Clare O'Beara's Blog

September - Solar Panels and a New Kitten

During August, we went to visit Windsor and surrounding areas of England. Locations included Windsor Castle, Cliveden, Henley and Marlowe, among others.

I visited the Dublin Horse Show. The grandstand has been demolished so that part of the RDS grounds looks very different while building work is in progress. There are several jumping and show rings, and screens up to show the jumping from the main arena too. For attending, I was given a special badge for members at the 150th Dublin Horse Show. This history of the Show was on display. For instance, shows were not held during the World Wars, as cavalry were quartered at the grounds. Originally the showjumping events were for cavalry, but this was soon opened up to civilian men, and soon after, women.

I am working through the oldest books on our shelves to clear out any we don’t want to re-read. Some were given to me by people going through the same process. Really old paperbacks just go to charity shops. Others I can donate to the RDS library book sale. The main incentive for me was to clear space, of course.

This was made urgent by the forthcoming installation of solar panels and a battery. The panels go on the roof, but the battery needed attic space. Cupboards had to be cleared for access for wires and earths. While the sparkies and roofers doing the work were brilliant, friendly and cheerful, and highly efficient, that installation day was a day and a half. We are now using phone apps to check the output. During daylight we are generally powering the house, heating water, charging the battery and sending power to the electricity grid, for which we will receive credits off our bill. During the night we use from our battery first.

My senior friends who are now publishing their own books on Kindle had a second book approved. This one had complications, which we had dealt with through showing Amazon photos of legal agreements etc., so it is just as well I took that course in media law.

We have one older cat at present, and we adopted a new kitten. This is a tabby and white girl kitten, impossibly cute and lively. I drove to the cats’ home and saw the mother and siblings, and where they were living. They were all healthy and enjoyed the run of a garden and shed. Our kitten stayed in my office room for a few days, learning how to use a tray and scratching post, as the older cat hissed. Gradually the kitten started to explore the perimeter. (Yes, that is a Murderbot reference.) As I write, we now have the risk of being ambushed at any time, and kitten toys are strewn around the floors. Oh, this is fun.
To celebrate the Horse Show, I’m making Show Jumping Team free to download, 21 – 24 September. Grab it at:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NRBAA9A

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NRBAA9A

If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.
You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.

www.clareobeara.ie

August – The Arkady Renko Connection

Martin Cruz Smith has passed away, I’m sad to report. For many of us, his seminal Gorky Park (1981), told from the point of view of a police investigator in Cold War Moscow, enlightened us as to the lives of everyday citizens in modern Russia.
Polar Star and Red Square continued the theme, and later books followed Arkady Renko as he investigated cases in places like Havana and Chernobyl.



Tatiana burst onto the scene in 2013 with the titular journalist coming into Arkady’s life. Journalists were no longer dutifully reporting whatever Tass was authorised to state. They were exploding myth, exposing corruption. Dangerously, for everyone concerned. With the invasion of Ukraine, Renko and Tatiana continued to expose criminality, even if that meant war crimes.
Hotel Ukraine was the author’s last book, as he had been fighting against Parkinson’s Disease, an affliction which he bravely placed onto his investigator. His last works were produced with the aid of his wife Emily.

When Simon & Schuster prepared to publish Tatiana, in 2014, they ran a contest for a short story relating to Arkady Renko. The title was to be 'London Calling'. I won.

Here is the link to their archived publication of my short story.

https://the-dark-pages-blog.blogspot....

The judge was Martin Cruz Smith. This was his note to me.
"Please congratulate Clare O'Beara for me for her clever short, short story 'London Calling.' I appreciate that she treated Arkady kindly, taking his age into consideration, and managed to cross the finish line with a different sort of twist."
- Martin Cruz Smith.

At the time I had published books on Kindle about journalism and crime in a future London. Mr. Cruz Smith started out as a journalist. We were well matched. I have enjoyed all the crime books by this author, including The Indians Won (1970), an early work by this part-Pueblo author. In this alternate history, Crazy Horse was not assassinated, and went on to become the greatest General the Native tribes had seen. He united the tribes and pulled together a nation-sized block of states down the centre of North America, working with the Mormons in Utah. The dual timeline book shows us how this would play out into the 1980s, with an independent government. Sadly, this one hasn’t been republished. Another writer has told me that she lives in Canada and wanted to read this book in her library, but it was in the reference section and she could not borrow it.

Other works by Martin Cruz Smith include Stallion Gate, about the early atomic testing sites on reservation lands. Nightwing, about a cloud of disease-carrying bats in the Southwest. Rose, a historical crime fiction about British coal miners. And he wrote a few books about Gypsy people such as Canto For A Gypsy, which I read, but this was too American-centred and non-SF for me. He won many awards and inspired several films.
Here’s his Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_...

The Guardian obituary.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

This month I have been travelling, I will report on that next time.

Here is a YA book set in the American Southwest free: Rodeo Finn. Download 21 – 24 August.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OU100W8

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OU100W8

If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.

You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.
www.clareobeara.ie

July – AI and Murderbot

I have been enjoying the course on Artificial Intelligence from the Law Society of Ireland, and I completed that during July. This is useful for ongoing professional training and keeps me updated.

I attended a talk in the RDS by Deborah Perry Piscione, for the MBA programme. This talk on AI related to her latest book, Employment is Dead. Among her points were that entry level jobs and supervisory jobs are going to be done by AI systems, so there will be a shortage of trained people to work up the career ladder. Physical skills will still be needed, like nursing and farming. But many medical and legal jobs can be automated.

I asked: Two weeks ago, I was attending a talk at Trinity College and I told the student next to me that in ten years’ time, the only jobs going would be ones you do with your hands, like plumbing, gardening, nursing. He was wondering what he would do with his Master’s degree in History. While you say more people should work in agriculture, farmers today don’t want workers. They are mechanising all the food production they can, from eggs to pork to field crops. They invest in huge tractors that are directed by satellite, and very soon these won’t have cabs, because they won’t need drivers. The data about the field belongs to the tractor firm, and it tells the farmer where to plant and where to fertilise. The government inspects the field by satellite too, so they don’t send out Department of Agriculture staff any more. And they can tell the farmer they haven’t harvested the last three percent of the crop yet.
So if more people are going to be doing basic work, like picking watermelons all day, I believe the price of residential property is going to be the stumbling block. We know from reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich in the 1990s, many Americans had to work two or three jobs to live indoors. Firstly, what are the highly educated people going to do? Secondly, will picking watermelons pay enough to buy or rent a house? And thirdly, if so, will people accept paying more for their food?

Deborah thought that the highly educated people will read and write books, offices can be converted to residential use, freeing up buildings, and food prices will vary a lot.
Afterwards another attendee asked me about the property issue. I said, I see the price of residential property as the real stumbling block. Suppose you are a big residential property owner. You have two large apartment blocks. Do you want to rent out those apartments at fifty dollars a month? He said, No.

I have finally subscribed to a streaming service, it is Apple TV and I got it purely to watch Murderbot (and will watch Silo). It’s beyond fantastic to see modern SF books getting produced to high standards and reaching new audiences. The Murderbot character is an AI security unit which has hacked its controlling module and can act as it chooses, provided the humans don’t find out. Give it a try, there are plenty of YouTube clips so you can see if it suits.
The great news is, Murderbot has been given the approval for a second season. Alexander Skarsgård is the titular character and executive producer. (I hadn’t seen him in anything but True Blood before – another series based on books.) Martha Wells has been a contributing producer. Love it.

Here is an SF book free: download Dining Out On Planet Mercury 24 – 28 July.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074Y53JMX

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074Y53JMX

If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.

You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.
www.clareobeara.ie

June – Trinity College, Journalism, and Summer in Dublin

Trinity College Dublin and the Long Room Hub held an enlightening symposium on Journalism - Behind the Headlines. This featured two panel talks, followed by a talk by Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, on the issues facing journalists and lecturers in journalism as they do their work, including PTSD, and the supports they require.

Deirdre McCarthy, Managing Director, News and Current Affairs, RTE, told us about public service broadcasting expanding to stay relevant.

We heard that journalism is rooted in the community, but today's media workers may be overwhelmed by the rush of news, chatter, and need for speed in processing and reporting. Verification is more relevant than ever, with inaccurate, deliberately fake or extreme content abounding on social media. At the same time, non-traditional channels may be the only way a citizen journalist in a war zone can get reports to the world. Historians agree that archives help establish the truth and provide a record for the future.

Some educational and media institutions are being defunded or losing sales, with attacks from many directions. But the hope for the future was agreed to be that young people are actively seeking news and current affairs, on many platforms and types of media; and they need to be trained to recognise attempts at manipulation. Bruce Shapiro particularly remarked on the persistence of modern myth as a way of vilifying part of a community on no real grounds whatsoever.

The packed lecture theatres all afternoon and evening reflected the ongoing interest in the topic from media, educators and members of the public.

I learned that author Peter Morwood has died after a brief illness; he was a regular guest at Octocons with his wife Diane Duane.
They authored Star Trek books and fantasy. I had the honour and the pleasure of participating in a panel on dragons with both Peter and Diane. On one Octocon panel, Peter brought a collection of medieval swords, maces and hammers for us to admire. Peter was awarded a Golden Blaster for his contribution to the Irish SF scene. He will be sadly missed.

I enjoyed covering the launch of a book about the crow family in Ireland. Encounters With Corvids is filled with memorable accounts of meeting these birds in the wild as the author Fionn O’Marcaigh went about his college scientific research. This launch was held in the Gutter Bookshop in Temple Bar.

Allan and I went to Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park on a sunny Saturday, to a talk on neighbours of the Guinness family, who used to own the house. One wealthy lady of the day is considered the model for Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. Winston Churchill lived nearby as a child. We had lunch there and enjoyed the gardens and lake.

This month I am making a summer book free. You can download Dining Out With The Gas Giants 26 – 29 June.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0150KLQIE

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0150KLQIE

If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.
You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.
www.clareobeara.ie

May – Finding Common Ground and Independent Publishing

I just finished helping a friend with the publication of Bergin's Quest by J. M. Harpur. I highly recommend this Irish and European historical thriller.

I covered the Royal Dublin Society’s second Finding Common Ground Festival. This brought together university lecturers, students, farmers, foresters, artists, film producers, horse lovers, builders and environmentalists and more. Two Awards lunches were featured to celebrate the most sustainable enterprises and communities.

One talk I attended featured innovations in design and construction, and re-use of materials such as timber, farm waste and brewers grains.
Noting the contents, my comment was:
“I used to have horses. A few years ago I saw a programme on District Heating, set in Denmark. This showed them shoving a beautiful, big, golden, round bale of straw into the maw of a giant furnace.
I’m thinking, my horses would love that straw. This was a cold and wet year in Ireland, so you can imagine the price of straw, and cattle would use it too. On brewers’ grains – that’s all we have left to feed, now the beet pulp has gone. We used to have sugar beet pulp, but there’s no sugar beet anymore, so all we have is brewers’ grains. Whatever you are burning, or you are digesting, you are making life harder and more expensive for somebody else. Can we burn plastic, as waste to energy? We have too much plastic, we don’t want it, can we burn it?”

I got one answer that yes, very little on farms was actually waste, so I was right, and another that the Ringsend WTE plant would burn plastic mixed with other material, and had been piped ready for DH when that would be approved and installed. The professor who had developed a way to make biscuits out of brewers’ grains didn’t reply.

I also attended a talk about film and arts generally as to environmental issues. There is a rating called ALBERT which assesses the carbon cost of transport of people and equipment to film locations (so hiring when you arrive is better) and the green or dirty energy used to make the film, the food eaten on set, etc.

Hearing a mention of hidden artists and how we might give them prominence, I asked a question.
“On hidden artists - I’m an independent publisher. I’ve nineteen books out. How this works is, I write the book, I edit it, I make the cover, I publish on Kindle, I set the price, Amazon gives me 70%, I do the marketing. But I can’t enter book awards, because you have to have a dinosaur publisher and a wholesaler. Can your colleges hold an award that independent publishers can enter? It needn’t be for money. A prize could be two nights B&B in the Burren or on the island, and give a talk to a class to pass on your skills. I would love that prize, I would enter that in a heartbeat. There is great prestige attached to book awards, and kudos even from being a runner up in an award. So you can you do this?” The lecturers were interested and one of them later invited me to view her college’s exhibition which would be on display through the summer.

With better weather, May brought more events, and I’ll report on those next time. I have also continued to assist other independent publishers to get started.

Amazon’s paperback pricing had to rise recently due to the increased cost of paper. I sell only a few paperbacks but I know they are often given as Christmas presents, usually to children, so I keep the cost as low as possible. Here is a Kindle giveaway, and don’t forget you can read using a free Kindle app on a PC or Android phone.
A Dog For Lockdown will be free, 29th May – 2nd June.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08H2C4K46

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H2C4K46

If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.

You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.
www.clareobeara.ie
 

April – Showers and stories

The weather kept me indoors for much of the past month, including St. Patrick’s Day, but we did get some sun. I attended a talk in Trinity College about a Welsh painter who lived in Rome and Naples for part of his life, with his household accounts and memoirs. Thomas Jones 1743 – 1803.

The one day I wanted to get groceries, I found the van had a flat tyre. Normally I can handle this myself, but this was my new van so I called the AA. The nice mechanic came and I watched and chatted while he removed and replaced. Due to St. Patrick’s Day, I had to wait to get the flat tyre mended. Both mechanics had some trouble getting the spare tyre out from under the van / back fitted underneath it, despite having trolley jacks and long levers on the wheelbraces, so I think I’ll be calling the AA in future. When in doubt, call an expert.

I attended an online talk about AI by publicist and educator Ellen Gunning. This was highly interesting, as the field is moving so swiftly, and the focus was on fakes, incorrect news or answers, and augmentation of other tools.

Separately, I and my husband have kept up our IT training classes with seniors for Age Action. Some students have too many phone apps, most of which they don’t want, and this deters them from finding the useful ones and learning how to use them. We show them how to delete random arrivals, and put the basic ones like the alarm and calendar, and grocery store voucher ones, to good use. Other students have a laptop but no experience with word processing, and come out knowing how to write a letter or create a poster for a raffle.

Otherwise, I have been reading plenty. Mainly I tried to clear books that were a couple of years on my to-read list, from when I was at college and couldn’t read other material. Several of those were overdue reviews, which I have posted or sent to Fresh Fiction, which then posted them.

I covered the RDS Finding Common Ground Festival, which was held over two days during April, and I’ll report on that next month.

This month I am making an Irish racing romance story free. Download Silks And Sins 25 – 29 April. This book for adults is also available in paperback.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EGXYKR6

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EGXYKR6

If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.

You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.

www.clareobeara.ie

March – Art and Arts

St. Patrick’s Day greetings! I visited a good friend’s book launch before Christmas, and this month, I enjoyed an afternoon at a gallery exhibition by a collective of women friends. When we work together, we can accomplish so much.

Shabnam Vasisht’s latest book launch was held in the LexIcon Library in Dun Laoghaire. This was my first time to visit the massive, modern library, which has five floors over an underground car park. Naturally, there are adult and children sections. Outside, there’s paving, a pool, lighting, and just across a small road is a former church which is now the National Maritime Museum. Inside LexIcon, there’s a separate event space, a charging bank for phones, stairs, lifts, seating, and restrooms. They did remember the books. You can take a virtual tour at this link.

https://libraries.dlrcoco.ie/dun-laog...


The launch was of Shabnam’s latest book combining memoir and history. Digging Up The Raj In The Attic follows on from Digging up the Raj in Deansgrange Cemetery, which featured Irish-Indian connections found at Deansgrange Cemetery. Shabnam got so much mail from her readers, telling her about their relatives, that she started arranging to visit them and photograph their records, paintings, mementoes and family photos of the past. Seeing all this material collected shows how strong the links were.
At the time of the Raj, both Ireland and India were British colonies, and Britain was determined to keep them. Irish people went out to India to work or marry, fortunes being made and lost; and Indian-born people came to Ireland as wives or children of the Irish, or as individuals.

Creative Collective held their latest art exhibition in the Red Gallery on Dawson Street, near the Mansion House. I especially enjoyed Maggie McCartney’s warm and tactile works in mixed media. Other creations included ceramics with wool inside them, branches adorned with knit woolly sleeves in the colours of lichen and moss, and two representations of Celtic interlinked circles. Ars Longa, Vita Brevis. (Art is long, life is short.)
If you are looking for something to do any day, drop in to a local gallery and see what’s on display. The artists are always glad to chat, and nobody will push you to buy anything. But you may be tempted.

This month I am making an Irish story free, appropriately. Download Murder At Irish Mensa on 16 – 20 March. This book is also available in paperback.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E5JMQP4

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E5JMQP4

If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.

You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.
www.clareobeara.ie

February – Red Storm Warning

During the previous month we had a Red Storm Warning which covered the entire island of Ireland. The storm reached from the south of Spain to the top of Ireland.
We had two storms one after the other. The first was a sunny day wind storm and brought record breaking wind speeds. New terms are being used by the weather staff, such as a sting jet of particularly powerful localised winds. This was compared to the ‘Night of the Big Wind,’ a historic storm.
Two days later a rain storm arrived. Half a million premises were without power, mainly due to fallen trees. These included trees down over roads, forty trees in a shelter belt, and swathes of forestry timber trees. I shopped before the storms and fed the small birds throughout. My garden has shelter and shrubs, so they were able to huddle and feed through the worst weather. I had thirty starlings and seven sparrows.

Volunteering with Age Action went well. My student turned 80 years of age. However, a book launch I’d planned to attend was cancelled, due to the entire island being under a red storm warning. With constant cold, sullen skies and frequent rain, we just had about two fine days. During past years, January – February might bring snow, but it definitely brought hard frost, with clear sunny days and white fields. Not any more. A storm a week is the order today.

So, what have I been up to? I'm writing. I’ve used the fine days to take photos locally. I’ve been decluttering regularly. Part of the decluttering has involved the computer and the e-mail. The TBR (to be read) review book mountain has diminished greatly, and a few of the paper books around the house have been read. My inbox content has shrunk. I’ve been getting on with a lot of admin jobs so as to have them out of the way – when the rest of the year starts, I will have a free run. However, this makes me wonder when the rest of the year will start. Last year we had a few fine days around May, or June, and there was no real summer.

While it may seem trivial for the Irish people to complain about rain, when California has been beset by extensive wildfires and Australia is currently experiencing a violent storm over the northwest, for people in a rural Irish house with no power or water for eighteen wintry days, and children studying for exams, our weather is definitely relevant. This is all linked. We are experiencing weather disasters and weather extremes on a massive, global scale, unprecedented in recorded history. Take any steps you can take to reduce fuel use and draw down carbon. Reduce plastic use and clear off any debts. A storm is coming.

This month I am making Dining Out With The Ice Giants free. Download 20 – 23 February.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MW8IQXG

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MW8IQXG

If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.
You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.
www.clareobeara.ie

January – A Warming World, Digital Divide.

As I write the world has been 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times during an entire year, for the first time in all recorded history. The cost of such turbulent climate shifts is still being counted, as seen in the devastating wildfires, and will continue to rise.


Here in Ireland, I’m back volunteering with Age Action Ireland, to train senior people in the better and safer use of new technology. Several years ago, a radio commenter was saying “now that everybody gets their news from twitter….” When I neither used the platform, nor got news from it. I still don’t. A common fallacy is to imagine that everyone in society does the same as the people around you. The digital age has created massive digital divides. Fortunately, with the help of colleges, community colleges, NGOs and good friends, skills are being passed on as appropriate. Warnings, too.

Recently I was asked about advertising. I don't use social media and I run strong ad blockers.
Web users need to know that facebook refuses to take any responsibility for the ads they are paid to publish. If you follow up a bitcoin ad and are scammed for your savings by people abroad, who yell down the phone that they will report you for money laundering, when you have asked for your money back, the Gardai will tell you it is your own fault and facebook will not answer your mails. This happened to someone I know.
If the owners of the platforms were made personally liable for the losses this would not happen. As it is, they get rich from ads for scams.

Targeted ads that use my personal data are so badly done that Google kept showing me men's clothes, ads for me to date fat women (I'm a woman married to a man) and ads for gambling. I never gamble. If they want to waste advertisers' money, I guess they can waste gambling firms' money anytime.
I also got a spate of on-site ads for personal alarms for seniors, which showed the same photo and claimed the same story had happened to a senior in X area, wherever they thought I lived or visited at the time, which varied over a few weeks. As they were obviously lying, I could not believe a word.

We have looked at cooking videos on YouTube and my husband said "why does he always use saffron?" and I said "because he's getting sponsored, look it's always the same brand he shows. Turmeric is a cheaper alternative."


As I meet friends and regular staff I’m wishing them a happy new year. To all my readers as well, Happy New Year. I’m catching up with reviews, which helps other authors. I’m recycling. And I’m feeding the small birds in my garden, so a few bullfinches have appeared. These are very shy so they only come when lots of other small birds are present, because that means it’s safe. Kind deeds put good karma into the world.

I sell photography through Shutterstock, and that platform has announced its wish to merge with Getty Images. I don’t know if this has to go through competition authorities, or if it will rearrange the terms for contributors. Some photographers would already sell through both platforms, but the merge would let me sell to Getty customers as well.

This month I am making Murder At Scottish Mensa free. Download 23 – 27 January.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E78J0W0

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E78J0W0


If you need another store’s link, ask below in the comments box. If you enjoy a book, please consider leaving a rating or review to help other readers.
You can follow me on Linked In to see some of my photography. Catch up with my news, events and Young Adult Page on my website. You can also sign up for my seasonal newsletter. I have a page devoted to helping writers publish independently.
www.clareobeara.ie

Review Of My Year: Vans and Victory

Goodreads says I have read 254 books so far for 2024, and they named me a Top 1% Reader and Top 1% Reviewer. And the month is ongoing.
As always this has been a busy year, and I notice myself trying to pack in as much as I can to each day and week. I am in the middle of my next book, and 2024 was the first year I haven’t published one since I started in 2013. Instead, I concentrated on my photography, bringing my gallery on Shutterstock from 300 to over 1,000 images. When you hit 900 you are getting regular sales every month. The habit is so ingrained in me that I look around and snap anything worthwhile.

I took a course online with the Law Society of Ireland in Environmental, Social and Governance, or ESG, Law. This is my second course with the Law Society and I find it really helpful in keeping my credentials updated. I also took an environmental course with the UN again.

I attended conferences ranging from donkeys in developing nations to climate-smart agriculture and biodiversity in Ireland. I attended book talks by authors from a crime fiction writer to a tree surgery professor, and on topics ranging from the Amazon rainforest to the war in Ukraine. I helped out at Octocon again, and was invited to join a panel on 70 years of The Lord of The Rings.

I’ve made good friends locally and helped them through the complexities of independent publishing. That is ongoing. I’ve started volunteering, with my husband, with Age Action to help seniors use tech safely and expand their skills. We are booked again for January’s course and looking forward to the start.

This year I had to say goodbye to my van of many years, the first new vehicle I bought myself. I would happily have bought the same model again. Now I have a slightly smaller van which doesn’t have the same features, like a sliding door on each side and a rear-view mirror. I’m baffled how van manufacturers think adding an LED screen that tells you what song is playing on the radio, beats the sheer usefulness of what I had. As I do tree surgery work, but less of it now, the smaller vehicle is justified.

I’ve done some decluttering, which is always helpful. I keep trying to declutter some books; however the piles continue to grow. Review e-books and libraries are to blame. This year I read a Ken Follett book for review, but had not managed to read his previous book which I’d bought. I’ve now put it on top of a pile. I’ve continued to review for Fresh Fiction, getting the best of forthcoming reads. And Shepherd.com asked me again to pick my three favourite reads for the year. Find them at this link.
https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024/f/clar...


My husband and I took a long-promised trip during autumn and visited the Historic Naval Dockyard in Portsmouth. We visited HMS Victory, the Mary Rose, and HMS Alliance, which is a submarine. Victory included a museum about the Battle of Trafalgar and the preservation of the ship, which has had renewal work done in every decade. Mary Rose museum showed us Henry VIII’s naval service. Our guide inside Alliance was a former crew member.
We ate lunch each day in the dockyard café, such goodies as Waste Knot Soup and Cornish pasty, served with enamelled tin mugs and plates. We ate dinner in the commercial quarter near our hotel, ranging from sandwiches or a cheese platter to a sticky Korean chicken rice bowl, with English ciders. If you have time to spend in the south of England, this compact set of museums, with hostelries close at hand, is a great way to enjoy a few days.

Looking forward to 2025, I will be feeding the birds, and this month I’ve had bullfinches and goldfinches in my garden. Here’s hoping I see more of them. The weather really was not good very often during 2024, which limited my photography days. This also limited the days available for tree work, so it’s just as well I don’t depend on that anymore. Next year we’ll do some more travelling, for short breaks, destination currently unknown, and some more reading. That is for sure.

Warm up with a free read, you can download Dining Out Around The Solar System Part One and Dogs of Every Day from Kindle 23 – 27 December. Happy Christmas to those who celebrate and Season’s Greetings to all others.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00SONOGF0
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SONOGF0

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08CJG12SP
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CJG12SP

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www.clareobeara.ie