Oct 12 2014

It was in the stars all along…

I had a funny realisation today. I was looking after my landlady’s shop for a few hours, while she had a much-needed break, and I was having a great time, chatting to customers and also to the tarot reader who was in today.

We got onto the subject of psychometry, (as you do) which is when you can pick up impressions from an object, because of the energy that has been attached to it.

I told her about a lucky charm keyring I bought, which brought me terrible luck whenever I wore it (I had turned it into a necklace). And I gave it to a lady who could do psychometry, and she said the person who had made it had attached the energy of bad luck to it. So I gave up wearing it and got rid of it, which was difficult to do, because it was expensive, and by a designer I really liked.

I got my purse out of my bag to show the tarot reader what I meant, because my purse is by the same company. I couldn’t remember the name of the company, so I searched the purse, and there it was, imprinted in the leather:

So it turns out, that I have been carrying and using a purse for the last 7 years, that bore the name of the place I was meant to move to.

Coincidence? Angelic intervention? Meaningless? Meant to be? What do you think?

Jul 25 2014

Going with the Synchronicitous Flow…

Yes I did just make up the word ‘synchronicitous’ I liked the way it sounded!

During my weekly skype meeting with my mastermind group, I said that instead of trying to implement a routine or structure to the week, and beat ourselves up if we don’t manage to achieve all of our weekly goals, we should go with the flow. That if anything unexpected or unplanned came up, we should just go with it, and see what happens, rather than trying to fight it or be irritated by it.

Well, I have certainly had to go with the flow this week!!

On Monday, I was steaming through my goal list, really getting things done, when bam! I knocked my glass of water onto my keyboard. Cue swear words, masses of tissues and the hair dryer coming out! I thought I may have gotten away with it, but then my keys started to do funny things, and I started to freak out!

Thoughts that ran through my head – I haven’t got time for this… I can’t afford to buy a new laptop or have it repaired… I don’t want to lose any of my work on the laptop… etc.

Basically, all my thoughts were based on fear and lack. To counteract those thoughts, I kept saying to myself – It’ll be fine, there is a reason for everything, go with the flow etc. I also asked the angels for help.

After taking the internal keyboard out and drying underneath, the laptop wouldn’t start at all, so I called a local computer repair centre and asked if they would have a look. I went there immediately, and he looked at it straight away. By now I had calmed myself a little, and he quickly deduced that I had killed the keyboard. He went online to see about ordering a new one, and it was actually very inexpensive to replace. Cue sigh of relief. He leant me a plug-in keyboard while I waited for the new one to be delivered and then I went into town to see my friend in Peace of Stone.

We chatted for a while, then I suddenly realised how hungry I was. I thought about going to the chippy, but for some weird reason, got back to the car having forgotten to go in there. So I decided to stop by the village shop on the way back and get some eggs to make courgette pancakes instead.

When I got to the village shop, I paused to read the notices on the board, which I don’t normally do, and I saw an ad looking for someone to create videos and presentations. I took down the number, called it up, and ended up meeting the guy on Tuesday and getting the work.

So the moral of this long tale of seemingly mundane incidents and decisions?

By going with the flow, and staying as positive as possible, a seemingly ‘bad’ incident, led to a great opportunity. It also made me take some time out from working to clear out my office, as one of the reasons I knocked my water over was due to the cluttered desk and sheer amount of stuff everywhere. So I now have a lovely tidy office, and I even rearranged it so the room looks twice as big, and I now have a wonderful view (see photo) It also reminded me to back things up more often, just in case.

My new view!

And as an extra bonus, I now have a super clean keyboard with no dust or bits of food stuck between the keys!!

PS. I do have pictorial evidence of my cluttered office, and of what it looks like now, but to be honest the before photos are just too embarrassing to post, which is why I have posted the deer picture instead!

Jul 24 2014

Review Wordle!

I have been de-cluttering my office over the last couple of days, (I will explain the full story about why soon!) and I took down all my reviews off the wall so I could paint the wall, and I decided that instead of having the individual reviews, I would copy and paste all of the reviews I have so far into wordle.net, and then print out the wordle for my wall!

Here is my first one:

I decided to take out the most used words, like read, book, characters, story and my name, and then I created a new wordle:

It feels good to make wordles again! And also awesome to see all of the lovely positive words that were used over and over in the reviews of my books. I want to thank every single person who wrote a review, I really do appreciate your words of encouragement!

Jul 20 2014

Are You Being Selfish?

Having mentioned this video to a few people in conversation recently, I decided to post it here (so I can direct people to it more easily), and also to open up a discussion about the idea. First of all, if you haven’t watched it before, please do watch it, then continue reading below:

So what did you think?

I must admit, the first time I watched the video, it really clicked with me, because I completely agreed with her, that is we put our time, effort and energy into projects or into helping others, and don’t charge for it , then sometime soon, we will have to take on a normal job just to pay the bills and to survive. There’s also the idea that when you give your time and energy for free, it is not valued as much, and therefore it doesn’t actually help as much as you would like.

But having been on the other side of the fence, so to speak, where I have received help from others and they haven’t charged me, it’s difficult for me to say that you should never do any work for free, because without the invaluable help of several people, I wouldn’t have been able to get my books published and out into the world.

Or would I? Perhaps if they had been charging for their time, I would have found a way to get the money together to pay them. Or perhaps I would have just published the books with a zillion errors in them, or even given up on them seeing the light of day at all.

Or perhaps if I had been charging properly for my time, and not doing so many freebies myself, I would have the money to be able to pay the people who help me.

What do you think? Do you help others and not charge them enough or at all? How do you feel about that? Do people help you and not charge you? Does that make you feel good, or like you owe them?

I do know that I am incredibly grateful for those who have helped me on my journey, and I hope that each of them knows that I intend to pay them back when I am able to.

Jul 2 2014

I’m Here Soundtrack

As you can see in the menu above, I like to put together music that I think would be great on the soundtracks of the movie version of my books. For I’m Here, I decided to do it slightly differently, and put together a soundtrack for the book, a song for each chapter. I have put it together as a playlist on youtube, and on each song I have said which chapter it corresponds to. You could listen to the music while reading the book, as the songs I have chosen set the scene for what is happening. Weirdly, the song ‘Long Days’ even has a music video that relates really well to the story too.

You can find the playlist on Youtube or by clicking below. Please let me know what you think!

May 27 2014

Serendipity in London

Yesterday, I found myself with a day to do whatever I wanted in London. My original plans had fallen through, so I decided to do a tour of esoteric bookshops and other shops around the Covent Garden/Tottenham Court Rd area. I got the tube there, and despite the downpour, managed to stay relatively dry as I wandered around.

First port of call was Watkins, where I had a lovely chat with the manager about stocking my books there, once the new print versions are ready. Then outside, I watched a Harry Potter tour group as they made magic… Cecil St is meant to have been the street that inspired Diagon Alley.

My next port of call was a shop called Silver Moon, which had magically disappeared… unless it is like Grimmauld Place, and only appears when the secret keeper gives you the password. In any case, I moved on to Mysteries, and had a lovely chat with a lady working there whose mission is to become an actress in spiritual movies. We chatted for a while about books and publishing, and I will be contacting the manager to see about stocking my books there too. I knew when I found Mysteries online, that I needed to visit, as the address is 9-11 Monmouth Street. I still see the numbers 911 every single day, and have done since 2008. (But that’s another story) and of course my nearest town at home is Monmouth… Very glad I listened to the signs and paid a visit.

Then I moved onto to the Atlantis Bookshop, which was sadly closed (I guess it was a bank holiday yesterday). It looked great, I will have to visit again. I briefly popped into the Astrology Shop, but it was so busy I didn’t stay too long. Then I moved onto Treadwell’s Bookshop, which is the home to many interesting books on Paganism and mythical lore. It definitely reminded me of a shop in Diagon Alley, and for the atmosphere alone I would recommend it. I didn’t see any fiction sections, but while making a purchase I decided to enquire about the possibility of stocking books there. The lady said they wouldn’t be interested, as fiction doesn’t sell well in their store, but a guy who was browsing at the time asked what I wrote. We started chatting and decided to get a drink in a lovely deli a few doors down.

It turned out that Clint, who is a writer and publisher from California, had also just done the same tour of shops that I had just done. So we were bound to cross paths at some point during the afternoon! We chatted for over an hour, about books and publishing and faeries and gnomes. Clint is the publisher of a rather delightful book called ‘Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop. And other practical advice in our campaign against the Fairy Kingdom’. It looks fantastic, and when we get more chickens, it will be a must-read I’m certain!

I gave Clint some I’m Here tour cards to take back to California with him, and though I didn’t leave any cards in Treadwell’s, I took this photo of Clint as part of the book tour:

It felt quite serendipitous, meeting Clint and having such a great conversation, especially seeing as I had only decided to do the little tour of bookshops at 11am yesterday morning. After a Californian hug goodbye, I headed back towards the tube station. On the way, I stopped by a supermarket to get some food to make up some food bags, which I distributed to some delightful homeless men on my way to the coach station. I also found a new home for the umbrella I received as a thank you for signing up for the New York Times at the Mind Body Spirit Festival.

All in all, it was a brilliant day, and I even made it to the coach station in plenty of time. I arrived home last night rather tired but happy!

I do love a little serendipity. Have you had a serendipitous experience? I’d love to hear about it.

May 25 2014

Joined by Spirits at the Festival

When taking photos for the I’m Here Book Tour at the Mind Body Spirit Festival in London this weekend, I noticed that there were interesting lights on a couple of the photos. I’ve had many photos in the past of orbs and little light flashes, and I always believe that it is a sign that a spirit is near. I think the most interesting thing is when you have two photographs, taken seconds apart, and the light is in one of them but not the next.

Here was the most interesting one taken this weekend, with the lovely Simon from Global Love Letters:

Normal photo

Weird light across my hand

Have you taken photos with orbs in them? Do you know who or what is causing it? One of my favourite orb photos was one taken back in 2008, of myself and my good friend Charlotte, and another girl when we were living in New York. The orb is so bright it completely blocks out my hand (and before you ask, no, I wasn’t wearing any diamond rings!)

I would love to hear your ideas and even see any photos you have of orbs. You can email me at theamethystangel@hotmail.co.uk or post your comment below.

Apr 21 2014

Versatile Blogger Award

Last year I was nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award, this year it’s the Versatile Blogger Award! I have been nominated by the wonderful Matt Campbell Nicely, who I know through doing the fabulously fun #FridayPhrases (or #FP for short) on Twitter, where you tweet poems, micro-stories etc. Thank you, Matt, I appreciate the nomination and also all of the retweets!

So, in order to pay it forward, as per the Award rules, I need to nominate 15 bloggers! So here goes:

#1. Drew Chial http://drewchialauthor.com/

#2. Miranda Adams http://journeysinwriting.com/

#3. Julie http://peaceablewriter.wordpress.com/

#4. Little Miss Money http://thepursuitofriches.com/

#5. George Hardwick http://www.georgehardwick.com/blog

#6. Kat http://www.divorcedkat.com/

#7. Oleander Plume http://oleanderplume.blogspot.co.uk/

#8. Joe Johnson http://bigjoessoapbox.com/

#9. Liz Lockwood http://lizitivity.wordpress.com/

#10. Unaware but Underlined http://unawarebutunderlined.wordpress.com/

#11. Roger Jackson http://jabe842.wordpress.com/

#12. Joanne Blaikie http://fredamoya.wordpress.com/

#13. Joanna Maciejewska http://melfka.com/en/

#14. Graham Milne http://grahamscrackers.com/

#15. Karen Soutar http://karensoutar.wordpress.com/

and one more for luck!

#16. Greg Mischio http://alterthecourse.com/

I hope you check out all the awesome blogs above!

Now, apparently I need to reveal seven things about myself, that the person who nominated doesn’t know, so here goes:

#1. I have a terrible memory, but I only need to listen to a song a couple of times, and I will know all the lyrics, and be able to sing along (although in a tuneless kind of way)

#2. I used to have pet slow worms (they’re like mini snakes) and lizards as a child . My cats would catch them, and I would look after them for a bit until they had healed, then release them again. I have a photo of me kissing one of the slow worms.

#3. I used to have a physical reaction to any kind of public speaking (bright red cheeks, stuttering, jelly knees, shaking hands) until 2012 when I used EFT to get over it. I now love speaking in public, to small and large groups. It’s usually hard to get me to shut up.

#4. I have a weird diet. I’ve always been a veggie, but I am also gluten-free, caffeine-free, mostly lactose free and very rarely drink alcohol.

#5. I have had prophetic dreams. Sometimes they are literal, and sometimes metaphorical. I dread dreaming of tornadoes.

#6. My favourite books as a child were the Sweet Valley books, by Francine Pascal. I used to dream of living in California, and always wanted a twin sister.

#7. Seven is my lucky number. Numerologically, it is my birth date number, and it is also the number for this year. It’s also Harry Potter’s Quidditch number!

Thank you again, Matt, and thank you to all the bloggers who make life more interesting. You’re all awesome. xx

Apr 18 2014

Sorting out the Editing!

The weather has been so beautiful in the UK this week, that I decided to spend the day editing my new novel, I’m Here, in the sunshine. Increasing the brightness of my screen solved the visibility issue, but the sun was getting a bit too bright for my eyes, and seeing as I don’t own any prescription sunglasses, a hat was needed.

Well, this was all I could find…

Sat in the sun, wrapped in a blanket and wearing a sorting hat. Can editing get any better than this?

Yes, it is a leather sorting hat. I created it for the Harry Potter parties that I did last year for friends, and my own in January. I thought it would get too heavy after a while, but I have worn it for the morning, and thanks to the amazing hat, I have finished the first edit of my novel. Because of writing the novel over such a long period of time, there were a few inconsistencies that needed clearing up, as well as a couple of threads that needed tying up at the end. I’m ready now to pass it over to my editor and my trusty beta readers, to get their feedback. As yet, no one else has read it, so the jury is still out on whether it is any good. Seeing as I plan to publish it by the end of May, I’m crossing my fingers that it is!

Joking aside, I cannot stress how important the editing stage is. It still amazes me when authors put their work out without having it edited or proofread by someone other than themselves. I do edit my books quite a lot, but I know that having another pair of eyes, (or two or three pairs) is invaluable. I’m not saying that my books will be completely error-free, but I do strive to get them as good as humanly possible before releasing them into the world.

Very, very soon, I will be revealing the new covers for the Visionary Collection, including the cover for I’m Here. I absolutely adore them, and I cannot wait for you to see them. But until then, have a giggle at my mad editing selfie 🙂

Apr 14 2014

When will I meet my Twin Flame?

It’s been a while since I did an oracle reading, partly because I’ve been so busy, but mainly because I haven’t had any questions sent in for a while. So if you would like to ask Amethyst, Aria or Velvet a question, please do email it to me – theamethystangel@hotmail.co.uk.

A lovely Earth Angel called Ana sent me a question, and I recorded Velvet’s answer last week. You can see the video below:

[youtube http://youtu.be/RkHyS5YVCBI]

Ana then sent me a very long email in reply to the reading, telling me how she had related to it and how it had helped her to see things in a different light. I do love to receive feedback and to hear how a reading might have had an impact. Looking forward to receiving more questions!