Susan Carew Author

Spring doesn't last long in Andalusia, but the blast of blooming flowers is quite lovely.

Happy St Patrick's Day to all! I am excited to think that this time next year I will actually be living in Ireland and celebrating with my family and, I hope, the new friends I will have made.
It's a bittersweet day, as it is also the anniversary of my mum's passing. She's been gone now for 10 years and I can't believe such time has passed. I think of her a lot. I often catch myself laughing at something and realise that not only would Mum have found it funny too, but that I also laugh exactly the way she did! I find that a huge comfort because I know my mum lives on through me. Later I will be having a nip of Jamesons' whiskey (my mum's favourite) and toasting her.

Happy International Women’s Day!

Women are all too often absent from the pages of history; here are some who have been acknowledged for their achievements and whom I find particularly inspiring:
Malala Yousafzai, educational activist
Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron and considered to be the first computer programmer
Gertrude Ederle, in 1926 she was the first woman to swim the English Channel
Rosa Parks
Marie Curie
Emmeline Pankhurst
Michelle Obama

Who would you include on your list?

By reading a book you don't have to get on a plane and fly for hours to visit an exotic foreign country. I discovered my love of "travel" as a teenager and became obsessed with reading books set in the Far East. Sh**un by James Clavell started that off. Then it was off to Australia with A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute and The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. I've recently revisited the land of Oz with Jane Harper and Partricia Wolf. Both authors write vividly and bring Australia to life.
Of course, if you'd like to go on a sunny, swimming adventure holiday you wouldn't go far wrong reading my book Take the Plunge, set in the Spanish National park of El Cabo de Gata!

Where do you like to travel to when you read?

Despite living on the Costa del Sol I don't swim in the sea during the winter months because we are by a stretch of beach that has fresh water upwellings so the sea is colder. However, I did take a dip a couple of days ago. The water was very calm and blue, the sunlight sparkling on it so I couldn't resist. Usually I swim to the buoy, bash it and float about a bit then swim back to the beach. On a good day I'll swim across to the other buoy (a feat that impressed one of my neighbours so much he came and shook my hand!) The problem I have with colder water is not on my body but how it affects my head, despite wearing a cap, and in particular the freezing water in my ears, it's physically painful. In the winter too, there are no buoys out, so nothing but Africa to aim for! I have real respect for those swimmers who go out in all weathers in the UK and Ireland. I guess with my relocation I'm going to have to train myself to get out there. I'm hoping to find a dipping group for those winter months as I'm sure that will spur me on!

TAKE THE PLUNGE is now available on Kindle Unlimited so you can get your taste of summer added to your library! This is a great read that swimmers will love. If you're not a swimmer, don't worry, with it's themes of grief and friendship there's plenty for you to identify with. I've had a lot of people who don't do open water swimming comment that reading TAKE THE PLUNGE has made them want to try the sport, so it could inspire you!
What have you got to lose?

I think this is a very thought provoking statement and wondered what you made of it? For me it is about not taking your friends for granted, even if you've known them for year and years, it's a relationship that like all others requires nurturing. Of course, it could mean that you and your friend were always destined to be meet and be in each others' life.

My book TAKE THE PLUNGE and the soon to be follow up, BEYOND THE BUOY, have very strong friendship themes throughout. For my protagonists, Claire and Alison, being friends isn't all plain sailing, but their commitment and loyalty to each other always shines through.

I am very lucky to have a really good best friend and we've been through a lot together. How about you?

Happy Valentine's Day if that's what you're into. I think this can be such a pressurised day with the expectation of romance. The crushing disappointment of the day when a work colleague gets the big bunch of flowers and you stare into your coffee cup trying not to be bitter and jealous. Actually, once I did get a dozen red roses delivered to work, much to the sniggers of my work mates because I'd only been dating the guy a few weeks and then only "allowed" to see him once on the weekend because life was too tiring during the week. Said roses were dead by the time I'd done battle on the London underground on the way home!
There's so much societal pressure to be one half of a pair and if you're not, you're somehow weird or unloveable. I didn't find the love of my life until I was 47 so believe
me, I know what I'm talking about!
So today, just do something nice for yourself (or someone else, it really cheers you up!) and be glad of the people you love. You don't need roses for that.

For the first time in years I'm actually going to make some pancakes today. Of course I've had to explain to my American husband that they won't be the same as the delicious ones you get in a U.S diner. He's slightly horrified at the notion of topping them sugar and lemon juice rather than maple syrup!
Are you making pancakes today?

Isn't it great when you find a book that you can't stop reading? That you want to get to the end and see what happens, but don't, because then what will you read? This is the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction and it sure is a winner! Often I find prize-winning literary fiction hard going but feel I should/have to read it because everyone is raving on about how good it is and you don't want to look like stupid by saying you don't "get it". Not this book, it SO well written, it's an easy read if you see what I mean. A wonderful straightforward first person narrative that pulls at the heart strings along with meaningful social commentary (but not hitting you over the head with it.) I'm half way through and it's distracting me from my work as I keep sneaking in a read.

The quote from Charles Dickens is at the front of the book because the story is supposed to mirror David Copperfield. I can't comment on that because I haven't read it. I know as a writer and former English teacher I should have read such a classic, but hands up, I haven't! However, this is such wise advice. How much time have I spent looking back and wishing I could change this or that aspect of my life. How futile is that? I can't be the only one that does this though, can I?

Maybe this is a bit deep for a Monday morning!

There are a lot of overwhelming elements in my life at the moment as my husband and I try to relocate to a different country. All I can see is obstacle after obstacle to be overcome and as soon as that's clear another one will leap up at us! This is what's important to me now, it's all I can think about, but I know that in a year's time all this stress will have faded into the recesses of my mind. What's important to me now, will not be the case in the near future so why bother with all the angst?

If you're struggling with your day, ask yourself; will this be an issue tomorrow, next week, next month, next year? If the answer to any of these timeframes is "no" then you need to take a deep breath and remember that this too will pass.

Good luck!

Ruby is supervising the cleaning.

https://eedition2.sacbee.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=b4617ea6-457b-4847-8abf-2b62586f4498

How inspiring! How great to know there isn't a cut off to start swimming. She probably swims faster than me, I'm a real coach!

Swimmer, 99, just broke three world records in 100-plus age group - The Sacramento Bee Betty Brussel took up competitive swimming at in her mid-sixties. Now 99, she’s won hundreds of medals – and just broke three world records in her age group.

At the moment my husband and I are busy trying to buy a property in Ireland and sort out the business of moving all our stuff there. Added to that I have editing work to do on my second book, Beyond the Buoy. To say I'm feeling stressed is a bit of an understatement and my body is going on strike in protest!
It's at times like this I really need my friends. I am scheduled to chat with a good friend today and I know she'll let me vent and we'll find something to laugh about. After the call my problems won't be solved but I'll feel better just for having connected with someone who knows me well.
I hope you've got someone there for you.

Expect me to keep blabbing on about things from the podcast I listened to with Marian Keyes on Irish Times Radio, the Women's Podcast. I just love what she says about comfort zones. So often we're told, by whom I don't know, that we need to, have to, push ourselves out of a our comfort zone in order to be a better person. The New Year is a time when this is particularly noticeable. Lose weight, join a gym, seek that promotion, look younger, blah, blah. All making you feel bad about the person you are now and the life you have -- and you could be perfectly happy with both! Chasing the unattainable is exactly what's going to make you unhappy and unfulfilled. How do we feel when all those wonderful New Year's Resolutions fail before the end of January? So, hearing someone like Marian saying to stay comfortable is music to my ears and no, I haven't made any resolutions for 2024. I'm just going to keep on plodding away at surviving!

Ruby's just watching the world go by, waiting to see who or what she can bark at next!

I think one of the reasons for an author's success it that they write about things that resonate with us, their readers. When I saw this quote by Jojo Moyes I was reminded on how I've recently connected with any old friend. We'd lost touch (my fault, I'd got swept up being newly married and moving overseas) but I reached out and we met up, years after we'd last since each other. It was like we'd only just chatted the day before and the connection was so great I wondered how I'd ever risked losing it. I guess that really is a test of friendship.

I'm not that great with the old technology but I have a go and sometimes get it wrong (constantly tagging a famous writer without realising what I was doing, springs to mind. She very politely requested I desist!) I listened to a great podcast today with the wonderful writer Marian Keyes. She's a bit of a hero to me. She talked about turning 60, and as I'm hurtling towards that number it was great to hear her wise words on matters of life. She has a way of making you feel better about yourself and gives you a feeling of "we're all in it together" I guess that's one of the reasons why her books sell so well. Anyhow, I'm trying to share the link with you. If this doesn't work, it's the The Women's Podcast with Róisín Ingle from the Irish Times. It's a great listen and I highly recommend it.
https://open.acast.com/public/streams/6155e18746dfcc0014273af1/episodes/6515b907ebbe5d0011400305.mp3

In TAKE THE PLUNGE I tried to give readers a sense of how swimming makes Claire feel. I know what a positive impact open water swimming has on so many people, myself included. It's easy to see how addictive it can be and it doesn't have any calories!

I've already read Skin Deep so off to a good start. I'd heard the author was a favourite of Lisa Jewell's so thought I'd give it a good. It was a real page-turner and I found it hard to put down. Stylistically it was a little different with various first person points of view inserted and tales of Irish legends. I was surprised it was classified as a crime novel, I wouldn't have put it in that genre at all.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you get all that you wish for in 2024. Time for me to start a new diary. I've been writing one like this since 2000. Over the years I've found that keeping a diary has really helped me. It's a great way of taking stock of the day's events and assessing what's been important enough for me to record. A diary is never judgemental and you can rant and vent and no one is ever going to see it. It also gives a sense of prospective. What seems important or insurmountable is viewed with fresh eyes when re-read days, weeks, months or even years later. When you're feeling low, you can see the proof in your past entries that this will pass and better times will come.

There's still time to order a copy of TAKE THE PLUNGE as a Christmas gift for a friend, family member or yourself! Even if it doesn't arrive in time for Christmas you could still receive it for that limbo between Christmas and New Year. That's when you're sick of playing games, watching TV, "brisk walks". Perhaps being cooped up with family is getting to be a bit too much? 😮 Instead you could be curled up with my book, escaping to the the sun, where drama awaits!

Ruby is currently staying in kennels while we travel in Ireland and England, however she wanted to send you her Christmas message. I am really missing her and this is the longest we will have been apart, can't wait to see her again and have lots of cuddles!