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

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www.clareobeara.ie