C.A. Logan Author

It’s that time of the year already. The world is chaotic when all we want is peace. But it’s time to look ahead, and, whatever our religion, we light the darkness and look ahead with hope. I am taking a few weeks off to share the joys of the season with friends and family. I want to wish everyone peace, love and all the best for 2025!

Looking back at 2024, speaking from a personal and artistic perspective, it’s been a fairly successful year. The sales of The Irish Within Us maintained a steady pace, albeit modest compared to Sarah J. Maas or Terry Fallis. This minor success is less demanding on my time and has allowed me to spend the year constructing plots, plotting throws, throwing pots, potting plants and planting constructs. 

I continue to explore the realms of Dungeons and Dragons, on behalf of my Ballybeg character Bugsy. My son, the Dungeon Master, is both patient and rigorous as I fumble along. The process itself provides a lot of fodder for future stories, and there’s a skeleton of the short story on my hard drive.

My membership in the Canadian Authors Association provided me with great networking with other writers. I also enjoyed the association’s online writing sessions and workshops throughout the year. The association’s booth at Toronto’s Word on the Street in September was fun, lucrative, and an opportunity to engage with the general reading public. It was also a fine excuse to press gang my visiting British cousins to literary servitude for a day — and they are still speaking to me.

In November, I participated in the London Writers’ Salon 24-Hour Writing Sprint. It was a 24-hour online writing marathon with hundreds of writers from around the world. It sounds insane, but it works. Several younger writers lasted the whole event. Boomers like me had to take a nap in the middle. Still, I wrote for 16 hours, at the speed of 500 words per hour, all for my third novel.

As I start 2025, I’m doing the pre-production of my second book (that’s editing, reviewing, re-editing, formatting, choosing a cover, etc.). I also have to commit to a name. The simple working title is Ballybeg. This book is not a sequel to The Irish Within Us, but a companion novel that expands the story through the perspective of the key secondary characters.

I am drafting my third book, also magic realism, but a completely different tale, set in Toronto. Over the holidays, I have been hearing so much feedback from my personal circle (yes; I asked for this, and they know who they are) —so much feedback about plants, shopping for second-hand items and Toronto traffic, that I will spend the first week of January rethinking many of the details. But no-one is taking away my Mountie character, who reminds me a little of Constable Benton Fraser, RCMP, because every good story should have a Mountie.

As I celebrate the last night of 2024 with my family, I am raising a glass to you all. Happy New Year, and to my Scots, Happy Hogmanay!

Title Image by Oleksandr P

Carole