I did.
I started something new and big. And here it is, July 2020, four years later, and finally the something new, and, as it turned out very big, is about to be born.
I wrote a novel.
And it is about to be published.
Best of all, by Melliodora Publishing, the publisher of David Holmgren’s work and lots of other very awesome writers.
It’s best of all because you see several other things happened during those years too. I did a research Masters, on how to communicate climate science in storytelling, how to speak to hearts as well as heads. My granddaughter Mia was born and we moved to Coffs Harbour, to grandparent and to have a Retrosuburbia adventure. I wanted to find out how much of what we had learned living off-grid for nearly 40 years could be transferred to a suburban setting. I wanted to find out if the way I imagined climate change playing out in my novel held true in the wider world. And, it was time for change.
It has been such a huge change, after 37 years living in the same off-grid rural home. I’ve found it difficult, confronting, at times full of grief.
To complicate it, just when I thought I had all my ducks lined up for an adventure, one after another, black swans landed. All the jokes about 2020 being one month after another where the best strategy seems to be making a blanky fort and crawling into it were true of 2017, 2018 and 2019 too for me.
But it has also been exciting and, well, I’ve felt like it is important work. That can sustain you through a lot of storms.
‘470‘ is out of the printers, and will officially launch on July 19th, as a print and e-book, with an audio book to come. If it isn’t available in your local bookshop or library, ask for it and they will be able to get it in. You will also be able to buy it online from https://au.permacultureprinciples.com/product/470/?ref=12, as a print or ebook.
And I have an author website (feels very strange to write those words) at lindawoodrow.com, with where to find it, as well as bloggy conversations about the themes in ‘470’ and the research behind it – family and community, the limits of self-sufficiency, the skills and resources that might be useful in facing what climate science tells us is coming at us ready or not, the intangibles that are more use than even those in a crisis. Food and medicine, communication, energy, refugees, solastalgia and, well, lots of things. The back cover is below. I hope you will join me there, as well as here.
And what of Witches Kitchen? It will stay, a space for food and garden posts, seasonal recipes, adventures in adapting permaculture to suburbia. It seems incredible that the first post was over a decade ago. It may look the same, but it’s just had a major rebuild of the back end that will, hopefully, keep it healthy for another decade. So long as no more black swans land on my little leaky raft I should be here a bit more often.
I come from a similar background as you do but from Tasmania and have come here for family reasons .. but your words of difficult, confronting and full of grief .. they resonate so much .. I am very much looking forward to reading your book ..
Excellent news, congratulations on “hatching” this – looking forward to reading it! 🙂
Can’t wait to read your book. The last few years have been lumpy indeed, but full of learning too.
Congratulations
How exciting, Can’t wait to read it. Sorry to hear the transition to retrosuburia hasn’t been as easy as hoped. I still visit your blog regularly to grab recipes I love. Mostly the breakfast and sourdough ones. Your hollandaise sauce recipe gets cooked at least once a month if not more often in our house.
Congratulations. Well done following your gut feeling to start on a new project!
I can’t wait to read it, especially since your other book has had such a profound effect on me since I was gifted it in the 90’s. I have left patches of herbs and veggies in every rental I lived in since then.
I have just finished 470 this morning.
Thought provoking. I was invested in the characters, and was interested in how they survived on the village skill mix in their community.
Will use 470 for our 9 person book club soon as it is my turn to pick novel!
Should bring forward some great discussion as we are a mix of two generations … Late 30s and early 60s. Thank you.
I’m so glad you found it thought provoking Linda – that’s exactly the reaction I was hoping for. I’d love to hear what your book club thinks of it too. If you are buying multiple copies, you will find buying wholesale a cheaper option – https://melliodora.com/catalogue/470/