THE GLASS CHILD
CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON
Songwriter. Author. Dreamer. Wanderer.
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He loved me some days. I'm sure he did.
99 essays on growth through loss
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"No matter what, he loved me some days. I’m sure he did. At least now I love myself, and I don’t think I would if he still loved me.
I don’t think I would love myself if I still loved him."
The 5th book from Swedish songwriter & author, Charlotte Eriksson, is a meditation on cold love, told from every angle. That kind of love that rips your heart out a little to rearrange it and make something new of it.
signed with love
The book was published March 26th together with my brand new album "feeling everything, holding on to nothing".
You can purchase a signed copy in my store and get it signed with love by yours truly. I ship worldwide! ♡
It's also available on Amazon worldwide.
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“This is a story about love and how not to love and sometimes exactly how to love, but mostly how to love something other than your love for another person because in the end you have to save yourself. You must place that love in something more solid than a fleeting person, because when it’s gone you have to have love left for your own life."
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Loneliness is only lonely if you let it be
November comes again and the man across the street shovels leaves like meditation. I expect to be lonely when the dark falls, but I also expect a hand to hold and neither seems just right this year. I turn my day around to escape the nights. I wake up at 4 a.m. because the sadness doesn’t come until later and I want to be asleep before it does.
I could just leave. I could just call it finished, say the season is over, thank you for the memories, get up and leave. It would be simple. I would love it. The feeling as I walk home today would be so different. Liberated. Like a burden falling off my shoulders because somehow I did not know, but learned, that the sacrifices and good deeds you try to do for another person can turn into heavy weights for them, too. Too heavy to carry. And the “thank you” I hoped to find each morning, from someone I thought I helped out, was replaced by “why” and questions, silence even. Telling me to stop.
I did just try to love him. I did just try to act with serenity and heart. I did just try to see how I was free as a bird and he was not so I could fly to him and pictured it wonderful. He would greet me with open arms and say, “Thank you for coming back!” and he would take me in and show me his house. Say, “You can sleep here and this is your chair, where we’ll have coffee in the morning and long sober talks at night, and I will show you around.” I would smile and feel loved and love in return because I would feel appreciated for the sacrifice I made … for us?
Instead, he asked me why, said it’s heavy when I’m here. I found myself hurrying home every morning by myself full of shame and regrets, sadness and anger,
because how stupid could I be to think someone could love
in the way I love
and how stupid could I be to think I had the right
to count on someone,
rely on someone,
and how stupid could I be to think someone
would want to build a nest
with me.
a home
with me.
the most homeless of them all who never seems to learn.
I’m no one to build homes with, only temporary moments of whatever I can offer in the moment and I forgot that and tried to be settled. available. but people don’t want that. They want fragmented moments of me, only at my best, preferably twice a year when they’re bored of ordinary.
Anyway. I’m fine. It’s November and I’m writing lists of things to see now. I’d like to go to Prague again. I’d like to go to Paris. Berlin is nice in the fall. I just bought a piano … I’ll sell it on eBay.
Loneliness is only lonely if you let it be.
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signed with love
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charlotte Eriksson is the author of 5 books, most notably a book of prose & poetry called You're Doing Just Fine, published 2015 on Broken Glass Records, and Everything Changed When I Forgave Myself, published 2018. Quotes and poetry from her books have been shared on large platforms such as The Artidote, Berlin ArtParasites and Word Porn, and she's had writings published on sites such as Thought Catalog, Bella Grace Magazine and To Write Love On Her Arm. Her books have sold over 30,000 copies worldwide.
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At 18 years old she took off to London on her own to embark on the long journey of creating a life for herself. A life she could be proud of. A life that made her excited to wake up every morning. With nothing but a guitar, her stories and a dream, she spent a year wandering in England, sleeping at train stations, airports and helpful fans’ couches. Singing for whoever was willing to listen and collecting stories that she would later share in her first book ”Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps”. Finding her fanbase through soulful connections by sharing her journey online, she started to build an exploding online fanbase of dedicated supporters.
Forward a few years and she has started her own artist collective Broken Glass Records, released 11 EPs and
4 critically acclaimed full-length albums, had her single ”I Will Lead You Home” reaching #2 on the Swedish iTunes-chart, been played on major radio such as BBC6 (UK), Sveriges Radio (Sweden) and 3FM (Netherlands) and toured all over Europe. She's published 4 books, telling the story of her wandering ways, life as an artists and travel essays on love and loss. Her books have been widely praised both by her music fanbase and by a new literary crowd of writers and readers.
Charlotte has taken on the challenge of writing comforting words on mental illness, depression, wanting more, growing up, heartbreak, chasing a dream and losing people.
She is currently living somewhere by the ocean in Europe, trying to find peace while thriving.
For press inquiries, interview requests or a digital version of the book for review, please email: lisa@brokenglassrecords.se
SPOKEN WORD
An excerpt from the book in spoken word format
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"Can I write myself out of love? With someone who does not love me back? I surely can write myself into love—I do it all the time. I write myself in love with places and moments, characters and someone’s issues. It’s lovely.
How long until the sadness comes back once I’ve stopped writing? Right away. It comes back right away. Unless I write something magnificent and profound and that feels bigger than the sadness
or the love
which is the goal, I guess.
To write something that takes up more space than the sadness."