{"id":5704,"date":"2015-03-08T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T07:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=5704"},"modified":"2015-03-08T07:00:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T07:00:28","slug":"its-a-kind-of-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/reading\/its-a-kind-of-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a kind of magic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Giselle<\/a>
Giselle Green leading a workshop at the RNA London chapter meeting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was magical! How often have we heard that said?<\/p>\n

People say it about special moments in their lives. About Christmas. And weddings. Birthdays and trips and even unplanned and unexpected moments.<\/p>\n

Just what do we mean by magical?<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, magic was the topic of a fabulous workshop I attended, led by Giselle Green \u2013 a brilliant writer and a friend of mine.<\/p>\n

Giselle prodded us about the meaning of magical \u2013 she asked to think about moments we might have described that way \u2013 and why.<\/p>\n

We came up with a good collection of descriptions. \u201cMagical\u201d is hopeful. It makes us smile. It makes us feel good. It is the realisation of a dream or a hopeful new beginning. It\u2019s about making connections. It\u2019s what we have as children, then tend to lose as the \u2018real world\u2019 intrudes.<\/p>\n

Magic in books can be overt \u2013 with fairies and witched and casting of spells. But a touch of magic in a book doesn\u2019t mean it becomes a fantasy.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This book begins with the casting of a spell – but is it the spell or the actions of the characters that brings the resolution?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The can be more subtle. It can be as simple as the use of a magical symbol \u2013 but all that happens within the book is within the realms of possibility. There can be a hint that magic may have been involved, but we leave it to the reader to decide.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This books uses magical symbols – but the scenes that made me cry were very very real.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And sometimes the magic comes from within us \u2013 we dream of something wonderful. That dream is realised, not through some outside mystical force, but through the magic of our own desire making us work to realise that dream.<\/p>\n

I have used hints of magic in my short stories \u2013 the hint of a fairy or perhaps a dragon \u2013 which may or may not be \u2018real\u2019 depending on the readers\u2019 desires. You can read a couple of them for free\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Giselle\u2019s workshop was thought provoking. It got me to thinking \u2013 I have had letters from readers telling me that my stories have touched them. Helped them through a difficult time or perhaps made them cry (in a good way).<\/p>\n

To me that\u2019s magic\u2026 to make that sort of connection with another soul. The world needs as much of that magic as we can find.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was magical! How often have we heard that said? People say it about special moments in their lives. About Christmas. And weddings. Birthdays and trips and even unplanned and unexpected moments.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}