Intermission: news and events

... and an anniversary offer

Cottage and Peat Stacks, Connemara, by Percy French

An anniversary offer

Hello to all of my readers this Easter weekend. There are over 37,000 of you now, which is quite an increase on the zero I had this time two years ago.

Today is the second anniversary of the publication of my first essay here, Under the Spreading Walnut Tree. I’ve just read it again, for the first time since I wrote it, and it’s not a bad description of what I ended up doing, though I never thought I would write as much as I have - or read as much supporting material. But that’s how it goes: every door you open leads to six or seven others, and you could just keep on walking through them forever.

I won’t be walking forever. My next essay will be with paid subscribers next week, and three more will follow after that, before this project reaches its conclusion. After that - well, after that I have other ideas about what will happen here in the Abbey, and I’m quite excited about them. But that’s for later.

For now, here’s an anniversary offer for all my readers: all this month, an annual subscription will be 25% cheaper than usual. Given that an annual sub is already cheaper than a monthly one, this will be a useful saving if you think you can stand reading me for another year. If this grabs you, you can press this button:

Upcoming events

In other news, I have just updated my website to feature the public events I’m doing this year. I’ll be speaking in several places in Ireland, the UK and the US. I expect to add a few more on as time goes by. Some of the details have yet to be nailed down, but all the dates are final, and some tickets are on sale already.

Some more podcasts

Meanwhile, I’ve been talking to a couple more people on the other side of the etheric wires. I get asked to do a lot of podcasts and I mostly say no. I get sick of hearing myself talk, you might be surprised to learn. But I tend to say yes to people I think I can learn something from. My second conversation with John Heers - motto: Heavy Things Done Lightly - is a good example of this. We talked about a lot of things, including the tension/conflict/contradiction between creation and evolution, which is a subject I have thought virtually nothing about up to this point. I’m going to think more about it now. I always enjoying talking to John: he’s a welcoming and relaxing host.

Those of you who are fed up with hearing me talk about religion might be pleased to know that on this next podcast it’s never even mentioned. This is another second-conversation, this time with comedian and economist Dominic Frisby. We ended up designing our own utopias, just for the hell of it. It was fun. Dominic’s substack is worth a read too: his recent piece on conflation is short and to the point.

You’ll find a lot more conversations, with all sorts of interesting people, on my YouTube channel.

And finally …

An honourable mention to a recent review of my Buckmaster Trilogy of novels. Rhys Laverty digs deep into the stories and the themes, and ties them together smartly and thoughtfully. This is as good an overall picture of what I was trying to do as I have seen anywhere.

Have wonderful Easter.

Paul