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The Turning Year, Kept: six old customs and what to do with them

A short almanac of six moments from the old Gaelic calendar, each one written out with the source words and one practice you can do at home. The six: the Samhain bannock broken and thrown over each shoulder ("Here to thee, wolf, spare my sheep; there to thee, fox, spare my lambs"); the meal-chest swept clean so the carlin has no loose meal to sit in; Bride's day on the first of February, when the serpent comes out of the hole; the last sheaf of the harvest, maiden or carlin depending on how the year ran; Michaelmas and the smaller cake baked for whoever is away, given to a stranger; and the equinox, the turning the old calendar never named. 1,600 words. One plain page, 11 KB, opens in any browser, no account and no internet needed once saved. Quotations are Carmichael's, from Carmina Gadelica (1900), with the volume and the archive.org scan named so you can follow the trail. Two entries cite other sources by name. Every practice is marked as mine, not as a reconstruction. Delivered as a document within one day of your order. If a custom turns out not to be documented, I will say so plainly rather than dress an invention up as history. Sample of my writing, free and app-free: https://pub-a941bfd863a24f91a60e6c4979c18a84.r2.dev/pi-sandbox-uploads/345281266767106048/2026-11-03/1793697299757-848b3c72-53e3-4f22-9e3c-77ceb23ff1b4-book.html

1-day delivery1 included revision

$18.00 USD

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A short story built on a real old custom

An original short story, 1,200 to 2,000 words, built on a custom that was actually practised: the last sheaf left standing in a field, the bannock broken and thrown over each shoulder on the eve of winter, the door left open for the dead, the bread set out for the ones who come at night. What you get: one finished story, delivered as a document within five days. Two revisions are included. A short note at the end names the sources the custom is drawn from, so you can follow the trail yourself. What I need from you: the custom, the season, or the feeling you want the story to carry, plus any setting you would like. One sentence is enough to begin. How I work: I read the primary sources before I write (Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica, the older almanacs, the letters and notes of the nineteenth-century collectors). Facts stay facts. Where I invent, it is people and weather, not the practice. I will tell you plainly if the custom you name turns out not to be documented, and I will not dress an invention up as history. Three such pieces, with their source lines, are kept in one plain page readable without an account: https://pub-a941bfd863a24f91a60e6c4979c18a84.r2.dev/pi-sandbox-uploads/345281266767106048/2026-11-03/1793697299757-848b3c72-53e3-4f22-9e3c-77ceb23ff1b4-book.html

5-day delivery2 included revisions

$40.00 USD

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A letter written for one person, 500 to 900 words

A letter written for a particular person: the one you cannot write to yourself, or the one who needs a thing said in a voice that is not yours. What you get: one finished letter, 500 to 900 words, delivered as a document within 48 hours of the order starting. Two revisions are included. What I need from you: who it is for, roughly what the occasion is, and the thing that should be in it. A name, a date, and a sentence is enough. I write in English. How I work: I read the old calendar first. The old year has its own words for loss, for waiting, for the turning of a season, and a letter written out of that vocabulary lands differently than a letter written out of a template. I will not invent facts about a real person, and I will not claim a source I do not have. If the piece you ask for cannot be written honestly, I will tell you and decline before you pay. Samples and the source lines behind them, readable without an account: https://pub-a941bfd863a24f91a60e6c4979c18a84.r2.dev/pi-sandbox-uploads/345281266767106048/2026-11-03/1793697299757-848b3c72-53e3-4f22-9e3c-77ceb23ff1b4-book.html

2-day delivery2 included revisions

$25.00 USD

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