Ceallaigh's Blog
People. I wrote my first puirt à beul tonight. I was in a song class, and we had this awesome ethnomusicologist, and she was teaching us how to write songs in Gaelic, and I was like, wow. And I wrote this:
Duilleagan dearg 's duilleagan gorm -
Na bidh thusa dubhach an-diugh!
Duilleagan dearg 's duilleagan gorm -
Tha duil agam as t-fhoghar.
Fosgail an doras, fosgail an doras -
Na bidh thusa dubhach an-diugh!
Fosgail an doras, fosgail an doras -
Tha duil agam as t-fhoghar.
It's a jig, by the way. I wrote a haiku too, but it wasn't as good.
Here's what it means:
Red leaves, green leaves -
Don't be gloomy today!
Red leaves, green leaves -
I'm expecting in the autumn.
Open the door, open the door -
Don't be gloomy today!
Open the door, open the door -
I'm expecting in the autumn.
So, my post yesterday garnered 120 separate hits, far more than most of my others. We're a species who loves its drama, we are. And I also attracted a troll, but dramatic posts will do that.
In the wake of that post and its fallout, there are some issues I want to address about the way I approach vegan consciousness. Yes, I do think the eating of meat, milk and eggs is morally wrong and contributes to the suffering of sentient beings. I think it unapologetically, and it constitutes part of my core value system. It's also a well-informed belief, and I can present my reasons for it chapter and verse from many reputable sources. Further, I intend to participate in more direct vegan action going forward, so you might expect me to blog about bearing witness to factory farming brutality and vigils for farmed animals. I cannot be other than this, do other than this and still live with myself.
As we were leaving the farmer's market today, we stopped to say hello to a woman we've had pleasant conversations with before and to ask whether or not her fruit tarts were vegan. She had said in the past that she might try to make them vegan a time or two, but our attendance has been spotty at the market this summer, and we've missed the few times she's veganized them for us. One of her customers asked if we were allergic to gluten, and I quipped that no, we were allergic to death and suffering. I meant for it to be funny, and I underplayed the comment right away. But it was clearly the wrong thing to say, and in the woman's defense, I can understand why it might have seemed confrontational.
Ser at Pagan Book Reviews has written a glowing review of The Ruin of Beltany Ring. Here's an excerpt:
From August 30th to September 1st Sean and I participated in a group retreat at the Tatamagouche Centre called "Crossing Stony Ground: Earth Spirit and Justice for Challenging Times" led by Starhawk. For those of you who don't recognize that name, Starhawk is a longtime Goddess worshiper, political and social activist and permaculture expert who has been and continues to be a seminal influence in Pagan, activist and farming circles. In fact, her book The Spiral Dance brought me to Goddess spirituality when I was sixteen, and I've had a great deal of respect for her work since then.
To celebrate the coming of autumn, the autumnal equinox and the listing of The Ruin of Beltany Ring: A Collection of Pagan Poems and Tales on Smashwords, I'm offering it for 25% off from the Smashwords web site until September 22nd.
Your coupon code is: TF62U.
The Ruin of Beltany Ring has received another good review, this time from Rebecca Buchanan of BookMusings: (Re)Discovering Pagan Literature. Thank you kindly, ma'am!
In other news, our new home has weathered its first crowd of Gaels, who came to stay from Friday to Sunday for a weekend retreat and training session. Everybody had a bed, everybody was fed and we even managed to have a wee outdoor fire Saturday night.
I recently passed the Smashwords autovetter and epubcheck with great effort using an epub file, and I thought I'd share what I learned with you so that you might have an easier time of it than I did. This tutorial presumes you have some knowledge of HTML markup and CSS styling or can acquire that knowledge without too steep a learning curve, though I've provided a number of screenshots and code examples along the way to help you get started.
Greetings Everyone,
Welcome to Issue #8 of my quarterly newsletter, posted to csmaccath.com and e-mailed to subscribers on Lughnasadh 2013.
For those of you who've asked, my short story and poetry collection The Ruin of Beltany Ring: A Collection of Pagan Poems and Tales is now available for Kobo. You can download it here.
And if you prefer, you can also download an excerpt of the collection on Goodreads. You know, to whet your appetite. =)