Karin E. Zirk's Blog

I studied strategies for writing fiction with Dru[silla] for over a decade. She was a mentor in the best sense of the word. We shared the same birth date, 20 years apart.  When she was diagnosed with cancer and given a short time left to live, she bemoaned that she had not yet written her “best book” despite writing many great books.

After her diagnosis, her community rallied around her, and the writers amongst them plotted a different s...

The summer of 2024 was a strange one for me. I spent it at the Rainbow Gatherings in the Plumas National Forest. I was out there maybe 7 weeks. Here is the irony.

My novel was published in 2020 and the primary story unfolds in 1990. A large part of the novel takes place at a gathering style event. Other settings are San Francisco and California’s north coast.

Because it was a work of fiction, I choose the Plumas National Forest for the setting of the gathering style get together because there ha...

I have been teaching Introduction to Humanities: 40,000 BCE to 1400 CE this semester at a community college in San Diego.

I was hoping to make this my retirement gig, but it’s tough on many levels.

First off, I was only given one class this semester. That works out to about $900/month gross income and that’s with the top pay grade since I have a doctorate in the humanities.

Second, I decided to use Open Educational Resources (OER). This spares my students from having to spend a fortune on books....

As we move into the holiday season, I am hoping people will buy copies of my novel, Falling From The Moon.  I am not trying to make money. I just want people to read a novel I poured my heart and soul into for over a decade.

Pounding drums in the woods around a late night bonfire, baking bread in old 50-gallon metal drums, auming/oming for world peace, and learning the lessons the universe is trying to teach.

In the mi...

Image by Richard Reid from Pixabay

I had hoped that the USA could get over its patriarchy to elect a competent woman president. I had hope that the manners we teach our children would be reflected in the president of our country. I had hoped that the collaboration that builds successful businesses would be reflected in our federal government. I was wrong. I was wrong to think that others hold the same values I do.

This is a nation of bullies who disrespect their fellow humans and the rest of the...

This summer I was camping with a friend whose parents and grandparents were raised in the USA and whose son and grandchildren are alive and living not to far from him. Five generations and maybe more of family living in one country, speaking a common language, and spending time together. These family gatherings, like the one I was at, involved many stories. Stories of my friend’s youth and his parents and even grandparents adventures and life. Stories told casually over food. Bits and pieces of ...

Image by Majaranda from Pixabay

For the months of June and July, you can order a discounted print copy of Falling From The Moon for just $10.00 + shipping.  Order before June 15th and shipping on 5-25 books is only 99 cents. Use this special link for the special discounted price.  Just my way of helping everyone get some fun reading done at the beach, river, or pool.

The post Summer Reading Special first appeared on Karin's World.

The Lunar New Year is actually a lunisolar holiday in that it is celebrated according to a combination of solar and lunar events. The solar event is the Winter Solstice or the day of the year with the least amount of sun.  Typically the Winter Solstice falls on or adjacent to the 21st of December in the northern hemisphere. Then the Lunar New Year begins the day after the second full moon after the Winter Solstice.

In the Chinese Zodiac, 2024 marks the Year of the Wood Dragon. While many of us a...

Anywhere people have lived in forested areas, mythology and folklore about the woods co-exist with humanity. After all, before the internet and CNN, most of us perceived the nature of reality through the material world around us.  As Marie-Louise von Franz writes in her classic The Interpretation of Fairy Tales:

Image by Juncala from Pixabay

Fairy tales are the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic processes. Therefore, their value for the scientific investigation of t...

Shadows of the past lay over the present and spill towards the future the way my father’s Estonia obscured and at times illuminated my experience in Estonia.  My father’s Estonia was a secret, hidden away space and one I believe that he only let himself dwell on when he drank, which he did often. Instead of sharing the happy and even sad memories he had, he left me to imagine and excavate scraps of what Estonia was and is on my own.

How sad this makes me. How even now, thirty years after his dea...