Tag: #notjusttrans
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A Long and Painful Journey of Growth and Discovery
I’ve always had to battle challenges and adversity far larger than being transgender. In this blog post, let’s focus on the transgender part of my story… I was born in 1971 and grew up in a time, a conservative geographic region, and surrounded by people who never asked me why I was so unhappy and hid away…
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The Hazards of Traveling
Traveling. That magical word. Those moments, surreal almost in their beauty and intensity once we return home and try to hold on to them in our thoughts. And then, of course, while on the road, there is this feeling of being intensely alive. I had missed especially this vividness when finally, after 2 years of…
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Come see me on stage in Basel on April 16th
On Sunday, April 16, 2023, come see me on stage in Basel, Switzerland. I will be one of four guests of Swiss talk show legend Kurt Aeschbacher. And he will surely have an amazing conversation with each of us. For 30 years, Kurt Aeschbacher had his own talk show on Swiss TV. Now he is…
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Traveling Aotearoa and Gazing Within
Currently, I am traveling in Aotearoa, mesmerizingly beautiful New Zealand. On my own, in a camper van, catching up with friends, and attending a wedding along the way. I love this mix of meeting wonderful humans whilst at the same time being able to enjoy lots of quality alone-time…
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The Abortion That Never Happened
With all the discussion about abortions and many people courageously putting themselves out there sharing their personal experiences, I thought I’d share a little tidbit with you as well. A little over 52 years ago my biological mother lived in Stuttgart and had a boyfriend from Italy. She had just moved out at home and…
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The Amazing Zurich PRIDE Parade
Yesterday, on June 18th, 2022, the annual Zurich PRIDE parade took place in the center of town. It was the first parade after the pandemic. And it was fabulous in so many ways… let me tell you more… Arriving at the meeting point, I already thought, “Oh, there are way more people here than in the…
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When Trail Art Agrees
Do you have moments when you feel utterly lost? You might even have a roof over your head, great friends, food on the table, and a regular income. But something has shaken your world to the core. And it’s been like a wake-up call. Everything has shifted since then. Your world is in the process…
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Featured in Podcast ‘Mis Coming Out’
For all Swiss-German and German speakers out there, here a little something to listen to on a relaxed Sunday afternoon: Marco Schaettin recently interviewed me for his fabulous podcast ‘Mis Coming Out’ (my coming out) and I told him about my life story… ☺️ Click here to get to the podcast episode. Further information on…
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Paralian at Paranoia City
Since yesterday, my book is available for sale in Paranoia City, a wonderful, little, independent book shop in Zurich. Paralian is officially out of print, so these are the last 6 copies available for now. What better place to sell them at than in my old home which inspired a large part of this book…
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My Book Paralian is Still Available as eBook – Only Few Print Copies Left
It’s been a long long time since I have posted about Paralian. With Covid, and things that happened in the year before Covid, I have been so absorbed, and left to fend for my survival, I could not really (and still can’t) keep up-to-date with all social media channels. I also realize, I want to…
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Always Learning
Currently, I am a bit like a fish out of water. Instead of being surrounded by my usual abundance of ocean, I‘m immersed in green, rolling mountains, hills, meadows, forests, and fields. There is the odd lake of course. Nothing better than vibrant greens and blues going together. I had finished my book Paralian hopeful,…
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Enveloped
Dreaming of my days traveling and exploring the oceans. Like here in Palau, getting ready to submerge for a night dive with one of my best friends. Underwater, you are profoundly yourself. You rely on your skills, on the integrity of your mind. There are no doubts. There is only peace and focus. Your buddy…
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Review for Paralian
Hello 😊 Shout-out to all of you, who have read my book ‘Paralian’. If you haven’t done so already, can you be so kind and write a little review for it? Even if it’s just one word? Like a thought shared with buddies around a camp fire, books live on and grow through word-of-mouth. If…
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First Presentation in Hong Kong
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited by UBS Hong Kong to give a presentation about my life journey. It was my first ever speaking engagement in Hong Kong. The audience was wonderful. Curious, openminded, and not shy to bombard me with questions after the talk. Standing in the conference room on the 56th…
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Home By The Sea
It’s always been my dream to live right next to the deep blue sea. There is something healing about gazing at the water’s surface, and something exciting about hearing the waves break when they arrive at the beach after their long journey across the sea… Currently at least part of my dream has come true.…
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Behind These Walls
For four years, I entered this concrete fortress almost every day. What looks like an oppressive Orwellian government building is in fact the Dragone theater in Macau. A visionary creative endeavor was realized here: The House of Dancing Water. It truly is a show like no other. A fairy tale that rises from below the…
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Immersed in the Sea
This picture was taken in 2005, right after I arrived in the Maldives. I stayed and worked there for four years. When I was ready for new adventures, I left… I am grateful for all experiences I’ve had since. However, to this day, I treasure every minute I spent in the Indian Ocean as a…
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Back in Pirate Paradise
Again, it’s been a busy month. In true Macau fashion, wonderful and exasperating things happened all at the same time. Through unbelievable luck and the kindness of my real estate agent, I was able to get the apartment back I had rented here until 2013. However, it took a few weeks and several hurdles to…
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Here Is Where It All Began
The other week, I went back to our old house on Lamma Island in Hong Kong. Here is where it all began. This was our garden… and behind those windows on the ground floor was our orange-coloured living room… featuring a small table on which I wrote Paralian. One of the happiest years of my…
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Looking Forward to ‘Sticks & Stones’
On June 2nd, if you are in Berlin, come to the Sticks & Stones career fair. I’ll be giving a presentation about my life and about what being transgender means to me. In short, I don’t believe in labels. We are all the sum of our experiences. I don’t ‘identify’ as anything. I simply am.…
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Blast from the Past
Ahhh, this was 2007. I just received this picture a few days ago from my good friend Valerie, whose birthday we were celebrating that day. What a wonderful blast from the past. We all lived together on Kuredu Island in the Maldives, spending most of our time in the Indian Ocean either guiding or teaching…
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Liam on Aeschbacher
Super kind of the Aeschbacher team to already give us stills to help promote the show. Love it and will treasure these memories to keep. Recording this show in Labor Bar in Zurich last Wednesday was a beautiful life experience in every respect! Sooo… for all of you who want to watch it, don’t forget…
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Liam Klenk on Aeschbacher, Apr 15th 2018
Here is a bit of exciting news: I’ve been invited to the ‘Aeschbacher’ talk show on Swiss TV! For all of you who want to watch the show, tune in on SRF 1 at 22:10 on Sunday, the 15th of April, 2018. The show will be in Swiss German, but hey, it might be worth…
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Thanks to UBS Pride Switzerland
I gave a presentation yesterday evening on my life journey and being transgender. We’re the sum of our experiences. The audience was wonderful, attentive, and engaged. A flood of questions after my talk. Great, in-depth conversations afterwards in the bar. Thanks so much to UBS Pride Switzerland for hosting this event!
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Remembering ‘LGBT Talents’ in Paris
A couple of weeks ago, I took part in the annual ‘LGBT Talents’ event in Paris. I was deeply honored to have been invited as one of the panel speakers for one of half a dozen inspirational workshops on offer that day. I love speaking at this kind of event. It makes me happy to…
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No Stereotypical Male
“I myself had fallen prey to stereotype some years earlier by adopting a swagger and hiding my curves beneath voluminous sweaters. Now, talking with other transgender people, I learned more about who I had become since then. I had no intention of becoming a stereotypical male. Rather, why not become my own species? I was…
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Friendship
Today I am thinking of my close friends, my family. This was Christmas 2006 with my best buddy (I’ve changed his name in my memoir to protect his privacy) and an entire team of unforgettable people on Kuredu Island in the Maldives. Every day, I am fully aware how lucky I was – and still…
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We’re All Human
Today, as every year on the 20ieth of November we remember all those who have been killed because of their gender identity. Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. The sheer numbers of those killed in the most barbaric ways are staggering and break my heart. This year it is 325 individuals that we know of…
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No Limits
25 years ago, when I had my gender reassignment surgeries, I vowed to never let this important decision of aligning my soul with my body hamper or limit me in any way. I was going to continue going after my dreams. And I wouldn’t take no for an answer. Part of this meant to be…
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Two More Awards for Paralian
Today, it was announced that Paralian won not just one, but two more book awards. This makes five altogether! Over the moon doesn’t even begin to cover how delighted I felt when I saw the email this morning. Over the galaxies was more like it (and this after I had almost deleted said email, thinking…
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The Perfect Moment
The perfect moment. Sunshine. A group of delighted scuba divers whom I had guided throughout the morning. Jackfish. Chilli Sauce. Sand as soft a velvet. Palm Trees. A blazing azure sky and turquoise sea all around us. I enjoyed myself. Enjoyed to guide, coach, and drink in our surroundings with all my senses. It didn’t…
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When I Found Home
When I found home… “Our relationship had grown like a table coral – and still did. Tree-like, it fanned out, each tiny branch connecting to others to build a magnificent structure – tough and brittle at the same time. Both of us knew how easily such a delicate formation could break. For the first time,…
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What Would an Ocean Be…
“What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.” by Werner Herzog is the quote I chose for the beginning of Paralian. Because this is life. No matter what our backgrounds. There is no sleep without dreams. No growth without challenge. No clarity without ambivalence.…
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I Hope, Deep Down You Knew
Uniting my body with my soul meant breaking the heart of the one person who had always been there for me – my oma (grandma). As the hormones took an ever-firmer hold, I tried explaining to her who I was. Unfortunately, she was becoming progressively more senile. Oma sadly asked for me. Countless times, she…
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A Global Existence
Stepping way out of my comfort zone (geographically as well as mentally) for the first time when I was 18 years old was one of the best things I ever did… It was the beginning of a nomadic life, a global existence, an openness towards things and people unknown, that I wouldn’t trade in for…
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The Sparkling Rainbow of Creation
LGBT, trans, and whatever shade in between, we’ve always been around. Be it amongst humans or within the plant and animal kingdom. Just another bunch of colors in the sparkling rainbow of creation. ”Oddly, humans are not the only animals that engage in cross-dressing or have transgender identity issues; a lot of animals also have…
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You’re Becoming You
A little while back, on June 2nd, 2017, I read the following text underneath one of Brandon Stanton’s photographs for Humans of New York (thanks for your inspiring work Brandon. I hope you don’t mind if I share this here): “I don’t think I’m going to miss eighth grade. It’s been a tough year. A lot…
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Surfer’s Nipples
“In the past, I had often been stared at and asked about the sizeable scars on my chest. At The House of Dancing Water, no one asked. My fellow divers seemed curious, but no one ever approached me. As for our performers, I knew they had seen so many scars in their lives, they had…
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Summer Reading
‘What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.’ Werner Herzog
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Presentation at Zurich Insurance Group
Yesterday, I was invited by the Zurich Insurance Group to give a presentation on diversity, inclusion, and transgender, combined with reading from my book Paralian. There are no quick fixes, no recipes, no instruction manuals. But I do believe there is nothing more valuable than personal experience. So that’s what I gave, as always striving…
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This is to you Dad
For my Dad. I love you. Check out my story here on Bored Panda. Or, of course, you can read it right here: When you were little, you had a tame chicken, then a crow, and later an Alsatian. You named them all ‘Jakob’. No points for creativity but, most definitely, for purity of heart.…
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Discovering the Ocean
“During my early years, we would go to the North Sea every summer for a long family holiday. I was enchanted from the first moment I laid eyes on the dark blue endlessness. My senses were alert and I felt intensely alive. Nowhere else had I felt so invigorated. Every cell of my small body…
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Shuffle Those Cards and Start a New Game
The other week, when giving a presentation about my life journey, someone asked, “Why did you go and work in, for example, muslim countries, and travel worldwide to places where, as a transgender person, you were often potentially in danger of becoming the victim of a hate crime?” The answer to this is really quite…
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On The Road
Ever since Paralian was published, readers have sent me photos of themselves with the book. These pics have come in from all over the world and have always made my day (thanks everyone!). Here just one awesome example from Chris Gobine who is currently taking Paralian on a trip around the world and stopped for…
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Yet Another Presentation
Last Friday, I gave a presentation and read from my book ‘Paralian’ at the offices of The Boston Consulting Group in Zurich. Thanks so much to BCG for the opportunity! Special thanks to the amazing, open-minded, and engaged audience!
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Paralian has won a 2nd Literary Award
Paralian just won its 2nd literary award: the New Apple Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing! https://www.newappleliterary.com/2016Aw…/2016awardsCat38.html I’m immensely grateful for this surprising honour. And, it lifts my spirits to see Paralian understood for the inspiring tour de force that it is. Thanks to the New Apple Awards team and thanks to all of you…
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Writers Resist
Beginning of this year, ‘Writers Resist’ events were held all over the world. These readings were to remind ourselves of the importance of human rights, freedom of speech, and mutual respect. Here in Zurich, on a mid-January evening, we spoke up as well, reading from many different works of literature (including our own) in front…
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Hello Mom
The unforgettable day I met my birth mom for the first time… and, at the same time, a rare photographic moment, captured just months before I had gender reassignment surgery… “My biological mom lived on the top floor of the four-story apartment building. There was no elevator. With every step up, my heart soared and…
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You Always Can – A Story of Coming Home to Myself
Just put this story on Bored Panda. Have a look at the actual Bored Panda page here and please upvote, like and share as much as you can all over social media. Thanks! I have always been drawn to water. Any body of water. Oceans mostly. Wanted to immerse myself. Dive in. Explore and discover. But,…
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Pinocchio
The biggest treasure underwater lies in the shallow depths of the coral reefs. And in the simple joy of softly gliding along weightlessly, being just one more unassuming organism within the endless depths. I love the wild beauty underneath those waves. The myriad shades of turquoise and blue. The diversity of ocean life all around…
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International author backs Kent transgender student
Thank you Sean McPolin. I’m glad Lily won this battle. There’ll be many more to come. Some to do with her being trans, others just because challenging us is what life does… Makes me think of a quote I read the other day, “You’re gonna be happy’” said life, “but first I’ll make you strong.”…
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An Intricate Microcosmos
“I often hovered motionless and watched the coral reef for a while, contemplating reef fish behavior. Each organism was busy defending its way of life. Tiny fish would attack divers the moment we ventured too far into their territory. There were all kinds of characters: the camouflaged, the timid, the curious, the bullies, the cowards.…
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You Don’t Have To
From when I was four years old, I was happiest during vacations, far away from all who thought they knew me. I ran out to play, introduced myself as ‘Stefan’, and no one was the wiser. I would play “Cowboys and Indians” with the boys, roam through the forests or sand dunes and be free……
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Home
A multitude of life experiences have helped me grow into the man I am today. The world is my country. The bodies of water spread all over its surface are my true home – the one place where I feel complete in body and soul, not at odds with anything, serene, elegant, and handsome.
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Wide Open Spaces and Faraway Places
Looking out at the snowy and, admittedly, romantic winter scenery in Zurich, I find myself thinking of far away places. All my life I’ve dreamt of living abroad. I’ve dreamt of wide open spaces, of being closer to wild nature. Thankfully, I’ve been there in the past and hopefully will find chances to venture out…
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Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all of you out there. Wishing you many magical moments over the holidays and in the years to come! xxx
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Joy
My intensity has always been my greatest strength. But it has also always been my greatest weakness. The line between passion and obsession is razor-thin… Like recently, I finally woke up and realized I was making myself miserable by pushing way too hard to get my book out there. I forgot to remember the most…
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Paralian Won “Best Debut Book”!
Paralian won its first literary award today. “Best Debut Book” in the 2016 Rainbow Awards! More info on the awards and all winning categories here: https://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4932973.html Big heartfelt thanks to the organisers and judges! I’m stuck at home with a painful case of pink eye right now. Then snuck a peek at the glaringly bright screen…
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Unforgettable Journeys
Good stories touch you so deeply, your heart rate accelerates. You feel enchanted, glimpsing the entire meaning of existence for the briefest of moments. I’m addicted to finding those kind of tales. It can be anything from true life stories to fantasy. Be it immersing myself in 3D cinematic bliss, watching movies at home, binge-watching…
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Lending a Voice
Annually, on the 20ieth of November we remember those who have been taken from us way too early, but, until we have reached a state of mutual respect and acceptance, every day is Transgender Day of Remembrance… I was born in Germany in 1971, a little boy in a girl’s body… then transitioned almost twenty…
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A Story of Hope
Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance #TODR. https://tdor.info Everyone on this list has lost their lives simply for being themselves, for longing to live their lives as who they truly were. In honor of those who have been taken from us so violently, let me share a positive story with you of how it could…
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5 Stars for Paralian by Readers’ Favorite
Amazing review of Paralian by Viga Boland for Readers’ Favorite…”This is not a memoir for the squeamish. Details are raw, vivid, honest. Nor, as mentioned above, is it a read for the impatient or someone looking for quick entertainment. Paralian is for those who enjoy learning something new when they read and who like finding…
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Just As You Are
Lots has been said already about a certain orange-faced individual winning the presidency. I was shocked over here in Europe when waking up to the sad news. Terrified really and worried out of my mind for all of us. The only question was what to get worried about first… human rights issues, environmental concerns, international…
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Allow us to come home to Ourselves
An article I wrote for one person in particular (this is for you Lily!) … but ultimately for all of us. Read the full featured story here. (Thank you Vada magazine!)
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Honorable Mention for Paralian
Yay, Paralian has just received an honorable mention at this year’s Rainbow Awards. Read more here. I’m immensely happy. Big thanks to the Rainbow Awards judges!
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Imagine …
“Some men are born in their bodies, others have to fight for it.” This is not just another quote. Gender dysphoria unfortunately is a reality for many. I myself was struggling with it for many years until I finally transitioned from Stefanie to Liam when I was twenty-three years old. A weight, as unbearably heavy…
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Silver Award for Paralian
Busy day today Just now Paralian received a Silver Award from The Hungry Monster Book Review. To say it in the Monster’s own voice, “The Silver Award is bestowed on books that expertly deliver complex characters, intricate worlds, and thought provoking themes. The ease with which the story is told is a reflection of the…
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A Chat With Hungry Monsters
Great interview was just published online! Take a moment and have a look here. Thanks to the Hungry Monsters for devouring my book and for taking the time to chat with me after!
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Remembering Oma
Remembering my dear oma, who was born on this day in 1909 and passed away on 26th of December, 1996. What would I have done without you? “Frida carried herself with dignity. She was delicate, and small, but very strong. When she made spaetzle, a Southern German pasta delicacy, the recipe called for her to…
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Bookmuse Review of Paralian
Wonderful review of Paralian by Bookmuse. Take a timeout from whatever you’re doing right now and read it here 🙂 Heartfelt thanks to Bookmuse and reviewer JJ Marsh!
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Bucket List
What will the future bring … ? I don’t care much about amassing material wealth but, oh wow, my head is spinning just thinking of all the points on my bucket list… The seven most important ones have been fulfilled already: – travel the world and live abroad – become a professional scuba diver –…
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Looking for Adam!
Hello, I’m looking for Adam. He wrote me a beautiful message to my private Liam Klenk FB page about 2 weeks ago. He mentioned he’s from Denmark, currently living in London, and that he received my book Paralian as a gift. Adam: if and when you see this, please get in touch once more!! Or…
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Salt on my Skin
One week since I got back from the Red Sea… I still feel the gentle swaying of the boat under my feet, salt on my lips and skin. Need to get back to the ocean soon!