Places and Events
A Wander Through History, and Events in the Future
Welcome to “The Journey”, a newsletter from my little corner of the internet!
In this bi-weekly newsletter, I share experiences and observations from day-to-day life and the occasional broader “life lesson”, bigger projects I’m working on, and details I think you might find interesting about my recent photography or writing efforts.
“The Journey” is a reader-supported publication, and arrives in your inbox every second Sunday for free! And if you wish, you can opt in for a paid subscription ($5CAD/month or $50CAD/year), and you will receive a surprise item in the mail as a “thank you”!
Life at Large
This newsletter is coming to you from Budapest - “Egészségedre” (to your health)!
It has become a tradition for my brother, Dave, to come visit us each fall. He rarely travelled in the past, though he has a keen interest in history, and, well, everything. Now Michal and I enjoy taking him places to soak up the stories of the place in person, and this year we are visiting Rome and Budapest. We started in Rome, as Dave has been a Roman history buff since he was little. There were so many moments that sparked a sense of awe as we wandered through the ruins of the forums, or stood gazing up at a marvel of architecture in the Pantheon. It’s truly an amazing place.
The Vatican was a bit more of a grind. It’s beautiful to be sure, but SO crowded. We were swept along in a wave, trying to keep up with our group, but eventually losing them anyway. It wasn’t possible to pause and really soak in the art as we would have liked. We are still glad we went, but don’t feel compelled to go back.
After Rome, we travelled to Budapest, and we are still here. Within the first few hours of being in the city, we came across a library in a building that used to be a palace. Obviously we went in to take a look. It had a lovely spiral staircase, and a reading room that I will see in my dreams from this day on!
We chose to visit Budapest with my brother for two reasons - it’s a beautiful city, and it’s close to Košice, where Michal’s family lives. Michal’s mom and sister joined us for the evening yesterday, which was super! Today we will will take a boat tour along the Danube, before Michal’s mom and sister return to Košice. This is one of the things we love about living in Europe, it’s possible for impulsive visits with family and friends who also live here.
Projects
My mom and I have been pleased with the encouraging response we have received after publishing the first chapter of “Open to Possibilities: The Life of a Young English Nurse”. There are things to learn about posting serial non-fiction on Substack, but there is a lot of serial fiction being posted that I can learn from. The biggest challenge is making sure people who stumble onto a chapter can find their way back to the beginning if they wish to. These things will evolve as we get more chapters up.
I posted the second chapter a few days ago. I think it would have landed in your inbox, but if not, you can read it here:
In other news, I am excited to share that I will be a guest on a podcast later this month to talk about my memoir, “Resilience in the Rubble: A True Tale of Aid and Survival in Kashmir”! I’ll provide more information after the episode is recorded.
Next month I’ll be talking with a book club about the book, and I’m really looking forward to that. I really enjoy hearing how readers experience the events in the book, and responding to their questions. If your book club would be interested in reading “Resilience in the Rubble”, and having me join a meeting to discuss the book, please do contact me!
As always, if you haven’t already picked up your copy of the book, you can do so here.
The book is also available in the following bookshops:
Rosebud Bookshop - Porto, Portugal
Groove Cat Books & Records - New Westminster, BC
Otter Books - Nelson, BC
Notably, A Book Lover’s Emporium - Nelson BC
Triple Rose Arts & Craft - Procter BC
Photography
I have HUGE news to share related to photography!
Guess who will be an exhibitor at a Photography Fair in London in November? Me! That’s who!
Last month I was contacted with an invitation to participate in the Cluster-London Photography and Print Fair. I didn’t respond initially, thinking it was just more spam (the world we live in). They persisted, and I did a bit of digging, and lo and behold, it was a real invitation!
There has been a flurry of activity to get the initial files to them to begin promoting my participation. You are hearing about this first, and when I get home later this week, you will start to see information popping up on my social media and elsewhere about the exhibition in November. In the meantime, the theme of the exhibition is “Metamorphosis”, and these are the thumbnails of the images the curators chose for the show:
I have a fairly large space to hang the images - 1.90m high by 2.70m wide. The curator has asked that one of the images be displayed as a triptych, which is a cool idea. Michal is helping me do mock-ups of the actual display so I know what size to print the images, and the layout that will have the most impact.
We will be travelling to London for the event, which adds to the excitement. If you will be “in the area”, please come see the show!
Writing
By now, you may have the sense that I have been pretty busy since the last newsletter, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Nonetheless, Michal and I participated in the inaugural meeting of a new writing group in Porto before we started our current travels. It’s a large group, and several smaller specialty groups have formed. I’m participating in the “Business and Marketing” sub-group, and somehow ended up becoming the admin for a “Memoir and Journalling” sub-group. I haven’t had much time to think about that yet, but I will come up with some ideas and resources for the group when we get back to Porto.
I also attended a webinar that was hosted by Oliver Evensen and Simon K. Jones though “Literature and Latte”. Simon is someone I follow on Substack, as he releases serial fiction on the platform and I have learned from watching what he does. He also uses a tool called Scrivener to write, as I do. The webinar was about using Scrivener to manage your serial fiction (or in my case, non-fiction) project as it gets bigger. Simon showed how he uses the tool to keep his research notes, plot points, character development, etc all sorted out as he writes and releases chapters of a new book, sometimes over the span of a few years. It was quite interesting, and as usual, gave me ideas for my own projects.
Last Thoughts
Thank you for following along as I share odds and ends from life and creative pursuits, and to those of you who opted in for a paid subscription, THANK YOU! There is a small token of my gratitude on its way to you in the mail for new paid subscribers. :)
As always, I love hearing from you - your comments, questions, suggestions, or just a quick hello, they are all very welcome!
Até à próxima! (Until next time!)
Kathy