My Achievements 2016 and 2017

1 Performed mock wedding ceremony for photos before sunset at Botanical Gardens, Singapore when the registrar was late. 2 Judge and Chief judge at Singapore Toastmasters clubs. 3 Entered my first Tall Tales competition in Harrovian Speakers in Londonand came second. 4 Discovered I had visited 49 clubs in Singapore and five different countries worldwide (UK, Singapore, Thailand, China, Hong Kong.) My Blog on travel rose over 100 clicks a day and reached over 300 on one occasion. 2017 1 Visited a toastmasters club in Prague, Czech Republic. (Acted as Grammarian and Evaluator, gave GE feedback.) 2 Was Contest Chair at a Tall Tales competition (HOD Speakers).

Wills and Spills, Therapy and Writing Novels As Therapy

One of my new year tasks is to write and publish another novel based on family history. Many people write a book on retirement, trying to come to terms with the loss of their parents, or a divorce, or a will. Will Disputes I recently met a lady I shall call Louise who was writing about her divorce and the loss of her husband and a dispute over a will. Doesn't everybody over 50 have a story of a death and a dispute over a will? I was interested to hear her account of her memoir writing. Family History and Novels Legal Issues One issue is copyright. Another is libel (the written word) and slander (spoken words). She had legal advice and was told not to mention her rival, but only publish extracts from court cases which are in public domain. Family History Of A Spouse Another friend was helping her husband write his memoir. One publisher had fallen on hard times and now sought a co-sponsor. Could the woman get financial help from her husband's family? She feels that the book would have more status if it were financed and published by an independent publishing house. Memoirs When You Are Too Tired To Write Her husband is elderly and has not got the energy to write down his stories. Even if you cannot write, you can dictate. That's what was done for weekly columns int he newspaper by the late AA Gill, who died in 2016. The wife I spoke to is trying to be her husband's copy editor and agent. Coping With Bad Memories I and others wondered whether 'Louise' was really finding the publication of her book therapeutic. She is currently worried whether the publisher will accept it, after she has made the legally required changes. After that stress is over, and the book is published, will she be able to move on? A third friend was forced, by siblings' solicitors, to leave the home she shared with her mother, within a fortnight of the mother's death. She is now a therapist. My Family Wills Now, back to my books about my family's disputes over the will, leaving money to the boys, and the second will, leaving money to the girl, and the third will, and the fraud. Must go - just got a phone call from will writers. Your Will Please leave me something in your will to remember you. Whilst I would find £100,000 extremely handy, or even £10,000, or even £10, or £1 (in new coins please), I'd be equally happy with a suit, or sweater, skirt or silk scarf, music playing puppet, or signed book, unsigned book or framed photo or unframed photo.

Cinderella Updates - good or bad?

Rewriting Cinderella and other well-known plots into modern day stories is popular with new writers and writing groups. You have a setting, characters and a plot. You update it and change it so that only the plot remains. But once you change the characters and setting, that changes the plot. So more often just the theme is left, the boy meets girls, loses girl gets girl, and/or the rags to riches story. As reported by the BBC news website, the Cinderella story has been rewritten and updated by children, encouraged by an author who asks them leading questions. In my opinion, the most important part of the Cinderella story is the midnight curfew. She catches the last bus home. She decides it's bedtime. Never mind that the Prince and his party carry on. She has work to do next morning. Now, the question is being asked, are updates a good or bad idea? Since the original still remains, no reason why assorted updates should not be tried. Angela Lansbury, author and speaker. See my books on Amazon and Lulu.com

Resurecting the Dead Voice To Cure Depression

How do you deal with depression and bereavement. Some people prefer to forget. Others cling on to everything, visiting the same places, repeating phrases and quotations, keeping a room such as a bedroom or a whole house exactly as it was. A new system allows you to create a voice which will answer questions in the sound and style of a deceased friend. Could be used to cure depression after bereavement.Can be misused. So can everything. The App store has Luka. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3826208/Would-resurrect-dead-friend-AI-Try-memorial-chatbot-app-talk-virtual-version-Prince.html Angela Lansbury, author.

How to Teach English and Find More Schools and Places

England has immigrants with high birth rates so we need more schools. What's the answer. Several solutions to consider. Build on wasteland. (Not green belt land. Unused land. Under bridges. Derelict land.) Use public libraries more, especially at evenings and weekends or days when they are normally closed. Run alternative schools in school holidays for catch up on English and activities like art and sports. Run two sittings in schools like Singapore did. One operates rom 7 am until 1pm, a second from 2 pm until 8 pm. Have a system where you can take an exam after a certain number of school day or hours of learning credits. Children who are ill or keen can take extra hours of supervised homework and take self-administered tests early to do exams early and free up places. Run a system for filling up places when pupils are away sick or on planned holidays, so children otherwise at home can go to any school which has a free place and use a token to 'buy' a day's lessons at that school. Find schools with shorter terms and run extra days at the school. Bring retired teachers back to work at schools full time. Encourage more people to teach their own children at home. They can follow set books. Allocate a weekend hour, or a weekend holiday in a school and amonthly test at home or in school to use school equipments and socialise. Have children who are sick or have poor English watching lessons on computers at home. Supplement and check on their progress with end of the day catch up lessons. Call volunteers to run English language classes in churches and mosques and synagogues for immigrants - in exchange for translation of documents into their languages. Angela Lansbury, blogger, author, speaker.

Good and evil

Good and evil always perplexes many. Why don't others see evil the way I see it? There's my country right or wrong. This explains the dictators who are good to their dogs. They also take the attitude, You are with us or against us. Alternatively, a kind of independent God's eye view of the world. How I would see matters as a judge or arbitrator, jury member, Martian. There are distinctions between nurture and nature. Some people don’t feel but think you are in their way. Other people do feel - and enjoy the pain of others, perhaps out of revenge random targets, from a sense of grievance childhood.

Winning Table Topics Contest

I won the table topics contest in London.

Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.