KITCHEN TABLE WRITERS: 2012-01-01

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Happy Writing New Year

I've been working as a tutor for the Open College of the Arts for quite a few years now, but it constantly amazes me that so many people want to learn to write creatively. Maybe because writers 'do it in their heads', I used to assume I was a slightly odd person, alone in my passion. Surely no one else had a brain like mind, filled with all that writing I couldn't help but do?

But I'm not alone. I have a file filled with other people's names, all of who long to write well...some of whom already are writing well...profiles of their writing lives, and their reasons for taking OCA writing courses. When they phone me, students often start with...hope I'm not bothering you...Bother! do they realize just how much I love talking about all aspects of writing? And are they ready for the way I will rabbit on about writing?

People long to write. It's a way of letting thoughts, opinions, memories and stories pour out of our heads. A bit like Dumbledor's Pensieve...down through our arms, into our fingers and onto a screen. After I've written (a blog...a novel...) I feel so good...orgasmic, almost. I have to pull in one of those shuddering deep breaths that tell you everything is alllllright with the world. For now, at least.

This is one of the reasons I love to blog. So that I can share my love and longing for writing with other writers. As a blogging virgin, I used wondered if it wasn't it just all waffle. Then I listened (on radio 4) to the Iraqi girl who blogged her life during the war in Iraq and it was sobering and fascinating. Actually, one of my own OCA sudents has won an award for her natural history blogs. But when I surfed other people's blogs randomly...don't know quite how to put this politely... their sheer mind-blowing tedium and egocentricity gave me short-term attention span.

Blogs, in their essence, are simply the thoughts of ordinary people - this is their glory, but also their downfall. Millions of words sliding throug the ether...how do you catch the nuggets of gold among them?
I do hope - I certainly try - to make my blog interesting, informative and varied. In 2012 I promise my subscribers that's exactly what I will be continuing to do.

Happy Writing New Year

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Ronald Hutton

Nina Milton has created a unique fictional world in her Shaman Mystery Series, featuring Sabbie Dare as a young shaman. With Beneath the Tor she passed the ultimate test of a writer, that of causing me to put off useful jobs which I really should have been doing, in order to see what happens next. She has become a mistress of plot-weaving, and above all, she pulls off the trick of setting the totally fantastic amid the totally everyday and making the two fit together with pace and excitement. Ronald Hutton (Ronald Hutton is professor of history at Bristol University and an authority on the history of pagan beliefs. He’s the author many books including of’The Triumph of the Moon’, ‘Shamans’ and ‘Pagan Britain’)

ANOTHER GREAT REVIEW FOR IN THE MOORS

Another great review online for In the Moors, the first Shaman Mystery by Nina Milton.

Sabbie Dare, the zany, feisty heroine of Nina Milton’s In The Moors, is a city girl of mixed race and lost parentage; as a child she went into the care system and by the time she was twelve was a little fighting machine.

When we meet her, she’s 28 and clear about her path in life; she’s an eco-friendly pagan living in Somerset where she works as a therapeutic shaman. Her clients come to her for last-resort help, and such is Cliff Houghton...

If you'd like to read all the review, just click the link below.

http://www.skylightrain.com/book-review-in-the-moors-by-nina-milton/

Sky Light Rain is a great blogsite for readers and writers alike, with writing tips, reviews and general literary based chat and information. I'm making it one of my must-visit sites.

What do Pagan Readers think of the Shaman Mysteries?

In The Moors is the latest offering from Nina Milton, author and OBOD member, introducing the seemingly-unlikely detective Sabbie Dare. Sabbie, like all the best heroes of the crime thriller genre, is impulsive, courageous, a bit odd, and less than lucky in love. Sabbie is a shamanic counsellor, and when not tending to her chickens or chasing bargains at car boot sales, spend her days helping her clients. It is one such encounter that plunges Sabbie into a dark world of murder and horror past and present.For me, this holds its head up with the best of its genre and so comes highly recommended – and for those of you, like me, who are already hooked, the next Sabbie Dare novel is already in the pipeline. Can’t wait!

Review in Touchstone (magazine of OBOD-Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids)

A real page-turner, In the Moors cost me several hours of sleep because it was so un-put-downable! An engaging heroine, a landscape at once so real and so menacing, and an intriguing mystery had me enthralled into the wee hours! Mara Freeman

(Mara Freeman is a respected teacher of Western esoteric tradition and the author of ‘Kindling the Celtic Spirit’ & ‘Grail Alchemy’’)

I could not put down Unraveled Visions by Nina Milton. I congratulate her on a real page turner. I loved the sinister Fergus Quigg’s story of the Blarney Stone; I’ll look forward now, to reports that American Tourists will attempt to sanitize it with wetwipes before leaning in for a kiss, which could be amusing to the locals! I held on to my belief in Fergus’ innocence until the last; no man who writes in a notebook with pen could possibly be all bad, could he? But as the concluding tensions burst, and the final secrets were revealed, Unraveled Visions kept me up long past my bedtime (as promised by Mara Freeman), especially when Sabbie’s shamanic experiences with snakes became the great finishing twist. Nina Milton makes the unbelievable credible and persuasive. Ana Adnan

(Ana Adnan is a Wiccan High Priestess and a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids)

Creative Writing with the OPEN COLLEGE of the ARTS

I've worked happily with the OCA for several years, tutoring, assessing, workshoping and writing course materials.
They offer the very best courses in Creative Writing and have a dedicated commitment to art at all levels. Each course is self-contained and adds to a writer's understanding of their subject, but can also build into a BA hons in Creative Writing.
I teach the following OCA courses:

WRITING SKILLS

WRITING SHORT FICTION

WRITING FOR CHILDREN

LIFE WRITING

ADVANCED WRITING at Level 3

Go to: http://www.oca-uk.com/
freephone 0800 7312116

KITCHEN TABLE WRITERS Mentoring and Notepad Programme NINA MILTON's friendly mentoring service

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Happy Writing New Year