Clare O'Beara's Blog, page 2

November - Sustainability and SF Chat

Recently I was asked what being sustainable means to me. Here is my instant response.

Buy only what you need, when you need it or a little beforehand. Don't buy fizzy drinks in plastic bottles. Ever. Buy clothes that will wear for years and occasionally put some away for a couple of years, then take them out again for a change. Use old t-shirts etc. as kitchen cloths.
Donate or trade anything you have finished with that someone else might use.

Don't buy things just because others are, don't be conned into things like perfume, or designer goods at full price, keep your money for your mortgage.
Buy a secondhand vehicle because the most sustainable vehicle is one that is already on the road. Buy one that will last you twenty years.

Insulate your home and wear layers of clothes so you can keep warm.
Supermarkets should be doing much more - they should clearly label air miles or sea miles, so people will know the Scottish prawns were shelled in Indonesia and flown back to Scotland to be packed. People in Scotland need jobs and food transport is a massive user of fossil fuel.

Supermarkets should clearly label when their own brand products use palm fat. The owner of Iceland supermarkets visited Indonesia and looked at palm oil growing. he says there is no such thing as sustainable palm oil, and he has taken it out of all Iceland own brand products. Today there is one cup-a-soup, one crackers, and only a couple of chocolate products in Tesco that have no palm fat. All the rest of the shelves are off-limits to me because of this unsustainable, unhealthy fat.

Buy organic when you can. Switch one product you always buy, like pasta or porridge, to organic. Then randomly buy organic something fresh each week, like peppers or potatoes. You do not need chemical residues any more than the environment does.

Being sustainable also means asking the companies and government that serve you to do better. The slender-billed curlew, a northern European bird, has this week been declared extinct. The EU and farming should be doing much, much better.


Being sustainable also means deciding not to increase the strain humans are putting on the planet. Limit family sizes. Live in places that are not built on flood plains. Travel less by plane. Eat more local foods. Support local firms. Recycle everything.

Further notes from the 2023 Octocon held in Dublin.

Space Opera Panel
Michael Carroll – too many people only know the big movies, but there are more cerebral works, Banks’ The Culture novels for instance. Panellists agreed that Honor Harrington writes great characters. Can be space wars, but we need to keep the fun or it becomes homework. People don’t read just one type of SF. The Wayfinder series – what happens when someone falls in love with an AI? MC: peel the labels off things and put them on other things. If you take away the SF and the story still works, it’s not really SF. Take away the blasters and it’s a princess in a tower (Star Wars), it’s space fantasy.
Panelists agreed that SF can explore ethics, and mix in murder, romance, mystery etc. The Martian has characteristics of space opera. Science is taken as a religion. Solarpunk is more positive and works on building community. There can be an element of traditional life and of found family. The crew replaces family. Each iteration of Star Trek brings in new viewers; Captain Janeway in Voyager brought in more women.

AI panel
Panel debated whether a ship’s computer is a character. In The Culture novels, the onboard computer is respected. In Galaxy Quest it would only talk to Sigourney Weaver’s character, who job was to repeat the computer. But a ship is an integral part of the plot. They may be a second-class character, a non-human sentience without emotion. Sometimes, for a writer, a ship who acquires a voice is more interesting, as in Helva,
The Ship Who Sang. Different characters may be unsure if a ship is consenting to do something. You can not be sure if someone is a robot. A classic is the origin story of the maker – Frankenstein, Pygmalion, etc. Can something we made, make free choices?

In a James White story, a sentient computer controls a fleet, but it turns out the brain is getting senile and avoiding all conflict. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, is now a historical example. The spaceship may have an attitude problem, as seen in Hal and Murderbot. If the computer controls the ship, is it ethical to kill it? Morally, yes, if it is trying to kill you. Do we anthropomorphise equipment by calling it a friend? The Tardis takes the Doctor around but not always where they want to go – where they are needed. If ships become sentient, will they keep people around for maintenance, or not need us?

With the winter storms hard upon Ireland and elsewhere, we have to pick our days to go places and I’ve already had to cancel a few outings. Luckily, there are always books to read. Warm up with a free Kindle download of Murder at Kildare Mensa from 13 – 16 December.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E79D9K8

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E79D9K8

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

October - Volunteering and Octocon

I volunteered, along with my husband, to teach senior citizens IT skills, so they can be informed and stay safe online. Age Action runs short courses for free, and over the next six weeks we saw what a difference this made to the lives of the students. We also benefited from a sociable activity and making new friends.

I also volunteered at Octocon again, held in a Dublin Docklands hotel and great fun, as ever. I assisted with panels, registration desk, carrying goods in and out, directing guests, anything required. I had been invited to join a panel on The Lord of the Rings. Here are highlights from last year’s set of notes on Octocon. Among the events I was asked to join a panel on maps in SF&F.

Endings panel.
Paul Anthony Shortt, Michael Carroll, CK McDonnell, and others.
Good endings – MC, Babylon 5, PAS, Star Trek The Next Generation, CKM – Devil’s Hour. Cliffhangers – panel said no. End should be consistent with the story at that point, not revealing the story to be a dream like Dallas. You need to feel the characters earned the outcome. Not a good fantasy if you just collect side quests and swap that for an ending. The end should carry the message of the whole story, not just come to a halt. No new themes should be introduced. Build character endings, not events. When you get an ending you should say “I should have seen that coming,” not “Where did that come from?” However, show runners don’t want to remove anyone popular.

Culture of Ireland panel.
Triona Farrell – how to describe the complexity of Irish myth – shorthand is often a leprechaun. Samuel Poots – Judge Dredd went to Ireland and saw stereotypes, all green, everyone ate potatoes.
Ruth Frances Long – colonial influence, John Bull was shown as a noble influence on Irish peasants. At one point the Irish stereotype was a black-haired colleen, that shifted to red-haired, now the Scots stereotype is red-haired. Postcolonial the emphasis shifted to anything outside the British influence.
TF – The people creating visual images of the Irish were the English. War posters showed an Irishman in tweed, or with bagpipes; men drawing these in London may never have been to Ireland. They were enmeshed with poverty and became the narrative. RL – There was an episode of Eastenders in the 1990s where London people came to Ireland and were picked up by donkey cart at the airport. SP – Artists often made thing up wholesale and this went into collective consciousness. Now we are peeling back the layers.
Paul Carroll – Neil Gaiman’s leprechaun is 6’6 tall and fights. Brought character to life in a different way, feels authentic.
SP – changeling – developmental issues.
PL – Peadar Guilin – The Call, the Sidhe are so chilling and alien and scary.
Deirdre Thornton – the idea of having a faerie door in your child’s bedroom, how scary and twitchy. We are quite dependent on the tourists who want to find leprechauns.
PC – There’s a leprechaun museum in Dublin.
DT – older stories reference yesterday – the recent past.
RL – also, the field at the end of the lane, feels more immediate, within reach of listener. Feels more real.
TF - old fables feel very personal, and were warnings.
SP – Ulster has a cross-cultural mix and has its own content.
RL – Cornwall and Devon myth is different to English. Immigration adds new stories.

Film panel
During the Pandemic, people did a lot of viewing and reading. Generally they thought they would clear up the big pile of unread books but did not manage it. Some didn’t want to watch constant new films or series but stuck to familiar. If something has seven seasons, do you start if people did not like the end? Is it too big a commitment? (Panelists kept generalising with “everyone” and “everyone else” when these did not include me.)
If you’re one of six characters in a show you do not get treated specially. A major character can’t be shown as a recreational drug user although they hunt people for money. Series are drifting from core fandom to gain wider viewership. Willingness to view new content is based on having seen older content. Marvel Comics has 4,000 copyrighted characters. Spiderman is most used for walk-on parts, he does a swing-by in other stories.

TikTok shows 10 minutes at a time and people will snack on films this way, follow someone waiting for them to post the clip. Amazon checks which promo image you respond to – is it a female character, say – to show you more of these, even if she is one of six. YouTube killed off the fan film rooms at Cons. The demand for long films is dropping away. Episodes – do I have an hour? Will I give it another three hours if I don’t enjoy the first episode?

Netflix provides a free app which listens to the sound in the background and matches it – so it hears Deep Space Nine while you are playing a game or texting. Then feeds it back to Netflix. Some shows became casualties of Covid. Others were not available where people had to locate. The panellists had heard of people who ‘yo ho ho’d’ it or ‘the Jack Sparrow method’, while not recommending this.

Maps in SF and F panel.
I participated in the panel, meaning I could not take a set of notes. I sat with fantasy cartographer Jog Brozin on my left, and I said to him, “I have a map!” and produced a map of Doggerland, the land now under the North Sea between the Continent and Britain. This was dry land during the Ice Age. “See, the Thames and the Rhine are the same river. They join and flow south,” I continued. Jog was delighted to find a kindred spirit. He had some of his work exhibited at the Con, but I was the only one to hold up maps during the panel.

The other maps I showed were of London, as my characters cross the Thames, which lies between their zine office on the Isle of Dogs and the Dome, now the Embassy of Jupiter, at Greenwich. I explained I’d had to go there and find out how people cross the Thames. There’s more than one rowing club on that stretch, there’s the Docklands Light Rail, the Tube, a pedestrian foot tunnel, a motor tunnel from Poplar, a cable car, besides the bridges. And sailing boats and barges ply the trade route, plus which the characters can hitch a ride from friendly Neptunians.
We discussed Tolkien’s maps and political maps. I explained that I used geopolitical maps in my book Dining Out With The Gas Giants, blasting a way for rail and flight through the dry Andes from Argentina to Chile. My research discovered that there is already a motor tunnel, but I’m removing mountains. Jog got a little concerned and asked if this was really happening, so I assured him it was only in my SF, and no mountains were harmed in the making of this book.
I used the Doggerland map to illustrate sea level change and referenced Iceapelago by Peter Brennan, during which the ice falls off Greenland and Ireland becomes a chain of small mountaintops. The room collectively sucked in its breath. This panel had standing room filled at the back, and I always try to speak to and involve the audience. Panellists chatting among themselves can get rather uninvolving, though at Octocon the topics and people are always interesting.
I’ll provide more notes next month.

This month I am making Rodeo Finn free to download. 22 – 26 November.

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

September – Building a Body of Work

The Daily Mail which is based in London, bought one of my photos of the Tube and used it in a story about money spent on transport. Photojournalism is such a useful skill for me, as an article like this one does not need a photo taken yesterday. The portfolio of images I’ve been building this and last year is paying off. My photos of the Dail, the Irish Parliament building, are particularly useful. While I enjoy creating the art, it’s also great to fill a genuine need.

I did the work involved in taxing my new van, which could not be done on line as it was my first time taxing this vehicle. Then I was waiting for the disc in the post, which did arrive. The van passed the safety test with flying colours, of course.

I was invited to an art group coffee morning in The Bell Building, Darndale, a civic centre I hadn’t visited previously. This turned out to be one of the biggest art gallery spaces in Ireland, and most works are by local artists. The manager told us that the childcare unit which is part of the complex, is the biggest single childcare location in the world. Everyone was friendly and we had some great chats. Something as simple as a coffee in a new location is good for us, exercising the brain and building new layers of memories. Maps are stored in the hippocampus and my personal map has been expanded. I also got to talk to a happy ginger and white cat as I was leaving.

Decluttering. Recycled a computer, a box of pens that didn’t work, and other bits and pieces. This made space for me to move things around and clear out a drawer.

I completed proofreading my friends’ book and getting it ready for Kindle. Amazon decided that someone trying to access an account that hadn’t been used in a few years was suspicious, so it locked my friend’s account. I had been telling him to use it, but he’s 80 and couldn’t recall the last time he’d needed anything from Amazon. Then because he could not sign in, he could not access the help department. We had to get in touch with Amazon and ask them to communicate with him. Anyway, it’s delayed the publishing.

Amazon did not send anything to my senior friend to help with his blocked account, so my husband used his own account to get live chat and asked them for a phone number my friend could ring. I sat in my friend’s kitchen with him, ringing the number repeatedly, never answered. Eventually I worked out a plan of action with him and we wrote down the steps and passwords he would need.

We set up a new Gmail account, to be used only for books, and linked it to his existing one. Then we used the new mail to open a new Amazon account, after I had gone through clearing the browser history and deleting all possible Amazon cookies. With the new account, he was able to download a Kindle app and a free Kindle book. Then we set him up as a Kindle author and got started on forms. Some he will have to fill out with his wife as I don’t want to know about banking details. By then it was pretty late so we left it for another day.

My husband and I are volunteering to help senior men use computers – since I am doing it anyway, why not give a few more hours a week. Age Action are running this scheme and are glad of volunteers, so we will start in October. They sent training material, which I found helpful.



I’m volunteering with work at Octocon, which is the national SF & F convention, in the city centre in early October. To celebrate, I’m making an SF book free. Download Dining Out With The Ice Giants from Kindle 17 – 20 October.

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

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

If you need another Amazon 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 – Sunshine After Rain

The weather has not been great this year in Ireland, but we’ve made the most of the fine days. One Sunday we had a sunny day so we visited Malahide Castle and enjoyed lunch and a stroll. A local art group was exhibiting.


I was invited some weeks ago, to become joint owner of the Science Fiction readers, writers, collectors and artists, Group on Linked In, and that has now got under way. My connection Wilke Ebeling, Owner of the Group, kindly invited me to assist him. I shall find out my duties in due course, but straight away I got to put a masthead image of Curiosity the Mars Rover, on the Group.


I attended a Dublin Book Festival event, which was the launch of a book and talk about The Parks and Gardens of Dublin by Christy Boylan. This was held at Farmleigh House, in the Phoenix Park, coinciding with a plant sale and craft fair.


I met my writing friends for coffee and proofread their book, with the author beside me to ask him about detail. They are now ready to publish and I hope that will have happened by next month’s blog.


I recently filled out a poll on the reasons why I exercise. One reason is for my work with trees. The poll left out a motivation for exercise, namely that walking is better for the environment than driving and saves money as well! If I am not spending on fuel I have that money for another purpose, such as nicer food, savings or a holiday. Or books. Short trips use more fuel as the vehicle engine is most efficient when it is warm. So walk to the shops, the glass bank, the library, the bank, the post office, and combine a few purposes - make a run in the car for a major shop less often.


Getting 20 - 40 minutes of exercise twice a week outdoors is the best thing you can do for your health. This forces oxygen to every part of the body and improves circulation, it improves balance, judgement and memory. If you are carrying something you are also strengthening bone and muscle. Think of your posture while walking, and look around, all these factors help your mental attitude. The location is weather dependent, of course.

If you need a stick, crutch or walker, carry a small backpack for anything you will need or for shopping. This makes it much easier to open doors.

A fitness watch will record your steps and you can see how they change over the month. These watches do not have to be very dear or complicated, but the problem with the cheaper ones is that the straps break. So you might get a cheap one to get used to the idea, then next year spend more on a watch with better longevity. They work best when paired with a smartphone.

This month I am making Dogs Of Every Day free. Download 21 – 24 September.

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

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

If you need another Amazon 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 – Summer in Dublin, Working Equids Overseas

I completed the course online with the Law Society of Ireland in Environmental, Social and Governance, or ESG, Law. Changes are occurring fast now with EU laws recently passed and some more coming down the track. Among the Environmental issues covered were air pollution, climate change, goods from lands worked after deforestation, and safe working conditions. Governance includes how firms self-enforce compliance, how they adhere to paying taxes, whether they have a reasonable percentage of women at higher levels.
Social looks not just at responsibility in the community but whether staff are hired from minority groupings, such as people with disability, then are treated appropriately and included in social matters. Having a certificate in ESG Law, as ongoing professional training, helps to prepare me for a better future.

Summer here is a mix of cold and damp, and warm and sunny. Sometimes it’s been warm and humid. We’re coping, using the good days for photography, the washing, and exploring places of interest. I’ve got tree work done and put the new van to good use.



I attended an online session about working livestock in developing nations, hosted by the Brooke Hospital, which has a particular focus on horses, donkeys and mules, and trains local farriers, vets and harness makers. Working equids are essential to many people, and donkeys in particular help women and children with farming and carrying water and goods. On this occasion, held in conjunction with the World Farmers’ Organisation, we learned about farming in Guatemala, Kenya and Pakistan.

Small-scale farmers are caught in a cycle of shock-risk-poverty. Every dollar invested in resilience against climate disasters, means 15 dollars saved in recovery efforts, according to UN Rep Tori-Shea Ageela Freckton.

Dr. Muhammed Akram, the Chief Commissioner of Pakistan, agreed. The massive floods there of 2022 pushed food prices up 45%, as food is largely grown by subsistence farmers, 90% of whom use working livestock. Livestock should be included in local and national disaster plans. They need to be brought to safety in some cases, then feed, fodder, water and shelter.

Federd Valdiva gave us results from a case study of the Dry Corridor of Central America, which crosses five countries. He studied Nicaragua and found a high threat of drought, leading to 25% lower food production in drought years. Equids also are used to transport food, water, goods and people between communities post-disaster, and support people to move cattle to new grazing. The equids themselves suffered more at times of stress like this, including low body condition, thirst and hoof infections. Aid arrives on the backs of horses, he pointed out, and they are ambulances too when roads are bad. Nicaragua has been updating national tools for dealing with disasters, and in 2023, two million people participated in an exercise to mimic a volcanic eruption. This involved care and protection of working animals for the first time ever in Central America. Vet support was essential in preparedness plans.

We learned that in Kenya, over 80% of food comes from family farms. Several initiatives were explained that were more sustainable, used less water and made a better return for women farmers. The crucial part of the conference was clearly the sharing of studies, ideas and positive outcomes.
“We do not have to reinvent the wheel. The wheel is already there. We need to learn from each other,” said Alinne Olvera.
Brooke, a charity, can be contacted at: https://www.thebrooke.org/



This month I am making Murder Against The Clock free to celebrate the Dublin Horse Show held each August, and the recently ended Olympic Games. Download 17 – 20 August.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LTDYFXO

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LTDYFXO

If you need another Amazon 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 – Colleges, Changes and Afghan Carpets

During May and June, I attended events from various colleges, from film history to film future, crafts and war, and started a course in law.

We went to a local college open day as my husband trained with them previously. We saw the finished works which included animated short films, sculpture, photography, printing and design. They had a barbecue party to celebrate the end of the year.

I joined a focus group run by one of my past colleges, IADT, for a talk online about films and what films we would like to see. I don’t attend a lot of films, but Dune was an obvious set to mention. We agreed that something based on an existing IP (intellectual property) has many advantages.


I attended a talk in Trinity College about film history. Professor Michael Aronson is visiting from America and is setting up a network of research material about cinemas. He encourages film students to research the history of a local cinema and add that work to the network. One student said she wanted to find out the name of a movie theatre proprietor. Her last name was known, her married name, Mrs. Jake Smith. At the time women were called Mrs. (surname) in published materials. By researching through Ancestry.com the young lady was able to discover the proprietor’s first name, Agnes.
In Ireland, an obvious and important cinema was the Savoy on what’s now O’Connell St. This was rebuilt after the country’s change to the Irish Free State, and every decision from where to buy curtains to how many people to employ, was a politically charged issue.


I visited an exhibition of stunning rugs woven by women in Afghanistan, complete with film clips of the changing times there, from the start of the last century to today. These were compiled by one of the Trinity College departments, the School of Religion, Theology and Peace Studies. The women crafters reflected what they saw around them, which sadly, included war materials and army transports. Also a fantastical beast like a camel, the Buraq.

I spent an afternoon walking around town taking photos as the day was sunny. I enjoyed lunch al fresco at Collins Barracks, now the Museum of Decorative Arts and History. Coffee and a toasted sandwich of goats’ cheese, honey, and walnut on sourdough bread in the parade square was quite decorative!

I had further meetings with the friends who want to publish books on Kindle. They are nearly at the publish stage but not quite. They are so full of enthusiasm that I always feel energised after chatting.

I attended the launch of the summer edition of Tolka literary magazine. Very nice, wine and readings. This was held in Books Upstairs, the oldest independent bookshop in Dublin. One contributor who read from her work was Julia Merican who lives in London.

We had local and European elections, so not leading to a change of government, but it does show the parties the depth of their support.

I test drove a new van and while it doesn’t suit me completely, it fits in my driveway and would do my work. I bought it. This is three years old and lightly used – by a sparky, it looks like. The most sustainable vehicle is one which is already on the road.


The old van which I bought new in 2001 was a trade-in, we’re sad to see it go, but it’s in such good condition, the garage staff are talking about putting it in the Nissan museum. The problem I had with it was lack of parts over the past couple of years; as I maintained it so well, the exhaust tested zero for particulate matter last year. Diesel is now 10% biofuel in Ireland, and a fuel additive called Bluestar cleans the engine and exhaust as you drive. A serious problem for me was that vans have been made wider every year, and anything newer would not fit in my or my clients’ driveways.

I signed up for a course with the Law Society of Ireland again, this one is in Environmental, Social and Governance, or ESG, law. Continuing professional training is extremely important and has been made more so by the influx of new and forthcoming EU laws in the ESG field.


This month I am making A Dog For Lockdown free to download from 19 – 22 July.

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

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

If you need another Amazon 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 – Fast Fashion, and Covering a Biodiversity Conference

The power went off 9am – 4pm in a notified cut, and I had lots of paperwork and housework put aside for that day, so got it all done. This included sorting through old clothes to downgrade some for cloths, and taking the labels off the replacements I’d bought. Making clothes last as long as possible,
and donating or repurposing the old ones, plays a huge part in my budget. Modern clothes, however, are not made of the same materials. Jeans now rip from wear, because they used to be made of cotton canvas (the reason for stonewashing) but now incorporate synthetic fibres to make them feel soft and elastic, but which reduce weatherproofing and durability.
In the past, jeans stayed usable with replacement zips or pockets, although they might be kept for gardening or painting; now the zips and pockets are still good when the material is worn out in several places. Because fast fashion is cheaply overproduced by people paid very little, the unsold goods pile up and the fabric generally can’t be re-used.
Both production and disposal create massive environmental issues, from rivers running with dye to single use plastic hangers, and piles of clothes dumped in deserts. I see fast fashion as similar to takeaway food; trendy but costly, and ultimately not very good for you.

During one busy week, I covered a community art exhibition and a conference. The art was a community group show, several groups coming together to exhibit. Two friends of mine, both retired, did all the organising and gained sponsorship from the Council, and a Councillor opened the show. One artist had his 80th birthday that week.

The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) hosted a Farm, Forestry and Biodiversity conference and awards – free. This was a two-day conference called Finding Common Ground, including three awards ceremonies, two over lunches and one over dinner. I had some lovely meals and met some great people, including a family winning awards for a farm enterprise in artisan cheese. I covered a meeting on equestrian enterprises, seems anyone with more than two horses has to comply with an astounding
amount of paperwork and permissions these days, from water protection to solar roof panels. We were also entertained by a tuba player, Adam Buttimer, who is the 2024 RDS Music Bursary winner.


My question to the panel on Biodiversity. Panellists included a Green Party TD and Minister, a Trinity College scientist, a Birdwatch Ireland rep and another relevant person. The Mod was a journalist.
Yesterday the farm foresters were all talking about storing carbon in trees. Nobody yesterday or today has mentioned storing carbon in the bodies of wildlife on the land.
If you think of a whale, it’s easy to see that this animal stores a lot of carbon in its body. The whales were hauled up on land, so the carbon didn’t go back to the sea, it went into the air.
Now imagine a flock of 5,000 curlews on the Shannon Callows – I’m sorry if this makes you weep. You can see that these birds would store a lot of carbon in their bodies. A flock that size would support a population of predators, and those would support a population of apex predators, going up the trophic levels. And all of these animals and birds would be storing carbon in their bodies. Can we reward farmers who are storing carbon in the bodies of the wildlife on their land?
This has a second leg, which is agritourism. People will come to Ireland to look at our wildlife. They are already coming here to look at the white-tailed sea eagle. They’re coming to look at the dolphin. Why wouldn’t they come to look at the barn owl? And it’s easy to make space for a barn owl on your farm.
Mod: I think you have just blown the panel’s minds with the idea of storing carbon in the bodies of wildlife.

The answers as I expected were noncommittal, because nobody had considered this, and just about all agri policy is dictated by the EU, and the EU is interested in increasing farm production, not wildlife on farms. We’d just been told that curlews are down to tens of pairs and the nests are watched by armed guards to stop predators. But the important point is that I produced this idea, in front of a room full of highly interested farmers and foresters, and a knowledgeable panel. The idea, once heard, can’t be unheard. The RDS is bringing together the people who matter.

My May was even busier, but I’ll tell the rest of the events next month.

This month I am making Silks And Sins free to download from 20 – 24 June.
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

April – Orchestral Day, Ukrainian Evening

I went to RTE Radio Centre for the recording of a music performance by the RTE Concert Orchestra and two Royal Dublin Society Bursary winners, one a pianist, the other a clarinettist. Highly enjoyable. I had a gorgeous lemon and poppyseed muffin with coffee in the Radio Centre canteen, which is called Sound Bites.

That evening, I covered a talk in Trinity College by Dr. Olesya Khromeychuk of Ukraine. Hosted by Trinity College Dublin Long Room Hub, Trinity Centre for Resistance Studies, and Trinity Centre for Ukrainian Studies. The professor lives and teaches in London, as Director of the Ukrainian Institute in London, a registered charity.
She asked that more colleges begin giving courses in Ukrainian studies; generally, more authors and poets from her country should be read, and more films watched from Ukrainian producers.

The talk included personal stories of women affected by the ongoing war, whether bereaved, soldiers, recorders of war crimes, or victims of gender-based violence. Russia decriminalised GBV in 2017. Dr. Khromeychuk told us that her brother had been killed during 2017, and reminded us that the war with Russia had been ongoing since 2014 with the invasion of Crimea. She recently wrote an article for The Guardian on war fatigue, on the second anniversary of Russia's wholesale invasion of Ukraine.

Asked how the war damage could be repaired, Dr. Khromeychuk told us that the frozen assets of Russia should be used to restore infrastructure, schools, hospitals, towns, which were deliberate targets of destruction.






The weather has been so volatile that I had to pick my days to go out and just stay in the rest of the time. I even had to pick the hour to put clothes on the line. A named storm brought days of gales and downpours. I left suet and peanuts out for the birds, so they could feed easily, and on a calm afternoon the peregrine falcon returned.

A later Sunday was sunny, so we went in to town and had lunch, and I got some photos of the regenerated Docklands. Many financial buildings are located here, near the new Central Bank building; the National Convention Centre, recreated emigrant ship Jeannie Johnston, kayak rental and Epic Museum are also along the quays.

A non-fiction author asked me about publishing his autobiography independently, and I’ve given some suggestions.

This month I am making Murder At Dublin Mensa free to download. 17 – 20 May.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E78QKP0

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E78QKP0

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 – Forests, Authors, and a Falcon

I attended a talk on urban forestry in the lecture theatre at the Botanic Gardens, providing me with a chance to wander the glasshouses ahead of time. The speaker Mark Johnston is an eminent professor of forestry, and is also an author.


Mark told us about planting trees in cities in England and Northern Ireland, with the restrictions and benefits imposed by local circumstances. I was delighted to meet him and the President of the Society of Irish Foresters, Hugh Crawford, who kindly gave me his new book to review. The Irish Forestry Society, 1902 - 1923.

While I’m a tree surgeon, I never took forestry, so I will learn a great deal.

For International Women’s Day, I placed a photo of a woman passing the National Library of Ireland on Linked In, and recommended reading a book by a female author.

I went into town to attend a crime author talk with Jane Casey. She writes about London police detectives and was launching her latest novel, A Stranger in The Family.



This was held in 1WML which is a modern office building on the site of the former U2 music studios in Windmill Lane. Good crowd, mostly female but a few men, and we got a glass of wine each. I took a photo of the author and as usual, she said, “Do you want to get in?” and as usual I said, “Oh, no, I’m a journalist.”

St. Patrick’s Day was sunny but I’d had enough excitement so did not attend the parade. I had been reviewing Irish-themed books ahead of time. Weather is intermittently sunny, mostly wet and windy.

Dune 2. Fantastic. I’m quite cross that Princess Irulan didn’t get named once, she’s ‘the Emperor’s daughter’ throughout this film. There are not many named women by comparison with men. However, Chani’s role was increased and the film does come across as one of the great love stories of our time. Perhaps due to Pandemic restrictions, the directors chose to shrink the time period of the tale – in the book, Alia is four at the end, in the film, she is not born yet, so the story from landing on Arrakis takes under nine months. I can understand they didn’t want to bring a baby or small child on set, but it does seem too short a period. The ending sequences however – wonderful. Frank Herbert would have loved to see this film.

I gained a certification from the UN called Greening The Blue, about how the UN tries to run more sustainably, and how its personnel can make more sustainable choices. The principles should apply to everyone. For example, holding meetings to suit the largest number of people in one location, and planning several meetings to suit one person’s travel. Buying locally grown food and reducing use of heating and cooling in offices.

I attended a talk in Trinity College by a professor from the State University of Campinas, Brazil. Professor Francisco Foot Hardman described the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and loss of land and livelihoods for the people who live by traditional means in the area. Grants are available to help their young people attend college, but it’s hard for them to be one in a class of thirty. I took his photo, and said “Obrigada,” (thanks) which pleased him. The professor told me his great-grandfather was Irish, a Foot.

The latest NASA – SpaceX launch included Jeanette Epps, whom I was honoured to film at Worldcon 2019 while she was an Astronaut Candidate.

Big news, a peregrine falcon perched in our garden. I'm delighted to have gained a certification in Bird Nest Monitoring from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. So can you, and it's free. Visitors need to sign up and there is a page of info as training, which does not give all the answers needed, so some are common sense. You gain a nice PDF cert which is printable and could be used for a Scout badge or go on a CV.
https://nestwatch.org/learn/how-to-ne...

This month I am making Murder at Kildare Mensa free, 19 – 22 April. This mystery involves stud farms and skydiving.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E79D9K8
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E79D9K8

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 – Independent Publishing, and Spring begins

I met with the friends who are working towards publishing a book. They’re about ready to upload to make a Kindle version, but didn’t know you don’t upload a chapter at a time, and didn’t know how to put a title on a cover image file. That kind of issue. Luckily, due to being a student among young students in recent years, I know how to give tech instructions simply, even when I’ve never used an iPad or the particular program in front of me. When you have independently published a book once, the next time is easy; but I remember being quite nervous the first time I uploaded my work to Amazon and filled out all the electronic forms. That was over a decade ago, and I wouldn’t want to publish any other way.

There are legal issues too, about library accession rights, tax requirements and ISBN registration, which I’m guiding my friends through ahead of time. One of the ways I helped them establish copyright protection involves taking a Goodreads author page. The Amazon bot now imports a book automatically to Goodreads, and can accidentally place a title with a different author who has a similar name. By claiming the author page, the real author can straighten out any misplaced tomes.

We have a new Bank Holiday for St. Brigid, but the weather was so poor I doubt most people went anywhere. Last year I enjoyed the Lunar New Year festival in the city centre, but again, the weather really didn’t permit setting out this time. The Year of the Wooden Dragon got off to a blustery start. However, I have plenty of fun lined up for March, when the weather should improve.

Two goldfinches came to the bird feeder in my garden. The two collared doves who also showed up, are not able to cling to the wire mesh, so scouted for seeds falling to the ground. I scattered some seeds for them to pick, and they’ve been back a few times. I report the birds I see to the Birdwatch Ireland garden birds count each year.

I have been reading with great delight and most of my reviews are placed on Fresh Fiction. When I get time, I add a different review on Goodreads.

This month I am making an Irish novel free, ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, so download Murder At Irish Mensa and enjoy with your favourite Irish themed food and drink, 15th – 19th March.

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