Writing, Publishing, Books and More
This Writer’s Life is now a book tour host for Goddness Fish Promotions and today we have Jordan Harcourt-Hughes stopping by to promote her new book Bitroux: High Country.
She’s very kindly offering a prize drawing for a $25 Amazon/BN gift card. One randomly drawn winner will be picked
Can you describe your dream home?
Somewhere quiet, close to the ocean, and with spaces to write and paint. I’ve often thought I’d be completely at home in Hawaii. But my husband and I go between Australia and New Zealand quite a bit, and I’m lucky to call both places home. The Asia-Pacific region is full of all of the things I love – oceans, space, nature – we’re very lucky.
If we were to come to your house for a meal, what would you give us to eat?
Chilled fruit tea, roast vegetables, salad, fruit, chocolate, wine. Not necessarily in that order! And that’s only if my hubby isn’t home. When he’s at home, he’s the chef and I leave everything up to him. He’s one of those annoying people with the magic touch. He can create gourmet meals from anything. I’ve literally seem him cook up a storm from leftovers – he’s very innovative.
As an artist and author, you talk about sacred creativity as a practice. Tell us about that.
I actually have a few different types of creative practice that I enjoy. Mindful Creativity is a foundational practice that I love and share with many people who do my creativity courses. That’s a practice which allow us to reach a place of quiet serenity and calm relaxation. It’s the best launch pad for creative work that I know of. We can dive in and enjoy play and loose experimentation far more easily than when we’re stressed and wound up very tightly.
Sacred Creativity is another level up from that, and relates to the practice of engaging with the mysteries of life through sensory experience. Getting comfortable with asking big questions, and being open to receive inspiration, knowledge and insights through embodied practices of creative expression. It’s a step into a new state of questioning, and of listening.
What do you enjoy about the practice?
It’s about learning to use all our senses to move into a state of listening so profound that it becomes something different – it becomes communion.
When we start to commune – with the stars, the flowers, the ocean, the sky, the wind – we begin to hear whispers of knowledge, of insight. We start to engage in a way that our whole body participates in. Instead of just listening with our ears, we connect, commune and understand with our entire being -using empathy, heightened awareness, our senses, our bodies, our spirits.
And then, with our senses alive with new ideas and information, we can start to reflect on what we have heard and explore opportunities to investigate, express and share our experiences through our creative work.
Can you give an example?
Absolutely. One easy practice is to go out on a nature walk and talk to the flowers. This is really an invitation to think outside of the box. To entertain ideas about how we can increase our ability to connect, commune with, and understand, the things we exist alongside.
As you walk, think about what it means to commune with nature. How can we have a conversation where we are both transmitting and receiving information with another life form? What are we likely to hear, perceive, or understand? And what kind of listening is required – and what kind of hearing? Will we hear through our ears, through our bodies, or through our imagination?
I think it’s also nice to think how nature is actively communicating within its own ecosystems. Books like The Hidden Life of Trees have already given us extensive new insights into the ‘wood-wide web’ and the networks that trees use to share information with each other, and indeed, take care of each other.
Walking with, and paying attention to flowers is a lovely first step in the journey of communing more deeply with nature and the universe itself; it’s the practice of paying attention, celebrating nature’s existence and starting a two-way energetic exchange.
Bitroux: High Country
Jordan Harcourt-Hughes
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GENRE: Science Fiction
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BLURB:
If Merouac ever thought his life’s work would culminate in leading the metal workshops of the Transcontinental Railroad Project, he was sorely mistaken.
Now, his true challenge lies in navigating the other-worldly abilities he’s only beginning to understand—abilities that allow him to tune metal to interdimensional frequencies.
While trying to be a guardian to his niece, Evra, he’s realising she may have more to teach him than he ever expected. At the same time, his decision to help an interdimensional race find refuge underground puts him at the centre of an even deeper mystery.
As reality reshapes itself around him, Merouac faces a growing realisation: the world of Ahm is on the brink of a profound transformation, and everything he thought he knew may soon be shattered.
Excerpt
There was something about that zone of quiet concentration. It was always somewhere in the middle of those quiet moments where the blue light of the Top Hats had started to appear at the edge of his gaze. It had always been hard to see the things directly in his sight; they shifted and moved and always seemed hazy and insubstantial. He wondered if, in those moments, he had drifted into the Maolfi state without realising it.
He kept working. The surges of static came and went, heating his body, and then leaving, giving him a sense that his whole body was buzzing, vibrating. He kept moving, concentrating only on the wood. And things started to shift, but not in the way he had anticipated.
Soon, two piles had been moved and Merouac was starting to feel a welcome feeling of tiredness. He contemplated leaving the last pile of wood for the morning but kept moving instead. Then, something sounded.
He looked up. Nothing. Had anything made a noise at all? He felt sure he had heard something. All was still. What was it that he thought he had heard? Like someone or something was crashing through the trees, perhaps. He shook his head. Nothing unusual stirred, the flickering lights continued and below he could see hummers and their fluorescent markings shimmering in the trees.
Then he realised. He hadn’t heard it. He’d felt it.
He closed his eyes, tried to make his way to the place the Faurin called the Maolfi state. Kii had wanted him to find a place of deep listening. And perhaps what he was just starting to understand was, that you could listen with all your body, and feel sound in other ways than just noise.
After a time, he opened his eyes again and saw spheres hovering in the air, full of something he couldn’t quite comprehend.
Reaching out to touch them, they felt full and weighty and yet his hand could partially pass through them. They were not solid, and yet they were full. Like bubbles being blown by some invisible child, they formed and hung in the atmosphere.
They grew larger, then fuzzier, then collapsed from their own weight, dripping a strange sentience that dispersed back into the atmosphere. Often, they formed again straight away, the same spheres, the same size and colour, the same weight, only to burst and disperse once again.
Some of the smaller ones were only as large as his hand. Others, twice the size. And then hovering at greater height, larger spheres his whole body could have walked through. They shifted and mutated, formed and faded, pulsed and glowed. They were magical.
‘This is different,’ he said out loud, and grinned.
About the Author
Jordan Harcourt-Hughes is an abstract painter, writer and communications professional. She’s passionate about all aspects of creativity, life-long learning and personal wellbeing. Over the last fifteen years she’s led, coached and developed creative professionals across the Asia-Pacific region.
Jordan’s books, studio workshops, courses, coaching and resources are an invitation to explore the rich landscape of creative experiences open to all.
High Country is Jordan’s second novel set in the world of Bitroux.
Website: https://jordanharcourthughes.com
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