Why subscribe to Dream Dare Do?

Hi, I’m Siobhan - which for those of you not familiar with the wonder of Irish names, is actually pronounced, Shiv-on!

I’m an award-winning author of over 50 books, fiction and non-fiction, for adults, young adults and children.

I’m also a former council estate kid and a university drop-out. I dropped out because I didn’t think I had what it took to make it in the middle class world of publishing. Thankfully I managed to overcome my self doubt and fear and achieve my writing dreams, and now I love helping others do the same through my mentoring, workshops and talks.

When I started writing this weekly Substack letter over two years ago, it was born from a desire to shake up my life after the pandemic. Or perhaps, ‘come back to life after the pandemic’ would be more accurate.

I was acutely aware of how small my world had become and how I’d stopped seeing the wonder in the everyday and the joy in the simple things.

I decided to call my Substack Wonderstruck and hoped that if I had to write about wonder every week it would force me to change my life for the better.

It worked.

So much has changed since I wrote my first post.

First, I downsized my work life to only writing books and this letter, to end my feeling of burnout.

Then I started taking solo trips around the world in search of wonder and to see if I had what it took to rock up in a new place on my own and live and work there.

It turned out that I did.

So I downsized my entire life to the contents of a suitcase and gave up my home in the UK to write my way around the world.

18 months later, I’m still living as a vagabond writer but spending a lot of time in the UK at the moment to be there for my dad as he experiences some age-related health issues.

Through it all, I’ve sent out this letter every Sunday, sharing tales from my travels and wherever I can, a lesson I’ve learned along the way.

Without doing any marketing, the number of readers has slowly but surely grown and writing this letter and receiving your lovely comments and messages in response has become the highlight of my week.

So, as I look ahead into 2025 I’m going to be putting my Substack platform at the heart of my work life and expanding my offerings here. The joy of Substack as a platform is that it’s not just about newsletters - you can offer video and audio content too. So I’m looking forward to embracing these mediums to bring a wider range of inspiring content.

In keeping with this expansion and slight change in focus I’ve renamed my Substack platform and weekly letter, Dream Dare Do.

My hope is that inspires it inspires people to dream bigger, dare to overcome their fears, and do things to transform their lives for the better.

If you haven’t already, I’d love it if you subscribed to get full access to the free newsletter and website and never miss an update.

Here’s to seeking and finding joy and wonder in an increasingly hectic world.

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Be part of a community of people who share the desire to live life to the fullest. Share your own ideas and inspirations and feedback in the comments. Let’s inspire each other through conversation.

Siobhan

To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.