Jan 19 2019

The Magical Faerie Door

On the 8th December 2018 I released my very first children’s novel! The Magical Faerie Door is the first in a magical series I am creating for children from 8 to 12, (though so far my older readers have been enjoying it too!) and I have to admit, I have been having a lot of fun!

I worked with an amazing artist, Rachel Miller, to bring the book to life, and I absolutely adore the cover image she created, as well as the smaller pencil illustrations that she created for each chapter. The book is available in hardback and on kindle, with the audiobook version (my first audiobook!) coming at the end of January 2019 on Audible.

We launched the book at the Abergavenny Cwtch Winter Wonderland fair, with the help of an amazing child-sized faerie door that was handmade by Jon Fellows of Sacred Tree Spirit. For the first time, I read out parts of the books to a very attentive audience, and we had so much fun! In my second reading of the day, I got to the end of the first chapter and the adults listening looked at me and went – well keep going! We need to know what happens!

As well as being a magical adventure that all ages seem to enjoy, The Magical Faerie Door touches on the subjects that are very close to faeries’ hearts – the environment and the destruction of it. We are destroying the natural world and are therefore eradicating the faeries and magic from this planet, and I feel that if we don’t inspire people to change their ways, then it won’t be long before there are no faeries left.

And I for one, do not want to live in a world with no faeries! It would be like living in a world with no colour, no music, no laughter and no joy.

Anyway, here are some photos of the book and the launch, if you would like a signed copy you can purchase one here, and you can also get copies on Amazon.

The faerie door to Eireaf was handmade by Jon Fellows

The hinges were forged in Russia!

The giant cupcake was made by myself and my talented mother, Sally

The cover art and interior illustrations were created by Rachel Miller

Reading my book to an audience for the first time!

I’m a Faerie Realm Advocate!

Sep 7 2016

The Art of Procrastination

Obviously, this blog post is inspired by the fact that I have been procrastinating on writing this post today. It’s 11.10pm, and though I have seen a friend, run a few errands and done a few bits of work, I have been avoiding writing my blog. Not for a lack of topics (I still have so much to write about the tour, and a whole host of other random things lined up) but for the lack of flow.

What do I mean by that? I mean that when I write, I need to be in the flow, and allow the words to come through me. When I think too much about what to write or how to word something, it just doesn’t work. It feels like I’m fighting with the white page to put marks on it that make sense.

When I’m in the flow, I can knock out a blog post in less than 20 mins. When I’m in the flow I’ve even been known to write a novel in two weeks. But today, has been a no flow. In fact, this has taken me 20 minutes to write so far, because I have been watching the last but one Harry Potter movie instead of concentrating.

So is it better to force the creativity when it isn’t flowing freely? Or is it better to procrastinate and do something else? There are so many schools of thought on this. Some say that you have to be disciplined, and write, or create, or practice every day, regardless of whether you want to or feel inspired. And there are others that say to only create when you feel the urge, the pull the passionate inspiration to.

I’m more in the latter group, usually, but interestingly, even when I force myself to write something, or make myself stick to a schedule, then sometimes, magic does actually happen, even when I’m not in the mood. The only reason I am writing this, even though I don’t feel like it’s flowing, is because I accepted the challenge of writing a blog post a day for 30 days, and I don’t want to let down my friend, Tiffany, who is doing the challenge with me.

But perhaps, someone will read this ramble and realise that they too, only create when in the flow, and that it’s perfectly fine to be that way. But also, it’s good to push ourselves to do things we wouldn’t normally do, because something magical might become of it.

I’m going to stop there, just in case this really is boring. If it is, I apologise, but this is what happens when I’m not in the flow. Next time, I’ll post a recipe! I posted a few recipes during my last 30 day blog challenge, and madly enough, they were the most popular posts! It’s a funny old world…

I was trying to add words to this image, to illustrate the flowing words versus the forced words, and couldn’t come up with anything, so I have just posted the picture instead… apologies for the lack of inspiration today, hope to be back on form tomorrow!

Sep 2 2015

To be a Writer…

Last week I bought a copy of The Big Leap on my Kindle, by Gay Hendricks. The book set off a stream of ‘aha’ moments and huge realisations, most of which I still haven’t quite figured out what to do with yet!

There are so many amazing parts to the book, to try to describe them here wouldn’t work, I recommend grabbing yourself a copy and seeing for yourself. But there is one thing that I wanted to share, that I realised from reading the book, because it may well help other writers out there.

Hendricks talks about the four zones that exist, which are the Zone of Incompetence, the Zone of Competence, the Zone of Excellence and the Zone of Genius. He said that a lot of us spend most of our lives in the first three zones, and that it takes a big leap to get into the Zone of Genius. I realised that I have spent most of my life in the Zone of Competence, doing work that anyone could do, but that I was okay at too. I think my Zone of Excellence is when I am helping others with their publishing and social media, or indeed when I am publishing my own work, but it occurred to me that my Zone of Genius is when I write. And not just write anything, when I am writing my novels.

There were three sentences to complete, to really nail down what your Zone of Genius is, and these were my answers:

I’m at my best when… I’m writing.

When I’m at my best, the exact thing I’m doing is… going with the flow and creating.

When I’m doing that, the thing I love most about it is … the magical alchemy of turning words into worlds.

Yes. When those words flowed out of my pen onto the page, a massive grin spread across my face and it hit me squarely in the chest. That was it. My Zone of Genius. I am not a writer, not an author – I am an Alchemist. I take simple, ordinary words, and create entire worlds, people, events and objects. All of which live inside the mind of the reader when they read the books. And one day, will hopefully be portrayed on a big screen.

It was a revelation to me, that what I really loved about writing was not the actual act of it, but the deliciousness of the creation. With just a few taps of the keyboard, I can create life, and I can take it away. I can make someone happy, or make them cry.

I also realised that I had been spending much more time in my Zones of Competence and Incompetence (still terrible at marketing!) than I had in my Zone of Genius. I have so many stories flying around in my mind all shouting to be told, that it seems crazy not to be spending more time in that Zone, doing what I know I do best.

On that note, I am off to write some more of my new book. The Twin Flame Resurrection is in beta reading mode and the cover is being created too, which I am very excited about! Will post the cover reveal very soon. Let me know if you read the big leap, and if you discover your Zone of Genius!

Sep 1 2015

Catching the Hogwarts Express…

It’s September 1st! Time to get to King’s Cross, and run through the wall to Platform 9 3/4 to catch the train to Hogwarts.

Don’t worry, I haven’t completely lost the plot, I promise. I have just decided that as of today, I am going to invite more magic into my life on a daily basis. I have been much more aware of the magical nature of the forest, as I have been seeking out magical things to photograph and post on Instagram, but I think it’s important to bring magic into everything I do. Especially the things that I’m not so fond of doing!

I think that so much more is possible when we are in a state of excitement and enjoyment and feeling like things are magical. More opportunities arrive, things go more smoothly, ideas flow easily and everything just seems like a lot more fun.

Thanks to the dismal British non-summer, I have taken to wearing my extreme-crocheted helmet-hat, which I made the other day. Somehow, knowing I look a little bit silly, brightens my day. (And it has the added bonus of making my partner laugh when he sees me wearing it!)

Yep, I know I look crazy 🙂

So what do you think? Is it possible to make every day life more magical? Is it possible to bring fun and faerie-silliness into even the most boring of tasks? I would love to know your thoughts!

May 11 2015

Beginner’s Luck

As a follow-up to my previous post on self-development seminars reminding me of casinos, I wanted to look at the idea from a slightly different perspective.

My first post looked mainly at the angle that perhaps the organisers and hosts of some of the events, did not have the best of intentions when it came to the participants. That they were unscrupulously making money from people who were in a vulnerable stage in their lives, looking for their purpose.

In this post, I want to look at the intentions and point of view of the participants, and perhaps how they may be searching for the magic ‘key’ and how that may not be very realistic. After all, the seminars and workshops wouldn’t exist if there weren’t scores of people looking for the magic formula to make their lives amazing.

I feel that quite often, beginner’s luck comes into play, when someone goes to a seminar for the first time ever (or indeed buys a lotto ticket or visits a casino for the first time) and they go through a transformation that changes their life for the better. Suddenly, they’re telling everyone they know, and they start attending more and more seminars, hoping to improve their lives even further. But then things plateau out. The changes become less dramatic, and the person then starts spending more, upgrading to the more advanced packages and seeks out the next big win desperately, unaware that they are gambling away more than they can afford.

Image from Shutterstock

The thing is, that first bit of luck may have happened in order to encourage the person to improve their lives, but as with anything, no one can expect to make big changes and improvements without actually doing some hard work.

Yes, that’s right – the magic key really is just hard work. As well as passion, perseverance and determination. Of course there will still be the jackpot winners who appear to magically manifest all they desire with very little effort, but I bet if you were to delve deeper you would find that they too, struggled before that win.

As they say, all over-night successes have been ten years in the making. So if you find yourself voraciously attending seminars and workshops, and yet your life is not working out the way you would like, please do ask yourself why you are doing it, what you are looking for. You may find you already have all the information you need, all the support you need, and really all there is left to do, is put in the hard work.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this, please do comment if anything I’ve said has struck a chord with you.

Aug 13 2012

Gallery

Visionary Author Insight – Jodine Turner

This gallery contains 6 photos.

This week I interviewed Visionary Author Jodine Turner. Jodine Turner is a best-selling, multiple award winning author of YA/Adult visionary fiction, magical realism, and fantasy. She is also an Adorata Practitioner in the spiritual path of embodying divine love and balancing … Continue reading →