The Solace Launch
I am thrilled to tell you all that my new book Solace is available to buy now (For international friends, it is available on most of the big online booksellers.)
It is published by the O’Brien Press in September 2022, with a launch in the Book Centre, Waterford. It was launched by Mary Frances Ryan the Editor of the Waterford News and Star where I have been writing a column for a few years now. She made a wonderful speech. I was very nervous but once I started reading from the book it settled me! Thank you to everyone who came. There was a lot of love in the Book Centre that night!
I cannot begin to tell you what a treat this is for me. I remember as a child going to the library once a week with my two hard back books under my arm. I would never have imagined that someday there would be a book there with my own name on the cover. Written during the pandemic, Solace has been a labour of love. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have creating it.
What is Solace about?
Solace is that feeling of calm and comfort,
that sense of peace that is all around us
when we are open to finding it.
Writer and photographer Catherine Drea explores the solace to be found in nature and creativity. She reflects on loss, the cycle of life and the healing power of family and community. She muses on the joy of finding a place to call home, the escape that travel brings and the exhilaration of plunging into our waters – all the while embracing the therapeutic power of observing the ordinary and the everyday.
With the passing seasons, her camera captures fleeting moments in nature – the light and lie of the land, with its precious wildlife: sentinel robins, elusive Irish hares and serene swans.
Solace is quite simply a balm for the soul.
‘In this beautiful book, Catherine Drea explores deeply emotive issues, calms the mind, soothes the soul, and focuses her sensitive lens on the wonders of the natural world.’
Alice Taylor, author of
To School through the Fields
About Catherine
Catherine Drea is a visual artist, writer and blogger who lives and works in rural County Waterford. Catherine writes a column called ‘As I See It’ for the Waterford News & Star and a blog on www.foxglovelane.com. A graduate of National College of Art and Design (NCAD) and University College Cork (UCC), she has worked as a graphic designer, an art teacher and a group facilitator. In 1994 she co-founded Framework, a small charitable organisation, which supported community development and equality projects in Ireland. In 2010, after the economic crisis, Catherine and the Framework team began working from home. In 2011 she began to blog about Foxglove Lane, the small patch she calls home, and has won four Irish Blog Awards, including Best Photography Blog in 2018.
A lifelong activist, Catherine has been a campaigner in a number of social movements over the years. She remains a passionate advocate of equality, biodiversity and the natural world. She is currently Chairperson of the Waterford Healing Arts.
Oh dear Catherine, this is a joy to read. I guess I count myself as one of those early bloggers who loved your work and who made friends ,like you, around the globe for a time. In this post, I was blown away by the page on Peig Sayers, she of the Blasket Island Writers and Poets. When my Patrick and I went to Ireland, that was the first place we were drawn to—first we read some of the Blasket Island Poets: O’Griffan, Twenty Years a Growin’, The Islandman…,then went to the Dingle Peninsula to begin our explorations. ( Doolin too because I am a guitar picker and just HAD to go!) It was the beginning of a love affair with Ireland. I only wish I had known you then. I’m so proud of you writing and publishing your book, can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. In the introverted category along with ya, I’ve had trouble at times promoting my work, but I’ll never forget the first bookstore reading I did when 50+ people showed up in a tiny bookstore. I think we are never the same after that. As you say, it’s just part of the process. Anyway, I’m a rambling. I’m proud and honored to know you Catherine. “May the wind be always at your back and the sun shine warm upon your face…”: Your friend, Susie
O Susie my dear what a gorgeous message. I think you have made my day! What a wonderful old time we had back then and how lucky were we to be connected from so many parts of the world. Quite honestly we had to read Peig through Irish at school and being a teenager I couldn’t work out what she was on about most of the time! It was when I went to the Blasket Islands and read her in English that I began to get the picture. Now I am always on the look out for women of a certain age in all aspects of life to feel the substance of growing older; to be inspired and to be led. Thank you for all your support over the years. Here’s to the next phase for both of us, whatever it brings. C xx