Here we are in the school holidays with the Easter Weekend almost upon us. I do love this time of year with the spring flowers giving welcome splashes of colour in my garden and local green spaces.
With images of daffodils in my mind my thoughts always turn to the well known Wordsworth poem, I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud…
“ I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”
As well as being springtime it’s also awards season. I’ve been busy submitting nominations to The Woman Who Achieves awards, my local area RCC (Rural Community Council) awards and the Business Success Network Awards (for disabled entrepreneurs.)
I’m planning to enter my memoir From A Place Called Shame in the BIBA awards / cover design category later this week and have received an invitation to apply for 2024 Co - Author of the Year Award run by publisher, The Book Chief, aka Sharon Brown.
The Secrets of 99 Successful Women (published by The Book Chief) is an inspirational anthology of women’s life wisdom in which I contributed Chapter 20, Finding My Inner Butterfly. 🦋🦋🦋
The Secrets of 99 Successful Women: 1 https://amzn.eu/d/eZHyJEy
April this year holds several exciting events for me..
Sat 6th: The Book Dragon, a small indie bookshop in Stockton-on-Tees, in the northeast of England will be selling signed copies of From A Place Called Shame from 2-4pm. Sadly I’m unable to attend in person this time but if you know friends there please let them know.
You can read The Book Dragon’s review here:
https://www.thebookdragon.co.uk/book-reviews/from-a-place-called-shame-by-author-carolyn-parker/
Wed 10th: I am in the final phase of publishing Finding Little Me - learning to ❤️ and live with my inner child - in ebook form on Amazon KDP.
Mark 10th April in your diary.. it’s launch day .. with a special LAUNCH DAY ONLY price of £1.99
I will be going live on my other socials and will add a video in here / says she confidently .. need to learn how !!
Fri 19th: I’m celebrating big style .. it’s my 65th birthday 🎂 🥂✨🦋
As this is a milestone birthday I’ve arranged a variety of events .. on the day I have booked a small lunch party and an evening of music and “madness” in my local pub before I travel south to meet up with two sets of old friends in Wiltshire early the following week. I’m SO looking forward to seeing folk I’ve not spoken to for quite some time and catching up on all the news.
I’m planning a birthday book offer too.
Oops! I almost forgot to mention two other pieces of bookish news..
I had a great meet up with Donna Taylor, another local memoirist and journal creator, to discuss next steps for a series of Meet The local Author Events we’re planning for summer/ autumn 2024.
ALSO
I came across Sarah a heart led artist on Facebook through a group I’m in. We just clicked and both felt we could collaborate to run a creative wellness day retreat. It’s very early stages, but looks promising.
Do you find doors sometimes open when you’re least expecting them to?
I had initially decided to focus on the books/ writing side of life this year but at the back of my mind I’ve planned out a Paint It Out workshop to help women externalise their emotions by throwing them onto canvas, a process I found to be therapeutic myself. I’ve visualised running this as a retreat workshop so when I met Sarah in her online workshop I just had to connect and let her know my thoughts. She came back with “I’d also love to run a retreat” or words to that effect. Less than 24hrs later we were chatting on a Zoom call about it!
On the subject of emotions.. I continue to process my ongoing spinal/ pain issues and the restrictions they are placing on my life… to that end I’ve started to write about this new chapter of my life.
I recently wrote a post which touches on some of the challenges I’m facing ..
https://open.substack.com/pub/carolyn525u4/p/new-learnings?r=1ph226&utm_medium=ios
If you’ve enjoyed this I’d ❤️ you to follow me. I’ve recently set up a paid subscription option..stepping into the belief that my posts are of value.
Wishing you all a Peaceful and Happy Easter weekend - however you choose to celebrate it.
📣 Keep an eye out for the upcoming ebook launch day announcements !
With Love
Carolyn x