February 10, 2024

Happy Chinese New Year 2024

Today marks the start of the Lunar New Year in China, and this one is the year of the Dragon. Here’s an article on Awareness Days that you can check out for ways to celebrate.

While my husband (then boyfriend) and I were living in Japan and working as English language teachers, we travelled to many nearby countries. Since it’s Chinese New year, I thought I’d take an opportunity for a trip down memory lane – and bring you along with me!

Hong Kong

With my hero, Bruce Lee

I’m a huge Bruce Lee fan. Bet you didn’t know that about me. I studied Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do while I was a Queen’s University student in my hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland, under Sifu Martin O’Neill who was a huge inspiration. Here I am in Hong Kong with the Bruce Lee statue. This photo was taken by my then-boyfriend-now-hubby back in 2006.

Taiwan

Kung Fu salute

I didn’t know much about this beautiful island before I visited, and learned much while I was there, including about the native traditions and more recent history during WW2. We also visited Taipei 101, then the tallest building in the world (it’s now 10th tallest, if I am correct).

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Posted by on February 10, 2024 in Biography and tagged , , , , , , .

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February 8, 2024

Benefits of having a flexible writing space

Writing is a flexible job. One of my favourite things about being an author is that you can pretty much set up your writing desk wherever you want. In a recent post, I mentioned writing on the sofa, for a bit of comfort to get my creative gears in motion. In this post, I want to look at what you will need and where are the best places to write.

What you will need – essential items

1. A backpack or bag.

2. A laptop or tablet with a wireless keyboard.

3. A notebook and pens.

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Posted by on February 8, 2024 in Writing and tagged , , , , .

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February 4, 2024

Low carb keto lifestyle – February update

Take that sugary junk!

As of 17 December last year I’ve switched back to a low carb/keto lifestyle. I call this my Saturnalia diet since I started it on the ancient Roman festival of welcoming the sun back into the world. My blog post, It’s a keto Christmas, focused on that.

I’m currently on Day 49, and it’s going well. Since I’m working out too (yoga/ resistance band workouts/ light cardio) I’m probably going to build some muscle, so I don’t think weighing myself will be too accurate going forward. Nevertheless, I’ve lost 7lbs in 7 weeks, which is a good steady rate of fat loss. My clothes are looser and I can now fit a fleece under my previously tight fitting winter coat. I think a better objective way of gauging my fat loss is by comparison photos, which I’m hoping to do on a monthly basis.

The first and third photos were taken today. Whilst I have digitally added the sugary junk in the first photo, just for the fun of the post, the photo shows an otherwise accurate representation of how I look this month, which I use to judge my rate of fat loss compared to December and January. The tape measure helps too. I have lost 1 inch of fat off my arms, thighs, waist and hips since last month. If ever I feel like I’m not making progress, I can always look back at the starting point of my keto journey in April 2020. Back then, I was at my heaviest weight ever and I was a UK 16-18 dress size, with a BMI of 31 (above 30 is obese). Here’s a photo from back then.

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Posted by on February 4, 2024 in Health and tagged , , , , , , , .

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February 1, 2024

Imbolc blessings – halfway to spring

Imbolc blessings, folks!

Halfway between the midwinter solstice (Yule) and the spring equinox (Ostara) is Imbolc. This is a pagan festival that has been celebrated since Neolithic times in Ireland and Scotland.

Ancient Imbolc was a Celtic celebration of rebirth and spring returning to the world. Similar to Yule, and the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which celebrate the sun returning to the world as the days grow longer, Imbolc has traditionally been celebrated since prehistoric times by lighting bonfires. Today, modern pagans light candles as a representation of light coming back to the northern hemisphere.

Snowdrops are a flower traditionally associated with Imbolc. Even though it’s still quite chilly here in Belfast, Northern Ireland, there were some lovely snowdrops braving the elements today, so I took a few photos without treading on any. Like my celestial leggings? I’m going to my yoga class later, so I’m dressed for the occasion.

Trying to not step on any snowdrops

Do I have any books suitable for Imbolc? None that are set on February 1st, though I’ll have to rectify that at some point. From L to R, here are the pagan influences in my books, for those readers who may be interested:

Gods of Avalon Road, my occult fiction, urban fantasy novel set in London takes place on Beltaine (May 1st).

The Buddha’s Bone goes through all seasons in Japan. Although Shinto, not pagan, it refers to the Spring Winds from China.

Some chapters in Matthew’s Twin take place on Samhain and Yule.

The Fairy Lights is set on Yule (21 December) and Beltaine (1 May)

One of the babies in The Blue Man (spoiler alert!) is born on Samhain (31 December)

Imbolc book glamour photo

Anyway, Imbolc blessings to you, whether you celebrate or not. The days are definitely getting longer here in the northern hemisphere, and spring is just around the corner.

Posted by on February 1, 2024 in Books and tagged , , , , , .

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January 30, 2024

Good morning from the Northern hemisphere

With my 6 fiction titles in a mystical forest 😉

Good morning (if you’re in the northern hemisphere, anyway)! Thought I’d do an author bio post with a few things about myself, since it has been a while and lately I’ve been posting other writing related or diet related stuff – it happens!

Pictured here are my 6 fiction titles. I write primarily paranormal and psychological fiction. Ghost fiction and occult stories too.

Halloween is my favourite themed season, though I like summer best. I’m kind of a lizard lady really. I need sunlight to stay warm, lol.

Am I witchy? Not really. I enjoy dressing up in my witch’s hat, but I’m not actually a witch. I’m more of a pagan-palaeo-princess, ha ha. I try to eat natural, whole foods where possible and I’m environmentally conscious. You know, reusable shopping bags, recycle stuff, buy from charity shops, walk places, etc. I love learning about the traditions our ancestors in the northern hemisphere would have followed thousands of years ago from Neolithic times onwards – like Yule and Samhain, as well as Imbolc, which is coming up. More on that soon!

Anyway, that’ll do for now. I’m a typical Aquarius too, so I better get on with my day and not get lost in my head!

You have a good day too, won’t you?

Posted by on January 30, 2024 in Biography and tagged , , , , , .

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January 28, 2024

Slow but steady writing progress – chipping away at three projects

Today I set up my writing space on the sofa, instead of at my usual writing spot on my (cluttered!) desk. I fancied the cushiony comfort, along with a cuppa, rather than working in my usual writing space. I had a funny scare yesterday while working at my writing desk, when my son crept up behind me and tapped my shoulder, while I was writing a ghost scene with headphones on – and frightened the life out of me! A more relaxed approach to writing, just for today, helped a lot (with nothing behind me, ha ha). It worked – I got about 400 words done instead of just a trickle, as it has been lately, in the balance of everything. It was good to dedicate some proper time to writing for a change; a first for me in a while – and maybe the comfort helped with that.

These days, I have taken to keeping a digital chapter plan on the first page of the word document for each WIP. I still use my writing notebook to jot down story ideas, or word count updates per date. This helps me to track progress.

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Posted by on January 28, 2024 in Writing and tagged , , , , .

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January 24, 2024

Another rotation around the sun, another year wiser

January is birthday month for me. As a kid, I disliked having a birthday after Christmas as there was never the same level of fun or excitement. Now as an adult I enjoy celebrating my birthdays, especially as I feel older and wiser with each rotation around the sun.

Still a big kid at heart, enjoying the little things

Age is just a number, or so they say. I read an article recently that if people have a positive attitude to aging, it can reduce cardiovascular disease by 11%. I’ve always had a positive attitude to aging. Getting older doesn’t scare me. Maybe having health issues since my late teens made me mindful of my own mortality earlier. Or maybe my curious mind keeps me young. There’s nothing more obnoxious than someone who acts like they know everything. Nobody knows everything. To pretend so is ridiculous. I’m not afraid to admit when I don’t know something, especially when my child asks questions about random topics all the time. As a writer, I’m used to doing research about a good many topics. Lifelong learning keeps the brain young, for sure.

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Posted by on January 24, 2024 in Biography, Health and tagged , , , , , , .

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January 16, 2024

Switching hats as writer, editor and publisher

Switching hats can be tricky!

An author friend on social media recently decided to take an online hiatus; she had been tirelessly marketing all of her indie-published books, running free promotions and giveaways, and wrote a rather dejected post about how she was reaping very little for all her hard work, including getting only a handful of post likes – to the point where she decided on a complete digital detox to refocus her author career goals.

I can relate.

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Posted by on January 16, 2024 in Marketing, promotion, Publishing, Writing and tagged , , , , , , , .

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January 12, 2024

The importance of having a positive mindset

My goals for 2024 are different. I want to focus much more on having a positive mindset this year rather than having X number of books published, reading X number of books, or losing X number of inches off my waistline. I want to focus on the here-and-now rather than dwelling on negative things in the past, which admittedly consumed me a lot last year. I want to make positive changes to the things I can control and accept the things I can’t (and doing so without regret would be good too). I want to spend more time out of my head and in reality with people I care about and not slip into a negative mindset focusing on bad things that have happened.

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Posted by on January 12, 2024 in Health, Opinion and tagged , , .

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