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July Camp NaNoWriMo

Home/Writing Projects/July Camp NaNoWriMo

July Camp NaNoWriMo

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About the Author: Serene Conneeley

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The Sun Queen’s Apprentice is OUT!
Interview – faery tale author Lissa Sloan
ARA Historical Novel Prize Shortlists 2024
Catch Up – April 2024
A Book A Week – April 2024
A Book A Week – March 2024

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sereneconneeley

Author, reader, tea drinker, moon gazer, stone hugger, scad survivor, lover of myth, magic & the sacredness of the earth, Gadigal Country, #voteYES 💜

Birthday celebrations with sweet friends 💜 Happy B

Birthday celebrations with sweet friends 💜
Happy Birthday @shaolee.zaman 🥳

With @barbierobinson56, @mikki.in.the.middle, Jo and Richard 💜 xx

I posted about Anita Heiss’s book The Paradise Pac

I posted about Anita Heiss’s book The Paradise Pact when it was coming out earlier this year, cos I went to the launch (shout-out to @romancing.the.novel for a wonderful event) and was so looking forward to reading it, but I don’t think I actually reviewed it. But since it’s a perfect beach read, now seems a good time to share the love! (#tryingtocatchupasalways)

Anita Heiss is one of my favourite authors, partly because of her incredible diversity. She writes heartbreaking, award-winning, important novels like Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Dirrayawadha, wonderful middle grade and kids books, powerful non-fiction – as well as sweet romcoms that celebrate friendship as much as love.

In The Paradise Pact, Abbey is heartbroken after a bad break-up, so her two tiddas, Stevie and Caitlin, entice her to join them on a girls trip to Hawaii to soak up the sun, admire the sunsets and drink lots of mai tais – and run a half marathon she’s completely unprepared for.

Their friendship is the heart of the book, and I love how supportive the three women are of each other, despite (or perhaps because of) their differences. Now in their fifties, they’ve been like sisters for decades, and their tropical adventure is a celebration of their importance in each other’s lives. There are moments of hilarity, misunderstandings, new friends and deep empathy, and a potential holiday romance for Abbey adds a new appreciation of her own culture and worth. There are some political observations too, it being set just after the devastating referendum loss, which only add to the overall story.

It’s a sweet, fun and heartwarming book of sisterhood and the journey to find self-love and self-worth, and I look forward to reading future books about Abbey, Cait and Stevie and their mid-life adventures, loyalty, support and wild joy.

@dranitaheiss #theparadisepact #bookaweek #aprilreads

Today is the third anniversary of the devastating

Today is the third anniversary of the devastating loss of the Voice Referendum, but 80% of First Nations People still support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and so do many others.

If you haven’t read the beautifully crafted statement, I encourage you to do so. Each time i heard it recited, a few times by inspiring author and activist Thomas Mayo, and by brilliant lawyer and activist Teela Reid, i was so moved by the beautiful words, the generous invitation, and the powerful heart of it all ❤️❤️❤️

From • @ulurustatement Have you read the Uluṟu Statement from the Heart?

The Statement was an invitation and a powerful call for constitutional reform.

It was the catalyst for the 2023 Voice Referendum and remains as important today as it was when first drafted in 2017.

The mandate lives on, and so do the calls from the 80% of First Nations people who voted yes.

This Referendum Anniversary, we urge Australians to spend five minutes of your day to read the Uluṟu Statement From The Heart and understand the calls.

You can read it via the Uluṟu Dialogue website by visiting the link in our bio - @ulurustatement

#ulurustatementfromtheheart #voicetreatytruth #thomasmayo

🌙💕 New moon blessings! Wishing you all the love, j

🌙💕 New moon blessings! Wishing you all the love, joy and inspiration of this magical moon phase, and its power of new beginnings and new inspiration. What adventures will you embark on in the coming month? What will you dream into being?

I’m sick at the moment, so am a bit behind, but I’m working on a friend’s project, then will put together a newsletter (the first in almost three years, ha ha!), then finish writing The Summer Witch’s Choice. Thank you to all those who have let me know they loved The Sun Queen’s Apprentice, I’m so glad, and I promise SWC isn’t too far away.

Whatever your plans or dreams, connect with the new moon energies and embrace the dedication and the passion to begin – or continue – what you’ve been longing to create, and the discipline to make it happen. May this lunar month unfold with love, joy, promise and potential.

🌙💕 #newmoon #newmoonwishes #moonmagic #newbeginnings

💕🌑 Dark Moon blessings… Wishing you love, streng

💕🌑 Dark Moon blessings…

Wishing you love, strength and peace as the lunar energy wanes to its lowest ebb. Be gentle with yourself, and gentle with each other. Be kind 💜 This is the phase of introspection, of looking within to decide what to let go of and what to keep, so you can start the new lunar cycle a little lighter...

Focus on your inner wisdom, trust your intuition, embrace your shadow, and summon the courage to put down your burdens, making space for tomorrow’s New Moon to usher in new beginnings, new opportunities and new peace for all 💜

What are you letting go of?

May this shadow day bring insight, your dark night be filled with deep love and wild magic, and your dreams be vivid and purposeful.

💕🌑 #darkmoon #darkmoonblessings #gowithin #letgo #bekind bebrave betrue 💕🌑

Instagram post 18189472594404308

Instagram post 18189472594404308

All packed for the Once Upon a Fairy Tale signing

All packed for the Once Upon a Fairy Tale signing event this weekend - and I found three final The Sun Queen’s Apprentice candles, that smell sooo good! 💚☀️💐

Looking forward to chatting with readers and catching up with writer buddies @vivienneleefraser @llhunter @damienthelibrarian @grthomas_fantasyauthor @tfjohnson.author @maggiealabaster @onceuponafairytaleaus and so many more! 💜📚💐

Check out @avalonbynature’s Third Quarter Moon in

Check out @avalonbynature’s Third Quarter Moon in Cancer three-card reading on her page 💜 xx

A few months ago I read The Spellshop by Sarah Bet

A few months ago I read The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst and Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett, and really liked them, so it was fun to check out the short stories they wrote as part of the Magic & Mystery series.

Sarah’s The Wednesday Witches Book Club is a sweet, quirky tale of a witchy book club, where all the members are being turned into cats. Can new member Ashley work out who’s casting the spells before she finds herself with a tail? I especially loved that each witch’s grimoire is the book that awakened their magic – “That was a highly personal question. The first book that truly touched your heart was the one that became your grimoire, and admitting what it was said a lot about who you were.”

I think mine would be Mandy by Julie Edwards. What would yours be?

And Heather’s A Labyrinth of Honeybees was a lovely short read too, with an inquisitor trailed by the ghosts of all those he’s murdered turning up in the lush gardens of a goddess, determined to question her priestess about the deaths of two tax collectors, and the missing heir to the throne…

#sarahbethdurst #heatherfawcett #augustreads #41of52 #magicandmystery

This one is going to hurt, cos I already had to ge

This one is going to hurt, cos I already had to get up early. But that’s what coffee and early morning sunshine is for! 😂☀️☕️💜

#metthemagentasunrise

I forgot to do a post-Canberra Atticurio Bizarre M

I forgot to do a post-Canberra Atticurio Bizarre Market post - and to take any photos with lovely Barbie and Richard, who so kindly let me stay with them and looked after me so well 💜

But tomorrow I’ll be at Atticurio Bizarre in Menangle, so it’s the perfect time to remember 🖤 xx

@atticurio_bizarre_market

This Sunday I’ll be at @atticurio_bizarre_market f

This Sunday I’ll be at @atticurio_bizarre_market for one day only, but Saturday and Sunday will be full of spooky fun, with lots of handmade creations, crystals, skulls, clothes, taxidermy and more! 🖤

I love Jaclyn Moriarty’s fascinating, fun and deep

I love Jaclyn Moriarty’s fascinating, fun and deeply moving new book Time Travel for Beginners. The premise is brilliant. A small office in Sydney, the Time Travel Agency, can send you back to significant moments in history – to watch the first Olympics in Ancient Greece, chat to Charlotte Bronte on the moors, have tea with Jane Austen, sail on the Titanic or be at the first Sex Pistols gig – or to revisit moments from your own life, such as your wedding day, childhood fights with your brother, or the time before your only son died. It can be enlightening, exhilarating or devastating depending on your choice, and while you can interact with those you encounter – favourite author, loved one or stranger – nothing you do while time travelling can change the present. You can go back and talk to the people you’ve lost, even prevent the thing that killed them, but they will still be dead when you return.

I loved the amazing literary and historical tours the staff design, all the research they do to make them authentic, and the funny moments from their visits to the past to test each tour, as well as the hilarious agency reviews that break up the story. But the heart of the book is the people in it – Anna, who’s just started working at the agency, and her struggling teenage daughter Nicola; fellow single mum Jade and her rebellious daughter Holly; and Teddy, who’s trying to win his wife back from his brother. Jaclyn weaves their stories and connections together beautifully, exploring the complexities of friendship, memory, parenting and sisterhood, alongside loss, regret, grief, guilt and heartache, all with tenderness and compassion – until she upends everything with a brilliant twist (no spoilers though, so I won’t try to explain).

Jaclyn’s sister Liane said of the book: “My sister is a literary genius” – and she’s right. It’s clever and quirky, with science and philosophy within, but warmth and whimsy too, and personal trips that are thrilling, addictive, and potentially dangerous. It’s a wonder-filled, imaginative and compelling read – and the book itself is absolutely stunning.

#47of52 #timetravelforbeginners @jaclynmoriarty

🌕💕 Full Moon Blessings! Wishing you love, joy and

🌕💕 Full Moon Blessings!

Wishing you love, joy and passion this magical full moon, and a month ahead full of promise and potential, and all the energy and strength and power of this lunar phase. May you be illuminated by the moon’s golden glow, and reminded to shine your own precious light as you embrace all that you are, and all that you want to be, and will become.

Allow your heart to open and your creativity to blossom, and feed your own creative well with books, art, nature, friendship – whatever brings you joy – so you can tap in to the inspiration, as well as the dedication, to make your dream or your passion project come to life 💕🌕

#fullmoonblessings @lunarmagic #shineyourlight #magicofnature #witchesofinstagram

💔 Today is the four-year anniversary of my scad he

💔 Today is the four-year anniversary of my scad heart attack, which is super-weird. So it’s time for my September PSA: If something doesn’t feel right, get checked out. It could save your life...

It’s a weird milestone, and so strange to think back to when it happened, when I had no idea what it was or what it meant – and no one else I knew had heard of it either. (Sadly there are many GPs who still don’t know about it – although I’ve since met and heard of many other women who’ve had one.) Who knew there was a type of heart attack that affects fit and healthy women in their forties and fifties who exercise regularly and eat well? It can also affect new mothers, and occasionally men, as well...

It still feels so surreal, that I was on my way to work with another stressy deadline looming, then suddenly in a medical centre with a paramedic telling me I was having a heart attack in that moment. “So I can’t go to work today, or fly to Brisbane on Thursday for the faery tale conference?” Um, no....

I’m so so grateful for Australia’s incredible health system, and for the cardiac rehab that was provided (since my biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to work out again). And I’m so so glad I did check it out that day, because I’ve certainly worked through worse pain in various jobs... ❤

@scadresearchaust

Getting ready for my next event on Sunday - Books

Getting ready for my next event on Sunday - Books and Beyond Indie Book Fair at Ourimbah @booksandbeyond2252 - while listening to Encore on repeat ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Not a lot (of work) going on at the moment ❤️‍🔥❤️‍

Not a lot (of work) going on at the moment ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

💐 Wishing all my friends in the southern hemispher

💐 Wishing all my friends in the southern hemisphere a magical spring equinox, and the ushering in of new joy, new passion, new health and new beginnings, and all the promise, potential and energy of mid-spring.

🍁 And to my friends in the north, I wish you an enchanted autumn equinox, with all the colour and vibrancy of the season, the gratitude and thanksgiving implicit in this time of harvest, and the acknowledgement and celebration of all you have achieved in this past year.

💚 May this time of balance bring everyone love and contentment and peace and healing, and the groundedness that will provide roots for you to soar into your next adventure. Enjoy this beautiful day of light and dark in balance, of night and day of equal length, and of inner and outer in harmony.

💜 Love and bright blessings xx

💕 Love and gratitude to my sweet husbee on our 21s

💕 Love and gratitude to my sweet husbee on our 21st anniversary.

💐 It seems like just yesterday – or a lifetime ago – that we ran away to New York for our enchanted Central Park wedding on the equinox (autumn there, but every anniversary down under it’s been the spring equinox). The ceremony was witnessed by a sweet friend, and officiated by a Celtic priestess who included water from Chalice Well (“in Glastonbury, a place you’ve probably never heard of”) in the ritual, then after a week of wandering around Peter Parker’s city we headed to England for our honeymoon in magical Glastonbury and surrounds... I’m so glad that Juz loved it there as much as I do, and that we’ve been able to return together a few times over the years...

💜 And I’m grateful for the beautiful life we’ve created together in our little apartment in the city, opposite the park where my swan friends used to live, and for the love and support we give each other to pursue our dreams and follow our hearts – my new book is officially out today, and Juz’s new cd is being mixed.

💐 Last night we had our sweet anniversary eve dinner, with flowers, cards, and the Vampire Lestat, and today we went down to the magically mist-filled harbour for tea and scones…

What’s your favourite Australian book? On Saturda

What’s your favourite Australian book?

On Saturday I was writing at the State Library, in between a talk about writing by Charlotte Wood and Emily Perkins, and a discussion of First Nations books with Kirli Saunders, Bruce Pascoe and Melanie Seward - and a vox pop about favourite Australian books. Such a hard choice because there are so many incredible Australian authors!

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The Sun Queen’s Apprentice is OUT!
Interview – faery tale author Lissa Sloan
ARA Historical Novel Prize Shortlists 2024
Catch Up – April 2024
A Book A Week – April 2024

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