In Oceanopolis, I encountered a beautiful and intriguing mermaid. It was an artefact of Inuit art – goddess Sedna. Touched by the small statue and the fascinating myth behind it, I would like to share the story of Sedna with you, by means of some creative writing on my blog.

Another original piece of fan fiction on this blog. 🙂 Clonroise from Tumblr account @underneathoursouls wrote a Chobits fan fiction about the cyborg mermaid, with many Irish influences. The use of different fonts refers to inner monologue in this piece and the use of Irish will be translated at the end of the work and is written in italics.

An original fan fiction by Katelynn E Koontz, author of Wind Whisperer (2014).

After Sesame Street, Star Trek has now also added an autistic looking character to the cast. In the new series, the viewers became acquainted with Sylvia Tilly, beautifully acted by Mary Wisema. Tilly appears to be an ‘Aspergirl’, a woman with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. Why is that? Is Tilly the first ‘Trekkie’ with ‘autistic’ traits? And why is it relevant at all whether there are ‘Aspies’ or other ‘autistic characters’ in Star Trek?

At this moment, I am working on a chapter for an edited volume called “Deconstructing the Zombie: Cultural and Ideological Approaches”. It can hardly be a surprise that I am working on the composite character of the Zombie Mermaid. 😉 As I am very keen on your feedback and suggestions (some more case studies, anyone?), I thought it would be nice to share some of my work-in-progress with you.

Last February, my friend – a fellow karate nerd – and I participated in the Martial Arts Festival in Utrecht, the Netherlands. We demonstrated some kata, learned some new tricks with the jo, had much fun in the workshops by Takeda Ryu… and then, the unexpected happened. 😉 I fell in love. With kendo.

Frappuccino dominating selfies on Instagram, vlogs about pumpkin spiced latte and weblog posts as “Review of Starbuck’s Orange/Mango Blend” – Starbucks is great on as well as in social media. The maritime logo of the mermaid appears to have become an identity marker of coolness for teenage and twenty-something girls. Lifestyle journalists starting as early as at the age of twelve contribute a lot to Starbucks’s brand publishing (also known as content marketing). Currently, I am writing a book chapter that explores how and why Starbucks engages these so-called “influencers” to popularize their products. To get an idea of the company behind the green Siren and its place is in the current world, in this blog post I analyse Starbucks with the Swot and Pestle models.