This is the page I put items that don't conveniently go anywhere else on this site, such as:   Schedule of book signings.   Announcement of an article I've written for a magazine.   A new book I think everyone should read.   Links to pages about recent trips and/or their pictures.   Anything else that seems like a good idea. So please, check below each time you come to the site!

From the Desk of Helena: On the subject of writing, Codename Valkyrie has finally been released and An Obsolete Honor continues to get rave reviews.  I also now offer educators a teaching supplement for the subject of Valkyrie in .pdf file format via my Valkyrie-Plot.com website.  Be sure to stop by that site for many new and interesting updates. For my own sanity I must always write.  I am now happily writing a new novel...no, I won't tell you what it is quite yet.  I want to build up your expectations, but you are going to love it!  One of my editors feels it is the best novel I've written yet. In Nigeria, I finally made a connection at the Polo Club.  Luckman Adebayo has five horses at the moment (he used to have 13 but eight died in an epidemic). He gave his groom instructions to let me ride whenever I called - even 2am in the morning etc.  At first I was surprised that he didn't want to see me ride first etc. but then I realized that these polo ponies are used to fairly rough handling and if you can't ride, they'll make short work of you one way or another.  He started me out on his quietest mare, Mona Lisa, (who required considerable persuasion to do more than trot) and after two days I was told by the groom that "next time" I could ride Salalah.(In short, I'd past the test.)  Salalah is a sweet mare who can go from a standstill to about 105 in a second so if I couldn't ride, she'd have made that point just as explicit as Mona Lisa did in her own way.  The polo club itself is very run down and filthy surrounded now by buildings (when I was here 30 years ago it was in a residential section so only trees and greenery were visible over the perimeter wall), and there is no where to ride except around the field (have to keep off the field itself so it isn't torn up before a game) and in a little outdoor arena that has very deep sand.  Salalah hates the ring so we ride outside, past the other stalls, the foals, the chickens, the grooms cooking their breakfast over an open fire, and encountering the grooms leading as many as two other horses around for their daily exercise.  Herbert actually enjoys coming with me because he enjoys the peace and quiet (no generators running) and just watching all the goings on.  It is also - in contrast to Norway and US - a 100% male environment.  I am the only female I have ever encountered there except as a spectator at a match.  No female grooms and no female riders.  For the first time, Herbert is tempted to learn to ride.  And I'm tempted to learn to play polo.  One step at a time. The vast majority of the Nigerians celebrated Obama's victory with uninhibited and exuberant joy.  Total strangers hugged me, cheered me and shook my hand.  My mobile phone was swamped with messages of congratulation; my email box full.  I was most moved by the President of the Niger Delta Christian Youth Movement who wrote me: "Let me on behalf of over ten million Niger Delta Christian youths wish the American people through your office well on a history making election day.  We are extremely motivated by the spirit of the American political class.  We believe one day soon Africans will be able to conduct credible elections without blood-letting, hatred, intimidation and flagrant disrespect for the peoples' sovereignty.  We pray for a nation where the old like McCain and the young like Obama can co-exist having passion needed for the service of nation building." And this is the message I wish leave with you all.  For Nigeria the joy and excitement over Obama's election has nothing to do with him being a black man or with false expectations that Obama will conduct policies to the benefit of Africa.  What inspired Nigerians was that a "junior person" who was not well-connected (not the wife of a former president) could challenge the political establishment, and the American people could actually go out and vote for whoever they wanted.  What was even more exciting, the candidate who won the most votes indeed became our president.  John McCain never had more admirers in Africa than when he graciously conceded his defeat.  I too hope and pray that the prayers of the Niger Delta Christian Youth Movement will be heard and answered in the affirmative. Helena "The telling of good deeds is like alms and charity; it is never lost labour but always has its return." Chandos' Herald ca. 1386

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