Wild Places

I blogged about Robert Macfarlane's latest book last week - here's a review of it ...

Review
Bill McKibben (Author of THE END OF NATURE) "This book is an eloquent (and compulsively readable) reminder that, though we're laying waste the world, nature still holds sway over much of the earth's surface, even in a place as crowded and civilized as Britain. I found it one of the most oddly comforting books I've read in a long long time" Iain Sinclair "A driven and necessary account of the wild places of these islands, near or remote, as they can be located and possessed within ourselves: in good heart, in hungry intelligence. Rich, sinewy prose to set on the shelf alongside works by Roger Deakin, Richard Mabey, Tim Robinson" Rebecca Solnit "Robert Macfarlane's extraordinary first book took a stance against the conventionally heroic; his second as boldly celebrates places that aren't supposed to exist. And The Wild Places does so in prose that is at times very nearly as vivid and beautiful as the thing itself: in his sentences there are sudden clearings, shafts of light, unexpected crossroads of ideas, views opening into the distance, close-ups of important flora and fauna. The book strides along through places, histories and ideas with a distance-walker's gait and a nature lover's pauses" Jan Morris "A lovely book by a sublimely civilized writer - honest nourishment for the mind and true enhancement for the spirit" Will Self "A beautifully modulated call from the wild, that will ensorcell any urban prisoner wishing to break free"

I'm strongly tempted by Macfarlane's Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination too. He seems to be very turned on and tuned in.

Feedback on my books

I'm getting some excellent feedback on Moon Song and Owl Woman. The latest on the latter is ... "Elen..Owl Woman is really great, so rich and deep. I really like your writing style. I haven't done any house work for 2 days!!" ... I think that's a brilliant reccomend for a book.

If you also feel like giving up housework, for a day or 3, you can buy the books here

Enjoy *smile*

Shapeshifting for Writers

I can’t write a book until I can shapeshift into the characters. This often takes time and I seem to have to wait for it, full of expectancy but with as few expectations as I can manage *g*.

Writing a story is so like journeying. I’m in the characters skin. Several skins in fact as, even for the minor characters, I must be in them when I write them or they turn out flat and two dimensional. And I must be in them in order to react/respond as they would in each situation.

This gets exciting in conversation. The whole thing is flick-flick-flick, flicking from one to the other and so getting the right words and actions for each. The feel as the character hears the words of the person they’re with and sees the body language. I am amanuensis for each of them. At least translators usually only deal with one person. Writers always have multiple personalities going on! And writers must stay rational and conscious as they work between the characters or the reader just gets badly written mush instead of a good story.

All of this is what shamans do – journey to somewhere outside everyday reality, shift into other beings as necessary, and return to Earth with the goodies. Consequently I find my shaman training invaluable for writing.

As a shaman, I can and do journey on demand – a bit like POD, print on demand, for writers *g*. I have to for clients and to find what I need for myself as well. Journeying for a story is the hardest. All journeying requires incubation – putting the idea in the cauldron along with whatever other appropriate ingredients; stirring for the ritual year-and-a-day; being there at the right moment to catch the three drops of wisdom on one’s thumb; and remembering to put that thumb in one’s mouth to suck up the wisdom! That’s the standard preparation process on the Brythonic Celtic path … Taliesin’s journey.

In Taliesin’s journey he is then chased, by the goddess Ceridwen, through the four elements and finally eaten by her in order to be reborn. A standard initiation ritual. All this has to happen in writing a story too. I, the writer, am chased and harried through earth, water, air and fire to come to the climax of the story – rebirth.

Joseph Campbell has his own way of putting this in the “Hero’s Journey”. Taliesin is just the same, if far older than Campbell, only expressed differently. Campbell was right, all stories follow this pattern.
• Some crisis happens that brings the hero to a first awakening, as Gwion Bach is when he is called to stir Ceridwen’s cauldron.
• There follows a learning period with the “master”; Gwion stirs, learns a little, feels as if he’s Ceridwen’s chosen one.
• Then comes another crisis – the cauldron boils, the three drops of wisdom jump out onto Gwion’s thumb instead of the intended one. Gwion has to run or he will die.
• The goddess chases him and this forces Gwion to realise what he’s truly learned, so he shapeshifts into forms for each of the elements.
• He succeeds in escaping three times but, on the fourth time, just when he thinks he’s made it Ceridwen eats the grain of wheat that is Gwion.
• He spends nine months within her, going through the equivalent of Butterfly Soup – going back to the basic elements of his being, that make him, and reforming them into the new self.
• At nine months he is reborn, and so beautiful Ceridwen names him Shining Brow – that’s what Taliesin means – as a tribute to his wisdom.
• She then sets him free in the river of Life where he is fund by someone else in trouble and so is able to begin his new life by helping someone.

All good stories, the ones we want to read over and over and over, have this format. It’s how humans live their lives if they want to grow and be conscious – and most of us do want that. Campbell knew this. So do all shamans and they always have. This is what being a shaman is about – helping others to grow and become conscious.

Whether they know this consciously or not this is what all writers, storytellers, Cyfarwydd – as they’re called in Brython – want too.

I have to do all that journeying and shapeshifting for each story. It takes time and preparation that I, as an impatient human, rail at some of the time. Why can’t it be easy? Why can’t it just flow through me without all this work and travail. Oh, I know the answers but I need a good whinge as much as anyone else! When I was practising as a transpersonal psychotherapist on of my adages that I would offer to clients was, “A whinge a day keeps the therapist at bay!”. It works too. I use it myself … so I do walk my own talk *g*.

It’s an incredible moment – better than orgasm – when I click with the characters of a new story. Suddenly, they’re there. I’m there. We’re together, two consciousnesses in one being. I call it “thread twining” after a practice I learned while working in the Lucis Trust school, Alice Bailey’s lot – look it up on Google *g*. Once I’m there, with the characters, the writing does flow. It’s not easy though! It’s just like Gwion’s chase through the elements. Sometimes it’s so hairy I come out literally shaking and panting, eyes crossed. My husband, Paul, sees me and promptly makes a pot of tea, settles me down to get back to Earth, return to my everyday self. He’s a great support mechanism at these times *g*.

But, without the shift, the writing is dull and boring, it plods, is a very effective sleeping-draught! With the shift I can fly …

PS – the drawing is the logo for Rainbow Warriors, the shamanic school I lead, and comes from my own interpretation of the shaman on the Gundestrup

The Case of the Ginger Cat

Amused & confused LOL. I've been trying to write the novel about the 3 gold torcs, set here where I live, for a while now. Got loads of notes and background and research but could never really get "the off"! It happened last night, I just took off and got 2.5K words into the laptop just like that, then more again this morning.

It's very different to how I had thought it would be! For a start, I'd imagined it being a teen-novel. It's not. It definitely wants to stay in my mystery/romance/magic vein. I don't mind, I'm just surprised. And ... so far ... I'm writing it in the first person. And from the male POV! Not done that before.

I'm enjoying it, and it is different, as I said *g*. It throws you right in at the deep end with a shapeshifter doing his shift in the first 10 lines! He's the hero ... and very sexy as well as nice and magic and all that crap.

She's fun too. It's her learning curve we follow in the mainstream but, of course, he has lots of learning to do too. as does the secondary hero who has rather a shock when he wakes out of 1500 yr sleep into the 21st cetury! Poor lad! And he seems to be a tramp in this century/incarnation but ... well, no spoilers, all will be revealed IDC.

Will keep posting about how the story goes. In the meantime, hope you're enjoying Moon Song. As I said the other day, Moon Song is out now and available at
http://stores.lulu.com/elensentier

Moon Song

I've done it !!!

Moon Song is now out there, in print and shortly to be on Amazon and in Barnes & Noble.

You can buy it now from here and there is a preview here

I'll write a bit more about it later on.

The Moon's Song

Woo-Hoo !!!

I've done it !!! I've got to the end, and I quite like the end too :-). It was exhausting, I really groaned as I finished the last words. and it still surprised me right up to the end !!! This story certainly knows its own mind and what it wants.

Of course, there's loads of editing and I'm beginning the first read-through this afternoon. Then my editior has to get her teeth into it and send it back covered in red-line *g*.

I'm going to try to get it fit for publication for the Midwinter feast but will keep you all posted.

The Moon's Song

Well, it's up to 92K words on the novel but I've still not got the end. It's elusive, I know but I don't know, a definite feel of "stalking" ... very appropriate *g*.

This story, "The Moon's Song" has taken me all sorts of places I hadn't thought of going with it, some deep stuff, but it's also a romance as well as a mystery and I'm extremely fond of the characters. One of the lead males, Tristan, had become rather wet and this didn't suit me (or him!) so this morning was devoted to some reclamation work on him. He tells me being a ghost and without clear memory is very difficult ... I can believe it *g*.

The male lead has evolved considerably during the writing. I thought he would but some of the ways have been surprising. He turns out to have a lot of nouse with regard to magical stuff even without having much experience. I need to explain and expand this some more ... bother! That means more words to write *g*.

The heroine is good, very bolshy at times and feisty but I like that. She has to learn some heavy stuff about control and she manages it too. Like all of us she forgets at times and goes back to ancient habits then has to turn about and do it properly. New habits are always hard to learn.

I'm very pleased with the story. It's far deeper than I expected when I began it, yet has a lightness to it that makes it easy to read - or so my test readers tell me *g*. I love that about writing, how it takes you on a journey, you don't know where you're going properly at the beginning although you start out with a general idea and a plot-line. But you can't stay rigid with that, you have to be flexible and take some apparent side-turnings - they usually lead you to incredibly interesting places. Not always, of course. I followed one for a while with this story and, although it is good, it's not for this book. I've cut it out and stored it away for somewhere else. There's a whole folder full of this stuff, clippings for the future. All witters have them.

So ... I'm hoping to have found the end by the end of the week - say Sunday. will keep you all posted.

The Moon's Song

Very nearly there, on the home stretch with The Moon's Song. I've put a taster up here for you to enjoy :-). It's certainly been an eye-opener for me, the story's taken me places I didn't know it wanted to go when I began. I've thoroughly enjoyed writing it ... and learned a bit myself too *g* ... so I hope you do as well. Let me know ...

Here's the taster ... Books

Self-Publishing Thoughts ...

I just furtled about in Lulu - a good self-publishing place with links to Bowker's Books in Print and Nielsen Book Data, and it gets listed for sale at Amazon.com. This service used to cost $99 but is now free. I've got 2 other books on it - TOAD IN THE SHADOWLANDS and DREAMWEAVER - and they should be up on amazon and available in US (maybe UK?) bookstores soon, like about a month-6 wks I think. See Lulu Marketing Packages.

Lulu put my novel, OWL WOMAN, into their Amazon Marketplace Pilot. The pilot program doesn't cost anything, as yet, but Lulu say that once the service fully defined, an end date will be chosen for the pilot and Lulu will communicate in advance any changes to the service so I can decide whether to continue to list the title on Amazon's Marketplace or not. I feel this is a good idea.

Amazon have got their own self--publishing POD companty together too - booksurge - but this one costs you something over $1000 to set up! Ha! Not the way for most of us penniless, garret-living, starving authors.

I'm becoming quite a Lulu fan. There's some well-known authors using it as well us still scrambling at the bottom rung of the ladder. The rpoduct is nice, good paper, nice rpinting, nice feel to the book. And they do download to.

Not sure if t goes to Kindle but I would have thought it might as they're a US firm. we still can't rally do Kindle well in the UK - it being stuck in one network service provider like the iPod. europe doesn't really go for that kind of monopoly *g*. and Nokia is now pushing hard at iPod for both music and phone stuff, with free downloads for all music while you're on contract. I wonder if they'll get something similar for books? Shall keep my eyes open :-).

I'm slogging away at the Lulu "cook-book" style for the Biodynamic Gardening book - This may be the answer to get what I want but I'm still not sure! It may end up as several small booklets of 20 pages each, depending on cost but also on readabitlity. I need to go see Heather Gorringe at Wiggly wigglers and aske what she thinks. That woman has her head very frimly screwed on with regard to what sells ... AND she's relaly committed to organic and environmental. And she's fun *g*.

Watch this space ...

The Ipcress File - Len Deighton

Just started this loast night. I've seen the Micael Cane film and enjoyed it ... reading Deighton (this one anyway) is very good. He's very funny !!! Husband was occasionally disturbed in his sleep by my chuckles. Will post again when finished it.

Thornyhold - Mary Stewart

Just finised it - excellent. You can read my full review here . Recommended if you like adventure/romance + excellent descriptive powers and the English countryside.

Thornyhold - Mary Stewart

This is very good. The beginning was a trifle difficult at frist but I soon got into it. the descriptions are excellent and the setting - mostly back in 1948 - are very good too. the characters are involving me and they're not simple, one can like parts of even the apparently "bad guys". am hanging it out so I don't finish too quickly, always a good sign :-).

It might be quite strange to younger readers who ahve never been without a telephone or a car - the heroine is without both ,at least so far. But the sotry is only from the middle of the 20th century. It really isn;t very long ago that life did not revolve around the phone. I think this is important as part of the story, it somehow allows the magic to come in and stewart is doing that excellently.

It is aobut magic, about learning it and even more about finding it. The sense of connectedness beteen the heroine and the place, the animals and birds is very strong, reminding me of her Merlin trilogy. will let you know how I feel when it ends ...

Mary Stewart

Hadn't read any of hers, except the Merlin ones, for ages then I got "Wildfire at Midnight" out and soooooo much enjoyed it. Her descriptive writing is excellent. And so is her characterisation. the books are old now and may seem strange to those who weren't there in the 50s and 60s, but she writes it as it was and as people were then. And it works.

They're usually mystery/murder stories but there's an element of the strnage, supernatural, otherworldly in them. And lead character is usually (if not always) a woman. She does them well. I've just started the cretan one and it's going well. I've been to Crete and know how beautiful and wild it still is despite the tourist industry. The times she writes of, the 60s, it was truly wild and I remember that too. Places you could only get to on foot or horse or donkey.

Recommended for all of you who like mystery with a touch of romance and the otherworld. And who like good writing and good plotting :-)