Articles from my personal Journals
My seven-year journey to becoming a published memoirist happened while we lived in Athens, Cairo and Bangkok. Here I write about life as it happens, living abroad, being a mother, wife, sister and daughter as well as living a writer’s life.
If you wonder what it’s like being a published author, and how to write a memoir, from therapy on the page (the first drafts) through revision, editing, book design, publishing, marketing and selling your memoir, you will love these articles.
The shitty first drafts of these articles first appeared in my private journals and morning pages. When you sign up for my biweekly Cercular you’ll never miss an article. Who knows, it might just be the spark of inspiration you need to write.
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Welcome to my Life & Memoir Writing Journey ๐งก
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Iseult Fitzgerald โ Ambassador
“I don’t like having my photos taken, but you made it fun and relaxing and I love my photos. Thank you, Vig”
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Dee Ryan for Mayor of Limerick
โThe extent to which you know your inner child is proportional to how well you know yourself.โ Vigโs Trauma Theory
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Womenโs Day, Mother’s Day & Voting for Change
โThe extent to which you know your inner child is proportional to how well you know yourself.โ Vigโs Trauma Theory
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Edward Scissorhands A Trauma Theory
โThe extent to which you know your inner child is proportional to how well you know yourself.โ Vigโs Trauma Theory
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Moving Chaos
We arrived in Ireland on Friday 4 August and caught the train to my mother-in-law, thinking we would stay for a few days โ thatโs […]
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What my readers are saying
… omg. Tears, Laughter, Delight and so much more. I love Speak #TRUTH Lies. What a Read! Fantastic! Later, Cliona sent me this WhatsApp message: […]
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Time to Say Goodbye
This week, in Athens, a dream came true. With the gift of two tickets, we got to see a hero in concert. Would he sing […]
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Make a Scene
Think of the first paragraph of your memoir as the opening scene of a movie or tv series. Every story, every movie, every bookstarts with […]
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Making Memoir
I canโt believe Iโm here, that Iโve made it this far. It’s been seven years! Seeingย โThe Endโย at the bottom of that page, three weeks ago, […]
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AI art for writers
I’m having a bit too much fun playing with Artificial intelligence (AI) today. I wanted to see what it comes up with as suggestions for […]
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Turning anxiety into self-awareness
Iโm living in a turbulent time right now. Arenโt we all you might say and if you do, then you are right and I hope […]
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How to create a safe vessel to write from
Iโm trying, Iโm really trying to get on with revision, transcribing voice notes and rewriting, while the drilling continues upstairs. our Athens building block is […]
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Feeling Frazzled
Iโm eating chocolate and feel lazy and fat, her message said, I hope you feel better than me. Nop, I’m not doing any better than […]
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Letting go of Knowing
Since last week’s blog Iโve pondered the question of wether I can truly let go of knowing, of control, of my need to be right, […]
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Not OK
Not ok is ok Donโt be okwhen itโs not okLean into the pain in your heartwhen it breaksfor the smallest things;a mum who says โwaitโ […]
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Charity – The Gift of Giving
In 1910 Wallace D. Wattles wrote; โThe poor do not need charity; they need inspiration. Charity only sends them a loaf of bread to keep […]
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The True North of Memoir
I didnโt realise revising my memoir would be this hard or take this long, but now I see what Iโm here to learn.ย As I […]
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Illness the New Normal
In 2013 a study by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) found that over 95% of the worldโs population has health problems. Lower back pain […]
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Mormor and The Queen Mother
On this day (April 9) seventeen years ago, the most nurturing and positively influential woman, to me, took her last breath and left this life.
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Why Don’t you like me?
I always thought there where two kinds of people – those with and those (like me) without confidence. Those WITH confidence seemed more genuine. I […]
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The art and science of achieving goals
Apparently, most new year resolutions have fallen by the wayside by February, so what can March offer us? Is it better to sit back and […]
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Flow
There is nothing quite so luscious as getting lost in the FLOW, where you forget that you havenโt washed your hair in 3 days and […]
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Egypt โต๏ธ Nile Cruise Aswan – Luxor
Itโs been 12 years since the last time we went on holidays, just the two of us, without the Awesome Kid. We tingle with excitement […]
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The Captain’s Island
Dear Ones, [SEPTEMBER 2018] You may know, my father, The Captain, died in July and I went to Norway for his . . . . […]
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Fear
Today feels like starting all over agin. The surge of fear swells up from my gut like burning indigestion. Halting my breath as if Iโm […]
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Judging Without Why
Last weekend, having lunch, I saw a good mum feeding her 10 year old daughter. It wasnโt a very healthy lunch and the daughter could […]
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A day of imperfection
My god, what am I like? So yesterday I wrote about showing up on time for our Write-Inโsย and today I turn up late for Rubyโs […]
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Reliving The Hardest Parts of Our Past
One of the hardest chapters for me to write was about what happened in a blue Volvo when I was about 5. Itโs one of […]
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The Shitty First Draft
Donnaโs Book on Fire module on the Shitty First Draft really pissed me off. I know that every time I have a strong emotion around […]
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On Writing Memoir
I donโt want to write a memoir. Itโs too raw and scary. Too โlaying it all on the line,โ too vulnerable. Iโm afraid I wonโt […]
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If you like these articles you will love my emails ๐ They’re a roundup of what happened and lessons learned since my last email. I love a good email conversation. To me, emails stand as the last frontier of sharing our life writing. It is just like writing letters. Journaling and letter writing were two of my favourite things to do when I backpacked through Australia and Southeast Asia in the early ’90s. That’s when I met Shane. Email is the most intimate we can be with each other, over distance, through written words. If you like my writing you will love my emails. Get them here and I’ll see you, within minutes, in your inbox. Thank you for reading. I am grateful you are here. ๐งก
Much Love and Light
Vig ๐งก
Post List #3
Egypt โต๏ธ Nile Cruise – Temples of Karnak and Luxor
Temples of Karnak He wonโt come with me this afternoon and I invite my new Dutch friend, Wilma, to join me for our final daylight hours at the vast Temples of Karnak and Luxor. Wilma knows her stuff, sheโs been…
Egypt โต๏ธ Nile Cruise – Luxor – Cairo
Homebound Journey On our last morning, in the lobby, checking out, a shiny new guide great Shane as ‘Mr Ambassador.’ He doesnโt like formalities much, especially being fussed over. Still, he let a porter take our big suitcase, and as…
Join Our Free Write-In
โWriting is one of the most solitary activities in the worldโ Of all the quotes about writing I find this one, from Paulo Coelho, heartbreakingly sad. Outstanding as he is, on this point, a Write-In will prove even this alchemist…