A Weekend of Laughter and Lager

So this weekend was a raging success! 

Saturday morning my husband and I went to the Rhode Island Scottish Festival and we are definitely going again.  Everyone was incredibly friendly and there was a lot going on.  As a Spence, I knew this name was associated with the Clan MacDuff, while my husband's family is Clan Cameron.  Coincidentally, the tents for the two groups were right next to each other

If you notice, Clan MacDuff's tent is bigger.

Well, Mike and I went to our respective peeps, and we both ended up walking in the opening ceremonies!  (Another complete coincidence was that the MacDuff's were the Clan of Honour for the day - a sign of good things to come!)

All playing aside, the people we met in both tents were wonderfully funny, warm and in the MacDuff tent a bit sarcastic.  These are people I hope to meet again.

I couldn't resist the "pet haggis" and Nessie on display in the MacDuff tent.

Overall we talked, we shopped, we jumped when the cannon went off and listened to some great music. (I fell in love with a band there named MacTalla M'or - I have got to download their albums)

We left early due to rain and the graduation party.

After celebrating much of the night, we managed to still get up early for Sunday's adventure - the Worcester Irish Music Festival.  I even managed to work in another 2 pages of manuscript that morning, still riding high from Saturday's adventures.

The music at the festival was good, and there was some really great genealogy information from the people of The Irish Ancestral Research Association aka TIARA .  The highlight was truly the O'Lympics.  Competitors had to first pour a can of Guinness, after it had been shaken and then run an obstacle course with the the beer in their hands.  In the obstacle course they had to kick a boiled head of cabbage through some pylons

They threw snakes into a basket a la St. Patrick

They also had to bob for potatoes in the baby pool

So, did this weekend do what it was supposed to do?  I think so.  I'm writing, I'm energized.

 I'm motivated.

Celebrating, Celtic-American Style

I've been working on this project for 6 years.  This last stage is killing me - I see the finish line but I can't reach it.  So now it's time for re-energizing, and I have a couple of things in mind.

First and foremost, this weekend marks my 38th birthday.  To celebrate my birthday, I am going to the Worcester Irish Music Festival and the Rhode Island Scottish Heritage Festival. (I'm also going to a friend's college graduation party - no rest for the wicked!)

I figure, what better way to get pumped up about Celtic culture than by surrounding myself with awesome Irish and Scottish music and games!

I'm also parsing out my social networking, and trying to separate work from my writing.  This is slightly complicated by the fact that my career is actually in publishing, but just a different type than fiction.

Now back to my fiction. I'm up to 63,000 words on the manuscript.  At 75,000 (the est size of a fiction novel) I will stop futzing with it and start trying to find an agent.  If I don't set an endpoint, I'm afraid I wont be able to stop myself from perpetually revising and developing characters/scenes.

If anyone knows of additional celtic cultural events in New England, New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania - please let me know.  I'm ready to keep on celebrating!

Loss and Finding that Groove Again

I started having extreme technical difficulties with my old laptop and decided to replace it.  Something went horribly, horribly awry and I lost my last revision which included several new sections when I transferred the documents.  The old laptop is dead so I can't retrieve it.

Trying to bring back the energy and focus of lost work is much harder than finding that mental space in the first place.  I couldn't get into the zone at all.  I think a lot of it comes from I was analysing every paragraph - was this something that needed revision?  What did I say? It's looks fine now, did I see something before which I am now missing?

At least I knew at what page that revision stopped, and I made myself so through that point in the manuscript.  Hopefully I will feel more free as I continue this revision.

I always over judge my work - but who doesn't do that to themselves?  It's just I have never had the level of self doubt as I did after this experience.  Sections that I know I thought were good, now feel stilted to me. 

I'll get over myself as I usually do.  I have to - this is my dream.  If I don't, then not only will I never achieve what I want, but I would have wasted the last 6 years of research and writing.  I just can't let that happen.

Sex, Drugs and a Rock

I love the ancient story of the Hill of Tara, and hate the modern one. Both tales play a role in my book.

The ancient story - this is the site of the Coronation of the Pre-Christian Irish Kings. Sitting on top of the Hill of Tara is the Stone of Destiny, which was the coronation site. There was an intricate, and at one point intimate, coronation ritual at that location which redefines the phrase coming to power.

Did I ever mention how much I love history?

Now for the modern story. Due to population growth, a new highway needs to be built. For an inexplicable reason, the Irish government wants to run it through the most archaeologically rich areas of Ireland, one with a series of ancient religious sites. The Hill of Tara is at risk, and with is goes a core place in Ireland's Celtic heritage.

Some of you will have heard me kvetch about this before - but it really ticks me off and I want to make sure the world knows so there is a chance to stop the destruction.