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Course of Mirrors 
I LOVE your blog Ashen! Beautiful imagery in the words and your choice of photos/artwork. What’s the saying? “Still waters run deep” – very appropriate for you. Well done honey! 😀
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Thanks, Sophie, kindred spirit of the White Mountain. You make my Sunday.
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Hi Ashen!… you don’t know me. Would you ask Malcolm a question for me?..How to construct a 9 pointed figure(in a circle)(with 3 superimposed equilateral triangles 40 degrees apart at the tips,with only mind,ruler & compass(no protractor)…is this feasible? I wish he’d do a deep follow-up to the Starcut when he gets a chance!! A_LO-HA! from Billy Gray
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Dear Billy,
Thanks for your interest.
Your website shows your wonderful work, vibrant colours. I forwarded your question to Malcolm. So he may contact you in time.
Best Wishes for the New Year.
Ashen
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😦
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Hi Ashen,
What a surprise to discover you’ve published a book. I read the first parts of lap of fate..great writing, great story. It make curious about course of mirrors. Can I order a copy?
Love,
Khidr
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Woah, ha, ha, my first order 🙂 Thanks Khidr. However – Course of Mirrors is not published yet. I plan to query and send out three chapters to agents soon. You can read some of the chapters (not updated edits) on the Harper Collins authonomy website, where I improved my craft. There is a direct link to my page in the Blogroll to the right: Course of Mirrors on Authonomy.
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Hi,
I am writing here to ask permission to use your wonderful review for Heron’s Path that you posted on Amazon on this site http://www.thenewbookreview.blogspot.com/ and, if so, would you like me to mention Course in Mirrors, or is there another publication you would prefer? According to the site, if I mention it’s an Amazon review, it’s fine. Thank you!
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Dear Alethea, of course, please do. I’m pleased you like my review well enough to use it for the promotion of Heron’s Path. Mentioning my website: http://www.courseofmirrors.wordpress.com is fine. Will pop over to your site later in the day. Glimpsed your latest painting in an email notification about a new blog-post that cheered my mood – it’s rainy day here.
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Okay, number 4 attempt. Every time I tried to reply from my site, then scrolled to hit post, the page disappeared! Anyway, thank you so much. I’ll do as soon as I can. We’re going to Costa Rica tomorrow. If I can, I’ll post it in the morning . . . wait a minute . . . it’s morning now! When I get up . . . need to GO to bed. If not, at month’s end. Take care!
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Dear Spiritual Warrior,
Really ,I never think about goats. I’m more of a dragon person. But now that you have got my imagination fired up, I eagerly wait for the next chapter.
I also do like the concept of not missing a worm stirring. A good meditation.
Parinda Longma
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Thanks for visiting, Mark. Glad you enjoy the story. Waving to China.
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Hi – would you be interested in taking part in a Blog tour. All you have to do is answer some little questions and then link to 4 or 5 other writerly people. 🙂
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Hi Ashen, if you would like the PDF where shall I send it? Many thanks, Margaret x (A Pardon Too Few)
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Hi Margaret,
Send message and file to ashen.venema(at)gmail(dot)com
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Your … sun ra – a glittering show …entry uses my photo of Sun Ra with June Tyson – with no photo credit. Please add a credit to me, using my website URL: Photo: Michael Wilderman/jazzvisionsphotos.com. Thanks
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Hi Michael, My apologies for not trying hard enough to source the photographer, and thanks for letting me know about your website. I have now credited the photo of Sun Ra and June Tyson to you in the relevant post from 13th June 2012. Please let me know if I’ve done it right.
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Hi. This is apropos WP access issues … no need to post, but you might want to clarify on the WP forum page. What do you mean by “changing pages within my wordpress site”? If you are actually losing stuff that you posted, that is serious, and you should be specific. I am now checking my own recent posts to make sure that is not happening.
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Hi David,
re: the wordpress hiccups discussed in the forum – by changing pages I mean: once I’m logged on to the admin page and then click to my home page or other pages, I intermittently get ‘no data received.’ To my knowledge, I’ve not lost content, apart from images – I noticed some images have disappeared from older posts.
If you’re concerned about losing wordpress posts, and I see you’ve long and informative posts – best compose them in word so you have backups.
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Trying to post this the second time it worked. Beats me.
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My dear “Ashen”! What a beautiful website! Thanks for reaching out to me on the now-unintelligible “other site”. My own website: ahealingconversation.com. You can contact me there.
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🙂 Sent you a message.
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Mirrors reflect, and so does the Mind. Have you every written about your thoughts leading you to the fantastic title, Course of Mirrors?
I think that yours is a great title! It reminds me of Beethoven’s heights of creativity when he wrote his latest string quartets and his 9th Symphony.
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Thank you, Joe. You’ll find posts on the theme of reflection throughout this blog.
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Your blogging is so wonderful, beyond what I had imagined! I wanted to learn more about you, and your LinkedIn Being and Becoming is SPECTACULAR! Joe
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I love your ocean pics. Found some on Google images. Do you mind if I use one (not for commercial purposes) but to make a poster with an ocean poem my 9-year-old daughter composed? Thanks – Gerry Murphy
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Dear Gerard. Sorry to be so unresponsive. I’m going through a process with my dying father.
I don’t know which image you have in mind. I’ve a few ocean pics on my site. As long as you mention my name as photographer I have no problem with you using an image for a poster for your daughter.
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Ashen, I am so sorry about your father. This is a difficult time for you, so please take care. Caring for my husband is exhausting. Your pictures are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I hope your father is at peace.
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Thank you, Gwynn. Also for sharing your challenging process. There is solace in sharing.
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Ashen, I don’t have your personal email, but I have just nominated you for the Liebster Award. You can choose to accept or not. The instructions are on my blog: http://gwynnsgritandgrin.com It is a wonderful way for connecting with other bloggers.
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Sorry, Gwynn, I must have missed this post. Only noticed now, seeing Gilly’s invitation, below.
I don’t participate in award schemes, but thank you for your kind thought, ☼
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I have nominated you for a “Sunshine Blogger Award. See here. https://soulexpression.blog/2018/09/06/share-the-love/
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Thank you, cheers, Gillian, but I don’t take part in awards. I may have mentioned this on my ‘about’ page. Must check it again.
Congratulations, for reaching out into the virtual worlds. May you find many kind souls ☼
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I seem to be finding quite a few kind souls lately. Thanks Ashen and I hope all is well with you.
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All is well, yes, thank you. Ticking off tasks from my accumulated ‘to do’ list, quietly writing away and editing.
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Hi Ashen,
Can you contact me at jeanraffaauthor@gmail.com? I’d like to send you a private letter. Best of luck with your writing. Jeanie
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Hi Ashen
Would it be okay to use one of your photos of Sitara Brutnell and Roughwood in a small privately published book about the history of Shalden Village? Very happy to credit you and your website of course – perhaps you could advise by email? Cathy Boyes
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Dear Cathy, which photos are they? One or two may not be mine.
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It was 2 from this page https://courseofmirrors.com/2014/04/01/sitara-brutnell-sept-1914-2004/ – the one entitled “the year roses grew in the tree”, and then the one with the picture of the magnolia tree (although that one isn’t so essential).
Cathy
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Both are fine to use.
Would love to see a copy of your work. ♥
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Thank you! I can send a pdf of the relevant section by email if that’s useful?
Cathy
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Just found your website. We met wayback around the time you were editing “The Heart of a Sufi”. I still remember the pain of losing Four Winds. If ever there was need for such a place: is it not now? Do gatherings still take place at Chalk Pit Cottage? I remain alive in Bentley, but in a state of growing solastalgia. Maybe we can pick up some dropped threads. Rob Simpson.
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Hi Rob, Did you visit The Pit at some point? Trying to recall the occasion. Our meetings there stopped once Jeannie, the owner, moved back after Hazelwood in Devon was sold.
Solastalgia … an apt term I resonate with. We could meet. Email me at ashen.venema at gmail.com
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Hi Ashen,
I am eighty years old and a couple of days ago discovered that a much valued old friend of mine had died several years ago. At my age such things happen but he was far younger than myself, so this was an unexpected shock. My friend, Elliott Manley, had mentioned Malcolm Stewart to me as being his other mathematical sparring partner as he delighted in posing apparently intractable problems for me to tackle. In 2009 he mentioned that he’d been proof-reading for Malcolm a book about the Sand Reckoners’ Diagram and was worried that Malcolm had apparently included one of Elliott’s own conjectures in his book as the German publisher had excitedly asked for a proof of it and Elliott wasn’t sure that he could provide one. I was able to reassure him and added that I could take his conjecture even further, which apparently confirmed his faith in me as his other other mathematical companion.
My own contribution was a way of marking the midpoints of the sides of a square simply by drawing straight lines within the entirely empty square so that the starcut diagram could then be drawn within it. I also provided a proof of Elliott’s conjecture, that the sides of a square could be subdivided into any number of equal segments although he had assumed that the midpoints needed to provided by some other means before that could be done.
I never encountered Malcolm directly in any way and wonder whether you know of his present circumstances, given my shocking discovery about our much younger friend Elliott, as I feel that I missed an opportunity to know Malcolm back then.
As a consequence of my own near-publication experience back in 2011 when I felt a totally uncharacteristic overwhelming compulsion to write a novel (which seems in retrospect to have been as traumatic as any near-death experience in its effect on me) and what I have experienced since drafting it, I now accept that our reality is best represented by the eternalist model wherein the past, present and future all actively coexist. Hence Elliott is still active in his time and may even still be receptive to my thoughts as he has never been one to rest in peace and the few years now between us across time is well within the range of my psyche’s reach.
As a cautionary tale for any would-be fiction writers my website describing my strange experiences is MensTemporum.UK where you can contact me by email using my name there Scriptor, which is in keeping with the Latin title of the site, if you wish.
Best Wishes, Rob Sanders
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Dear Rob Sanders,
I remember Elliott well. We had a lovely poetry group, including Malcolm, sharing our poetry.
Malcolm had s stroke, which I wrote about … https://courseofmirrors.com/2013/10/07/patterns-of-eternity-humbly-opens-your-mind/
With the help of his wife, and friends, he recovered, though he is frail these days.
I wrote two novels so far (see book page on my site.) In both novels time is fluid. I enjoyed writing them.
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