Sep 26, 2023 | Book Updates
I’m not going to lie… putting book 5 out into the world is scaring the hell out of me.
I write what I call ‘living memoir’. I write ‘humour’ for the most part. Someone, and I wish I could remember who, said the ‘Rosie Life’ series is like ‘reality TV in book form’. I also read a writer say: ‘When you write you are very vulnerable. You stand on a stage and say this is how I feel does anyone else feel the same?’ … Book 5 is making me feel very vulnerable.
I knew what was going to be in Book 1 and 2 of ‘A Rosie Life In Italy’ as I already lived it before the books were published. I wrote Book 3 while it happened and I had book 4 up for pre-order at the end of Book 3. I had no idea what was going to happen in Book 4. It turned into a book about my mother’s experience of Italy.
Book 5 was the same. I put it up for pre-order at the end of Book 4 knowing certain things: I was grieving for my Dad and someone I loved dearly had been told they had incurable cancer.
But incurable is a very general word. After all life is incurable! We are all going to die and none of us know if we have 40 years, 5 years or a bus could run us over tomorrow.
When I put Book 5 up for pre-order I knew I was going to be going through emotional unchartered territory and to have to write about it scared me. I knew this book had to have an ending and I didn’t know what it was going to be… I knew the ending I didn’t want it to have.
Putting Book 5 out into the world of my lovely readers scares me. Some of my beta readers have said it is the best book I have written yet, but that does not give me comfort. I am scared it will go against my readers’ expectations. Book 5 includes lots about Italy as I got to know it more, and lots about its bureaucracy and navigating the Italian health system. There is some renovation but not as much as the other books, so that is why it might disappoint and that is why it scares me—Book 5 includes more of my personal life than the other books.
These books are my living memoirs. I don’t know what is going to happen. And I didn’t know what was going to happen in Book 5. It is a little different than the rest but I do hope you will enjoy Book 5 as much as the rest of the series. I will be anxiously waiting on your review to hear what you think of it.
Three days to go!
Sep 12, 2023 | A House In Italy
Ronan has been busy during the last two months creating a courtyard–just in time for the end of summer :D.
We were having some friends over for dinner on Saturday and needed some extra chairs. So I pulled out the old chairs that were left in the house when we bought it, gave them a wash, a light sanding and painted them with paint that looks more like wood stain but worked out well.
I added new seats I had bought online (a set of 6 for €49) and the chairs were ready just in time for dinner al fresco with friends that evening!
Total spend: €70
LINK TO WHERE TO BUY THE Chair seats
Before and After:
Jul 3, 2023 | A House In Italy
As any reader of my Rosie Life series knows, I have been trying to find a new name for The Sighing House since it was complete. It went from being called The Sighing House to being referred to as The Work House. While it is still a work in progress, I have gone through tonnes of Italian names and ideas but nothing seemed right. Then I realised, while the house is in Italy, we are Irish not Italian; I am quite boring, I don’t have a drop of any other DNA in me, I am 100 percent Celtic and we are now part of the house’s history, so why not give it an Irish name that has meaning to what we want the house to represent while we are living in it?
The last year and a half has not been easy and after my brother died two months ago, I have had some soulful experiences that have made me have a life-shift. A new purpose, which you will hear about in Book 5 (Out in the autumn. You can pre-order Book 5 here!). So instead of giving the house an Italian name, we have decided to give it a Celtic name. The Celts were around my town fighting the Roman’s with Hannibal over two thousand years ago so it’s not out of keeping with the history of the area!
The Celts believed that each person had a life-force that radiates light and energy around our physical body. They believed when people were genuinely open and transparent our life-force, or soul, could connect on a spiritual level, mingle, creating a powerful bond and in so doing become each other’s ‘Anam Cara’. In Gaelic ‘Anam’ means ‘soul’ Cara means ‘Friend’. The great modern Irish poet John Donahue wrote a wonderful book about Celtic Spiritual Wisdom called ‘Anam Cara’.
However, the benefits of this connection and profound bond could not happen until a person saw their own beauty and light. Anam Cara is a connection and exchange between souls – a genuine bond and true friendship.
And that is exactly what I want the house to be, a place where true friendships are made.
Welcome to Anam Cara. 🙂
I have lots of exciting news to in the coming weeks so if you are not on my newsletter, jump on now and don’t miss updates!
SIGN UP TO ROSIE’S NEWSLETTER
A Friendship Blessing
May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where there is
great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold in you.
May you be brought in to the real passion, kinship, and affinity of
belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them; may they
bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth, and light that you
need for your journey.
May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your anam cara.
– John O’Donohue
Mar 15, 2023 | Book Updates
I’m delighted to announce A Rosie Life In Italy 2 is now available on Audible (available through Amazon). I have to admit I was laughing out loud listening to it as there was some things I had forgotten I had written about.
Jan 30, 2023 | Book Updates
Life continues to be eventful here in Italy providing me with lots of material for ‘A Rosie Life In Italy 5’ – which I now hope to get finished by the summer! Talking of summer, after the success of last year, I am running another Writer’s Retreat at La Dogana from 12-18 June 2023. We do a couple of hours writing per day and then I take you to explore some of my favourite towns. We also have a picnic in the Tuscan hills, wine tasting, a cooking class and lots more. Last year was lots of fun with friends made for life and lots of inspiration had for future writing projects. You don’t have to be a published author to attend, just bring a writing project you would like to work on, a sense of adventure and a sense of humour! So if you would like to hang out with me and Lucia for a week, here’s the link: Rosie’s Writers Retreat in Italy
