😊 A Change Is As Good As A Holiday! 😊

Now, I don’t think I’m alone here, when as a writer I run out of exciting ideas for my ‘Whimsy Wood’ children’s books, or I generally lose a bit of my writing spark. This week I’ve certainly been out of sorts and rather restless. Making myself sit down at the computer or my notepad to write, has been near-nigh impossible!

Goodness only knows why that’s been the case this week. Perhaps it’s been the ridiculously changeable weather that we’ve been experiencing here in the South-West of England? Or maybe I’ve just been having too many cups of coffee?! Whatever the reason, when I reach moments like this, the best thing I can do is to change what I’m doing. Shake things up a little! Rather like hitting ‘refresh’ at the top of your computer screen. So I stop forcing myself to write something (anything damn it!) and I go and do something else instead. Sounds rather like the “Why Don’t You!” theme tune, for those of you born and raised in Britain in the 70’s! 😉😄

Anyway, the ‘something else’ this week, has still been of a creative vein, but not in the literary sense. Instead, I’ve been honing my woodland craft skills, ready for the Whimsy Wood craft activities I’ve been asked to run, on Saturday May the 28th, at Hope Nature Centre in Southwick Country Park, Trowbridge, as part of their 10th birthday celebrations. There’ll be a ‘Whimsy Wood’ treasure hunt in the park’s ‘Fairy Forest’, a reading of ‘Fearne Fairy And The Dandelion Clocks’, as well as the craft activities. So, if you’re at a loose end, please do come along! 😊 http://www.hopenaturecentre.org.uk/newsite/index.php

Something else that took my mind off my restlessness this week, was reading this wonderful review of ‘Fearne Fairy And The Dandelion Clocks’, in the May/June issue of The Bath Parent magazine. I was delighted that they enjoyed this 8th ‘Whimsy Wood’ book and I thought that you might like to read what they had to say, so here’s their review below. 😊

Review Of ‘Fearne Fairy And The Dandelion Clocks’ £4.99 www.abelapublishing.com

“In this day and age, it’s lovely to be reminded of an innocence and a gentleness that seems to have been retired to the bygone age of Enid Blyton, and this book very much has the feel of the Magic Faraway Tree to it. In this, the eighth book in The Whimsy Wood Series, we meet Fearne Fairy who lives in a moss-covered tree stump in the middle of Whimsy Wood. Fearne likes to sing, even if she’s not always very good at it, and fly, but is hopeless at landing!

Fearne Fairy will no doubt capture the imagination of young children as we join her and a couple of cheeky bunnies on their hunt for dandelion leaves to make Fearne’s special sore-head-fixing drink. Through Sarah HIll’s highly descriptive and lyrical writing style, we are transported into a beautiful wood where white wood anemones sparkle and shine like iced gems, and dew-filled daffodils sway in the breeze – it made me want to pull my wellies on and head off into the woods in search of a magical fairy glen. This book is not just fun and magical, it also inspires children to take an interest in nature as they read on through the series.” – www.thebathparent.co.uk

Well, on that whimsical note, I shall bid you farewell and wish you a wonderful weekend! Perhaps you’ll go searching for a magical fairy glen too? 😉

Sarah Hill, children’s author and creator of The Whimsy Wood Series.