Latest Entries »

Well folks, we’re down to the wire.

The last of the story edits are completed this week, the cover artwork is pretty much finished (barring some continued ‘discussion’ about colour choices) with Illustrations by Josephine Dexter and graphic design by Picsoul (www.picsoul.com)

I am looking forward to numbering pages, shuffling content and placing the final elements into the paperback format. I am looking forward to HOLDING the finished book in my hands. There will be 1000 limited edition paperback copies as wel as electronic versions available on Amazon, and of course the paperbacks will be available at Mayhew Fundraising events throughout 2011.

When we are ready to launch, I’ll post information towards registering for our book-launch events and further information about how you can help The Mayhew Animal Home (www.mayhewanimalhome.org) who this year celebrate 125-years of service to the unwanted, unloved and abandoned companion-animals of London. When the project is taking its toll on my energy level, I remind myself about who I am helping and how tirelessly the volunteers over at The Mayhew give of their own time and energies – then I am renewed in my endeavour.

I have appreciated the relevant comments from web-surfers about my blog posts (though infrequent…hey, I have a life y’know) – but I will be turning the ‘comments’ button off on most of my pieces here to avoid love letters from Spam-alot (please don’t sue me, Mr Idle!).

Thanks for your support – let’s be a voice for those who have none!

Visit: www.mayhewanimalhome.org to volunteer or donate

A Lovers Tale

The Crocodile

The Heron stood on the far shore, her reflection in the still waters made a twinned glory of her long legs and powerful breast. I watched from the reeds, trying not to breathe or disturb the quiet of the waters that morning. She bent her long elegant neck towards the surface, to kiss perhaps what I knew I’d grow to adore. Instead, in a flash of precise movement she withdrew, a silver fish wriggling on the tip of her regal beak.

For all of my practice and patience I could never move as she, for I dwell under the liquid glaze or on a sunny bank, never in between.

Often I would come to her and keeping a respectful distance I would sing to her the contents of my heart.

In daylight she stood grandly above the rest, a frank and watchful eye ever-darting, a thin smile stretched pleasantly across her lips. The reeds and bulrushes bent in a dance around her, catching the wind to make a present in her virginal feathers.

I waited.

The night brought her to the edge of the shore. Her footprints sunk and filled with stars; waters slid off her back in silver beads and soundlessly rejoined the gently swirling currents.

I love uncontrollably; she had a beauty unmeasured that my heart ached to know and possess. And so I sang.

I sang of the deep and the centuries, I sang of lost lovers and broken men. And I waited – I watched and waited.

The Snowy Heron

As he first approached I was frightened. I’ll admit this fact. But the racing of my heart soon gave way to a rushing in my blood. I couldn’t help it – it’s primordial, you see.

Long have I been drawn to such power; the armoured muscles of his back, the certainty of his grin.

He sang to me from the reeds, high and sweet, and did this daily when I ventured out for my breakfast. Sometimes he would sing for hours and then sit himself on a sandy bank and shed tears. Often he entreated me to come nearer, to end his torment, to love him as he loved me.

At night, he came to the surface, a slice of flat dense blackness around which the moon ran rings and danced and shone like ribbons of pure white. This was his halo. This made him beautiful. His voice travelled across the quivering pools and into my pin-prick ears whispering musical passions that moved me hypnotically.

His life for mine, he said, laying bare his rude armour at my feet. His smile lasted a lifetime and was for me alone. So this is Love.

Brushing his jawbone with the delicate tips of my wings I drew him to me. The desire was too much, the want greater still. I offered myself to his song, his night and his kiss. The sighs we chorused into the air made the birds lift from the trees nearby.

Together

She opened her vast wings to encompass him and accepted without protest his embrace. His kiss – he clamped his weight upon her, pried her love apart. She burst the night open with her cries, the thrumming of her feathers in graceful fruitless flight. Her head bent to his, necks entwined unashamed of their engagement.

His heart grew to bursting in his mighty chest and she covered his face with her wings so as not to see his tears. No tears tonight, just the two coming together – each hunger fed. Taking his delicate lady in his vice he drew her down and down; over each other they rolled innocent and complete. Her neck a strand of graceful sea grass flowing with the currents out towards a nameless ocean.

Untamed World – a Mayhew Project update

When I was a little girl I was hooked on shows like Untamed World and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.

The epic ’struggle’ for survival held a bizarre fascination and romance for me.

Yes, I was one strange child…but although I could easily be led to ’feel’ for these animals, I was always a bit mystified by our human choices when it came to investing these creatures and their day-to-day realities with human emotion.

Why did we always opt for a negative viewpoint?

Was this really going to expand my understanding of the human condition or simply place human values on a world that doesn’t work in the same way?

It seemed, and still seems, far too easy for us to disallow an animal a ’soul’ and yet invest it’s everyday actions with attitudes designed to suit our own version of The Epic Struggle without really addressing the contradictions.

For instance:

Lion alone on Rock = Majestic, Kingly

Lion chasing Gazelle = dominance, oppression; ‘poor gazelle/victim’; ’bad hunter lion/bully’

…followed by the inevitable implication: ‘well, kids, that is how life works’

Of course, I could go on and on about how this early introduction to the human ideals of Good vs Evil played out on an animal stage has warped the hearts of many human adults, but I prefer to ask another question for now:

Couldn’t we look at the animal realities of existence as being more of a dance, or a completion…when two apparently different beings come together to make a whole?

Maybe, more than a symbolic struggle for survival – it is the struggle for love and a sense of purpose that continues to elude us?

Anyhow, meet my version of a brief time on the Nile: A Lovers Tale

You will find this story under “Read/Fiction” in the top navigation bar – hopefully…unless the whole darned thing simply scrolls here above or below.

(ah the Joys of Technology – bleh)

The Group has produced over 15 stories towards the Mayhew project and we’ll have the final ‘headcount’ by mid-January

I’ll be posting synopses here in the coming days

Writers Support The Mayhew Animal Home

So, occasionally I come up with what I believe is a pretty good idea.

It’s always quite heartening when others come forward and agree…and agree to participate! With this rather grandiose statement laid to bare, I am very pleased to announce that I and my group of fellow as-yet-unpublished authors have undertaken to write and produce an anthology of short stories in support of The Mayhew Animal Home (www.mayhewanimalhome.org) here in London.

Our theme is broad and the content will prove to be as unique as each individual contributing to the project. As the project takes form, I will post excerpts from these stories for your enjoyment in hopes of piquing your curiosity both about the authors’ work and the charity we are suppporting with our endeavours.

Our collective goals are simple: to provide The Mayhew with a new format of fundraising material created specifically for their organisation; to raise funds and awareness of this wonderful charity; to publish our work independantly and benefit collectively from the ‘real-world of publishing’ experience (no, we are NOT making money from this project - all profits benefit The Mayhew only)

 The Mayhew has been sheltering & serving the needs of London’s unwanted and discarded animals for 125 years. That’s a lot of selfless love, care and medical attention given and received – but unfortunately there has never been a shortage of abused or rejected ‘pets’; fortunately there is no shortage of compassion at The Mayhew. We hope to reflect thoughtfully on these aspects in our work under the theme: Animal Voices.

Details about the progress of our short story collection will be provided here in the months to come. In the meantime, check out The Mayhew online (www.mayhewanimalhome.org) and PLEASE be a responsible pet ‘owner’: have your pet spayed or neutred and treat them all with the love and respect they deserve. They cannot speak for themselves – let that notion move you!

All work is coprighted and reproduction without the express consent of the authors and The Mayhew is a violation of international copyright laws

Ch-ch-changes! Turn and Face The Strange….

When I started Museability in 2002, I had a couple of goals: to deliver the highest-quality international tradeshow and event production services in a bijou environment and to enjoy & discover more about myself in the process. Well – 8+ years down the line and I am reinventing my site and my Self – and it’s about time.

In the last decade I have had a lot of fun working alongside some truly creative individuals, delivering some of the best one-off events and tradeshow exhibitions for my clients, and stretching my wings. But the Tradeshow now seems to me a beast struggling in a tar pit; a victim of its size and lack of direction; evolution turning a deaf ear to its cries. While it saddens to a certain extent, it is the way of all things – to flourish for a time and then to watch that time pass.

With this said, I endeavour now to pursue something of prime importance: a sense of satisfaction and self-realisation. I simply refuse to let another year go by where I produce nothing more than eventual landfill fodder – and let’s face it: even the heftiest of paycheques NEVER smile back at you, provide a caring shoulder or aleviate the sense that there might just be ’something more’ to one’s life.

Now I seek that elusive ’something more’ through travel and writing and fearless encounters with my ‘fellow’ bi-peds – hoping to share what I find along the way. Bold? Daring? Anarchic? You Bet! But this should not come as a surprise to any who know me. Hey – my Life, my rules…Play On!

Angela – your Muse

The Main

One foot to bear the weight; one foot to push-off from place. 4.28billion years since the waters hurled to earth hidden in the meteors that gave our planet shape: about as long as it takes to fill the potholes in Montreal. We step lightly around delivery vans buried deep in asphalt pursuing bagels, Greek coffee, chic bars, schmatta and kosher smoked meat. Forever bisecting the city like a well-worn scar, tarmac unites what politics has divided. Here a Chinese Temple gate, there the lowly fast-food prostitutes, Old and brave New World crest on concrete river, an open artery flowing with our stories, all of them, the famous and the damned. Relics and rejects of a living city; paving crews make time capsules of the holes they patch. Richler, Cohen, Tremblay set the pace I follow metre by metre, rhythm formed by footfall, one in front one behind, over the patchwork pavements of The Main.

angela (c) 2010

Making the Move – Muse & Museability

Calliope rules, my friends! Her wispers tell me of changes to come, not only in the world of exhibitions and events, but significantly in the daily-inhabited world of your Muse.
Angela & Museability relocated to Old World shores in December of 2008 and now operate out of London, UK. Tradeshows and events are still on our agenda for inspired thought, but in the future this website will take on a newer and more creative focus – and I will be imparting this all onto you gentle folk. You will find new content aimed at igniting the flames of imagination in us all: short stories, poetry, music reviews, social commentary, articles on travel and gorgeous images to inspire.
Nope – i’m not going all ‘touchy-feely’ on you all, I’m expanding to better fit my moniker and the exciting opportunities that have been given to me.

I thank you all for the support given to me and Museability over the last 8 years and hope that you will enjoy the changes afoot!

Bisous
Angela Songui – MUSE

Powered by WordPress | Theme: Motion by 85ideas.