January 9, 2022

Full disclosure: I don’t like beer. I really don’t care for beer unless it’s very light, and very cold, preferably with a slice of lime. When I was a child, I avoided walking past German-style restaurants where beer was sold because the fumes coming through the door made me nauseous. However, I love reading about…

December 9, 2021

Introduction Do you love maps? I can stare at maps for hours on end. I like to imagine journeys through vast realms. Tracing routes with my fingers, I travel on river boats, climb mountain passes, trek across endless deserts, or sail along rocky shorelines. Maps show us how we are all linked by webs stretching…

November 19, 2021

Christa von Hassell December 21, 1923 – August 15, 2009 Christa von Hassell was born in 1923 in the house of her maternal grandfather in Muttrin, Pomerania, near the Baltic Sea to Erika von Studnitz, née von Zitzewitz, and Lieutenant General Bogislav August Wilhelm von Studnitz. Christa grew up close to several military bases, moving…

October 2, 2021

Over the last year, my face covered by a mask, clutching a bottle of sanitizer in my pocket, and my eyes obsessively scanning my environment to make sure I observed the required distance of two shopping carts between me and others, I sometimes remembered the amber bear of Slupsk and took comfort in that funny,…

May 24, 2021

Check out this great sale of books for kids and teens! There is something for everyone on your list–read-aloud picture books, fun books, inspirational books, historical fiction, and fantasy, even entire series for your teen to get lost in. https://books.bookfunnel.com/mgyabooksforsale/ku8gjpainl      

May 18, 2021

The time-slip historical fiction book The Amber Crane about Peter, a 17th century amber guild apprentice, was inspired by three central themes. Since my childhood I have loved amber, a gemstone full of mystery and power. Amber is inextricably linked to the history of Pomerania, having occupied center stage in trade and politics over centuries….

May 4, 2021

Introduction In the course of my research for my historical fiction book Alina: A Song for the Telling, I happened upon the poetry of Yehuda Halevi, a poet from the 11th century, and felt as if I had come upon a pot of gold. Halevi was a Renaissance man of his time—a renowned philosopher and…

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