UNICORNS SELL!Fantasy fiction dominates the world bestseller lists, makes zillions at the box office, and has turned writers like J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer and Christopher Paolini into household names.
Their books have sold more than 500 million copies in the last dozen years. Add the sales of J.R.R Tolkien (150 million for The Lord of the Rings alone), C.S. Lewis (120 million for the Narnia series), Robert Jordan (44 million), Terry Brooks (21 million), Dragonlance (20 million) and the Artemis Fowl books (18 million) – and it is clear that fantasy is the most popular of narrative forms.The world is hungry for tales of epic quests, dragons, vampires, wizards, magic rings and cloaks of invisibility. One publishing house in the US has even issued their staff with a T-shirt that reads ‘Unicorns Sell!’
And what readers want to read, publishers want to publish!
So what is fantasy? Why is it so popular? And how can aspiring writers tap into that hunger for fantastic fiction?
Kate Forsyth is the award-winning and internationally bestselling author of 23 books for both adults and children. Her books are published in 12 countries including the UK, the US, Japan, Russia, Indonesia and Spain (as well as her homeland of Australia). She has taught ‘Writing Fantasy’ workshops all over the world, including a writers retreat in Fiji last year.In a week-long course, she will teach participants everything from the history and common motifs of fantasy fiction to world-building and creating characters that leap off the page. She’ll tell you the secret formula to all stories, yet teach you how to make sure your work is fresh and original and imaginative. Kate’s ‘Writing Fantasy’ course helps you build a story from the first flash of inspiration to finding a publisher for your work.Aristotle said: “A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.’ Learn how to make your fantasy book so convincing and so entrancing that your readers will wish the book never had to end, with Kate Forsyth’s ‘Writing Fantasy’ course from 29th May to 5th June. For more information about Kate, check out her website at www.kateforsyth.com.au.
Kate will be facilitating her course 'Fantasy Writing - Ideas' at the Writers' Lab, Skyros Centre in Greece this summer from Saturday 29 May to Saturday 5 June. See www.skyros.com to book online, email office@skyros.com or call 01983 865566. The holiday also includes participation in yoga and music & arts courses.
I’ve visited Skyros as a participant and now I’m returning as a facilitator. I’m really looking forward to being at the Skyros Village Centre from the 20th June to 3rd July where I shall be running my programme ‘Finding Your Purpose and Leading Your Life’.
As Judy Garland once said: ‘”Be a first rate version of yourself not a second rate version of someone else,” so my programme is designed for people who feel empty when their days are so full, for those who feel out of balance and want to re-gain it, and those who want to find their life purpose and how to manifest it every day.
In the two weeks I’m there, I want to offer a new and different practice that I hope will provide you with a temporary escape pod to reflect away from your busy life and give you hope for a more joyous future.I’ve spent more than twenty years managing and leading teams in organisations and businesses as well as coaching and mentoring individuals. (If you’re interested, my CV and a lot more information about what I do is on my company website www.createtomorrowtoday.com ). I've studied and read avidly. I believe I've found a golden thread running through all this theory and practice. The same development areas crop up. - How to THINK for yourself and recognise your thinking patterns and where they come from
- How to CREATE and use your imagination and ability to generate new ideas and possibilities. To dream. To know and appreciate beauty
- How to FEEL emotionally expressive, compassionate and self-aware of others and their point-of-view. To manage yourself and your relationships
- How to BELIEVE through your journey of self-improvement. To find the joy in life and your purpose
I’ve placed these four ‘Quarters’ into a circle for it’s is a significant symbol and geometric shape. For many cultures, the circle is a symbol of unity. Having no beginning or end, it represents infinity and perfection. If you travel this circle that I call 360 Degree Wisdom, you will gain a rounded perspective on how to lead a ‘whole-some’ life!
In the first week 'Finding Your Priorities', we’ll study each quarter of the 360 Degree Wisdom circle THINK, CREATE, FEEL and BELIEVE and ask ourselves challenging questions about our patterns of thinking and behaviour. We’ll also apply self-development and management techniques to understand better why we do things the way we do and how certain factors can influence us without our realising! We’ll spend time working through what makes you glow with energy and joy and see how this can be translated into daily life through living your true values, beliefs and attitudes.
In the second week, 'Leadership Skills', we will apply all you’ve learned from the 360 Degree Wisdom Circle to a set of scenarios and challenges that you might face as an individual or group. This can be applied to home and work situations. We’ll look at leadership theories and techniques to learn what is possible when you are in balance as a leader of your life and when you take on the responsibility and honour of leading others. We’ll discuss what qualities make a leader and study leaders from the past to see what can be applied by you in the future.I hope to see you on my programme where we’ll have some serious fun!Claire Chidley is the Managing Director of Create Tomorrow Today, a leadership development company. She has been working for 20 years as a senior manager in the public and cultural sector. See www.createtomorrowtoday.com
Claire will be facilitating her courses at the Skyros Centre, on Skyros island, Greece from Sunday 20 June to Saturday 3 July. See www.skyros.com, email office@skyros.com or call 01983 865566 to book your place.
The more fast paced and stressful our lives become we often, quite literally, forget to give ourselves room to breathe.
Our level of tension is usually reflected in our breathing. When stressed breathing tends to become more rapid and shallow, and primarily located in the upper chest. Under too much stress the tendency might also be to over breathe, sigh or hyperventilate.
When we are relaxed breathing tends to be slower and deeper, and should include more movement in the rib cage and the diaphragm.
Breathing is one of the easiest things to be aware of and to change. Noticing breathing helps us to notice the symptoms of stress early, so we can take a moment to pause and relax. The connection between breathing, stress and tension is two way. In the same way stress can have a negative effect on our breathing, so too can adjusting our breathing have a positive influence on stress.
Tip: Here is a simple breathing exercise you can try anywhere, sitting, standing or lying down. You can also decide whether to have your eyes open or closed.
- Rest both hands on the upper part of your chest. Allow your lungs to empty with an out breath, and then breathe in slowly through the nose, without forcing it, and notice the rise and fall of your hands as you breathe. Repeat this between 5 and10 times.
- Rest both hands on your rib cage below your chest with the finger tips of your middle fingers just touching when your lungs are empty. Breathe in slowly and feel your fingers parting as you rib cage expands outward. Repeat between 5 and 10 times.
- Rest your hands on your belly at navel level, middle finger tips touching. This time as you slowly breathe in fill your whole abdomen with breath, feeling your fingers parting and your hands rising slightly towards your chest. Again repeat between 5 and 10 times.
- Finally just rest your hands gently in your lap, or at your sides and take a few moments to be aware of your breathing now. Make sure your shoulders and neck are relaxed. Make a little stretch before resuming your normal daily activities.
If you make a commitment to do this regularly – it will only take about 5 minutes a day– you will begin to notice the level of stress held in your breath and will also experience your breath in its most relaxed state. Over time this will become part of your general awareness, so you can notice your breathing at any time and make a conscious decision to relax.
Tip: Record your mood in an exercise book before and after doing the breathing exercise. The four most common moods are Activity and Calm at the positive end, and Anxiety and Melancholy at the negative end. See if you notice a pattern over time.
So take a break, take a breath - instead of reaching for caffeine, tobacco or chocolate. And as your breath becomes more relaxed and centred so your whole being can feel the same.
Michael Eales
After many years as a facilitator Michael has come to value the practice of Mindfulness as the core of healthy living.
“Paying attention to moment to moment experience without judgement or self-criticism enables you to become more aware of the conflicting forces within your mind. This awareness enables you to access your strong inner core: the place of inner wisdom, wellbeing and happiness. Becoming aware of our habits of thought and action is the first step toward self-transformation.”
Of course he still draws on all his experience as a humanistic psychologist who has worked widely in organisations and with individuals. See www.globalresonance.com
Michael's forthcoming teaching dates for Skyros:
6 – 19 June: Mindful Living, Atsitsa Bay, Greece
29 Aug – 11 Sept: The Path of Happiness, Skyros Centre, Greece
12 – 25 September: Mindful Living, Atsitsa Bay, Greece
14 – 27 December: The Path of Happiness, Koh Chang, Thailand
14 – 23 January 2011: On the Exploration Path, Thailand & Cambodia
Spring time is often a time for making a fresh start in the home.
One of the topics that always seems to come up on my “How to have your best year ever” workshop is clutter.
Some people never invite people into their homes due to the embarrassment of the clutter they have. It is fascinating to look at some of the reasons we hang on to “stuff”.
Some of the most common reasons include:
- I might need it someday
- It holds special memories for me
- I don’t know where to start
Three solutions are:
- Donate stuff you’re decluttering, so you don’t feel bad about wasting it.
- The One-Year Box. Take all your items that you unsure about getting rid of (e.g. “I might need this someday…”), put them in a box, seal it and date it for 1 year in the future. When the date comes, and you still didn’t need to open it to get anything, donate the box WITHOUT OPENING IT. You probably won’t even remember what there was in the box.
- Internalize that your value is not in your “stuff”. It is just “stuff”. And realize that your value grows when you share your “stuff”. Hoarding is a selfish act.
One of the benefits of de-cluttering is the positive affect it has in other areas of one’s life. You can be curious as to what unexpected pleasures await after a spell of de-cluttering.
Andrew Risner
Andrew Risner, described as ‘The Big Man with Huge Solutions’, left a successful career as M.D. of a finance company to help people release their untapped potential. An NLP Master Practitioner and Hypnotherapist, Andrew was also stress consultant on BBC1’s Heaven & Earth programme. See www.risner.co.uk
His use of humour and straight talking has made him a sought after speaker and trainer. Spending several years performing stand up comedy taught him that most challenges in life are not difficult but merely uncomfortable and it is a willingness to feel uncomfortable that separates the players from the spectators in life.Andrew, a regular to Skyros, will be running his course 'Your Best Year Ever' from Sunday 1 to Saturday 14 August and from Sunday 15 to Saturday 28 August at the Atsitsa Bay centre on Skyros island, Greece.
I’m really excited to be at the Skyros Village Centre in Greece this June delivering my programmes “Peace in your Heart” and “Peace in your Life” for Skyros Holidays.
So, here’s something about me...I live in beautiful Wiltshire, UK, near to Avebury stone circle in crop circle country, and I’m married to a psychotherapist and interfaith minister. I’m a life coach and group facilitator, being accredited as a coach with the Association for Coaching and as a group facilitator with the UK Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners. I’ve trained in Gestalt and NLP and studied yogic philosophy and meditation. I’m a certified Laughter Yoga teacher. I also have a PGCE and have taught for 17 years, and I’ve coached many executives and run leadership development programmes in both the public and private sectors. So I have a very broad experience in developing people, or as I see it, helping them develop themselves.
My passion is helping people grow and fulfil their dreams and I have a particular interest in using awareness to connect with our inner spiritual self and in dealing with the ego. I see this work as acquiring a kind of direct line to inner contentment. In fact I have just finished writing a book on this subject called “Connecting to Inner Peace”.
About my workshops...
Peace in your Heart, 5 – 11 June 2010
Here’s where you can learn how to still your mind and connect with your true inner Self, which in Indian spirituality is your source of lasting contentment. Develop skill in being calm and present, in managing your mind, dealing with your ego, and knowing the splendour of your heart. Here’s where you can de-stress and learn the art of letting go and being connected to who you really are.Peace in your Life, 12 – 18 June 2010
And in this workshop you can take the understandings of the first workshop forward and further develop your ability to be aware of and connect to your inner Self. However the focus of this second week is how you can also become more skilled at managing and resolving the challenges of everyday living, your reactions to situations and people, and your own “ego moments” in life, so as to manifest what you really want.In both workshops we work using teaching, discussion, self-awareness coaching, small-group work, east-meets-west philosophy, yogic meditation, NLP visualisation, laughter yoga and music.Superb for a holiday setting, a great place to reflect on what it’s all about and where you want to go in life – and meet lots of like-minded people. And the philosophic bits seem sort of appropriate for a Greek location. After all, it was over the door to the ancient Greek temple of Apollo at Delphi that visitors to the famous oracle would see the words “Know Thyself”.John will be running his courses at the Skyros Centre, Skyros island, Greece from Saturday 5 to Friday 18 June (SC4). The two-week holiday also includes options for yoga, writing and painting. To find out more, visit www.skyros.com, call us on 01983 865566 or email office@skyros.com.
You might think directing a film ends with its release but ‘oh no!’ Publicity takes over your world. I was in the middle of this for my film ‘Chemical Wedding' and also caught up with the publicity for the New Monty Python documentary when I was rescued by a request from Skyros to help them out on their holiday in Cambodia. Film director Anna Campion had pulled out from teaching at the last minute. Could I help?
[Above: JULIAN DOYLE, BRUCE DICKINSON and SIMON CALLOW publicising their film, 'CHEMICAL WEDDING'][Left: JULIAN DOYLE interviewed for MONTY PYTHON DOCUMENTARY]
So.... escape to the Jungle where I could imagine myself as Alan Quartermain showing how to shoot Elephants and Monkey’s – not with a gun but with a digital camera.
Keep your camera on automatic and wide angle, at the ready, then zoom in once you see your prey.
We tracked all day following the trail of elephant droppings finally out onto a grassy plane. Now I really felt like a scene from ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ as I brought up the rear of our snaking band. A few brief glimpses of wild game but as we returned to our landrovers – there were the monkeys waiting to scrounge off us by the road!
A few days later and I was Indian Jones in the TEMPLE OF DOOM – searching lost Temples hidden in the forests by huge waterfalls where massive trees whose roots snake round dark doorways. Now back to the cold of London and more interviews - it was all like a lovely dream that will stay with me.
Julian Doyle, one of the world's most versatile Film Makers, ran the Digital Photography and Film course for Skyros on it's overland tour in Cambodia this January, 2010. Find out more about the creative courses available in Greece this season at www.skyros.com.
Julian has written, directed, photographed, edited and created special Fx's in feature films all to the highest standards. He has also won awards for directing pop videos such as Kate Bush's 'CLOUDBUSTING' featuring Donald Sutherland and Iron Maiden's hit 'CAN I PLAY WITH MADNESS'. He is most famous for editing MONTY PYTHON film 'LIFE OF BRIAN' and shooting the Fx's for Terry Gilliam's 'TIMEBANDITS' and 'BRAZIL' which he also edited. He has just completed 'CHEMICAL WEDDING', an occult thriller starring Simon Callow.
Hi, I'm really looking forward to spending time on Skyros island in Greece, running workshops in poetry and fiction (see below) for Skyros Holidays.
A little bit about me...
Kevan Manwaring is a writer, teacher and storyteller who lives in Bath. Holder of an MA in the Teaching and Practice in Creative Writing from Cardiff University, he teaches creative writing part-time for the Open University. He also runs freelance courses in storytelling and various aspects of the writing process to a wide variety of students.
As a professional storyteller he has appeared in numerous shows both solo and with Fire Springs, both in Britain and abroad (USA, Italy and Malta). He is the author of The Bardic Handbook, Lost Islands, the ongoing Windsmith books and his poems and articles have appeared in several magazines and anthologies. In 1998 he won the Bardic Chair in his adopted city. He co-runs the Bath Writers' Workshop & is the founder of Awen Publications. He runs a monthly spoken word showcase (Garden of Awen).
In 2010 Kevan is a Writer-in-Resident at El Gouna, a resort on the Red Sea, for the whole of May, where he'll spend time working on a desert-based novel project. His new collection of poetry, The Immanent Moment, is published in February by Awen. In June, The Way of Awen: journey of a bard, is published by O Books. He is currently working on a book about calendrical customs, seasonal rites and sacred time as he travels the country, a Bard on a Bike.
Find out more on my website www.kevanmanwaring.co.uk
About my courses...
SKYROS WRITERS’ LAB with Kevan Manwaring 29 AUG – 11 SEP 2010 (WL10)WK 1. WRITING POETRY – THE GRIT IN THE OYSTER
Poetry is the foundation of all good writing – at its best it is the most efficient and effecting form of written communication. Whether you are an aspiring poet, novelist or non-fiction writer, your writing will benefit from learning the discipline, precision and power of poetry. Writing from the heart, via accessible and engaging activities, you’ll bypass any technical anxieties to create poetry with passion. Over the week we’ll work with personal ‘grits in the oyster’ – experiences, insights, snapshots of time – to create ‘pearls’ to be proud of. Stunning setting and sensual experiences will provide inspiration – with senses fully alive, you’ll fill your well of poetry to the brim and share its contents in supportive and constructive workshop sessions.
WK 2. LIFE: FICTION – TRANSFORMING THE PERSONAL INTO THE PUBLISHABLE
Upgrade your fiction in this week exploring the possibilities of autobiographical material in short story and novel-writing. Whatever genre you are working in, this approach will give your writing greater authenticity and emotional depth. How far you fictionalise is up to you – but by drawing on life experience, you are giving yourself a head start. With life as research, nothing is wasted. Even the most painful of experiences can be redeemed by writing – and others can benefit from hard-won lessons. How much you wish to disclose is up to you – all will be transformed through the lens of fiction, affording the personal and the private a degree of protection. Looking at character, setting, dialogue, plot, point of view, themes and tone in the light of our own ‘personal research database’ will enrich them all – transforming your writing into something resonant and distinctive.
See www.skyros.com for more about Skyros' Writers' Lab, named by The Guardian as 'No 1 of the World's Five Best Writing Holidays'. Call 01983 865566 to secure your place on Kevan's course. Yoga, massage treatments, and music & arts courses are also part of the holiday.
UNICORNS SELL!
