Committing Your Heart💖

It’s amazing what happens when you commit to being a writer with all your heart … what happens when you commit to being whatever your true calling is, in fact.

I changed horses to do this a year ago. I’ve been a writer, and a successful one with 3 best-sellers, twenty years ago but I always put my teaching-self first, the writing hung on as second fiddle. The teaching went very well too, still does (see my Work With We page if you’d like), and the writing did well too … but it was all non-fiction how-to books on the native British shamanism I teach.

The fiction just did not spin. And it was a hard slog to get the stories my heart wanted to tell out there, onto the page – talk about writers’ block, I had it in Spades!

Then, at Samhain 2024, I took myself off to my birthplace – near Okehampton, on the edge of Dartmoor – to a fantabulous Samhain celebration with my favourite Morris side, Beltane. The ceremony took place at an ancient pub Dad first took me to as a wee kiddie yonks ago so I put up there for a couple of nights. The pub’s still gorgeous, with great food and fab location half a mile from one of my favourite stone circles.

The Beltane side arrived as the dimpsy came down (old Devon word for dusk!). I know them a bit and they’re part of the background to my 3^rd novel, Dancing with a Daemon; they told me I was to be part of the final celebration dance, the Beltane Fire Dance.

As darkness fell they set up, fire-torches round the edge of the dancefloor, outside in the yard beside the pub, and the crowd began to gather. Soon Ant (the Squire of the side) came into the centre of the ring, called the blessings of Samhain, and the dancing began.

Beltane are WILD! Their dancing is wild, comes right from the heart, they leap and yell, calling out the heart in all the audience. To be there, with them, is one of the most exhilarating and uplifting experiences for just about anyone, that’s how real, earthy, pagan celebrations truly are!

The last dance finally arrived – the Beltane fire Dance – and Ant called me into the centre. In this dance there are fire torches all around, see the video, and the dancers leap around the folk at the centre, roaring in their faces, waking our souls. It’s completely stunning.

As the side danced around me I made my promise to Otherworld and my tylwyth (spirit family) to follow my true path and put all my heart into being a writer. It’s a scary thing to do, your brain keeps screaming “Help! Don’t burn your boats! What if it goes wrong?!” That’s all the conditioning we all get inflicted with from modern society’s “insurance company” mindset that keeps us all towing the line and never breaking out of society’s Normal Box!

I followed my Dad’s advice and gave my brain a dollar told it to go play with the traffic! I committed my heart.

 Later that night when we were all in the pub there was a “Sing”, the Beltane folk began to sing folksongs and I joined in, even more … I led a couple of the songs! I found my voice again quite literally, even gave Beltane a couple of new songs. I was on the path.

And things began to change.

I found a writing mentor who hauled me out of the writers’ block pit I’d been stuck in for years, helped my polish Dancing with a Daemon so you’d all love it, so it lusted for my soul as happens to Jehanne, my feisty and haunted protagonist. I got even braver, got my rights back to my previous novels that I’d given to my trad publisher and am in the process of reworking them. Dancing with a Daemon has become Book 1 of the Jehanne Trilogy, an exciting and exacting adventure that takes her down into the Cathar Country of the Pyrenees and makes her choose whether she must actually kill Jack! The sequel to Daemon (Hollowbone) is already in its first edit!

Owl Woman and Moon Song have become trilogies too, and I’ve got the stories for books 2 and 3 in each series  roughly plotted as well, and I’ve added a new bonus chapter to Owl Woman. I’m reissuing the new, revised book on 1 December with a Special Offer Coupon for my Newsletter readers – sign up now to take advantage of it. You’ll be able to get the for just 76p ($0.99).

The bonus chapter is the first chapter of the sequel, Broceliande (Book 2 of the Bridewell Trilogy), to Owl Woman and again there’s good flesh already on those plot-bones beyond the bonus chapter 😊.

It’s all happening! Putting all of your heart into your true soul-job really does work. I also requires lots of work from you too. I’ve been on – am still on! – a steep learning curve and working like a fiend, but it such fun. Learning new skills, seeing them bear fruit, is thrilling, powers you up with energy you didn’t know you’d got access to.

If your job doesn’t make your heart sing have a chat with your spirit-family, ask them to show you how to change … and Go For It!

PS – This Isn’t The One, but it’s one I was at when they still did the Dark Gathering at Boscastle!

PPS – Boscastle is the setting for Moon Song and the Dark Gathering features in that series too!