So what's New for 22? My plans for the coming year, including new #books and #podcast

The Year Ahead...
Well I hope we all survived the festivities, or lack of them. Ours was a mixed bag - sadness because one family member wasn't with us for xmas, and although he's safe and in the best care, it was upsetting versus the joy of being home with the boys for pretty much two solid weeks, broken only by a trip to visit family or visits from family.

 Conscious of the rising Covid cases here in Ireland, we made a decision to cut contacts as much as possible (and even then Omicron crept closer and closer to our circle.) This made for a bit of a flat run up to xmas but a really nice chilled family oriented break over the new year. There'll be many years ahead hopefully, where we can socialize and make pieces of ourselves running from household to household; this was a year we'll remember for board games, family movies, minding Granny and lots of cuddles. 
So as the dust settled on the boys going back to school (I have an entire rant on that subject but I'll spare ye...) I began to plan out 2022. And I thought I'd keep it simple, but then a few amazing opportunities presented themselves on top of the projects to which I had already committed myself. So here is the amended plan for 2022, wish me luck!

JANUARY 2022

New for 22 -
1. The Body Beautiful, book three of the Caroline Jordan Mystery Series will be out later this year: catch up on the previous books HERE

2. Draíocht Ceoil, The Sound of Magic in Irish Tradition, a non fiction work that will explore the practice of Irish traditions using sound and music will be out later this year, and will have additional online recordings and help to supplement the book. Pre-orders will open in Autumn. This book can be read alone or use it to supplement the classes on Rosc or Draíocht Ceoil at the IPS. 

3.There are exciting plans afoot to host a podcast, featuring both Irish Crime Fiction and additionally the Poetry Series on Alzheimer and the family carer, in two separate blocks. This will require a commitment of time and effort on my part but I'm really excited by this new opportunity and hope to have it up and running in late Spring.

TEACHING
 I will be teaching two brand new classes in 2022 on the  Irish Pagan School (May and October) and you access my previous classes there too. The IPS promotes Indigenous Irish education on folk magic, folk lore, Old Irish and Modern Irish practices and Irish Spirituality. It offers a huge range of free material, affordable packages, scholarships and quality live and recorded classes. Details of the new classes to be announced, so keep an eye out.

As ever, always delighted to hear from you at Author@celebratingwords.com - If you would like to participate in the PODCAST either as a Family Carer or a Crime Fiction Writer or reviewer, please do contact me.

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New Year, Five Simple Words #newyear #resolutions #parenting #creativity

 

Five Simple Words

Each word has power, each sound carries magic for the New Year.

The whole new year's resolution thing isnt for me  at least not in recent years. I've done that, suffered the self recrimination and guilt, given up on the whole debacle. 

Instead, for the last 10 years I've chosen a word or phrase that I feel I'll live up to for the year. One year was "movement" and included exercise and moving forward in other aspects of life. Another year was "dig deep" - deeper spirituality, deeper commitments, exploring the roots of various issues. 

This year all five of us from my 89 year old mother to the 7 year old, chose a word. We're about to print them off and stick them on the kitchen door. We are going to live up to them as a family; even 24 hours in the boys are pointing out opportunities to use them. But before I share our Five Simple Words for 2022, here's some personal context.

Words have power. In Irish spirituality and folk traditions words have immense significance and power, with many layers of meaning attached to certain words and every sound, and syllable, has power. This is their inherent magic. Then there's the power with which we imbue sound and words. Our intent, our private meaning.

When we state intent through words it's a contract; we commit to match our actions to the meaning(s) and we use words as life rafts, to get us across to the next step.

So for 2022 in no particular order, our Five Simple words:

Kindness
Optimism
Perspective 
Calm
Health

Each of us has one that has special meaning but we've all committed to trying to live up to the set. And according to our youngest "that makes Family the most important word!" 

No arguments here 😀

P.s. If you've a word for 2022 share it!!

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As we edge towards year's end....#xmas #books #writing #writinglife

 It's been one long strange year.

Feeling the urge to take stock as this year grinds closer to the nadir of the wheel's turn.  Indeed as of yesterday it passed that point and we're on way back to the light.

It's not easy to sum 2021 up. Certainly the glib answer would be covid/stress that would kill a horse/fresh hell. But despite a terrible year in some ways, good things happened.

 Obviously on a personal level, publishing two fiction books has been a milestone in my life.  Despite editing and publishing several poetry collections, publishing a novel was a sharp lesson. Between book 1 and book 2 the learning curve was so steep as to be vertical but in the end I had two books of which I'm now proud. 

In addition to honing writing skills this year has been filled with challenging projects from marketing to sales; I now not only know what a reader magnet or book funnel is, I can create and use them.  

I also had the pleasure of seeing books in actual brick and mortar shops. Online sales are vital to independent authors and small publishers but there's nothing to compare to seeing customers reading the back of a book and buying it!

So good so optimistic; this year was also a year of endings. Having been a primary caregiver for my father for 7 years, five with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's and the last two in lockdown our world was turned upside down when a trip to hospital culminated in him being expedited into residential care. We knew it was going that way but definitely hadn't come to terms with it, not really.  The sudden change has been difficult. This Christmas is not what I'd hoped for although with two little boys you have to dig deep and find your inner tinsel. It took an outside eye to point out that we're grieving. He may be this side of life but we're grieving. 

Because we chose to keep him home until the last moment possible I had to choose to leave my business aside, 150 years of family business. This was hard although in fairness I would do the same again without a doubt. 

The fates in short have conspired and I'm now a full time writer or semi retired depending whom you ask. To paraphrase The Commitments it feels a lot better being a full time writer than a semi retired burnt out family carer ...

Every year I pick a word to live up to rather than making new year resolutions. 2021 was such a roller coaster I don't remember what word I picked. Whatever it was, this year I'm going to make sure I pick something peaceful. Gentle. Calm. 

For anyone finding this year hard, we'll get through it. It will pass. The light always returns, whether we believe it or not. It's the promise of life, that that wheel keeps turning dawn by dawn. 

The new year will bring two new books: the third Caroline Jordan Mystery and a non fiction academic book on the Rosc and draiocht ceoil. There's another very different story rattling around my head that I will start outlining during the year. So, not a busy then lol.

The Body Count: A Caroline Jordan Mystery Bk 2 will have an international online book launch as well as a Dublin launch (covid situation permitting) in February. Lots of fun and merch and prizes. 

So until the new year, stay safe and be well. 

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