Here's a Christmas gift for you

It’s been a great week. Here in the northern hemisphere we’re celebrating that we’ve passed the shortest day and, while commiserations go to all you southern hemisphere folk that your days are now getting shorter, I’m very happy ours are drawing out – I get very fed up going to work and then coming home again all in the dark!

But that’s not actually the reason I’m celebrating this week, the fact that my new book is out is why I’m opening bubbly.

As you know, I’m more of a marathon type writer, settling in for the long haul and wrestling novels into shape to be fit for reading consumption so it was quite a surprise to me how much fun I had putting together a collection of flash fiction. So much fun, there will definitely be more!

Here’s the blurb - 

We all have our favourite celebrations filled with the same things every year – for some it’s candy canes and family time at Christmas, for others a suntan and making new friends on holiday, or the spectacle of fireworks on Bonfire Night and for most it’s fun on our birthdays. But sometimes it’s just not . . . Welcome to Celebrations, but not as you know them

It’s available from amazon but, in the spirit of Christmas, I have a gift for you if you go via my website here

http://www.karenguyler.com/#!celebrations-but-not-as-you-know-them/cmcl

and fill in the gift form, you will get a free story, just for you (and it’s a fun one!)   There’s a buy button there too which will take you right back to amazon.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I wish you the best of what you wish yourself over this holiday season and hope that 2014 will exceed your expectations. 

Look up!

In all the research we did for our trek to Everest Base Camp (and my husband did a lot!), one comment on a forum really stood out. The track is very uneven, there is often a sheer drop on one side, we had to scramble up off the track a lot to let yaks or porters pass and, when we were walking on the Kumbu glacier, there were times when we had nowhere else to put our walking poles other than on sheet ice, so we spent a lot of time looking at the ground. The comment on the forum said ‘for goodness sake, spend some time looking up!’

So, each time I lost control of my breathing due to my asthma and had to stop, I looked up and up and up. At the beginning of the trek we could see the mountains above the tree-lined foothills and near the end we were practically looking down on those same peaks. And as we plodded our way up and down from the 2810 metres at which we started to 5364 metres, through what has to be some of the most stunning natural beauty in the world, one thought kept running through my mind - how important it was to enjoy the journey.

And that for me became the most valuable lesson of the whole experience. I’m very goal-driven and I tend to get a bit blinkered when I’m racing for a goal – this year I hardly celebrated my birthday because I was working in every spare second I had to get edits done. The trek taught me that there is beauty and achievement to be marked with each step towards a goal, not just the end result, and I intend to do a lot more of that from now on.

And, what do you know, that’s a great New Year’s resolution, so I’m actually ahead of myself!

Back from being out of the office

It can’t have escaped your notice that here we are in December, what happened to the year? Where did November go? For my regular followers, where did my blog entries go during the last month? I know exactly where, up a mountain! I just got back from trekking to Everest Base Camp and it was the most extreme thing I have ever done, or am likely to do for a while, at least. It was extreme, it was harder than I thought, more dangerous, more stunningly beautiful, more amazing and much more of an emotional journey.

It sounds quite a cliché to say it, but it also really shone a light on who I am as a person. I suffer with asthma, two of the major triggers of which are going uphill and the cold air. So it was a long, hard slog each day for me as my breathing kept going out of control and I had to stop, regroup and start again. Walking alongside and trekking across the Kumbu glacier above 5000 metres was pretty challenging for our whole group as humans shouldn’t really be at that altitude, and it wasn’t kind for my asthma at all. I also have a real fear of heights so going over 6 suspension bridges was hard too – especially the one at 80m off the valley floor. When the medic measured my pulse after that one, it was 148! And trekking 2000 feet up and down the ridgeline on an acclimatisation day suffering with an upset stomach was a whole new challenge! But I amazed myself and it was an emotional moment when I stepped onto Base Camp.

It was such an extreme experience, it’s been a bit surreal getting back into the daily routine. In my head it should be September as I’m just back from holiday and in Nepal it’s the year 2070 – it’s no wonder I’m confused and Christmas seems like it should be months away yet!