptor working in flesh and bone, a poet who touches people’s hearts” — and to the EMTs who took her away from her home by ambulance the night she collapsed and gave her much needed oxygen and convinced her to go to a different hospital than she initially wanted, taking her instead to one of the best cardiac hospitals in the US. I am thankful to you for sharing your story, your bravery at facing this illness every day as you sunk into the darkness, and your tenacity when the doctors in Sweden dismissed your concerns. What a journey you had! Thank you for letting us share it with you. I highlighted many passages in your book, but my favorite one was this: “Sometimes you know that you are destined to die, but somehow you are given a parenthesis after the punctuation mark…” I will share this incredible coincidence with everyone I know, of finding your story the day before my mom’s story almost ended. I hope you read this message and know your story means a lot to many people, even people who don’t know you.

Katie”

Thank you from all my heart to Katie for sharing her story, and to all readers who reach out to me, it really means a lot. All writers have moments when we wonder if it really was such a good idea to publish our book, but when that happens to me I just have to think about the letters I have received and I become all misty eyed again, thinking of the stories I’ve had the honor of taking part in, through my story. This has tremendous value to me, to share our stories and knowing we are not alone. For so many years, when I lived my story, I felt utterly alone. This is one of the reasons I wrote Beautiful Affliction, to hopefully help someone else struggling like I did.

With Love,

Lene