A win, a Pamper and a Two Stories

 
The last week has been very eventful - in a good way. On Thursday evening the choir I belong to, Cantatrice, entered into two classes at the Worthing Music Festival and guess what... we won both.
 
All 75 of us sat with our mouths open when we heard the results, as the choirs we were up against were all excellent. It was a fantastic evening and it was a great opportunity to hear other choirs sing. The only thing that was rather disconcerting was that there wasn't enough room on the raised blocks for everyone - so I was stuck up there (the only second soprano) amongst a block of altos while the rest of the sopranos were on the flat stage.
 

 
The next lovely thing I did was have a spa day with my youngest daughter who had come down from Manchester. It was her birthday present and we went to the Alexandra House Hotel near East Grinstead. Wow! What pampering! I had to force myself to stay awake during the facial as it was so relaxing. It was a great mum and daughter bonding time.
 

This week started well, with a story in the weekly People's Friend called, 'Someone to Lean On'. The lovely illustration for my story is by Richard Eraut.
 
 
I also have a story in the monthly special called, 'Still Waters Run Deep'. The illustration is by my favourite artist, Andre Leonard, who has illustrated many of my stories.

The inspiration behind 'Still Waters' is fascinating and I shall tell you about it in my next post.

 

Finally both Helen Yendall in her Writing Magazine article and The People's Friend on their website refer to me as Writer Wendy Clarke - maybe now I can believe it!

I Am in Awe!

I watched (or rather heard) an amazing thing happen on Saturday. Our choir Cantatrice sang in the 'Last Night of the Proms' concert with the wonderful Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra.

As always, I was very nervous - which is rather silly as there are over ninety of us in the choir - but there it is. One of my problems is my worry over learning the words. When I was a child, I used to be entered into speech and drama festivals (as my mum's a drama teacher). Mostly it was fine, but one day, I went out on stage and blanked... seriously blanked. It was one of those 'I hope I wake up soon' moments and the memory has stayed with me to this day (hence the worry every singing concert).

Anyway, on this occasion, our lovely musical director Zoe was singing, as a solo, the verses of Rule Britannia. She is a very confident singer and puts us all to shame. We stood transfixed, as she started her recital - standing there in a Union Jack ensemble. Imagine my shock, then, when I realised in the second verse that Zoe was singing "La...la ...la...la" very beautifully and confidently. I checked my sheet (we were singing the chorus and had been given the words) - nowhere did it say "La...la".

It was then I realised that she had forgotten the words but was brazenly carrying on regardless as though nothing had happened... how brilliant is that! Britannia may have ruled the waves, but Zoe certainly ruled that stage.

I think confidence is something you either have or don't have. Unfortunately, from my earlier experience, I know I'm in the latter category... but my own horrendous experience did have its positive side. I used the stage fright in a story and it was my first ever story published in Fiction Feast.

I have another in this month's Fiction Feast called Destiny According to Doris. It's a bit different to my usual as it is humorous so I hope you like it.

I Dreamed a Dream....

We all have our dreams, don't we, and mine is to stand on the West End stage and sing 'On My Own' from Les Miserables. Ever since I first heard it, over two decades ago (when Michael Ball was a young and lovely Marius) I've loved the song and I confess that the number of times I have seen the musical is into double figures.

Of course I'm never going to be in a West End musical - I am too old and my voice, though passable, is just that... passable.

As some of you will know, the choir I belong to, Cantatrice, is an 80 strong ladies choir and over the years we have sung a range of songs including the amazing Adiemus. If anyone is interested, you can hear our choir singing  When the Love Comes Tricklin Down by clicking the link. This is a recording on the Banks Music Publications Site made by Arch Gwyn, who arranged this piece.

This time our concert is 'Iconic Songs' and will be such fun - where else would I get to sing 'I Will Survive' very loudly, with all the actions and without a drink in my hand!

Anyway, last month my dream got closer. As part of the concert, we are also singing a 'Les Mis Medley'... oh joy!... and it contains my favourite song. Our musical director asked for volunteers from the choir to sing a solo for the first verse - all we had to do was audition.

And that is as close to my dream as I got. Did I audition? No of course I didn't. Anyone who knows me will know that if put on show, I become a red-faced, gibbering wreck.

It was never going to be, so I will just have to be content with singing into my hairbrush to the CD, in my kitchen... on my own.

Wish us Luck!

Tonight my choir Cantatrice will be taking part in a choir competition in Worthing. We shall be competing against three other choirs in one class and five others in another, so wish us luck!

I joined this choir when it was first formed nine years ago and I love it (almost as much as my dancing).

The youtube clip shows part of our choir - we are normally around 90 strong! Don't try to look for me in the video as I couldn't make that particular concert but it gives you an idea of who we are. I've just been laughing at the actions - usually we don't do any although it seems to be de rigueur for choirs these days.

We were given our seating arrangements for the competiton this morning and I had been put in the front row. I had to plead to be moved further back as I have a hatred of being on show. It's strange really as my main hobbies are all showy ones but I feel happier if I can mingle into the crowd. I only managed my salsa wedding dance because I'd had rather too many glasses of bubbly!

Talking of bubbly - if we do well tonight it will be a double celebration as I've just sold another story to The People's Friend. Yippee!

A Big Thank You To Everyone

A big thank you to everyone who visited my blog and downloaded Wendy's Story Timeline. A special thank you also to Teresa and Patsy for mentioning it on their blogs and sending hundreds to view it! Thank you also for all your kind comments - if you use it for a story, please let me know how useful it was.

In the next post I shall be posting some links that I hope will be useful to use alongside the timeline.

I am feeling very Christmassy for various reasons:

• On Saturday, my choir, Cantatrice, had our Christmas concert in the local church. The building is beautiful and sun streamed through the stained glass windows as we sang a mix of carols and lighter Christmas songs - it doesn't get more Christmassy than that in my book.

• In the evening we had our ballroon Christmas dance. It was a lovely occasion - even though it was so full, we could only do the basic steps in each dance. We also had the chance to dance our Argentine Tango routine that we've been learning over the last few weeks - it was a bit scary as there were only three other couples dancing with us and everyone else watching.

• We booked tickets for a salsa Christmas masked ball . (I've decided my husband should wear a Simon Cowell mask!)

• We put up our Christmas tree.

• I had stories accepted by both Fiction Feast and The People's Friend (not Christmassy - but it made me happy).

Adiemus - nothing about writing, all about singing

 

Anyone who has been reading my blog will know of my love of dancing but there is something else I love - singing!

 
I have belonged to  Cantatrice ladies choir since it formed in 2004. Our wonderful musical director is Zoe Peate and we sing a range of songs some simple and melodic, others more challenging. It is hard to believe that there are are now over ninety singers in our choir.
 
The exciting thing is that tomorrow we are singing at The Hawth theatre in Crawley along with three other choirs. The highlight of our evening will be singing 'Adiemus' Songs of Sanctuary by Karl Jenkins.
 
What is original about this piece is that there are no lyrics as such, instead the vocalists sing syllables and 'words' invented by Jenkins. The whole thing has a mystical 'New Age' African feel to it - which sounds strange but is really beautiful to listen to.
 
Have a listen to Enya singing an extract from Adiemus. It is truly haunting.