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Are you a big listener of podcasts?

I love everything about podcasts. I listen to them, make them and teach others how to create podcasts as well through my creative courses. And I also love audio books – I listen to them whenever I’m on the road.

Tell us about the podcast that you created as part of the process of creating artworks for the book.

I thought it would be really interesting to create a podcast that explores the process of starting and finishing a creative project in six months; hence the name of the podcast (168 Days of Magic). The podcast has three thematic pillars – creativity, wellbeing and meaningful productivity.

What were the creative goals that you set out to achieve, and talk about during your podcast, as you were working on the artworks for Bitroux: High Country?

As an artist and a writer, I wanted to create an illustrated book for adults, but I’ve always struggled to find anything like what I wanted to create. So, I just had to create my own framework. The goals I set for myself included creating a distinct style of visuals for the book, integrating my paintings and my ideas about language, and actually getting the book over the line! And, of course, I wanted to improve as a writer and an artist in the process.

Are you a fan of project management frameworks for writers?

I’m more about the value and benefit of creative projects just for the fun of it. I don’t think the size of the project matters. It doesn’t have to be a novel. It can be journaling, gardening, painting; anything really.

But in my professional life working in marketing and communications, we use project management frameworks a lot. And they’re useful for really asking good questions. What are you doing this for? Who are you doing it for? What do you want to get out of it? Who will benefit?

As much as anything, those kinds of questions can really help us to define our own creative, personal and life goals. And that’s fun and it’s healthy and it allows us to add our own meaning to our work, which is important.

What would you recommend to other artists, writers and creative practitioners?

I think that all artists – writers, designers, painters –whatever creative profession you’re in, the question of why you are doing the work is helpful. You don’t have to tell anyone else, but you should at least be able to answer that question for yourself. Why is this meaningful an important to me? Why am I investing my time and energy into this work? I often encourage people to write their own creative manifestos because if you know your why, it helps you get through the parts of the work that are more challenging.

If Merouac ever thought his life’s work would culminate in leading the metal workshops of the Transcontinental Railroad Project, he was sorely mistaken.

Now, his true challenge lies in navigating the other-worldly abilities he’s only beginning to understand—abilities that allow him to tune metal to interdimensional frequencies.

While trying to be a guardian to his niece, Evra, he’s realising she may have more to teach him than he ever expected. At the same time, his decision to help an interdimensional race find refuge underground puts him at the centre of an even deeper mystery.

As reality reshapes itself around him, Merouac faces a growing realisation: the world of Ahm is on the brink of a profound transformation, and everything he thought he knew may soon be shattered.

Enjoy an Excerpt

There was something about that zone of quiet concentration. It was always somewhere in the middle of those quiet moments where the blue light of the Top Hats had started to appear at the edge of his gaze. It had always been hard to see the things directly in his sight; they shifted and moved and always seemed hazy and insubstantial. He wondered if, in those moments, he had drifted into the Maolfi state without realising it.

He kept working. The surges of static came and went, heating his body, and then leaving, giving him a sense that his whole body was buzzing, vibrating. He kept moving, concentrating only on the wood. And things started to shift, but not in the way he had anticipated.

Soon, two piles had been moved and Merouac was starting to feel a welcome feeling of tiredness. He contemplated leaving the last pile of wood for the morning but kept moving instead. Then, something sounded.

He looked up. Nothing. Had anything made a noise at all? He felt sure he had heard something. All was still. What was it that he thought he had heard? Like someone or something was crashing through the trees, perhaps. He shook his head. Nothing unusual stirred, the flickering lights continued and below he could see hummers and their fluorescent markings shimmering in the trees.

Then he realised. He hadn’t heard it. He’d felt it.

He closed his eyes, tried to make his way to the place the Faurin called the Maolfi state. Kii had wanted him to find a place of deep listening. And perhaps what he was just starting to understand was, that you could listen with all your body, and feel sound in other ways than just noise.

After a time, he opened his eyes again and saw spheres hovering in the air, full of something he couldn’t quite comprehend.

Reaching out to touch them, they felt full and weighty and yet his hand could partially pass through them. They were not solid, and yet they were full. Like bubbles being blown by some invisible child, they formed and hung in the atmosphere.

They grew larger, then fuzzier, then collapsed from their own weight, dripping a strange sentience that dispersed back into the atmosphere. Often, they formed again straight away, the same spheres, the same size and colour, the same weight, only to burst and disperse once again.

Some of the smaller ones were only as large as his hand. Others, twice the size. And then hovering at greater height, larger spheres his whole body could have walked through. They shifted and mutated, formed and faded, pulsed and glowed. They were magical.

‘This is different,’ he said out loud, and grinned.

About the Author: Jordan Harcourt-Hughes is an abstract painter, writer and communications professional. She’s passionate about all aspects of creativity, life-long learning and personal wellbeing. Over the last fifteen years she’s led, coached and developed creative professionals across the Asia-Pacific region.

Jordan’s books, studio workshops, courses, coaching and resources are an invitation to explore the rich landscape of creative experiences open to all.

High Country is Jordan’s second novel set in the world of Bitroux.

Buy the book at Amazon.

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