Andrea Lightfoot's Blog

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6G7WLR2

Book Depository has reduced my book price
from £12.95 to £11.97

https://www.bookdepository.com/Fantas...

The workplace can seem a strange place to write "flash fiction", as far as some people are concerned. I wonder how many people think to themselves, "I think, during my lunch, I'll write some flash-fiction"?

Yes, it can be done while having your lunch break. The other week, I was lucky enough to attend a half-hour flash-fiction bitesize course, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and it taught me things about "flash-fiction" that I hadn't even known.

So, if you want to give it go, then do so.
It's good for mental health, which gets mentioned a lot in this day and age, and is even better when you can do it as a group, and have the friendship and community spirit that group-writers enjoy

Very soon, I shall be going abroad for the very first time!!!!! It is another good way to get me out of my comfort zone, and experience a different culture for real.

I shall be taking a book that a colleague of mine has kindly given me to take away with me : "Angels at my Fingertips, by Lorna Byrne".

Looking forward to reading it

Further to my earlier post regarding my new project - a nature poetry book, I am aiming to get it finished by 31st March of this year.

If anyone has any ideas of anything to do with nature that they would like to have added, or would like to contribute a nature poem of their own, please let me know in the comments section

Thank you and happy days

Andrea

I'm working on my next project - a poetry book that has Nature as the theme.

I have had ideas myself, but I would also like to see ideas from other authors and readers too.

The ideas must all be to do with Nature.

They can be humourous, or sad, in any style you choose.

Thanks everyone

Andrea (author of Fantastica - Surreal Prose & Poetry)

Isn't it amazing, to think that whenever we meet someone, we often never know that that person has had a book published, or is involved with amateur (unpaid) acting, singing or dance work, and so on and so forth?

The office Receptionist or Sales Assistant you come face to face with, the people at the bus stop, shoppers, etc. - there can be more to a person than what meets the eye. As a Receptionist myself, I guess that most visitors to our company will see me as "a face of the company,", a member of staff, someone who they witness doing their work for which they're getting paid, that sort of thing. Unless I tell them, those people will not know that on certain days after work, I have what I call "my extra-curricular activities" - drama, choir, and ballet. Neither will they know of any books I have had published, or of any book-writing projects I might have underway........

It's not until you get talking to someone (whether a complete stranger or a family friend) that you could potentially discover that individual is a (self-published) author, or an actor, dancer,or some other performer of some sort. They could have achieved something big, like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for charity, for instance.

Very often, though, we never find these things out, because those people don't tell us, for whatever reason they have.

The same goes for us too. Let's face it, who on earth is going to be interested in our single, self-published book, or the performances we have done in front of family and friends at a small, local theatre, as non-famous, unpaid, amateur theatre groups? We are not rich and famous, we tell ourselves. Nobody is going to be interested, and anyway, they'll have forgotten us by tomorrow. Actually, we are wrong.

Unless someone you meet is self-centred, obnoxious, and completely disinterested in others, most folk will be interested - that stranger, very often someone you get talking to at the bus stop, for instance, won't mind you talking about your achievements, especially if you take an interest in the person you're talking to. You may not realise, unless you see them with a guitar case, that they're in a band, or that they're an actor with the local amateur Shakespearean company, until you ask them what they do apart from their "day job."

Last of all, we may not realise how inspirational other people find us, or how they secretly wish that they had our talent and patience to see a 'book project' through, or the courage to perform on stage in front of an audience.

What about us? It's worth taking an interest in other people. Apart from the usual questions of "what's your name?", "who do you live with, and where?", and "do you have a job," why not ask what they do in their spare time?

Their answer may surprise, and inspire you.

Well, here I am again, going on about my book, Fantastica - Surreal Prose & Poetry.

Or am I?

Sort of, except that this blog is concentrating more on what you could buy with the book, if you were buying the book for someone who likes reading short stories and poems, and loves the fantasy genre.

So here's my list of potential gifts to go with my book :

A candle
Dream catcher
A colouring book (child's or adults!)
Bottle of fairy dust (you can get these in some novelty gift shops)
Crystal or "tumbled stone"
Relaxation/Nature Sounds cd or iTunes etc
Anything from a New Age/Alternative shop
Yoga dvd
A shell

Happy gift giving,

Andrea

Following on from Fantastica - Surreal Prose & Poetry, I now have plans up my sleeve for a new book.

I'm coming away from the "nearest place to Fairyland", as I have started work on a poetry book with poems inspired by nature

Have you ever noticed that fantasy and dance often seem to go hand in hand?

So many images on Google feature fairies dancing around toadstools, or in enchanted forests and gardens. Pinterest has plenty of these illustrations, which often find their way onto personal profile pages.

In my own book, “Fantastica - Surreal Prose & Poetry”, which you will find on Amazon, one of the stories (called ‘Festival of Dance’) features a girl who is soon to dance in front of the “little folk”, as fairies, elves, pixies and their kin are sometimes called, gods and goddesses, ghosts, mermaids and other mythical beings.

Ballet also plays its own part in the subjects of dance mixed with fantasy - The Dance of The Sugarplum Fairy, accompanied with the well-known tune by Tchaikovsky is one fine example.

Children, and some adults, enjoy dressing up in fairy costumes (usually bought on EBay) and some even attend festivals where people can dance together and have fun.

What is it, that makes us connect the world of fantasy with the world of dance? Is it because it takes adults back to their childhood innocence?