Who Am I ?

I am so much more than meets the eye

Well, all you guys on Illumination-Curated know me as Liam Ireland, writer and editor at Illumination. Just like the rest of you I write articles, short stories and poetry, which I submit to this wonderful writers platform.

I must admit that even as a professional writer in a previous life I struggled a bit when I started out on my Illumination journey. I was used to pen and paper, not a keyboard and digital interface.

As a result I got it all wrong. So I set about getting it all right. I just stuck at it every single day. Head down and type until your fingers bleed. That’s how I roll. And it all worked out in the end, as it always does.

So now, as an editor, still with lots to learn, I try to help other writers coming up behind me, as well as those top writers who contribute such wonderful articles and stories to our Illumination publications. In this way, I learn and I teach.

When you submit I give it the once over. If everything is in order, if your piece has something of value to offer the readers of Illumination, is well written and presented, doesn’t have any potential to cause offence, complies with all the rules, then I click to publish. I will always give you a few claps and leave a few words of thanks and encouragement.

If some things need fixing, a mis-spelling, a missing comma or two, a badly organised sentence or choice of tense, I will fix it for you. I try to use a light hand. I am not here to re-write your article for you, because then it is not yours, it is mine.

What I want is to do all that I can to get you published. I am sure all of my marvellous fellow editors are more or less the same. We are all here to help you. Illumination Curated is very special to us and we want to collaborate with our writers to make Illumination Curated the success it deserves to be.

So what do I do when I am not on the job?

Ok here goes. I live in Japan, not too far from Tokyo, with a truly wonderful Japanese wife. We live in a small apartment in a semi-rural area which is absolutely perfect for us. We go out for walks in a local park or we get in the car and travel to a park further away. We are both avid nature lovers and yes, we hug trees.

Sometimes we go to climb a mountain. Sometimes we go to the coast. We are quite lucky in living not too far from the Pacific Ocean. We also like to dine out a little and have one or two favourite places which offer great food at an affordable price. Of course, sushi is a favourite, but there is so much more to Japanese cuisine.

We don’t have any children between us, though I do have four from previous relationships. My children call me the daft old sod. They seem to think I know nothing of the world or life in general. Oh well, I guess it's true that youth is wasted on the young.

We don’t have any pets, though I think my wife would like a cat. We’ll see. Sometimes we go out to a museum or concert, flamenco or something symphonic. Most of the time we just chill at home. This is our little piece of heaven, a retreat from the hustle and bustle of the world about us.

I like to stay in touch with my friends and my brother. Even being scattered all around the world we manage to hook up. The UK, Spain, Germany, Norway, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand…..thanks to the internet we can all chat and chill to our hearts content.

We have a few plants, like basil and parsley, which I adore. I am a keen cook and foodie and quite often it will be me doing the cooking. When lovely wife cooks, I sit in the kitchen with her studying Japanese.

Now that is a challenge and a half, learning a language that might as well be written in hieroglyphics. But I’m doing ok, and I have an excellent teacher cooking for me as I learn. It is a great help that I am also a languages teacher, fluent in Spanish and getting there with one or two other languages. As you can see I am a lifelong learner and very much into self improvement.

I have one other passion apart from reading, writing and editing and it is music. I play the piano and guitar and mostly sing my own songs. I often joke I will only play Eric Clapton’s songs when he does the decent thing and plays one of mine.

I have also spent a large part of the lockdown learning how to build a website and to date I have six up and running. It’s been a learning curve, and then some, but I love learning new things.

I have recorded two albums, which I am quite proud of. I wrote all the songs, did all the arrangements and played all the instruments. They sell reasonably well when I do a live performance. However, with the pandemic problem all of my live performances have been cancelled. When I will get them back I have no idea.

I have the same problem with my outdoor pursuits, which includes cycling and water-sports. I love to go ocean surfing in a kayak or sailing on a catamaran. For now all is on hold. I like to take on the elements. Yes, it is risky, but it’s not fun if it's not dangerous. I don’t see the point in spending your life being wrapped up in cotton wool. I have had a tumble or two that quite frankly scared the hell out of me. But not enough to stop me. Get busy dying or get busy living.

On the whole, outside of my wife's commitments to her work at a local hospital and my passionate commitment to reading, writing and editing for Illumination and Illumination-Curated, we just go and do what and where the mood takes us. It's a good life.