Dance Your Troubles Away

Belfagen Dancers
(photo courtesy of Liz Fenwick/dancers courtesy of Anna Louise Lucia)

I’m still in recovery from last weekend’s RNA Conference in Penrith. A weekend which has become my writing New Year’s Eve, a time and place for me to assess the last year and plan for the new. A place to learn as well as a place to talk too much, drink copious amounts and generally get up to mischief.

This year it hit me like a proper new year. With all the angst and fear and heartache that I suffer every 31^st December. This last year has been full of ups and downs and beyond busy in a personal sense. I also realized (after being grumpy and various Heroine Addicts giving me great advice) that I haven’t been writing enough. Three hours of solid writing later and my mood was on the way back.

But what really got me in the new year spirit was something not directly connected with writing. The lovely Anna Louise Lucia is a morris dancer and asked her dance side to come and demonstrate to us on Sunday afternoon. They also taught us two dances. It was AMAZING! Everyone was grinning from ear to ear after we’d finished. All the cobwebs and problems were swept away as we tapped and twirled, dipped and swung.

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” Voltaire

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” Friedrich Nietzsche

“To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking” Agnes De Mille

“It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.” Xiaolu Guo

“Life is sweet when you pay attention. When it doesn't seem sweet, put a sticker on your nose and do a funky dance.” Whitney Scott

Come back on Sunday to hear from Susanna (who we missed at the RNA)

Taking Notes

It’s strange how our perceptions change with time.  I used to travel a lot with my family when I was in my teens and I was lucky enough to go to lots of interesting places.  We followed a sort of “wish list” of countries we wanted to go to – my dad and I chose historical sites like Greece and Egypt, while my mum and brother preferred safaris and beaches.  It was all great fun, but the trouble is that my memories of all these trips are very hazy.

Scribbling in Nagasaki

I remember snippets of course – standing among the ruins of the Acropolis, climbing up inside a pyramid bent double because of the lack of space, sleeping in a tent somewhere in a Kenyan safari park while elephants stampeded outside (!) and fainting inside the Karnak temple (it was 40 degrees Celsius in the shade and I was ill).  But I couldn’t possibly describe any of it in detail, more is the pity.

Not so when I travel these days.  Being a writer, I don’t go anywhere without a pen and paper, and my family frequently have to sit around waiting while I scribble furiously, trying to make notes about my surroundings - the sights, sounds and smells of whatever place we’re visiting.  I often wish I’d done that when I was younger!  But of course, I had no idea then that I would ever need specific details of the sights I saw.  I was happy just to have been there.

At the moment, I’m travelling again, driving towards Scotland, to be precise, for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s annual conference, which is just south of the border this year at Penrith.  (And see - I'm bringing my clogs, Anna, for the dancing!)  But as Scotland is so close, and I don’t go that way very often, I’m taking a slight detour to visit a friend near Dumfries.  And of course, I’ll be making notes along the way – perhaps stopping at Gretna Green?  I see every journey as an opportunity now, every place a possible setting for a future story.  You just never know and something I come across might trigger that all-important first flash of inspiration.  I love not knowing when it’s going to strike!

The best thing about travelling though – at least for me – is getting back home again afterwards.  By that time, I’m usually impatient to start writing again, having been away from it for a while.  And if I’m lucky, I’ll have brought home lots of new ideas as well – perfect!

Please come back on Sunday to hear from Liz (who is always travelling, right Liz?)