Karen Abrahamson – Page 3 – Mystery, fantasy and romance at the dangerous ends of the earth

Sunrise, Salutations and Slow Trains

By Karen Abrahamson | January 19, 2019

Along Hampi’s River. Copyright Karen Abrahamson.

I’m sitting here on the train to Goa from Hampi. The train came from Calcutta and is already three hours late. That’s India. Nothing ever turns out as you expect.

Like the day before yesterday when at the end of the day we visited a hilltop temple that overlooks the Hampi ruins. Hampi is an ancient capital (early 1300s) that is actually mentioned in the epic Ramayana. By the 1600s it held over 500,000 people, but then it was sacked by a confederacy of rival sultanates. The ruins of the city remain today and are spread over 36 square kilometers around other-worldly mounds of boulders that seriously look as if they’re the remains of another, far older, civilization.

To see the sunset we went up beyond the temple’s rear gate where the light was turning pale gold and illuminating the heaps of boulders. We stayed there awhile with a family having a picnic. The light wind filled my face and the ubiquitous Indian haze softened the distance. Standing there, I felt like I could inhale the softness, especially after the music started playing in the temple. We headed back down to the temple and sat down to enjoy the peace. Then an orange-clad priest invited me up into the temple to take a seat and take part of the music. I don’t know quite what I was playing—small metal cups that you clap together in a syncopated rhythm. I was very bad at it, but I was still offered puja and a blessing. An unexpected welcome to Hampi.

View from beyond the temple. Copyright Karen Abrahamson.

On the other hand, yesterday I wanted to take photos of the sunrise over the Hampi ruins. Maybe it was my need to book end the visit—sunrise and sunset—so I was up at 5 am and had a driver arranged to take me to the ruins. We drove to Hampi and he dropped me at the stairs/trail that led up a very tall hill to the optimistically named ‘Sunrise Point’. The stairs were made of huge, uneven, pale slabs of stone that I could barely see through the darkness of pre-dawn. By the time I made it to the top of the stairs I was panting. Then I was faced by a conundrum—carry on, on a wide dusty path, or follow a sign that pointed off the main trail to Sunrise Point. Being Canadian, I followed the sign and found myself on a spider web of trails that led up and over boulders and through the brush. I found another set of stairs leading upward and headed up. And up. Over bounders. Up rough stairs. And up some more until I found a young French girl perched alone on a boulder like a messenger in a Dungeons and Dragons game. Above her was an even bigger boulder with vague indentations chipped into them as stairs.

She said she’d stopped where she was because she was afraid to go further, but more afraid of trying to get down. Looking at those half-formed stairs I totally got what she was saying and decided to stay there to photograph, if not the sunrise, at least the landscape as the sun turned it gold.

The main temple at Hempi in the early light. Still a place of veneration. Copyright Karen Abrahamson.

When the light changed, it seems that her assessment was correct. I headed down the rough stairs until I reached the place where I’d left the brush. Then I struck out on the path back towards my original stairs.

Only to have the path run out.

I retraced my footsteps and took another fork. It ended, too, and so did others so that eventually I had to make a decision: Go back to the second set of stairs if I could find them again (given the first set had mysteriously disappeared,) or get to the base of the mountain and hopefully find a path. I chose the latter and after much battling with cactus and thorn trees, bloodied, sweating and actually wondering what I would do if I fell and broke something, I found the bottom and a well-worn path next to a field of banana trees. That path eventually led me back into ruins where I enquired of a Japanese tour group what direction I should be going. I did find my way back, but I bear the thorn and cactus scars of my adventure.

The path that finally got me free of the sunrise mountain. Copyright Karen Abrahamson.

So the lesson I’ve learned (actually, I should have remembered from my previous visit to this country) is that (for good or bad) in India nothing ever happens the way you expect.

Oh yes, and the train—we lost another three hours on our journey to Goa, arriving six hours late. I guess I should have expected it.

The Light

By Karen Abrahamson | January 16, 2019

Mysuru Palace at sunset. Copyright K. Abrahamson

I always find it interesting to notice the light when I travel. As a photographer, light is everything, but the light when you travel is more than that. Yes, it’s the atmospherics—here in Mysuru (once Mysore) the sky is hazy pale and the air is perennially tinged with diesel smoke. At the same time it creates a misty light that places a glow across the green rice and sugar cane fields.

But the light also seems to come from the heart of a place. So far, in India, I see the light in the eyes of the people and in the temple flames that burn before Lord Vishnu and the pantheon of gods. It is there in the reflections off the water of lakes and rivers, and off the skin of the bathers at the ghats.

Ghats at Cauvey River, Mysuru. Copyright K. Abrahamson

Yesterday, our first day in Mysuru, we visited two temples. The first, the Sri Rangnapatna temple in the ancient city of Sri Rangnapatnum is a living temple with hundreds of pilgrims trying to enter to pay their respects to the Lord Vishnu. We were allowed entry and actually went into the nave to bow to the reclining God. He had half-mast eyes, which our guide told us is typical for South India, but still, they caught the light with a serenity that seemed to fill the air even through the shoving crowd of pilgrims jostling to bathe in the God’s flame and to drink of the purifying water offered by the Brahmin priests. All through this holy time, our guide chanted his prayer so it was a soft song that carried me through the voices of the throngs and the bells of the priests.

Light in the air. Light in the water. Light in the hands reaching. At times it feels as if the light can get inside of us, too, if we will only see and listen.

After the temple. Chamundi Hill, Mysuru, Copyright K. Abrahamson

Pelican takeoff at Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, Mysuru. Copyright K. Abrahamson

Sunrise, Selfies and Off-Setting the Cost of Travel

By Karen Abrahamson | January 10, 2019

After 36 hours to get here, Mamallapura seems like the perfect place to recover from jet lag.

Small town? Check.
Friendly people? Check.
Beach and poolside opportunities? Check.
Inexpensive restaurants and shopping? More or less, though you can feel the money drip-drip-drip away more quickly than expected.

Everything you need including opportunities to access your favorite libation even in a country that apparently frowns on alcohol consumption as ‘low class.’ There’s only one thing that they fail to mention—this is a pilgrimage town.

You see, in India apparently large numbers of people decide to collectively go on a pilgrimage to a holy site or to one of India’s numerous ashrams. When they do, the trip becomes like a religious holiday and they stop at points of interest along the way.

Mamallapura happens to be one such point. The town has a well-documented collection of ancient rock temples, the most famous of which is the exquisite 8^thcentury Shore Temple, that was built by the Pallava Kings and sits—you guessed it—on a rocky bluff overlooking the Bay of Bengal. According to my sources, during the South East Asian tsunami the water receded far enough to reveal a number of further temples that also might once have stood on the shore. There are also other amazing sites with temples hewn out of single rocks—the Five Rathas, or chariots, come to mind where the rocks have been hewn into four small temples and a life-sized elephant, not to mention a huge Nandi (bull steed of Lord Brahma).

There’s the aptly named Butterball, a huge freestanding rock on a granite hillside that has stood there for time immemorial even though people frequently try to push it over. An ancient lighthouse and its less ancient replacement stand on a prominence that overlooks the town and send light to lost sailors far out to sea. And then there is Arjuna’s Penance, a masterpiece of carving with serpents, elephants, warriors, gods and—most importantly—a cagey cat dancing for an audience of mice. God only knows why. Perhaps the ancient Dravidians who carved these places had a sense of humor…

But every day 10 or so huge busloads of pilgrims arrive in Mamallapura intent on visiting all these ancient places. They come from all over the country and pile out of the busses clad in red and yellow saris (the women) and red shirts and sarongs for the men. Apparently the red and yellow signify the sacred feminine. I’m not sure why.

Some pilgrims, I believe, stay on the busses, while others stay in hostels. The hotel where I’m staying has a hostel section and every morning I’m greeted by a sea of these gentle people who barely come up to my shoulder as I walk out to explore the city. Apparently many of them are from very small towns that don’t get a lot of foreigners visiting. Needless to say, a six-foot-tall strawberry blonde is about as foreign to these parts as they get.

In the early morning if you go down to the shore temple, you’ll be following a river of these crimson and saffron as they head, not to the temple, but to the shore. It seems stepping into the ocean here might be a holy experience or else they’re simply enjoying the feel of the waves, regardless of the signs by the beach that keep score of the number of drownings so far this year, men, women and children step into the waves and, if they survive, they enjoy the carnival rides and many kiosks selling souvenirs, food, jewelry, tattoos, and images of their favorite gods all for purchase from a local gypsy or businessman.

Which brings me to the smiles.

One of the things I love about this place is the way that so many of the pilgrims look at me first with surprise and then with suspicion and then, when our eyes meet and they see my grin, 19 times out of twenty, the grin is returned.

That’s where the selfies come in. Maybe it’s the camera I wear around my neck, or maybe it’s my height or the fact that I’m blonde (okay, many of you know me and that my gray is showing, but in the right light it’s still blonde), but I can’t seem to set foot on a beach or a street in this town without having pilgrims asking for a selfie with me. I don’t mean once or twice. I mean every five minutes having five-ten or more people ask to take my picture. While this could be flattering, if you saw my attire and the condition of my hair, you’d understand why I shake my head at the fact that I am going to be in so many family albums. Today I even caught a young man surreptitiously snapping my photo just like I do of them when I think they’re not looking. I laughed and told him it would cost one rupee. After all, a girl has got to offset the costs of travel somehow.

I’m Off on a Research Adventure!

By Karen Abrahamson | December 24, 2018

Starting in January, I’ll be off on a research adventure in Southern India, Bali and Hong Kong. You might recall that Phoebe Clay, my character in my mystery novel, Through Dark Water, ended book one with an interest in global travel. This is my chance to scope out interesting locales for her next adventures. I’m planning to get back to Phoebe and co. and their mysteries on my return from Asia.

During my travels I’ll be posting regular photos and mini stories like those in the travel section of my website so keep an eye open for these on my website and on Facebook.

What is a Picture Worth?

By Karen Abrahamson | December 20, 2018

You see photographs on Facebook and other Social Media all the time, but I’ve never been particularly prolific in this respect. I’ve decided to change this because with changes in life circumstances I’m getting more chance to become friends with my camera. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always enjoyed photography, but now I’m getting more serious and will be posting images from areas around where I live, and from my travels.

For example, here are a few shots from a kayaking trip I took this summer in the Broken Islands of B.C. for those of you who don’t know them, here’s a great article on them. They are a spectacular archipelago of tiny islands with shell beaches, lagoons, tiny coves and channels between them and moss laden tree branches that shadow the water.

Here are a few shots to give you the flavour of them. Cheers!

A New Look for the Unlocking Series

By Karen Abrahamson | October 5, 2018

I’ve recently updated the covers of this six book series with the outstanding covers designed by WMG Publisher and graphic artist Allyson Longueira. The covers were launched October 1st! Thanks Allyson for such fantastic work! What do you think?

A New Bundle for Lovers of Dragon Lore

By Karen Abrahamson | April 4, 2018

They stalk our myths and hunt our past—dragons—humankind’s greatest and oldest foe. Good, bad, legendary and deadly. Dare you enter the dragon’s lair?

Thirteen tales of dragons, their friends and their foes. I’m happy to report that my short story Like at Loch Ness is included among other wonderful tales of things that slither—big things.

Interested?

To see more, click HERE.

After Yekaterina Pre Orders on Sale at Reduced Price

By Karen Abrahamson | March 24, 2018

Until March 31, After Yekaterina is available at a pre-release price of $1.99. After release the book will return to the regular price of $4.99.

What if Catherine the Great never fulfilled her destiny and the Ottoman Empire destroyed Holy Mother Russia?

In an alternate modern Russia surrounded by the still-powerful Ottoman Empire and the Chinese Empire of the Sun, a dead girl in a pink sweater draws disillusioned Detektiv Alexander Kazakov into an investigation that even the girl’s mother wants him to abandon.

Driven by the truth and a slowly rising body count, Kazakov must traverse a landscape of snow and brothels, and a civilization frozen by history to catch a killer no one suspects.

After Yekaterina is the first in the Yekaterina Alternate History series set in the fictional Central Asian Country of Fergana.

Interested?

Click HERE

Writing in the Past and Future

By Karen Abrahamson | March 4, 2018

It has been an interesting week for me in terms of my writing. I’ve implemented a progress tracking bar on my website to help readers follow along with how the next book is coming in a new mystery series. This is the third book in the Russian alternate history mysteries, the first of which is After Yekaterina. That book is finished and has come back from my advance readers, so I’m doing some final tweaks and then it will be ready for publication. Watch for it soon. I’ll do an announcement. The second book in the series is called Mareson’s Arrow. That book is written and is about to undergo editing before asking first readers to take a look. The third book in the series is tentatively titled The Tsarina’s Mask. We’ll see whether that title sticks, but that’s what I’m calling it for now. I think I’m about three quarters of the way through Mask which means that the first draft should be done before the end of the month and then I can do first draft edits and get it to my first reader. Yay!

But here’s the problem and I need your help.

I don’t know what to write next.

Usually I just pluck the next project from the sky, but I have a number of projects that I would like to get to. I’d love to hear from you what you’d like me to work on. I won’t promise to write the book you suggest right away, but it will be higher up the pile with your input than it might otherwise be. Here’s what I’m thinking of in no particular order:

Another magical creature romance in a similar vein to Surviving Safe Harbor.
A Cartographer/American Geological Survey novel starring Vallon Drake’s best friend, Fi Murdoch.
A new Phoebe Clay Mystery (most likely set in Myanmar.)
Another installment of the Aung and Yamin mysteries.

So what do you think? Any preference of order of how I get to these? Please help me pick my next project!

Thanks,

Karen

A Great Deal for Mystery Readers

By Karen Abrahamson | February 22, 2018

For those of you who like to stay warm by the fire with a good mystery to hand here is a great bundle of books that will keep you trying to puzzle out whodunit! Gumshoes Redux provides a bundle of mysteries by a band of intrepid mystery authors, including yours truly.

Welcome to the Redux version of Gumshoes with two new exciting novels added.

In the world of mystery fiction there are different types of detectives. Amateur sleuths, women and men, willing to put themselves on the line to solve a crime or even a murder, police detectives working the case following the clues seeking justice for the victim, private investigators hired to solve a crime. Whether they be amateurs or professionals they all seek the same result, to make the world right once again and bring to justice those who threaten us all. These 14 writers invite you along for the ride to mystery and adventure. We hope you enjoy these stories and seek more books by these talented authors.

Click Here for the Sales Page.