Ahh, the New Year, isn’t it the worst time of year? Brimming with hope, good resolutions and rancid pies, seemingly lost, but now found, festering in the backs of dusty cupboards.
Like most things in history The New Year has moved around the calendar. For the ancient Romans it originally corresponded with the vernal equinox, the first day of Spring. But the Romans were great tinkerers with dates and many other things, you know, sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health?
If you remember Etch-A-Sketch and Hungry Hungry Hippos you are old enough to understand that reference. If not, Google it.
Anyway, after years of tampering with the solar calendar they eventually established that the year should start on the now familiar date of January 1. For the Romans, the month of January carried a special significance. Its name was derived from the two-faced deity Janus, the god of change and beginnings. Janus was seen as symbolically looking back at the old and ahead to the new, and this idea became tied to the concept of transition from one year to the next.
Here in sleepy, drippy, mud and apple filled Somerset, land of druids, witches, and Arthurian legends, we prefer the Winter solstice. A genuinely astronomical event that is truly worthy of celebration. The incredibly welcome transition from dark winter nights towards the, admittedly distant, anticipation of Spring.
In expectancy of Spring and longer days, better weather and pretty white apple blossoms, my latest WIP is finally done! 71,000 words, it is in final edit. I am going to query for six months while I write the sequel. If that doesn’t work out, it will be self-published later in the year.
Only one ask in this blog. My last book “The Haunting of Edgar Allan Poe” is currently entered into a writing competition run by Inkitt. During the competition you can read the entire book for free. All I ask, given the competition is driven by social media engagement (what is not…sigh) is that if you like it, give me a like, a share and a review.
Click on the Inkitt icon to give it a read.
