Favourite Music Friday – The Mummer’s Dance

I love Loreena McKennit’s music and The Mummer’s Dance is one of my favourites. It’s also serving as part of the inspiration for the Flash! Friday story I’m busy with today (no title thus far).  It just popped into my head when I saw the end of the story in my mind...

The story itself will be posted later tonight.

Guest Posts, Articles, and Links Galore!

Apart from writing fiction, I also write guest posts and articles on a weekly basis. These range from thoughts about current news and life’s journey to tips and hacks.  The links will also be updated on the page link above as more are published.

Lifestyle & Inspiration

·       Statues can be used to promote conversation

·       I Love South Africa's Diversity

·       See the “Someone” in “Some People”

·       The Power of your Personal Soundtrack

·       Make the Most of Your 2015 Goals

·       How to Slow Down This Summer Holiday

·       Dare to Live Life Every Moment

·       Live Your Own Hero’s Journey

·       How to Take Responsible Risks to Follow Your Dream

Culture, News & Literature

·       Why Reading the Classics Shows Our Common Humanity

·       Leonard Nimoy - Life and Legend

·       What is Easter and Why is it Celebrated?

·       Heat - Record-setting Heatwaves in History

·       Ebola: What you need to know

·       Oscar Pistorius: Trial and Sentencing

·       Five years for Oscar Pistorius

·       Robin Wiliams – Lasting Legend

·       Top 5 Vintage James Bond Cars 

Tips & Hacks

·       Why Not Create Your Own Economy? (Indivineur)

·       How to - Spring Clean

·       Four Tips for Credit Card Users

·       How to Cope with Power Cuts

·       Seven Tips for Everyday Road Safety

·       Back to School in 2015

·       5 Tips for Coping with Fear & Anxiety

·       4 Tips to Conquer Fear and Anxiety

·       5 easy time hacks to get more time out of your day 

·       5 Tips for Surviving Change: A New Job 

·       Retrenchment: 5 Tips for Surviving Change 

·       4 tips for surviving an office party

·       What is Black Friday all about?

·       The Top Reason Why You Need Insurance 

·       Understand Life Insurance

View image | gettyimages.com

Friday Inspiration: The Gift of Inadequacy - Taylor Gahm

SafetySuit - These Times

The World Needs You

I love this. I think this should be printed and put up in every office cubicle. Or stuck to the inside of your wardrobe. But somewhere where you'll be able to see it every day.

Joseph Wright - An Inspiration (From the Archives)

I first came across Joseph Wright’s story while reading Humphrey Carpenter’s biography on JRR Tolkien.

Photo of Joseph Wright
courtesy of Wiki Commons

“Joe Wright was a Yorkshireman, a truly self-made man who had worked his way up from the humblest origins to become Professor of Comparative Philology. He had been employed in a woollen-mill from the age of six, and at first this gave him no chance to learn to read and write. But by the time he was fifteen he was jealous of his workmates who could understand the newspapers, so he taught himself his letters. This did not take very long and only increased his desire to learn, so he went to night-school and studied French and German, He also taught himself Latin and mathematics, sitting over his books until two in the morning and rising again at five to set out for work.” (Carpenter 1977:55)

Wright used his savings to finance a term’s study at a university in Germany, walking most of the way to Heidelberg. Here he eventually took a doctorate before returning to England and joining Oxford University. Here he became a professor and wrote various books, among which was a Gothic primer, which “proved a revelation to Tolkien” (Carpenter 1977:55).

I have not been able to read the biography Wright’s wife wrote about him, but just this little piece of a life, written about in someone else’s biography, has been an inspiration to me and probably many others as well.

When I first read about this man who worked as hard as he could, regardless of his circumstances, I must have been in grade 11. My own love for languages had been kindled not that long before and I had seriously started to consider studying languages. I first came into contact with Gothic (other than the few words quoted in the Tolkien biography) in one of my first-year Afrikaans classes (about the language’s history, to be exact), where the Lord’s Prayer was quoted in our textbook. Little did I know then that only a few years later I would be using Wright’s own textbook in some of my studies!

Here is a sound clip and the text of the Lord's Prayer being recited in Gothic. 

Here are some links to Wright’s works available online and more information about him:

Joseph Wright’s Wikipedia page

Oxford Mail article: From woollen mills todreaming spires

Project Gutenberg; works by Joseph Wright

Inspiration for the weekend

Hope you enjoy the song and video as much as I do!

Muse Music – Skellig

Skellig

I love it when you find a new song you can’t get out of your head and end up putting it on repeat just because you enjoy it so much.
The song “Grain of Sand” by the band Skellig is just such a song. I first heard it last week and have been enthralled by it. Here are the lyrics, and below it is a player of the album. Or go to Skellig’s website to listen to this beautiful song – and check out their album “Kingdom Come” while you’re there. 

Grain of Sand 
To be the lonely sheep lost from the shepherd’s flock
To wander through a world of sin where greed and hatred mock
The shepherd will search on to claim me for his own
He draws me with a living love to bring me back to home

And if I lay upon a beach, a tiny grain of sand
I’d know that Jesus lives in me and I lie in his hand

He is the rock that stands with everlasting grace
That drowning men from stormy world may seek his steadfast face
I love him who loved men and gave himself for me
That I may feel his freedom and live eternally

And if I lay upon a beach, a tiny grain of sand
I’d know that Jesus lives in me and I lie in his hand

He is the rock that stands with everlasting grace
That drowning men from stormy world may seek his steadfast face
(Lyrics by Skellig, from the album Kingdom Come)

Creative Writing – Ideas & Characters

Here’s some more creativity and inspiration videos. Today’s post is focused squarely on writing and writers.

Both of these podcasts are by Keith Gray and are part of a series. The rest of the series can be watched on YouTube, courtesy of the Scottish Book Trust.

Inspiration from Fairy Tales

Here are two great reference webpages for Fairy Tales. The first, Sur La Lune, I found while doing research during my first year at varsity and it has remained a favourite since.

Sur La Lune Fairy Tales

“SurLaLune Fairy Tales features 49 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, modern interpretations and over 1,500 illustrations. Also discover over 1,600 folktales & fairy tales from around the world in more than 40 full-text eBooks.” Need I say more?

Online Books Page: Fairy Tales 

by John Mark Ockerbloom of the University of Pennsylvania consists of many electronic texts, is easy to navigate and also references other tertiary institutions – which is always a good sign. 

Cinderella by Eleanor Abbott

Last week I looked at mythology and legends, focusing on Germanic myth and tales. Find it here.

Firebird by I. Bibilin

The beautiful illustrations and the quoted paragraph are from Sur La Lune Fairy Tales. 

Tree-hugging is good for the soul

There is something awe-inspiring about trees and forests. Something calming and eternal in their majesty as they reach out towards heaven. This isn’t so apparent when the trees are still young, but standing in front of a tree which is old or even ancient and yet is alive takes your breath away.

There is a well-known tree in the Knysna Forest, the King Edward VII tree, which is older than 650 years. To put that into perspective… the year is 1362…

In Europe it is the time of the High Middle Ages. In February of that year, King Magnus Eriksson’s son Haakon proclaims himself king of Sweden. On April 6 is the Battle of Brignais. Pope Urban V succeeds Pope Innocent VI as the 200th pope. Muhammed V, Sultan of Granada, returns to the throne after the murder of Muhammed VI. Under Edward III, English begins to replace French as England’s official language. The Ottomans capture Philippopolis and Adrianople from the Byzantine Empire, reducing it to the city of Constantinople. And in the Knysna Forest a seed of the Kalander tree starts growing.

It would be over a hundred years before Columbus would sail to America or the Cape of Storms – later to become the Cape of Good Hope – would be rounded by Portuguese sailors. It would be nearly three centuries before a halfway station would be started in the Cape of Good Hope, starting a settlement which would in a few more centuries become the Republic of South Africa.

It would be over six and a half centuries later when, armed with a digital camera; a tree-lover would visit it in the forest to first stand in awe… and then give it a hug. Well, do you blame me? I just couldn’t resist!