Wanting the Change: Round Up, Review & Reminders - July 2026
Beta readers wanted, serialised novel moves into its second act, and a new feature for indie authors.
It’s July in England, season of sunshine and flowers. For me this month after our summer solstice also brings an awareness that the year has begun its long waning. And, as I write, the fullness of the Strawberry Moon, which peaked on Tuesday, is also shrinking.
For those of us who like to move with the seasons and plan by the moon 🌙 that makes now a time of release.
Since we last spoke, I lit the fuse on what I’ve been calling my shooting-for-the-moon publishing plan. So far, so fun. My head is full of growth and expansion but the season made me stop and consider how every new thing coming in means something else is going out.
My favourite poem about that inter-being is ‘Want the Change’ by Rilke, with its luminous line everything shines as it disappears.
I posted it in Notes for one of my beta readers who’s going through a hugely challenging change at the moment, then realised how much I needed its beautiful message myself right now.
It’s the kind of poem that’s always timely, for someone. Maybe always, for everyone. So here it is now, for you.
Want the Change
Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.
What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.
Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.
Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming
a laurel, dares you to become the wind.
.
From Die Sonette an Orpheus, Sonnets to Orpheus. Translation: Anita Barrows and Joanna MacyThis month’s highlights are below—fiction, poetry, specials for authors and big news broke this week related to the Maud Gonne Society and Dublin statue project.
As ever, pick and mix as you will.
One other thing: I’m gathering a small circle of readers to walk the drafts of my next novel with me, chapter by chapter, as it’s being written—and I’d be delighted if you’d like to be one of them. Details below.
As I grow, I must release some things that are precious to me—but the intention calls the (moon)shots and I’ve done this often enough now to know that I must show up for what I want, and the sooner the better.
Rilke’s poem, the ever-shifting moon, and these post-solstice days also remind me that, as we wax and wane, our creative intentions do their real work in the living, not the landing.
Your round-up and reminders are below. I hope you find something among them that will, in Rilke’s words, see you ‘inspired by the flame.’
FOR READERS: Come Read With Me
Would you like to be a beta reader for my next novel? The book is A Life Before, and it brings together two icons of Irish history and literature: Maud Gonne, the English heiress who remade herself into an Irish revolutionary, and W.B. Yeats, the poet who made her his muse and spent a lifetime writing his way around her.
It’s a story of passion and politics, first love and first power—narrated by Rosy Cross, ‘the oldest woman in Ireland’, who knew both of them in the flesh, and is never shy about telling tales.
I’m serialising it here on Substack, and I want to hear how it lands while the ink is still wet—so your reading can still shape the writing as it happens.
When the novel is complete, every beta reader receives a signed, hardback deluxe edition — foil cover, sprayed edges, coloured ribbon, coloured endpapers, all the works. A proper, beautiful object to keep, with my lasting thanks, and the knowledge that the book itself will be the better for your part in it.
You can find more details here.
The task? To read the episodes as they appear and tell me how they strike you: what moved you, what puzzled you, what pulled you out of the novel. You can do this publicly, in the comments, where other readers can chime in, or privately, by DM—whichever suits. No line-editing required—what I’m after is an honest reader’s response: the laugh, the flinch, anything that took you out of the reading, or anything you think I should put in.
The reward? When the novel is complete, every beta reader receives a signed, hardback deluxe edition — foil cover, sprayed edges, coloured ribbon, coloured endpapers, all the works. A proper, beautiful object to keep, with my lasting thanks, and the knowledge that the book itself will be the better for your part in it.
You can sample it here to see if it’s your kind of thing:
Start at the beginning — Chapter 1, A Strange House of Time: https://ornaross.substack.com/p/fiction-read-my-serialised-novel
The full story index (find your place any time): https://ornaross.substack.com/a-life-before-story-index
A free sample of the opening chapters — in epub, downloadable to any e-reader: OrnaRoss.com/a-life-before-free-sample
Let me know—through a comment below or a DM, or hit reply to the email— and I’ll send you the full details and instructions.
If you’re following the story already, A Life Before crossed into Act Two this month, and Maud Gonne’s world widened from Royat via Constantinople and Naples to the courts of St Petersburg.
2:1 — Our Friend in the East — Returning from Constantinople, Maud is called east and handed a new proposal.
2:2 — To St Petersburg — Her first real assignment for the Boulangists begins.
2:3 — So Courteous a Gentleman — Maud outwits a Russian diplomat, and is surprised by what he brings her.
FOR AUTHORS: Don’t give up
I’m hearing a lot of despair in the author community these days. AI has everyone in publishing rattled and authors are asking themselves whether what they do is worth all the hard work.
If you’re you’re struggling, or maybe even thinking of giving up, please know that everything is okay. Yes, there are many changes, coming at us hard and fast, but opportunities are still plentiful. What’s so important now is being crystal clear about who you write for, what you’re offering, and in this month’s LIVE for authors I’ll be going deeply into the three kinds of publishing models—craft publishing, engagement publishing, volume publishing—with those questions in mind.
Our format is a little different this month as this event is open to all and organised by Nicholas Kotar. It will run on July 10th at 18.00 UTC.
I will add the replay to our ‘For Authors’ Archive. If you’d like to attend live, add the event to your calendar here:
Also this month for authors, a post about How Indie Authors Use Substack’s Referral System to Reach Readers.
POETRY
If you’re a poet and you have a poem you’d like me to consider for the “One of Mine & One of Yours’ slot, let me know by sending a direct message in Substack, with a link to your work. Please don’t email, it’s likely to get lost.
My poetry priority this month and next is the redesignof my ‘12 Poems to Inspire’ series. I’m working on this with my daughter, Ornagh—a joy in itself—and we’re deep in it: choosing which poems sit beside which images, and what elements will go on front, spine and back covers.
I’m planning a special edition deluxe hardback series, five in all: Book I, about Love (Valentine’s Day); Book II, Rebirth (Easter); Book III, Caring (Mother’s Day); this one, Book V, Bereavement (All-Souls Day) and Book V Beginnings (Christmas). Here’s a sneak peek of the ebook cover of Book IV, the bereavement book, which will complete first.
Go Creative!
Have a wonderful month until we speak again and don’t forget to look up at the night sky as the Strawberry Moon leaves us and what we call the ‘Claiming Moon’ in Ireland comes in.
It’s a time to assess the abundance or scarcity of your efforts, and claim the rewards of your labor and that’s what we’ll be doing this month as we set our creative intentions under the dark night between the two: next Tuesday, July 14, 2026
Our next Creative Salon will focus on the these themes, as we review our intentions and looking at what we are claiming for yourselves, as the Claiming Moon reaches its fullness on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.
A calendar invitation has just issued to you. You can bring your questions or submit them in advance here.
I look forward to seeing you then but replays will be available if you can’t make it live.