Hello there. It’s only been about a billion years since we last spoke and I must say, I’ve missed our little intrigues here. I feel as thought I’ve lived about 3 lives since I wrote to you and while I don’t want to bore you with details, I fear we’re at risk of no longer recognising each other, and we can’t have that. So I’ll just give you the highlights. The last few months have been the ones where dreams came true.
I am SO happy you're writing again on Substack. I've missed your sparkly, magical words. Writing under your own name, rather than a publication name, feels so powerful too. Welcome back ✨🪻
Wooo!! Congrats in marriage and achieving en pointe AND career pivot. Yep, you’ve been living entire lives. Welcome back!
And as you asked, remember how I was starting out with my little “look what I found in my attic” fantasy romance serial at the first Substack Soireee? With shapeshifting sea dragons? I haven’t told anyone else except my husband and one friend so you are next to know. (Not even my readers know this. Is this terrible??) I just finished book four of the serial, as in it is all edited and waits for me to plonk it into Substack. It is one hell of a ride and I know because I found myself holding my breath while fixing typo type edits on the last pass. I mean, I do still need to come up with chapter titles, “previously on” and ummm … make the journals I’ll find in the trunk in my attic (shhhh!) but it is finished! Wooooo! I should also really go to bed. Stay cool!!
Yes I do remember! That is SO exciting!! What a huge achievement! And thank you for telling me first, I feel super special.
And thank you!! It's been busy but mostly magical.
Ah, no doubt you've put it somewhere special and is most likely not to be found again. Haha. Have a good sleep (hope your air con works? It was apparently 42 here today) and tomorrow feel free to come back and leave the link here to the first post of your first novel so people can get started.
Ahhh... there you are... all married and gorgeous and sending us the most fabulous highlights of why you haven't been! All completely understandable... congratulations Keeley 💞xx
Susieee hello!! Lovely to hear from you. Thank you so much! How are you? Have you written lately? I haven’t seen you pop up in a while. How are those hilarious animals of yours? xx 🤍
Hey gorgeous, it’s lovely to see you writing again. I’m good… if I ignore a rather frustrating tendon problem in my ankle. Thankfully I have two…!!
I am crazy busy, with my students, my dippy sheep and escaped cows and all the insanely full days which have somehow become part of living a simpler life on this gorgeous hill. I barely have time to write two posts a month, another frustration but none of the above is likely to change so two it is!
I am green with envy hearing of your new venture… when we first moved here 20 years ago I dreamed of growing fields of cut flowers to sell in beautiful bouquets on the markets. I had the whole project planned out even down to how the fields would still look beautifully manicured even when the flowers had been cut.
It didn’t take too much research to realise the the hill is covered with only a few centimetres of soil and basically nothing would grow without spending almost everything we had on excavation and then cultivating the soil. Even my veggie patch is a labour of love and invariably a disappointment.
I can’t wait to see photos of your floral creations Keeley, post plenty — I can be a vicarious florist! xx
Hey Susie, oh no tendon issue? Is that in the achilles? I only ask because I had that for a while and it su-huuuucked. I found doing some rolling under foot with a small ball and lots of calf raises helped. But if it's not that, then that's some really useless side info for you. You're welcome.
'Dippy sheep' made me giggle haha. 2 posts a month is still awesome, but I know what you mean, when you've got more stories to write it's hard when the time is eaten away by other things.
Ohhhhh that is such a beautiful dream! I'm so sorry that didn't plan out because that would have been incredible. Our soil here is similar (although, I do recognise a backyard on a bungalow is not quite the same as a hill and fields... howeverrrr) we have a few cms of soil and then just clay. Ugh. We've been trying to work around it by making some raised garden beds and slowly building up the soil there. Long game but the vision is there. If it wasn't so expensive then that would be a decent work around to make a bunch of raised beds and fill with actually decent soil so at least your veggies could thrive, but it's annoying/unbelievable how expensive dirt is!!
I will definitely be sharing lots of flowers, would also love to see more of your dippy sheep. xxx
I am SO happy you're writing again on Substack. I've missed your sparkly, magical words. Writing under your own name, rather than a publication name, feels so powerful too. Welcome back ✨🪻
Thank you! Yes, that's so true - it does kind of feel like a power move. xx
Wooo!! Congrats in marriage and achieving en pointe AND career pivot. Yep, you’ve been living entire lives. Welcome back!
And as you asked, remember how I was starting out with my little “look what I found in my attic” fantasy romance serial at the first Substack Soireee? With shapeshifting sea dragons? I haven’t told anyone else except my husband and one friend so you are next to know. (Not even my readers know this. Is this terrible??) I just finished book four of the serial, as in it is all edited and waits for me to plonk it into Substack. It is one hell of a ride and I know because I found myself holding my breath while fixing typo type edits on the last pass. I mean, I do still need to come up with chapter titles, “previously on” and ummm … make the journals I’ll find in the trunk in my attic (shhhh!) but it is finished! Wooooo! I should also really go to bed. Stay cool!!
Yes I do remember! That is SO exciting!! What a huge achievement! And thank you for telling me first, I feel super special.
And thank you!! It's been busy but mostly magical.
Ah, no doubt you've put it somewhere special and is most likely not to be found again. Haha. Have a good sleep (hope your air con works? It was apparently 42 here today) and tomorrow feel free to come back and leave the link here to the first post of your first novel so people can get started.
It was in the mid-30s here. Was close to 40 on Sunday. Somehow we’ve dodged this oppressive heat although anything over 30 is too darn hot for me. I wasn’t going to link ‘cause you just got back but as you asked … here is the table of contents page for “A Grail for Eidothea” https://open.substack.com/pub/projectstarfish/p/start-here-a-grail-for-eidothea?r=1mk6at&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
Oh good job dodging it! Amazing, thanks for including the link! 🌟
Huge congratulations, LOVE all these updates, you've been busy! xx
Ah, Claire! So lovely to hear from you! And thank you, yes...a tad. Haha. xx
Lovely to see you back writing here, Keeley! xox
Lovely to be back! xxx
How beautiful! Can see the magic in all of these pictures. Congrats x
Thank you! And yay so glad the magic comes through. Really lovely to hear from you Sarina! x
Well congratulations on allllll of this! 🌸🌺🌷🌼🪻🥀🌺
Thank you Gabrielle!! So lovely to hear from you! 🌸🤍💖
Ahhh... there you are... all married and gorgeous and sending us the most fabulous highlights of why you haven't been! All completely understandable... congratulations Keeley 💞xx
Susieee hello!! Lovely to hear from you. Thank you so much! How are you? Have you written lately? I haven’t seen you pop up in a while. How are those hilarious animals of yours? xx 🤍
Hey gorgeous, it’s lovely to see you writing again. I’m good… if I ignore a rather frustrating tendon problem in my ankle. Thankfully I have two…!!
I am crazy busy, with my students, my dippy sheep and escaped cows and all the insanely full days which have somehow become part of living a simpler life on this gorgeous hill. I barely have time to write two posts a month, another frustration but none of the above is likely to change so two it is!
I am green with envy hearing of your new venture… when we first moved here 20 years ago I dreamed of growing fields of cut flowers to sell in beautiful bouquets on the markets. I had the whole project planned out even down to how the fields would still look beautifully manicured even when the flowers had been cut.
It didn’t take too much research to realise the the hill is covered with only a few centimetres of soil and basically nothing would grow without spending almost everything we had on excavation and then cultivating the soil. Even my veggie patch is a labour of love and invariably a disappointment.
I can’t wait to see photos of your floral creations Keeley, post plenty — I can be a vicarious florist! xx
Hey Susie, oh no tendon issue? Is that in the achilles? I only ask because I had that for a while and it su-huuuucked. I found doing some rolling under foot with a small ball and lots of calf raises helped. But if it's not that, then that's some really useless side info for you. You're welcome.
'Dippy sheep' made me giggle haha. 2 posts a month is still awesome, but I know what you mean, when you've got more stories to write it's hard when the time is eaten away by other things.
Ohhhhh that is such a beautiful dream! I'm so sorry that didn't plan out because that would have been incredible. Our soil here is similar (although, I do recognise a backyard on a bungalow is not quite the same as a hill and fields... howeverrrr) we have a few cms of soil and then just clay. Ugh. We've been trying to work around it by making some raised garden beds and slowly building up the soil there. Long game but the vision is there. If it wasn't so expensive then that would be a decent work around to make a bunch of raised beds and fill with actually decent soil so at least your veggies could thrive, but it's annoying/unbelievable how expensive dirt is!!
I will definitely be sharing lots of flowers, would also love to see more of your dippy sheep. xxx
Huge congratulations lovely! What stunning, dreamy photos. And a career change to floristry… YES! ✨🤍
Hi Jenna! Thank you so much lovely! Honestly, floristry just feels like coming home 😭. How are you? How’s your poetry writing? 🤍
Aww I love that for you! Truly such a beautiful feeling 🌸
I’m doing okay thank you — preparing for all the changes that are to come as we get ready to welcome our little one in March.
Poetry is going well! I felt as though the words had left me for a little while last year, but have since come back to flourish 🤍
Oh wow that's so exciting! Congratulationsss!! 🤍🤍🤍 How are you feeling? Hope all the fun fatigue and nausea is a thing of the past.
So glad the words are back, it's so upsetting when they disappear, I relate to that. x
Aww thank you so much! I’m getting there slowly. Thankfully the nausea didn’t last too long!
Me too! But I understand how necessary it is when they disappear sometimes x
Yay! I love that your world is full of flowers now. And congratulations on the wedding!
Thank you so much Alice! 🤍
Missed you too, dear Keeley 🤍💐
Hello lovely friend! 🤍🤍