Fantastical Faffing

Wow this blog lasted a long time didn’t it?

In a completely original I’m-sure-no-one-ever-does-this kind of way, I got excited about writing a blog and lasted a whopping three posts! Goodness me, move over literary greats there is a new lady in town!

There ends my text based tap on the wrist for being bad at blogging.

What have I been up to since 3rd March 2016?

Well I moved out of freelancing and started a full time job. It sounds all very grown up until you find out I’m the Events and Story Manager for a woodland adventure park full of mysterious marshy creatures call Boggles and Twiggles. My days there are metaphorically, and indeed literally, full of glitter.

This seemed to take up all of my brain space in 2016. As 2017 chimed, feeling all settled in at work, I delved back into music and writing...then remembered this little blogging beauty of a past time!

So I am going to jump back in and write a proper post, (after this one explaining why I haven't written a post!)

I recently have had all sorts of fantasy based fun in the form of playing the truly excellent Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past video game, picking up the Anne McCaffrey Dragon series again, and even started reading my very first Terry Brooks Novel, The Sword of Shannara. I also am going to play my debut game of Dungeons and Dragons in the near future! So lots of stuff for me to type about :)

Folk wise music is still my main outlet, and I’m looking forward to performing at Bromsgrove Folk Festival this year with my band Patchwork Skies!

So let’s get cracking on something interesting, a real post is coming very very very (very) very soon!

Toodle-pip!

Emma

Introducing Fantastical Folk

Good day to you, and welcome to Fantastical Folk!

On this blog I will be sharing an exploration into the world of folklore and fantasy. Writing, performance, and music are the primary media that I will be looking at.

"Why?" I hear you cry!

Firstly I love fantasy and folklore, ruddy love the stuff. And after spending many a delightful eve pouring over books of the fantasy persuasion, and more recently folklore, I have finally caved and decided to indulge in some thorough research. Dragons, magic, battles, fantastical worlds...I love them. Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (wow), Anne McCaffrey and her dragons (I want one please and thank you), Pratchett's Discworld (no comment even needed).I could write masses on my favourites, and with this new blog I most probably will, but let's keep it short and sweet for now!

Secondly, I am hoping to start some positive and interesting discussions about folklore and fantasy work! How does this storytelling work in the modern age? Is it just pure magical escapism or do these genres hold genuine social resonance in their roots?

And thirdly, shockingly, and completely originally….I am a writer. Primarily of plays, secretly of fiction, and also of songs. My research of late has taken me down a particularly folklorish path and I have stumbled upon the pitfall that faces everyone who says "I'm going to take a year out of projects to write"... a lack of focus. As many of you creative types out there can empathise with I am finding myself twiddling my thumbs a lot more than tapping my fingers on the keyboard. Therefore I will commit to sharing a post once a week creating a much needed kick to get a shuffle on with my independent work.

Well, there's a brief summary! My first official post will be out this weekend and is a review of a Ghost Walk I went on in my new home town of Norwich.

Over and out

Emma

Disclaimer: I have spent the majority of today figuring out how to blog in the first place, bear with me as I learn the ways of the craft!