Where are Toadwords going?
Fossicking in the undergrowth of ideas
and swapping stories with
rooks and rats and midwinter wrens
....that's part of what writing is for me...
Adventures in print....the last couple of years have been lively for keyboards and scribbling pads (I usually write long-hand first, or at least cover an A3 sheet with notes!). I paused to look at where my writing had gone in these months. There are my new books: Waiting for the Snow and Baba Yaga: tales of an old witch that came out this year and Sacred Animals from last year. And then there are reviews, articles, poems and bits in all sorts of other publications....These pick up that Creeping Toad principle of looking creatively and emotionally at the world around us and explore past projects or unpack ideas and possibilities or are just delighted* wanders through the woods of imagination
Forget-me-Not Press: online art and poetry journal from Canada: I have work in Issues 4, 5, 6 and 7
Touchstone: the journal of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids
Faith Initiative: Issue 47 June 2023: the aim of the magazine is to open windows on the beliefs and practices of people of different faiths and cultures to foster understanding and reduce racially and religiously motivated violence.
Homecoming: Aurochs 1, 2 (2023) and 3 (2024): journal of new animist writing
Primary Geography, Autumn 2024 the Geographical Association's journal for all Early Years and Primary Teachers and is published three times a year
Northern Earth, September 2024: exploring earth mysteries in Northern UK - and further afield
Pagan Dawn: the journal of the Pagan Federation
Magnet: 2024, an article on gardens as sanctuaries - both for humans and other-than-human people. Magnet seeks to nurture Christian faith in thoughtful, challenging ways, encouraging, enabling and equipping people of all faith traditions for life.
Natterchat: the magazine of Froglife: I've hopped (and crept) into most of the latest issues
If you are associated with a publication and would like a Toad-piece, get in touch! Email is probably easiest: creepingtoad@btinternet.com
And there is music! a collaboration growing over the last year with the wonderful trio Gifts from Crows has grown into a release on bandcamp of "Whisper along the wind" combining Gift's music with my words and the beautiful images of Johanna Ronn
* delighted: at least I enjoy writing! hope other people enjoy the reading of it all!
Opening image: a white-faced owl who spent a day with me (recovering from flying into a window!) in Malawi in about 1984!