T is for Traumas

So what are these traumas I speak of in my title, you ask?
Well I’m going to try and keep this entry as short as I can today because of my first trauma. Actually it’s not really the trauma I thought it was going to be when I first got my manuscript back from my editor, along with all her suggested edits for the novel. To begin with I felt like I was going back to school and I’d got a piece of homework back with the teacher’s red pen scored all over my work - telling me everything I’d done wrong, and suggestions on how I could go about putting it right again. But now I’m well into the editing process (you’ll be glad to know Caroline if you’re reading this!) I realise that not only will my novel be much improved as a result, but I’ve learnt a lot from doing it, (not only how many times I use the words Well, OK and glared!) and I’m sure my future writing will be much improved as a result too.
My second recent trauma was my hair.
I decided a few weeks ago to return back to blonde hair again. I’d had a year of being a brunette, and although I’d enjoyed it, I felt like it was time for a change again.
So my hairdresser, Helen came around at 9am last Monday morning to perform the transformation from brunette back to blonde. She had warned me it would take a long time, so she had allowed over 5 hours for the appointment. To cut a very long story short, she left my house at 7pm that evening and my colour still wasn’t right! To say I looked like Rapunzel or even Goldilocks was an understatement, I almost glowed in the dark!
But good on Helen she returned two days later and spent another few hours adding yet more colour (or was that taking it away?!) until I eventually turned into what I call a strawberry blonde. It’s still not quite my ideal shade of blonde yet, or back to what I was before, but at least I don’t look like I belong in a fairytale now!
Warning: It’s a lot harder to go from brunette back to blonde, than it is to go from blonde to brunette!
Photos of the transformation...

Me looking slightly bleary eyed but dark haired first thing!

Me with all the colour stripped out of my hair!

Yes it was meant to go this colour!

Looking like an oven ready turkey!

Nope this isn't the right colour!!

Trying to put on a brave face with GOLD hair!!

Two days later.. phew that's better.

My third and final trauma put any minor issues I thought I may have been having with my writing or the colour of my hair into perspective, when I heard on Sunday morning about the sad and untimely death of Stephen Gately, of Boyzone at his holiday home in Majorca.
I was never a fan of Boyzone when they were in their heyday in the 1990’s. I became a fan of Ronan Keating’s when he was a solo artist, and so came across Stephen firstly through listening to old Boyzone songs, and then in the last couple of years when I was lucky enough to see Boyzone reunited together on their last two come-back tours as a band. Even though I have no qualms in admitting that I was there mainly to see Ronan, I was always impressed by Stephen’s stage presence and incredible enthusiasm the entire time he was in front of the crowd.

You hear the term ‘a born performer’ banded about a lot. But that’s definitely what Stephen was. And perform he did over and over again to his many adoring fans not only with Boyzone, but in the West End too in shows such as Joseph and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

I met him just the once, backstage at Edinburgh castle in 2008 and again he was just like he appeared on stage - happy, enthusiastic and eager to please.
I send my thoughts and deepest sympathies to his partner Andrew, his family, friends, and all his loyal fans.

Until the next time,
A x

Three celebrities, Two strangers & One fantastic day out in London

If you were in London on September 10th and saw a woman hopping about the tube with one shoe on and one shoe off that may have been me....
Let me explain further!
Last Thursday, I went down to London to meet with my agent, Hannah and my new editor, Caroline. I had arranged to meet up with Hannah outside Temple tube station which is the nearest to the Unilever building which houses the Little Brown Book group (just in case you get confused Sphere who are publishing my novel are an imprint of Little Brown.) Well unlike some women who (and I take my hat off to them, but heaven knows what it’s doing to their posture, muscle and back alignment for future years to come.) can totter around in heels all day, I sadly can’t. And so I chose to go for the comfort of trainers with my smart trousers until I got to the Embankment tube station where I planned to change my trainers over to my smarter heeled black boots.
Well when I arrived on the platform a train was just pulling out of the station, those of you that have ever travelled on the London underground before will know this usually means you have a couple of minutes at least before the next train arrives. ‘Perfect’ I thought, loads of time to change into the afore mentioned boots. Yes, you’ve guessed it, just as I got one trainer off and one boot on, another train pulled in, so I had to hop on the train holding a boot and a trainer in one hand, and wearing a boot and a trainer on either foot! Not a very elegant sight... However (and not for the first time that day) something very unusual occurred as a result. Someone actually spoke to me on a tube train! Yes, they didn’t hide behind their newspaper or bury their face in their book and pretend like there wasn’t a lunatic hopping about on the train in front of them in odd shoes, a man opposite me made comment about it, and we had a laugh and I told him where I was going.
So after I finally managed to get a matching pair of shoes on! I hopped off at the next stop (Temple) where I met up with my agent, Hannah and because we had a few minutes to spare we had a chat in a coffee shop along the way. This was lovely, you spend so much time emailing people about work matters that some real life contact with someone who has done so much for you is really lovely to have for a change.
Then we set off for the Unilever building where Little Brown’s offices are housed.
Unilever house is extremely impressive on first sight. It was originally built in 1931 but was grade II listed in 1977. It’s very open plan, very light and modern, yet it retains the feeling of the art deco building it once would have been in the 1930’s. It was very exciting to arrive in the huge foyer and look up – even though two people entering through the revolving door at once is probably not such a good idea!
It’s such a vast building we even had to have our photos taken for security passes – think bad passport picture! :-/ But even though bad photos are usually something I hate, nothing was going to spoil this day!
We rose up in the lifts to the Little Brown offices where we waited in a lounge area full of their already published books. Hannah picked up Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman’s book – Long way down. (How exciting Ewan McGregor is published by Sphere like me!)Which is quite funny because at home my children have become quite fed up of me constantly saying "He/she/they/it are in my book." every time we see a celebrity on TV, or hear a song or see a place that’s mentioned in my novel. There’ s a lot of famous people in there as you will eventually find out... and yes Ewan McGregor is one of them!
Then we met my new editor, Caroline Hogg for the first time, and she was lovely. She took us for a quick tour around the offices, which again are very modern and open plan just like the rest of the building, and then we sat and talked about my book and it’s future plans which was fantastic! December 2010 my seem like a long time before its published, but when you hear about all the different stages it has to go through, really its no time at all. We talked about possible marketing and publicity ideas which was very exciting to hear, and ideas I have for future novels also. And then we went for lunch - appropriately at a pub called ‘Shaws Booksellers'!!
But the main thing was, I left the meeting and the lovely lunch we had that day, confident that I was putting my novel in the hands of someone that, like Hannah, loved my novel almost as much as I did. And as an author you really can’t ask for anything more. :-)
Oh and there’s more...
After my lunch (which wasn’t boozy – although I was given the opportunity for it to be!) I went back down one stop to the embankment tube station and got off and stood and looked at the London Eye for a few minutes. I think I’ve mentioned on here before what a key part the eye plays at the end of the novel and it seemed only fitting to go and pay it tribute on this most significant of days!
And then what’s a girl to do when she has a few hours to spare in London but.... go shopping of course!
And in a ‘homage’ to my own novel where Scarlett, the heroine bumps into a couple of films stars on her travels about London, who should I spot out and about on Oxford Street. Well not quite film stars, my celebs have a fashion in common rather than movies...
First Mark Hayes, GMTV’s fashion expert coming out of River Island and then diving straight into Next. I always wondered whether TV fashion expects actually bought their own items of clothing when they’re styling fashion segments or whether assistants go out and get the clothes for them, but he was definitely shopping for female clothing - with a list! And then later I saw Caryn Franklin who used to present The Clothes show many years ago, in Marks and Spencer.
And if you’re still hanging in there with me on this extremely long blog. I would just like give a shout out to the very nice chap I met on my train on the way home, who was the second stranger of the day I got into a conversation with on public transport. This time it went on a bit longer...
He heard all about my novel and where I’d been that day. Who I’d been meeting with, how long it had taken me to get published and what it all meant to me. And bless him he actually looked interested. ;-)
So to you stranger on the train, Hannah, Caroline, and for all of you reading this to the end, I say thank you.
Till the next time,
A x

Thanks to worldachitecturenews.com for the photos of Unilever house

When you wish upon a star...

Well this is the entry I’ve been dying to write since I started blogging. Yes I’ve finally done it - I’m going to be a published author!

My novel From Notting Hill with Love...actually. will be published by Sphere in winter 2010 and I’m thrilled to bits!

Now if you’re the sort of person that doesn’t believe in fate, coincidence and all things mystic then stop reading now, because I’m about to tell you all about the rather weird things that happened on the run up to me finding out this wonderful news, & even what happened on that fateful day itself...

You remember how everyone was talking about the Perseid meteor showers in August? Well just after that in the week preceding my big news, me, my husband, and my two children all saw lots of shooting stars over our garden at night. And amongst all the other things we’d wished for separately, this was the one thing we’d all agreed on...
If you’ve ever read my blog entry on here for 5th November 08 which tells you how I started writing, you’ll know that the very beginning of that story starts with me buying Ronan Keating’s CD Destination. Well I found my original copy of that CD the other day and put it on in the car, but it was scratched and kept jumping, so I added it to my Amazon wish list meaning to buy it some time, and when we wanted some other bits & pieces the other day I ordered a new copy. Guess which day it arrived? Yep the same day I found out I was going to be published...
Oh yes there’s more... one of my friends – Carol who was heavily involved in making that first internet story such a success, told me she had got her old copy of the story out that same day I got my news and began reading it again...
And the big one. Even though I wasn’t really expecting to hear anything on that day, (my novel had been to an acquisitions meeting the previous afternoon and I knew it might be a few days until I had any news,) I couldn’t really settle down to do to anything because the it was playing on my mind all the time, so I thought I’d put a DVD on. Ok I was probably punishing myself a bit with this choice – especially if it had been bad news, but I choose Notting Hill. Notting Hill is such an important part of my novel (you’ll see why when you read it – wow I can say that now!) that for a while it would give me mixed emotions when I watched it. Desperation, when I wondered if anyone would ever love my novel as much as I did, would then turn into a determined hope, when I just knew that one day they would.
Anyway the point to this is, on this day the film was just ending and was in the final scene - the press conference when Hugh Grant asks Julia Roberts the question about staying in England, and my phone rang...
I swear I’m not making this up when I tell you it was my agent, Hannah, and as she told me the good news (just as well it was good or I may never have been able to watch that movie again!) and was talking, and I was trying to take it all in, pinching myself that this wasn’t all a dream. I could hear the strains of ‘She’ by Elvis Costello playing in the lounge as the final credits began to roll up the screen on the TV. It could have been a scene from my book it was so perfectly timed!
So next time you see a shooting star be careful what you a wish for, because you just never know it might just come true...
Until the next time,
A x
Oh I almost forgot I’m on Twitter now! Alimac141 if you’d like to follow me for more frequent updates.
The Blog will be kept for my infrequent yet longer ramblings on life ;-)
Photos of me celebrating below. The rest will be on the Facebook link at the end should you wish to take a look ;-)

Me with Champagne!






At the restaurant with balloon and flowers!





These are the two signs I bought in Notting Hill when I first went to do research for the book, and they've been pinned to my wall above my desk ever since!

Presents from my children: A poem from my son & a collage of all the films from the novel from my daughter - I cried!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=665444&op=1&view=all&subj=100000102878899&id=1032877752#/album.php?aid=106586&id=1032877752&ref=nf

Silence is golden... as long as it’s not forever Mr Williams.

I’ve been silent for a while – so what?
Ok that’s a bit of a rude way to start a blog, but I was thinking this morning about why I haven’t written anything for a while and the simple answer is – I haven’t had anything to say!
I know I know, if you have a blog write something regularly and all that or people will get bored and not come back. But if you’ve nothing to say, then why bother saying anything at all?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people adhered to this rule in real life? Those people that always feel they need to fill the silent moments with the sound of their own voices for instance?
I’m the type of person who if you meet me in the doctor’s surgery and say “How are you?” I’ll say “I’m fine thanks,’ even if my arm’s severed at the shoulder, hanging on by a thread and blood’s pouring out of my wound at a gallon a minute.
But my mistake comes when I say ‘And how are you?’ and my questioner will then begin a very detailed account of how her piles are playing up so badly that she can’t sit down for more than a few minutes at a time, this makes eating a problem for her, so has in turn set off her irritable bowel syndrome giving her excruciating stomach cramps, which then jarred the trapped nerve in her back last night... you get the picture.
I think you know you’re truly comfortable in someone else’s company when you can sit in a companionable silence with them. Whether that’s a boyfriend or a best friend. If an occasional lull in a conversation feels awkward and you feel a need to desperately fill it, then you’re either not truly comfortable with that person or you’re one of those horrific people that just like the sound of their own voice.
Here’s a thought - what’s worse when you go out for a meal?
The sound of someone’s voice constantly being heard over everyone else’s in the restaurant as they jabber on under the illusion that their life is so interesting that everyone else needs to know about it. Or one of those couples that sits at a table and hardly speaks to each other all evening. Not because they’ve had an argument, but because they’ve known each other so long they’ve run out of things to say to one another.
Both are equally sad, but in different ways.
Personally I love the sound of silence – when I’m on my own. These days I rarely have the TV or the radio on in those glorious few hours when the house is empty in the day and my family is out. I know many people who spend a lot of time at home on their own feel lonely, and those external sources provide much needed company for them. But not me, I revel in the quiet. It’s thinking time. Writing time. Or both.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my music, but music is there for other things - to motivate or to relax. A lot of writers write to music, I’ve tried this, but don’t get on with it, it’s too distracting. It has to be total silence or nothing for me.
So to me silence is definitely golden...
Talking of music Robbie’s back!
Yes apparently Mr Williams will have a new album out in October, and by the look of this video he’s shaping up quite well...

http://www.robbiewilliams.com/video/official/robbie-back

Just hope the music matches the new look Robbie ;-)

What else is new?
Still chasing around after a publisher for From Notting Hill with Love...actually. We’re subbing to the US and well as the UK now which is quite exciting, if equally as slow!
The annoying thing is I have so many ideas of how to promote this book WHEN it’s eventually published, that the marketing department of whichever publisher is eventually cleverest to take it on will love me!! ;-) Surprisingly authors have to organise quite a lot of their own promotion when their novels are published, unless you’re someone such as Mr Rankin or Miss Rowling...
But I’ve got loads of ideas in place already *publishers if you’re reading this take note!* you’ll love me honestly you will :-)
But until that time I keep plugging on with my new novel, which I’m pleased to say is coming on very well just now. As a recent status update on Facebook noted:
Ali McNamara is liking how fishing - so incredibly boring before, suddenly becomes sexy when you write a scene in your new novel about fishing off the west coast of Ireland with a handsome Irish chappie ;-)

Until the next time,
A x

Ronan Keating & Queen found providing 'natural uppers' in London...

Hi I’m back again with another blog. Blimey what’s going on – so many in one month!
But I’m not going to apologise that it’s a Boyzone themed blog this time (plus I’ve not done one in a year!) because why do I need to keep apologising for something I enjoy?

If you’ve read my past blogs you’ll know I’ve always been a fan of Ronan Keating, and he is the reason I find myself in the situation I do today trying to write novels for a living. ( http://alimcnamara.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html ) So I’ll be honest and admit it’s him I really go to see when I go to a BZ concert, because at the moment Ronan isn’t touring as a solo artist. But these days the world of Ronan & BZ is like a strange cult that I was once a part of, and now I’ve left I just sit happily on the sidelines of, occasionally allowing myself to become immerged in once again. The reason I only do it occasionally is because to me it’s like a drug. Once I start – the highs make it very hard to stop!
I’ve been lucky enough to meet Ronan Keating a number of times, and never a more polite, or gracious celebrity will you ever encounter. And it’s not just me that says that, ask anyone that’s ever met him in the industry – you’ll never hear a bad word. And that’s rare.
But of course it’s not just his manners that attract me to him. One look from those blue eyes, one smile, nod of his head, or wink from the stage that says "Hi howaya?" is enough ‘Ronan heroin’ to keep me going for weeks ;-) Let alone what happens when you actually meet him for real, and there’s that same eye contact, but with a hug and a kiss at the end of it! Blimey if I could bottle that sort of high I’d be living in the South of France on a Yacht somewhere - buying all the front row tickets I wanted. Not sitting here typing at my desk when I should be out making the most of the limited British sunshine, about to tell you the story of my bargain ticket finds on Ebay this week!
Anyhow I’m digressing (which wouldn’t be the first time!) and on Friday night my husband, Jim took me to see Boyzone at Wembley arena on the latest leg of their current tour.

Up until about a week ago I didn’t even have tickets for this gig, because I really wasn’t that bothered about going to see Boyzone this time around. I’d been off the ‘Ronan drug’ for a while and as always that lessens my need for a fix. But my curiosity got the better of me as reports began to flood the internet on the first few shows of the new tour from Belfast and Dublin, and so by pure chance I managed to get myself a front row seat, but I only had the one. My husband didn’t want me to be wandering the streets of London on my own late at night after the gig (visions of a smog ridden Victorian London spring to mind.) getting tubes and trains, so he said he would accompany me, and this is where the bargain part comes in. I managed to get him a £10 4th row ticket off Ebay – which is a bargain to start with, but while we were waiting for the gig to begin he sat in the seat next to me in the front row, which happened to be empty. You can probably guess what happened next? Yep, no one came and filled the seat - so Jim got a front row seat for a tenner! In these ticket tout filled, credit crunch days, a real bargain.
So on to the gig itself. Apart from the songs and the Boyz of course, I was completely fascinated by the costumes – which I loved, especially these dresses that the dancers came on in, which had photos of the Boyz faces screen-printed on them

But the Boyz costumes especially I think deserve special mention. Not because they were raunchy or left little to the imagination. But because they were sleek and simple, in bold bright colours, that only enhanced the performances on the stage, not detracted from them.
Favourite parts for me. The Queen medley deserves a special mention – not just for its costumes which again were not only brilliantly bold, but ultra camp too. But for its songs, and the execution of them- fabulous.

Ronan's solo - the Cyndi Lauper classic 'Time after Time' from his recent No1 Album Songs for my Mother.

And always a crowd pleaser, Life is a rollercoaster – this time sung while the Boyz ‘flew’ through the air – spinning above the crowd like circus acrobats - well the braver members of the group attempted the spins ;-)
And did I go away at the end of the evening feeling like I’d ingested a cocktail of the best quality ‘uppers’ money can buy? Well to be honest I’ve never touched an illegal drug in my life, let alone ingested it. But the natural high I had after seeing ‘my own personal drug’ on the stage on Friday, will take a lot longer to come down from than any illegal substance could ever hope to produce.
Until the next time,

A x

More photos here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=98392&id=1032877752&saved#/album.php?aid=98392&id=1032877752&ref=mf

The Island where they're never 'closed for lunch'!

Well hello again,
I’m back from my holiday in Ireland suitably refreshed and ready to go again.

We had a lovely time; the weather was very Irish and very coastal. i.e. changeable at a minutes notice – that’s the coastal part. And quite wet, apparently that’s what makes Ireland so green the rain, hence the title The Emerald Isle.

We weren’t touring this time (see September 08’s entry) and stayed mainly in the Dingle area of Co.Kerry in a lovely holiday home owned by Elaine Begley
http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/dingle/45770
If you’re looking for somewhere to stay in the area, I can’t recommend Elaine’s house enough – it’s was beautiful.

Dingle is famous for its wild Dolphin who permanently resides in the bay – Fungi. http://www.dodingle.com/pages/fungi_dingle_dolphin.html

We went out on a boat trip to see Fungi – well worth the money, the children (& the adults!) loved it :-)
We seemed to spend a lot of our time on boats while we were there – we also went over to visit an uninhabited island called Great Blasket. This island is the inspiration for the novel I’m in the process of writing and researching at the moment.

Last year on our travels around Ireland in the dustbin on wheels (sorry Kamp-Easi motorhome) we parked overnight looking out towards it, and from a conversation between my husband and myself about whether you could successfully live on an island, sprang the idea for a new novel.
So this time I really wanted to go over and visit the island for myself, and I was not disappointed.
From the moment we set sail in the boat it was almost like I was living the novel out there and then. We were skippered safely over on our short crossing by a rather handsome young Irish chappie, who held my hand as he helped me out of the boat and safely onto my fictional, yet now very real Island. (Ok, he held everyone’s hand to help them safely ashore, but give me a break I’m a romantic author & there is a point to this!) My point being that in my novel my heroine, Darcy, first meets her romantic interest, Connor, when he too takes her over by boat on her very first trip to the island – so how apt was that? I mean we could have got some old crone called Seamus with three buck teeth and a lazy eye to take us over!

The island itself was probably a little more desolate than the one in my novel will be, but again in another strange twist of fate as in my own story there were men there beginning to restore a few houses ready for people to inhabit again. I suspect holiday cottages – not as in my book for people to live in for a year. But now I’m starting to give too much of my story away...

But in our short time there we saw lots of stunning scenery and met lots of lovely wildlife - seals, sheep, puffins, and some wild donkeys – who were incredibly tame, and it gave me much inspiration, which was the general idea. So watch this space...

Oh if you’re a regular follower of my blog you may remember King Puck? No, well he’s a gentle hint ... Yes we actually stopped this time in Killorglin, the place where they crown a Goat King every year & I got you photos.

And my favourite thing that happened the whole time we were there?
We went into a shop one day to buy our lunch about one o’clock, it was one of those places where they have a deli counter where they make fresh rolls up to your own specification. Well after we’d stood and waited for about 5minutes, debating what filling we were going to have in our baguettes, we were informed by a helpful assistant serving in another section of the shop that they were.... wait for it.... yep you’ve guessed it ‘CLOSED FOR LUNCH!’

Ah, the Irish, you gotta love em ;-)

Until the next time,
A x

Happy Birthday & Happy Holidays....

A really, really quick blog today because I’m off on holiday tomorrow!!
And if you’re reading this and happen to know where I live and want to burgle my house – don’t bother, we have people in dog sitting for the week ;-)
We’re off to the west coast of Ireland to stay in a lovely area we visited last year when we did our tour around Ireland (see September 2008 blog entry) but this time there’s no motor home involved thank goodness!! Just a rather lovely cottage. And this time we’re taking our children too. We’ve lots planned, so hopefully I’ll have plenty to report back on when we return.
But before I go I just wanted to wish one of my very best friends a very Happy 30th Birthday on Monday. Yep Karen Savage it’s you!!! Many happy returns mate. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be writing this blog now would I? ;-)

Morph could take Gromit anyday...

Well hello again,

So much for the shorter, more frequent blogs I hinted at in my last entry!
So what’s been happening that’s been keeping me so busy? Well...

Writing news first; I’ve just completed yet another re-write on my novel. At first I wasn’t too sure about the changes that were being suggested to me, as they were quite major, but I’m extremely happy with the finished product! The editor at the publishing house that suggested the changes was correct, and certainly knows her job. I just hope she likes what I’ve done now enough to want to buy my novel! As always I can’t say too much more, this being the ‘inter-web’ and all that, but I should hopefully have some news - good or bad in June/July, so watch this space...

Talking of being published my son is now a published author – before me! He won a worldwide Haiku http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A222922 poetry competition, and the winning entries were printed in a book which we received a copy of the other day. The book is called ‘Impressions of Wind’ and Tom’s poem was in the storm section.

The ankle sage continues!

I finally got a physiotherapy appointment at the hospital, but by this time I’d got so desperate I’d begun treating it myself, so I’d already begun to see some improvement by the time I got there. Now, bear in mind I used to be (and still am even though I don’t teach anymore) a qualified fitness instructor and personal trainer, so I know a fair bit about rehabilitation of injuries, and I’d already done everything I could think of myself to improve the situation before I went down the holistic therapy route I’m about to describe to you now...

The crystal therapy and Reiki treatments I've been having for the last 6-8 weeks have made such an improvement to both my physical and mental well-being that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone.

Crystal therapy is far too complex a subject to explain on a blog, other than you need to find the right crystal to help treat what ever is ailing you. http://beyondbeliefhealing.com/crystals

And this is the best scientific description I’ve found from Wikipedia:

Marcel Vogel (1917-1991) was a research scientist for IBM for twenty-seven years. He received numerous patents for his inventions including the magnetic coating for the twenty-four-inch hard disc drive systems still in use. He specialized in liquid crystal systems. Vogel stated that the crystal is a neutral object with an inner structure that is in perfect balance. “When its cut to the proper form and when the human mind enters into relationship with its structural perfection, the crystal emits a vibration which extends and amplifies the powers of the user’s mind.” Vogel explained that the crystal worked like a laser to radiate energy in a coherent and concentrated form that could be projected into objects or people.

And all I can tell you is they work!

Reiki - now that was completely new to me when I had my first session.
The Japanese word Reiki means ‘Universal Energy’. This Energy flows through all living things and is vital to well-being. Eastern medicine has always recognised and worked with this energy in things such as Yoga and acupucture.

Further detailled information about Reiki can be found here http://www.reikifed.co.uk/pub/about/reiki/index.shtml

But unlike the crystals, which although have had a definite effect on me, I couldn’t actually feel anything while using them, the Reiki is a different matter altogether!
Apparently everyone feels Reiki differently, and every session is unique. Some people see colours, some feel heat, some feel energised afterwards, some relaxed. I’ve felt all of these things, but I also feel the energy moving around inside me – sounds freaky I know, but it’s not, it’s actually rather nice, like I can feel myself being healed.

But the most important thing is, I feel so much better from having these sessions. They've made such a difference to me that I’d recommend Reiki itself, or my Reiki practitioner, Marie, to anyone. My ankle is on the mend, and although I'm far from being back to the super-fit person out running for miles on end, I was able to take my dog out for a fairly long walk on my own for the first time in ages the other day. And that meant everything to me, & to my dog!

Ok now you’re caught up on all my news it’s back to my usual random thoughts on life... and it’s a controversial one to begin with!
Now bear with me on this because I’m going to stick my neck on the line with this one. But am I the only person who doesn’t get Wallace & Gromit?

Every bank holiday Monday (and we’ve just had two in quite close proximity with another on the way at the end of May) we’re ‘treated’ to an episode of the gruesome twosomes comic capers with cheese and trousers and other hilarious household objects. And try as I may I just don’t find it funny.
My family do. My kids and my husband all sit enraptured over and over again watching these plasticine figures (which I’ll admit do deserve credit for superb animation skills.) but I just don’t get it.
Bring back Tony Hart’s Morph- that’s what I say. In a battle of the animated plasticine he’d take Wallace no worries ;-)



Until the next time, (which will be a sooner I promise!!)

A x

The Greatest day of their lives?

It’s a quick Take That themed blog today.
(Hey, maybe if I make my blogs shorter I’ll do more than the usual one a month! )

First, huge congratulations to the team of celebrity climbers that scaled Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief recently.
It was Gary Barlow (my first Take That link) that came up with the idea for a team of celebs to climb Africa’s highest mountain, to raise not only money, but awareness of the appalling, yet easily preventable disease, Malaria. And how a simple (and very cheap at £5 each) mosquito net can prevent thousands of people dying every year from this air born killer. Apart from Gary; Denise Van Outen, Alesha Dixon, Cheryl Cole, Kimberly Walsh, Fern Cotton, Ben Shepherd, Ronan Keating & Chris Moyles all fought their own battles against altitude sickness, injuries, and physical and mental exhaustion to battle their way to the summit to raise a massive amount of money for Comic Relief. Huge congratulations to them all.



My second Take That link is to their latest single Up all night. Well the video that goes with the single. It features a street party celebrating the Queen’s Silver jubilee of 1977 and I recently watched an interview with the band where they’re on the set of the video talking about their own memories of that year, and the street parties that took place up and down the country. Afterwards I found myself thinking how unusual to see a pop band these days whose members were even born in 1977, let alone can actually remember the Queen’s silver jubilee celebrations of that year as I can ... just! You’re lucky if most bands can remember the Queen’s Golden jubilee!

See the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfZ68iH3cKs



And my third and final link is to another of Take That’s singles. You may remember in my last blog I was feeling a little bit down. Well I’d forgotten about this song until it came on my IPod the other day, and how much better it always makes me feel when I hear it. It’s such a fab song when you’re feeling blue, it really cheers you up. Well it works for me – it’s Shine.
I hope you have a similar song that works for you, if not feel free to borrow mine ;-)




Until the next time,
A x

Donate to Comic Relief at https://donate.comicrelief.com/donation/

When will I be Back to the Future again?

Nostalgia is my blog’s theme today.

Ever reach a stage in your life when you feel like you’re at a crossroads but you don’t know which way to turn. Feel like you’re about to get on a train to somewhere but you don’t know where that train is going to?
Am I being too obscure here? Too many analogies for you?

Sorry, but that’s the only way I can describe how I feel right now. Like it’s all out there waiting for me, but I can’t quite pick the right road, or catch the right train to get to the right destination to find what I’m looking for.

I’ve recently been doing a lot of thinking. Thinking is probably something I do too much of anyway, but recently I’ve been prevented from doing my usual quota of ‘keep me sane’ exercise by a recurring ankle injury that’s seeing me having to ‘rest’ from exercise far more often than do it. A situation I don’t take to well! In fact quite often even normal walking has been nigh on impossible. (I won’t dwell on all this as I’ll get off the topic of the blog, but the current state of play is, I’ve had an x-ray & I’m waiting for a physio appt.)
So as a result I’ve had lots more time than usual to think, and looking back to the past seems to be my current train of thought.

I’m a regular user of Facebook, and enjoy using it to keep up with the news and gossip on friends. I have a mix of friends on there, from people I know really well, to casual acquaintances, to people I used to go to school with, and it’s this category that recently has made me start looking back and thinking how much people can change, and also what changes them?
I have a few school friends on Facebook, but looking at their profiles they don’t look too different to the way they did at school - and if any of you are reading this I mean that in a good way, honest! I can’t vouch for their personalities because this is the Internet and you can only tell so much from photo’s etc. But they really don’t seem that different to the way they were at school.
But then the other day I was contacted by someone who was in the same Tutor group as me for 5 years at secondary school. This means you go from being 12years old – 16years old with the same group of people and the same form tutor, in our case Mrs Jane Whiter.

Here’s our group; Swavesey Village College, Class of 1987:

I'm standing 4th from the right, middle row, with the long dark curly hair.

This person when he was at school from what I can remember was always popular with teachers and pupils & was one of the ‘in crowd’ (I sadly was not!) and probably tried to act the Mr Cool as many teenage boys do. He definitely wouldn’t have been seen dead dressing up in fancy costumes, or larking about on the stage wearing make-up.
So imagine my shock when he added me as a friend, and on checking out his Facebook page I see the 16year old boy I remember as Kevin ‘Mr Cool’ Hart, has morphed into Herbie Adams – comedian, writer and musician, complete with wigs, stage outfits & make-up! When did this transformation take place?
Probably this is same degree of surprise most of my class mates would get on finding out that I became a successful fitness instructor and personal trainer, when I spent most of my school life not being able to do sport and PE lessons because of Rheumatoid Arthritis. How times have changed for both of us.... I wonder how many more of our class mates in that photo are living lives so very different from the ones our teachers and class mates might have predicated for us way back then...

For more information on ‘Herbie Adams’ check out his official Facebook page http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=51809787294&ref=mf
Or, if you know the real Kevin Hart and want to catch up with him, he has his own Facebook page too. Wishing you the very best of luck with it all, Kevin :-)

Strangely at about the same time as all this was happening, I was contacted by my literary agent and asked if I would like to become one of the agency’s speaker authors on the subject of fitness. She suggested I write something about my time working as a personal trainer and fitness instructor both as a handout for potential clients and as an addition to my website. You can read what I wrote here http://www.alimcnamara.co.uk/6.html which also covers my time having arthritis as a child.

So maybe now you can see just why I’ve lately been living in the past for while. Too many coincidences all at once? Or simply the fact that the past is a much easier place to be right now with the future seeming so unsure....

In fact saying that has just reminded me of a film that used to be one of my favourites when I was younger and I haven't seen in ages, and actually gives me a much more interesting photo to leave you with than the one I was going to.

(Apologies in advance for the really corny pun coming up!!)

Maybe next time I write instead of wallowing in the past I'll feel like being

'Back to the future' once more! ;-)

Ok if you've finally stopped groaning, on a brighter note my novel now has a new title (if still no publisher as yet!) It's now called

From Notting Hill with Love....actually.

The full Upbeat/ funny blog service will resume soon – promise! Even the bounciest of us are allowed to wallow occasionally ;-)

Until the next time

A x

I love it when a plan comes together... and hate it when it doesn't!

A writerly based blog today

As a new month dawns so does the cold realisation that the novel I’ve been working on isn’t the novel I should be working on right now.

I’ve come to this conclusion as a result of the recent re-write I’ve just completed on my last novel, (still currently titled “You had me at Ronan Keating...” and still being decided on by the publishers, so no news there!) I realised after going back to this novel how much more I’d enjoyed writing this, and how, for many reasons, I was finding the new one I was working on much more of a struggle to complete. However, not being the type of person to give up on anything without a fight I’d struggled on thinking it would get better. Or perhaps, to write a better next book I had to find writing it more of a challenge.
The niggling doubt that perhaps I might not be doing the right thing in continuing, was not helped by lots of new ideas for plotlines and characters continually popping into my head for another future novel I'd had an inkling of an idea for recently. So, after some good advice from my agent, I have come to the conclusion that by putting this novel aside for a while, I’m not quitting and giving up on it, it’s just a novel that needs to wait a while until it’s the right time for me to write it. It will happen eventually (it had better I did an awful lot of research for it!) just not now, it’s obviously not the right time. The right time will come, and I know it will, because it’s a great idea for a novel. Well I think so anyway ;-)

So now I’m going to write what I really want to write at the moment, what seems to be calling out to me to be written, and most importantly what I know I’m going to enjoy writing.
This will take me right back to square one in an author’s creative process – the planning and researching stage of writing a book. This is one of my favourite parts, but I know some authors that hate it.
I’ve never been short of ideas – I think it comes from being an only child; I had (and still do have) a very active imagination! And quite often the research stage throws up even more ideas for characters and plotlines you’d never even considered before, and that’s what’s fantastic about it, that feeling of (to quote the late Mr George Peppard when he was in The A-Team) “loving it when a plan comes together.’

When you finally piece together all the parts of the story you’re going to write.

I won’t tell you what I’m researching, but it’s an eclectic mix that’s involving me amongst other things re-watching a 1970’s and a 1990’s BBC sitcom, and re-reading several children’s story books I read to my children when they were young...
How do I get a novel out of that? Well you’ll just have to wait and see ;-)

Other happenings since I last wrote? Well I said I was going to blog about reality TV shows but Celebrity Big Brother disappointingly failed to ignite the post Christmas TV schedules this year, and I came to Dancing on Ice as an ice skating virgin, but exited disappointed shortly after the third ‘celebrity’ had skidded precariously across the floor with their partner. So I’m down to the bare basics of Eastenders four times a week at the moment and not a lot else – but even the usual comfort and familiarity of Albert Square is leaving me feeling bereft since the departure of the lovely Robert Kazinsky as Sean Slater at New Year.

Ah well it gives me more time for catching up on my reading, and of course writing and researching that new novel...

Oh, I had a Birthday in January too.

Check out the very writerly cake I was surprised with. It tasted as good as it looked!

Till the next time,

A x

Glad it's all over - Johnny Depp covered in chocolate, surely not?

Well hello again, and Happy New Year!
I hope you had a good Christmas and brought the New Year in without too much of a hangover!
Instead of starting the first Blog of this year with resolutions, I’m going to start by holding my hand up and admitting three guilty secrets to you...

The first is that every year at about this time I’m always secretly pleased that all the festivities are over, and we can put the decorations away in the loft until next year.
Yes, shock horror – I actually like the bareness of the house without the clutter of all the cards and decorations. I don’t have any particular dislike to them when they first reappear from the loft in early – mid December, I love to see a brightly lit Christmas tree as much as the next person. But when it’s time for them to come down, I’m usually ready for some change. Whether it’s to my diet – all those extra calories make me begin crave the low fat/ low sugar options I live on for the rest of the year again. And who doesn’t start their year without a thought of at least one thing they’re going to do more or less of in the following 12months, even if they don’t out it officially as a dreaded ‘resolution.’

I see January as the start of a fresh new year and I love it!

The second is, I don’t get all the hype about the movie Mamma Mia?
Ok, yes I went to see it in the cinema when it first came out (I may have blogged on here about it?) and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Although my husband became slightly panicky beforehand, and I had to physically restrain him from leaving the cinema before it even began, when two women in front of us began discussing whether or not they would be standing up to join in with the singing & dancing during the movie. I think he wondered what he'd let himself in for!
In fact the cinema was so full that night of post-menopausal women, you could almost smell the hormone replacement patches! And every time poor tone deaf Pierce Brosnan showed an ounce of flesh, the universal hot flush that went around the room was so great - I feared the sprinkler system might cut in!
Anyway, I enjoyed the film at the cinema, and duly bought the movie on DVD when it came out before Christmas. But there were women throwing several copies into their baskets in Woolies the day I bought it (Ah, poor Woolies – if this blog is being read in the future in some sort of time capsule type affair – Woolworths was once a very famous shop on virtually every High Street, famous for it’s Pick & Mix sweeties, and usually where you went to buy your first record/tape/CD *delete as age appropriate. Yes, we actually had to physically walk to a shop to buy music once upon a time, not just click a button on a computer to download it!)

Anyway, then I find out it’s the fastest selling DVD of all time in the UK... I’m sorry I just don’t get it? Yes, it’s a good film. Yes, I like the Abba songs in it. Yes we fast forward when Pierce Brosnan sings like everyone else does. But why, when my friend who’s the same age as me came over at Christmas and we watched it together, did she want to sing and dance around our lounge during the film? My ten year old son was happy to oblige her (any chance to perform and he’s up there.) but my now 13 year old daughter and I just sat and looked blankly at each other in a ‘has the whole world finally flipped out’ kind of way, while they cavorted around the room.
‘But,’ my friend informed us, ‘The whole cinema was up and dancing in Germany when I saw it.’ (She lives there.) What’s also interesting is she actually saw the movie dubbed in German. Abba songs in German - now there’s a thought...

You’ll be pleased to know my third and final confession is much shorter – but in two parts. The first is horrifying enough – I’ve only just realised how gorgeous the film star Johnny Depp actually is! How have I been missing this all these years? I caught a few of his movies over the Christmas period, and I’m more than a little impressed... And the second part is more of a question: Is it very wrong of me to fancy him as Chocolate factory owner Willy Wonka too? ;-)

Until the next time keep warm,
A x

PS. If you’re reading this, thanks for the German Mamma Mia stories – M ;-)
PPS. No more news yet on the Novel, except it may have a new title... and now post Christmas, I’m well into the re write before it’s sent back to the publisher for their final decision... I’ll keep you informed.
Just realised I was going to talk about reality TV today, with the return of celebrity Big Brother and Dancing on Ice on this Sunday.

Think I’ve babbled on enough today though, maybe next time... ;-)

I'll leave you with the gorgeous Mr Depp.

Alcoholic Robins in Christmas take over bid?

Hello,

Apologies for the lack of blog posts recently, but the call of the festive season has taken over life as it always does at this time of year.

It’s no wonder we’re all so stressed by the time we get to the 'big day' - the phrase a ‘Merry Christmas’ was obviously originally born from the copious amount of alcohol needed to keep you de-stressed on the approach to the 25th, calm during the actual day itself, and in celebratory mood post Boxing day that its all over for another year.
That makes me sound like I’m a right Scrooge – which I’m not, Christmas is a lovely time of year when all the glittery commercialism is stripped away, and you think about the true sentiment behind this annual festival, whether you’re religious or not.

This is the second year that I have chosen not to buy Christmas cards. I can see the point of sending Greetings of the Season to someone you’re not going to see, but I’ve always hated the ridiculous ritual of handing a person a card when you can just as easily wish them a Happy Christmas to their face.
Instead we donate to charity, and send as many emails greetings as possible. We still send the odd computer printed card to people we can’t contact by email or won’t see in person (a simple piece of A4 paper folded into a card and printed in Black & white with our seasonal message on it ) this is what it said this year.

100% Charity Christmas Card!
Again this year to do our bit for charity and the environment we have chosen not to buy Christmas Cards.
Instead we have donated to the NSPCC.
We wish you a peaceful Christmas and a healthy, happy, 2009.
Ali, Jim, Rosie and Tom

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/donate/donate_hub_wdh53240.html

And doing this has made me feel a whole lot better about the whole Christmas card nonsense. My husband still finds it hard to get his head around though, not sending out bits of cardboard with Snowmen grinning manically on them, and Robin’s perching precariously on every snow covered surface known to man.

Talking of Robins, why are they so popular on Christmas cards? They far out-weigh the Santas, Snowmen, and brightly lit Christmas trees covering the front of the cards that tumble through our letter box each year. As I write we have eighteen cards hanging up in our lounge, and I kid you not there are 15 robins smugly looking down at me every time I walk through the room. It’s a good job I don’t suffer from ornithophobia! (Go on - you look it up if you haven’t guessed already!)
Anyway this year I’m actually looking forward to Christmas more than I have for a number of years.

I feel as I approach the end of 2008 that I’ve actually achieved something this year.

With my writing especially – I’ve gained a literary agent, and well I’m not going to say too much at the moment in case I tempt fate, but I’ve had a bit of interest in my novel from a publisher. I must stress though that nothing is definite, and I’m re-working parts of my novel as I write. But as much as I’m starting to detest one type of bird because it’s performed a take-over bid on the Christmas card market, I’m becoming very fond of another bird that’s long been associated with publishing – a little Christmas puzzle for you there ;-)

And BIG news especially if you know me - I’ve become a brunette again!!

Yes after about seven years of being blonde I’ve finally taken the plunge and gone back to my natural brunette, and I have to say I love it! I already feel different – but I can’t really explain why? Maybe in a later blog I’ll be able to explain it better... I felt like the time was right for a change, and so I took the plunge a week last Saturday and I haven’t regretted it for a minute.

So now it’s only left for me you wish you all a very
Happy/Merry/Peaceful (delete as appropriate to you!) Christmas & a healthy and happy 2009!

Thanks for reading all my babble this year, I’ll try and do it a bit more often next year.

Until then, take care,
A x

Ronan Keating & Barack Obama in the same Blog - how do I do it?!

Hello!

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I’ve changed the sub-heading on my blog.
That’s because I’m overjoyed to announce that after three years of rejections, I’ve just signed a with top London literary agency – The Marsh Agency.
My novel is now as I speak, in the hands of several large publishing houses (well it would be if they had hands!) It’s in the hands (or more likely lying on the desk at the bottom of a pile of other manuscripts) of some lovely editors waiting for them to read, and consider it for their company’s future publication schedule. So fingers crossed...I’ll be keeping you updated.

I promised when I started this blog that one day I’d tell you the story of how I began writing – so today with everything good with the world (Congratulations to Barack Obama!) seems like a good a day to do so as any!


It all started one day back in 2002 when I was in WH Smith browsing for a fitness magazine, I couldn’t find it on the shelf so I had to ask one of the assistants to go and look for me. While she was gone I had a bit of a browse around and happened to pick up Ronan Keating’s new CD from a display in the middle of the shop. I knew I liked a couple of the songs on the album, and so I decided to buy it, along with my magazine. When I got home I played the album, and then I found I kept playing it over and over again.
From that moment on, I was completely and utterly hooked.

Back then I used to use Ronan's official website to keep up with all his gossip and news. One day – about six years ago now – I had been away on a training course, and I posted a message on his forum about playing Ronan’s music while I’d been away staying on my own in a hotel. Another girl responded – called Karen, and we began a silly (late night if I remember rightly) conversation on the forum about what might happen if Ronan were staying in the same hotel as you. Over time this began to develop into a little story, to which we kept adding new installments every night, until we realised that more and more people were logging on to the message board just to find out what happened next. It sounds incredibly bizarre now I know, but its true – the website often used to crash because there were that many people waiting for their nightly fix! Fans from around the world would wait impatiently until I got in from work at night (I worked in fitness then and often worked evenings.) demanding their next fix of the the story!This went on for some months until eventually we’d run out of things for Ronan to do, and so we had to bring the story to an end.
We then had requests to make the story into a proper book – so we decided to do it for charity. I collated with help from a few other people (To whom I will always be eternally grateful) all the many instalments, edited them into a novel, and then sold email & disc copies of the story to anyone who wanted one.

I then (on my own this time.) went on to write two more novel length stories featuring Ronan along the same lines – posting them on the message board in instalments every night – then selling them at the end as a complete novel on disc or email attachment with the proceeds going to charity.

So something that started out as just a bit of silly late night banter, in total raised over £1000 for Ronan’s cancer charity – The Marie Keating Foundation; brought me together with one of my best friends – Karen, the girl from Glasgow I wrote the first story with; and made me realise that writing was not only something that I really enjoyed doing, but something that other people seemed to enjoy reading too.

I then had a go at writing a couple of ‘proper’ novels, before the idea for
‘You had me at ...Ronan Keating.’ came along. (Check out my website http://www.alimcnamara.co.uk/ if you’d like to know more about it.) And although Ronan doesn’t feature in the novel, him singing the theme from Notting Hill “When you say nothing at all.” plays a key part at the end.

Ronan has kindly consented to his name being used in the title, and Richard Curtis and ‘Working Title’ productions have said they thought the idea to be an excellent one for a romantic comedy.

So that bit of late night banter on a website six years ago, is now turning into for me, what could be my future career…

Until the next time,
A x

Oh I keep forgetting to mention you can always leave me a comment on this blog. You don’t have to have a blogger account to do so. It would be lovely to hear from some of you occasionally, who I know read my ramblings … ;-)