Continuing on Awen's Path

Well the podcast is now officially in its third week and seems to be gaining strength and hopefully listeners. Haven't had a ton of feedback yet but it is just starting after all. This week for my third episode I was honored to have Damh the Bard aka David Smith a brilliant pagan folk musician on the show. It was wonderful talking to him and went a little over my usual one hour time limit but what the hell it was fun. The show is exciting and upbeat I really loved doing it and it seems to get more fun with each podcast. I did on iTunes mark this podcast as explicit due to the single use of the word shit. I know it doesn't seem excessive but I did want to make sure it passed all their parental guidelines for sure. Well I am extremely excited because there are tons of wonderful guests coming up through the coming months. It should be a real hoot and a great learning experience.

And everyone go check out Damh the Bard's website at http://www.paganmusic.co.uk its a great site and showcases all of his work and where to get it.

Wake Up Celebrity Author Info (Would ya Help please?)

As some of you may know, my second book “Honoring the Sacred Earth: A Path to Spiritual Awakening” has been placed on the Wake Up Celebrity Author Page. The Wake Up Celebrity Author page is a place where you can review the book based on criteria listed on the site such as Cover Art, Title and the Summary listed. This is helpful input that can help with future writing as well as the marketing of this book.
This is also a contest and all your votes would be greatly helpful. Your reviews are given in the form of votes rating the criteria and allowing for your personal comments. If you’d be willing to do this I would greatly appreciate it. The comments are helpful especially if specific.
Just click the link below and then click on click here to leave your vote. It asks for a name and e-mail address (to stop duplicate voting) and they also offer free e-books for the vote. Please feel to vote and encourage your friends to do so, it would be a great help.

If you are one of the people who has looked at this and voted already due to my facebook and twitter announcements etc I just want to say thank you very much.

http://www.wakeupcelebrityauthor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=17:spirituality-and-religious&id=119:honoring-the-sacred-earth-a-path-to-spiritual-awakening

Thanks.

Yours Under the Trees,
Dave/Duir /|\

Sorry for the long pause

Well its been a while since I've written here been a hectic month with work and preparing for vacation. Well I'm on vacation now and in fact starting the journey home slowly. Currently I'm visiting friends in TN and going to go see some sites. Then its off to Maryland Pennsylvania and Home. I'm still working hard to promote my books and my website and hoping that sales will pick up a bit. I'm also thinking about future writing and of course still planing to start work on a fiction that will be co-authored by upcoming author Rosa Sophia who's first book Taking 1960 will release on August 13th.

I'm enjoying this little break from my day job and feel my stress levels lowering significantly. I am hoping that once this vacation is wrapped up I'll be able to post on a regular basis again.

Wake up Celebrity Author Contest

I've entered the Wake Up Celebrity author contest... My direct link is http://www.wakeupcelebrityauthor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=17:spirituality-and-religious&id=119:honoring-the-sacred-earth-a-path-to-spiritual-awakening.

Please feel free to go there and cast your vote and tell all your friends about it and that they should vote too. Its a nice contest for newer authors like myself as it helps with exposure and should I win it would be some great promotional help for the book. Please cast your vote and of course vote on others if you wish as well and please do encourage your friends and family to do the same. I know I'd really appreciate it and if you vote for anyone else as well I am sure they would appreciate it. (though more votes for me please lol).

Thanks a ton.

Been a while

Well the holidays are fast approaching. I keep plugging forward. The second book is going forward and the first stage of editing has started and with luck it'll be wrapped up in a couple months. Lots of work to do there. I've been so busy with the holidays and the last minute shopping and wrapping as well as yesterday and today's snowstorm. Its going to be a really fun cleanup. Well as they say if you don't like the weather in New England wait 5 minutes. They're calling for sleet on Christmas and rain the day after so we should have white just until Christmas... then probably flooding, it'll be a hoot! But Yes it should be a White Christmas so time to play some Bing Crosby.

Lots of cleaning left to do. We have friends and family coming over both Christmas Eve and Day so we gotta get the place sparkly. Then I get to work the day after Christmas setting up sales so it should be "wonderful" (please not the sarcastic tone in wonderful). Oh well Until next time!

The Second Book

Well the first book "Under an Expanse of Oaks, A Druid's Journey" is fresh out of the box and moving forward. We'll see how it goes over the next few weeks. I have two people reviewing it soon so I'm a bit nervous about that.

The second book is now much longer than the first and if it keeps progressing at the rate it has been its first draft should be done by the end of the month. Then it will be time to start the editing etc. My guess is if everything goes right it will be ready by the spring. It should be really great as it has a broader audience than the first book.

Well back to life. More writing to do then bed to get out to the day job tomorrow. Its great though and everything is moving really fast and I'm liking it.

Today

The pre-holiday cleaning keeps going on around me. I'm still working on book two and watching my 2 year old but now we've moved downstairs so my wife can clean the upstairs before hosting our Yule dinner with family. It should be a hoot and I am looking forward to the house being all spotless and shiny again... with a 2 year old and working most of the time I barely get to see it in such a state. And we get to keep it that way for a week or so before the day comes... Yay! Should be an interesting venture and I always wonder if Freddy will comply with our wishes.

Though writing has been very fruitful lately with lots of work getting done. If my pace keeps up like this I should be done with my first draft by or before January first. We shall see.

Setbacks

Well it looks like the book has had another setback or two with the formatting. Apparently they've changed the guidelines again. I am hopeful that they will get it fixed expeditiously, and will keep everyone posted as I can. Its getting a bit frustrating but hopefully it will be worth the wait for everyone. I am anxiously awaiting the official launch of "Under an Expanse of Oaks: A Druid's Journey" and I will keep working on non-fiction book number two which is rather relaxing to write and very fulfilling.

With any luck my "official" writing career will start off soon and with any luck people will like what I have written. The book seems to be getting shorter though as they wanted a smaller font size this time. Well we shall see. At least I know I like it as does the one reviewer that has read it.

Yay SMS works

Though I can only do short posts with it, I am happy SMS posting is set up. This will be great for short messages when traveling or when my computer is not available to me... like at work. It should be a great way to add content to the blog etc. I am glad that now I can keep in touch at all times. Well with any luck sometime today or tomorrow I'll hear that the book is live and available and I will be able to fully launch it. Until then I will just keep working on book two and getting the contest ready to be all settled by the 30th.

Nature

It is my firm belief that we need to listen to the natural world around us. Not only does the Earth itself speak to us when we are quiet and open ourselves to her communications but also the divine whispers to us on the breeze. The divine does interact with us and help to guide us especially when we need it most but only if we listen. Deity likes to whisper the guiding words... Not that Deity can't scream at us... oh it can and does when necessary but usually it whispers.

By connecting with nature we can find ourselves, we can help rebuild what we have destroyed as a race. We need to look towards nature for the answers we seek. I firmly believe that nature has all the answers we need written in it, not in words but in its very existence. We need to look at how things were and how things will be.

We are learning we all know the chant... Reduce, Reuse, Recycle... it is but a part of what we can do and we can all take many small steps to help our world to heal. We must do this, we must act. What will happen if we don't... who knows but I know one thing for sure... we will not be part of it. The Earth will go on and will heal itself, the question is if we will be allowed to stay to see it if we don't help to fix what we've damaged or destroyed.

Things keep moving on

It finally looks like I'll see the light at the end of the tunnel with "Under an Expanse of Oaks, A Druid's Journey" as it looks like the cover art is fixed. Should know for sure if its totally accepted tonight or tomorrow. Also I keep working on book number 2 (the non-fiction) but I'm not going to tell anything about it until its either done or nearly done. So keep watching for little tidbits. I did finish researching the quotes I wanted for it and I may share some of them here and there over time. I've been thinking of adding a bit more and updating my cafepress shop (www.cafepress.com/oaklight) and some other things. With any luck the book will be available by next week and finally everyone who's been wanting it will be able to get it, including the people who want to review it.

I keep working, writing, thinking and playing with my dear son trying to keep everone happy lol. We had quite a giggle tonight. I looked at him (he's 2) and said "your cute" to which he said "I know" lol. If it weren't true I'd call him conceded.