Menna Van Praag's Blog, page 39

PASSED my Theory Test! Half way there I’m really enjoyi...

PASSED my Theory Test! Half way there I’m really enjoying my driving lessons and am always surprised by how easy and effortless they are. It’s strange how something can seem so impossible in your mind (be it driving a car or publishing a book) but as soon as it becomes reality you quickly adjust and can’t quite believe you ever thought it was impossible!

Limitless Possibility!

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau

All the world is limitless possibility. We’re only limited by ourselves, by our capacity for courage, the tenacity of our faith and the breadth our vision. I’ve believed this to be true for a long time, but yesterday I realised it right down to my marrow. I went to London to meet my business partners to plan our writing workshops. They asked me what I wanted my students to get, at the end of the day. I realised many things, but mainly two: the skill to write successful stories and the vision to see limitless possibility. Without both these two things, you’ll fail. To be published, learning how to write a compelling story is step one. Step two is to keep believing in the possibilities until, one day, they come true. And so, it doesn’t matter what my students can see in the morning of Sep 28th, but what they’ll see by 6 o’clock is limitless possibility.

A truly magical bed.

the simple, sweet pleasures of a camping trip…

“There is no charm equal to tenderness of the heart.” – Jane Austen

I always thought I wasn’t a camping person, favouring posh hotels over soggy fields, preferring a night on Egyptian cotton sheets instead of a patch of grass. However, my husband adores camping and, when he suggested we take O on his first trip together, I agreed to give it a go. And, I must admit, I was delighted by the experience. Being away from the modern world took me out out my head and brought me back to my heart. We played on the beach at sunset, skipping stones on the water. We ate seafood fried over a fire. We spent time together, no distractions, nothing pulling our attention away from each other. It was lovely. Sometimes our hearts can get a little lost, our priorities can go askew, we can take those we love for granted. If that happens, I can highly recommend a camping trip. Take a few days to immerse yourself in the softness of nature and the simple pleasure of just being with nothing else to do…

Pic: a pretty Norfolk cottage in Cley – reminded me of JA.

Exciting Announcement: Two Book Deal with Random House :)

VERY EXCITING NEWS – Part Two – at last!! My wonderful agents have sold my next TWO books: The Dress Shop of Dreams & The Cambridge University Witches to the lovely Linda Marrow at Random House. We’re still finalising the details, but I’m hoping they’ll be published in 2014 & 2015. So you won’t have to wait too long for some more magic from me!

Pic: O & I outside Crabpot Books – cool, huh? – visiting Cley-Next-the-Sea during our first family camping trip in Norfolk yesterday…

You Will Be Loved By Me

We went to our friend’s – Helen & Tom – wedding yesterday. It was beautiful. I do love weddings, no surprise there, since I’m such a hopeless romantic. As a wedding gift, I wrote them a poem and read it at the ceremony. I haven’t written poetry since some rather dubious teenage attempts, but I like this one & the happy couple seemed pleased…

You Will Be Loved By Me

When you speak

I will listen.

You will be heard by me.

When you reach out your hand

I will take it in mine.

You will be held by me.

While you live

I will be there.

You will be seen by me.

Today, tomorrow, and for

all the days of my life,

you will be loved by me.

We went to our friend’s – Helen & Tom – wedding yesterday...

We went to our friend’s – Helen & Tom – wedding yesterday. It was beautiful. I do love weddings, no surprise there, since I’m such a hopeless romantic. As a wedding gift, I wrote them a poem and read it at the ceremony. I haven’t written poetry since some rather dubious teenage attempts, but I like this one & the happy couple seemed pleased…

You Will Be Loved By Me

When you speak

I will listen.

You will be heard by me.

When you reach out your hand

I will take it in mine.

You will be held by me.

While you live

I will be there.

You will be seen by me.

Today, tomorrow, and for

all the days of my life,

you will be loved by me.

Stop complaining, start living…

I went to the bank yesterday. The teller who server me was bright and bubbly. The teller next to him was grumpy, his every movement a complaint. He didn’t want to be there, he didn’t want to be working in a bank, he wanted (I imagine) to be frolicking in the sun or playing in a rock band. I recognised his discontentment, it used to be mine. When I graduated, I went into waitressing but really wanted to be a writer. I complained about my life every day and, of course, it never changed. Luckily – after six rather miserable years – I learnt that if you embrace your life, exactly as it is now, if you give it all your full passion and self-expression then it’ll transform pretty quickly into a life you love. You can’t be sneaky about it though (I tried, it doesn’t work) you have to really mean it. And, once you’re living your life with passion and “yes-ness” that’s when the magical starts!

Pic: O’s first haircut – a little drastic, I hope baby-hair grows quickly…

Whatever you dream of, do it!

How often do you do all the magnificent & incredible things you dream of doing? I never used to. I used to talk a lot about my dreams and desires, but I didn’t actually act on them. Then, one day, I stopped “wanting” things and starting doing them instead. I wrote a novel and self-published it. I went to NY & Costa Rica to do the transformational workshops I love so much. At first, I didn’t have the money, but I just did extra waitressing work so I could pay for them. And the more I went for what I wanted the more my life expanded. Now, when I want something, I don’t talk about how much I want it, I just do it. Whatever it is, no matter how unreasonable, how expensive or how difficult. Now I notice that the people who talk a lot about how they’d love to do this or that, usually won’t. The ones who will, usually don’t waste time talking, they just get on and do it…

Pic: my favourite house in Notting Hill.

Going to the Hay House – lovely publishers of my first tw...

Going to the Hay House – lovely publishers of my first two books – Author Party in Notting Hill tonight! I’ll be visiting my fav chocolate shop, Melt, for the best salted caramels, & deli, Ottolenghi, for deliciiiious brioche-pretzels on the way…

wisdom & magic

This afternoon I had a very exciting time planning my teaching workshop. I must admit, I’m rather shocked with how much I have to say and how excited I am to say it. A few weeks ago, when I was offered the opportunity, I wondered if I had anything to teach at all. I rather believed that my writing style was intuitive and my stories crafted out of a glorious combination of luck and magic. And, in part, that’s true. But I remember that, although my writing nowadays is rather effortless and delightfully easy, I did spend the last 11 years honing my craft over thousands of hours and millions of words. I wrote and wrote, rewrote and rewrote and learned an enormous amount along the way. It took some very bad writing and numerous unpublished novels to create some very good writing and published novels. And now I can share everything I’ve learned with you!

Pic: a purse in my fav shop – Lilac Rose – how could I possibly resist?!