Spotlight On Writers
Peter Rehn
- Where do you originate from?
I was born in the Swedish-speaking part of Finland, in a small town called Ekenäs. It’s a beautiful town, nestled on the coast of a large archipelago. I spent many happy hours sailing in the archipelago during the summers and driving on the frozen sea ice in the winter.
Then one spring day, just over two decades ago, I met my wife Lyndsay, who is Irish and, as you do, love brought me to Ireland, where I spent the past twenty-two years. Last autumn, however, we sold our house in Ireland and moved to Spain, and just last week, we finally moved into our new house here. A perfect twentieth anniversary present for us both.
Now I can sit and write on the balcony, soaking up the view of the Mediterranean sea when I need to draw some inspiration.
- What do you cherish most about the place you call home?
As we are in the process of making our new house a home, it’s a very relevant question for me right now. While sentimental things are important, I strongly believe that it’s the people who live there that make it a home. You have to feel comfortable in your home, and that’s achieved by the chemistry of the people you share it with. I’m lucky to have met Lyndsay and together we created a wonderful home in Ireland and soon we’ll have one here in Spain too. My stepdaughter Emma and her three wonderful children helped us achieve the home feeling in Ireland, and now we will cherish when they can take the time to come and visit us here.
- What ignites your creativity?
I am a very creative person, not only in writing, but I’m also a keen cook and DIY’er. My array of tools and the amount of cooking utensils underlines that part of me. In Ireland, I made a wooden tractor with a man sitting on it, just to give people a smile when they walked past our house. It worked.
Creativity for me comes from small little things, when I’m in the right, relaxed mood. A memory might pop into my head or I see something when I’m out and that triggers the creative gene. I love sitting and watching the world go by when I am out, and sometimes something catches my eye that later finds its way into a story.
If I’m stressed or worried, which is very rare, nothing will ignite my creativity.
- Do you have a favorite word and could you incorporate it into a poetic phrase?
Gruesome. I’m not into horror at all, but I’ve been developing a horror story for far too long now. It started as a prompt in a competition and I’ve been adding to the story to test myself. Out of the twenty-three thousand words in the story, gruesome keeps appearing perhaps too often, so right now it’s my favourite word.
“The moon cast a gruesome glow upon the land as the farmer burned the midnight oil.”
- What is your pet peeve?
When you are in the middle of saying something and someone interrupts, anticipating what you are going to say. That drives me around the bend, big time.
Oh, and people who don’t say thank you when you’ve helped them, big or small. It doesn’t take much to say thank you, or even nod your head in appreciation, but there is less of that in our society now. Or perhaps it’s me getting old.
- How would you describe the essence of Peter Rehn?
Peter means rock, and I am a solid, calm rock most of the time. It takes a lot to rock me out of my calmness, but it happens, especially if I’m focusing on something and I get interrupted unnecessarily.
Perhaps because of my heritage, I’m more a listener than a talker, but I am not the quiet one. No. But I usually talk when I have something to say that I think adds value to the conversation.
Writing is giving me an opportunity to talk to people and I love when something I’ve written gets published, and liked. Don’t we all?
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