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My Ramadhan Journey
my experience of Ramadhan is different every year, as I get older and my life circumstances change. This year I’m a married woman and I started the month fasting with my husband, Seán and for the first time I’m working from home full-time. I decided to approach Ramadhan with greater intention and because of who I am, I set goals to help keep my promises to myself. I’ve also noticed that as I get older, the challenges I face in my day-to-day have changed and the meaning behind Ramadhan becomes clearer to me. What I’m learning is that we’re each on our own journey and we achieve things at different paces.…
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Is a virtual wedding the new normal?
I guess it comes down to a simple choice really… get busy planning or get busy waiting. adapted from Shawshank Redemption When the pandemic was kicking off in March 2020, we received several messages from our family and friends asking if our wedding was still going ahead in August. We didn’t have much information to make a definitive decision to postpone, but there were two things we were clear about. We didn’t want to put anyone at risk of getting sick and in order for us to stay together in Switzerland, we needed to be married. Our wedding planner said, “Don’t worry, if we need to, we can pull something…
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Finding an Illustrator to Bring Life to My Character
Finding the right illustrator was a lovely experience. It felt super overwhelming because I had no idea where to begin, but my excitement to see Siona come to life kept me going. I did a LOT of research and started to imagine Siona in different ways depending on the illustration style of the artist. I found so many incredibly talented illustrators on Instagram, and I engaged in relevant Facebook groups to learn more which lead me to different professional illustrator databases. It’s a crazy world out there so I’ve included a couple of links in case you’re an upcoming author and this helps you to get started: Facebook Groups: Children’s Writer’s…
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New Beginnings as Children Author
Do you feel you have more to give? Feel like what you’re doing is meaningful, but you’d like to try something new or approach from a different angle? Well, you’re not alone. As a humanitarian aid worker, I deployed to crises for several months supporting children and families affected by Conflict, Typhoons, Earthquakes and Tsunamis. In my younger years when I heard traumatic stories in the field, I held my emotions tight and lock them in the softest parts of my heart. I listened intently and developed if not only for a few brief moments a connection with a complete stranger. I felt tears were not appropriate nor required to…