A Twelfth of Carrabis (Feb 2025 Newsletter)


Welcome to February. As noted in last month’s newsletter, I’ve completed another turn around the sun and, oh!, what an amazing journey it’s been. My friends in other countries share their concerns re the US power shift and its implications globally.

I tend not to worry about such things. A) Few things done by elites truly affect the peasantry except in movies and novels. 2) I’ve done enough turns around the sun to know the pendulum swings in a steady rhythm. The further in one direction, the further in the other, and all that is required is patience for the pendulum’s return. iii) I also know from my studies that humans are neither uber-predators nor keystone species. Such thoughts are human ego at its best.

The true keystone and uber is Nature itself. Remember, Nature bats last and owns the stadium.

And if that doesn’t sober you, note asteroid 2024 YR4 could still carom off other solar objects and ELE us right out of existence.

Hey, party while you can, folks, and thanks for all the fish.

January 2025 Announcements

RoundTable 360° – Our 27 Feb 2025 RoundTable 360° session is Art as Therapy – The Journey of Art as a Way of Healing.

Whether it’s “Write Your History, Change Your Life,” “Blood strokes in the Canvas,” “Singing to be Heard,” or “Dancing Away the Shame,” art has been a tool of self-discovery, emotional release, and personal exploration since proto-humans put hand prints on rock walls. All that’s changed through the years are the artist and the medium.

Do you use art to heal yourself? Do you use it to help others heal?

Artistic Alchemist Sarah Bowden leads a discussion on Art as a tool for changing one’s self, and her experiences healing WitchWounds and SisterWounds.

Join us at http://nlb.pub/RoundTable on Thursday, 27 Feb 2025, 8:30amHawaiinT, 10:30amPT, 1:30pmET, 6:30pmLondonT, 19h30 CEST, whateverthisisYourT, and share your art and experiences.

 
Brother Greg Hickey shares some interesting thoughts on the world through his eyes – 1) The least important consequence of the LA fires: “Seventeen months ago, I started work on a near future sci-fi crime novel set in Los Angeles against the backdrop of a growing wildfire. Last month, LA was devastated by a group of all-too-real wildfires.
Over twenty-four days, these eight blazes drove more than 200,000 people from their homes, destroyed over 18,000 structures and burned over 57,000 acres of land. I know all this because I now find myself in the uncomfortable position of researching this tragedy in order to make my novel more realistic. …”

Read on at The least important consequence of the LA fires

And 2) Toddlers, Litter, and Mass Shootings: “If you’ve ever cared for a young child, you know it’s a constant battle to stop them from touching everything in sight (and sometimes putting those things into their mouths). Obviously, kids are curious, and touching and mouthing objects allows them to explore an unfamiliar world and train their immune systems.
But the benefits of exploration only extend up to a certain point (and that point is somewhere shy of yellow snow). One of the silver linings of winter is that I have an excuse to bundle my young daughter up in her stroller for our walk to daycare instead of letting her roam free to grab at stray leaves, sticks or pieces of trash. …”

Read on at Toddlers, Litter, and Mass Shootings

 
Wilderness House Literary Review needs book reviewers – Wilderness House Literary Review EIC Steve Glines is looking for book reviewers. You’ll get full credit and publication credit for your review.

Folks new to the game; this is an excellent way to get your name out there, can provide a boost, can be added to your resume, and gets your unique voice heard.

Go for it!
 
J.W. Wood’s Captcha This! – Brother J.N. Wood’s premiere collection of short stories has been published by AN Editions and he’s getting great reviews!

BIG CONGRATS, J.N.!

In 2015, J.W. Wood jacked in his day job and disappeared to homestead two acres on an island off the coast of British Columbia – armed only with an axe, some tools and the determination to free himself. Captcha This!, the result of eight years invested in the middle of nowhere, spares no-one: pompous investment bankers, vacuous fame-hunters, feudal tech overlords, invasive grammar-nazi software, government by bogus statistic and further denizens of today’s digital abyss.

J.W. Wood’s stories evince a gift for the quotidian, employing brilliant conceits and mischievous turns of phrase which enrich the writing at every point. Capturing the frustration of curtailed lives and the grim horrors of the corporate world, Wood presents a meta-fictional universe in which the rich realise their folly and we control computers, not the other way round. – Julian Stannard, award-winning poet and author of The University of Bliss (Sagging Meniscus Press, USA, 2024)

You can learn more about J.N. at his site.

(personally, I want to know if his Stealing Fire is a nod to one of my heros, Bruce Cockburn)

 
Writers’ Month Long Workshop – March 2025’s writers’ workshop covers many if not all phases of craft and storytelling. The February workshop is on Wednesdays, 8-29 January 2025, morning and evening openings available. Sign up here.

You can an idea of what craziness (and learning!) will ensue on my Experiments in Writing posts.
 
All Routes Are Amber – I met Martin Swirko at a “Write Your History, Change Your Life” class I gave last year. Martin’s history includes both military and police work, and I reached out to him to help me with my current work-in-progress, Fains I (A John Chance Mystery). We met for a long lunch which had me both recording and taking notes about his experiences.

Talk about a fascinating life!

I knew some of Martin’s background from the class (he’s working at becoming an author. My advice to him? GO FOR IT!) and he shared his heartfelt project, his All Routes Are Amber site. Here’s a taste: “…I found that I spent much of my time being a street historian (if I can borrow that term from one of my former partners) writing police reports that ranged from people shoveling snow into their neighbors back yard, local disputes all the way up to homicides and everything you could imagine in between. You get to see and report on incidents that are monotonous, repetitive ho-hum events, then suddenly, and often without warning you find yourself in a ghastly harrowing situation. …”

I invite you take a look and send best wishes to Martin as he continues his journey.

 
UK ALERT! – Sister Rika Chandra brought the following to my attention: The UK Government is proposing to weaken the copyright law that allows writers and everyone in the publishing industry to earn a living from their creativity.
They plan to make it easy for AI firms to use everyone’s books for free to build their AI models. If creators are not fairly paid for their work in the age of AI, then the books that inspire us will cease to be written.
That’s why Pan Macmillan has joined the Creative Rights in AI Coalition, and if you feel strongly about this too we encourage you to write to your MP to ask them to help stop this and protect creative rights. You can do this very easily at Creative Rights in AI Coalition – Write to Your MP.

Note that weakening copyright will spill over into all creative work – visual, music, graphic, written, spoken, sung, …
 
One World in a New World hits 1MM views! – Brother Zen Benefiel’s PlanetaryCitizens.net is sharing some exciting news! A three-volume series capturing the first three years of insights from “OneWorld in a New World.” These books dive into eight key areas and the golden threads that connect them all. Thanks to a little AI assistance, what would have taken years is now available for you to explore. If you’d like to support the work, grab a copy and leave a review—it means the world.

This journey has led to the creation of PlanetaryCitizens.net, a space designed to synthesize the wisdom from these conversations into a broader, action-oriented framework. With 50+ years of preparation behind it, and now recognized as a 509(a)(2) nonprofit, it’s a work in progress—transparent in mission and strategy. Your participation can be as simple as signing the pledge or diving deeper if you feel called. Our advisory board is made up of past guests, and we’re building something truly impactful together. If you have questions or want to connect, I’d love to hear from you. Wishing you much success in 2025 and beyond!

(and I wonder if Zen got the title from the work of another of my herosAlan Stivell
 
Celebrate Women’s History Month with 10% off – Sister Rika Chandra is offering professional women a 10% discount on author and professional bios for Women’s History Month.

And for UK based author’s, she has a special all-in-one experience that includes professional headshots with a fantastic all female team. Email her to arrange a chat!

Women! Go for it! Make your mark on HERstory!
 
A Little Game – I’m doing something a little different this month.

Basically I’m curious to learn how many people read this far down in my newsletters.

Sneaky bastard, aren’t I?

Anyway, rearrange the italicized words below to form an intelligible sentence. Add punctuation and capitalization as necessary. The first five people to get back to me with a solution get a free Dancers in the Eye of Chronos ebook. The first person to get back to me with a solution which makes me laugh gets a signed copy of That Th!nk You Do Volume I (and no looking it up on the internet, folks!).

Ready? Here you go: no but now more so chris chris chris kris criss chriss cross cross cross crosss crossed crossed crossing krised kissed kisses caress

Here’s another just for the fun of it. Same rules, no prizes: that that that that boy used is the wrong that

That’s it for February. See you next month!

Enjoy!