Brilliant!  august 2006

Welcome to the August 2006 edition of "Brilliant!"  We hope you and your loved ones are enjoying happy, healthy and harmonious times.

August is the month my beautiful wife and business partner, Barbara, celebrates her birthday.  Being married to such a gentle, honourable, intelligent, talented and fun-loving Leo is a great blessing, and she grows more beautiful every year.

We have always ensured that special days like birthdays and anniversaries are completely devoted to celebrating the occasion and the special person.  This year we took some extra time off and spent five wonderfully relaxing days in a beautiful part of northern New South Wales, called Byron Bay.  Byron has always attracted a very artistic community and the relaxed lifestyle, stunning beaches and magnificent surrounding countryside makes it an ideal place to unwind and appreciate Nature's abundant beauty.  We rented a holiday house with its own private track to the dog friendly beach not more than 100 metres from our back door, which meant that our faithful hound, and fellow Leo, George, could share the holiday enjoyment and birthday celebrations.  It was a wonderful break and we enjoyed it so much we're going back for a couple of weeks in September!

Product Announcements

Another very important milestone occurred early in August when we finally took delivery of the first print run of Barbara's fabulous new novel, "Letters to Michael".  This has been an eagerly awaited arrival, and we are sure everyone who has been wanting to purchase a copy will also be pleased to hear we now have plenty of stock.  To find out more about the book, you can read all about it, including a sample chapter, and listen to a reading by the author by clicking here.

Also, we are pleased to announce that our latest audio download, "The Second Trigger" is now available at our online shop.  Last month we made track one of this two track product available as a frëë gift for our Brilliant subscribers.  We hope all those who took advantage of that July-only offer are gaining great benefit from listening to the track.  The audio download features a long version to help establish the new subconscious pattern for creating a positive mental attitude, and a short, booster version that re-affirms and maintains your decision to choose positive responses.

Alumni News

It's always a pleasure to pass on exciting information about members of our Bright Light creative family.  One of our youngest contributors is ten year old Taylor Dean.  Taylor's showcased poem, "Kids", and her narrations of several other poems have been welcome and wonderful additions to the Bright Light Café, but Taylor's talent also shines in another area - Ice Skating.  She recently claimed second place in the State championships, and this month will compete in the Australian championships.  We have had the pleasure of watching Taylor perform her skating programs and her confidence, grace and poise on the ice is really spectacular.  We want to wish her the very best for the upcoming National competition and we're sure everyone joins with us to say "Go Taylor!"

Applause, applause, applause

Last year, we added "Applause" buttons to all the showcase pages, so visitors to the website (and fellow Bright Light contributors) could add their praise and compliments to the wonderful array of talented contributions we are pleased to present at The Bright Light Café.  It's always a thrill for us to publish those words of appreciation and we thought we'd add a small selection of that applause to this month's newsletter:

I really relate to this article. And this is exactly the advice my friend needs. Thank you for it! You have such great insight on love. Keep the articles coming!  "Loving Without Losing Yourself"  by Allie Ochs

Your poem is very beautiful. It gives a sort of relaxation to tired body and mind. The very thought of mother nature and its adventures hidden makes me spell bound.  "Nature" by Stephen Pray

I Just wanted to let Jada know what a lovely piece this is.  I'm a grandmother, and I shared this poem with my 2 grandchildren.  They loved it, and they loved listening to the different voices.  Well done, Jada.  "Happiness" by Jada

I thought this a great poem Narissa, with verses that capture true emotions in an impressive way!  I Wish that I Could Catch Your Laugh  by Narissa Doumani

Oh dear!  Poor Wayne - but what a great solution!  A really nice way to resolve a dreadful situation, and a typically uplifting and positive piece for such a great website.  Congratulations B. A. Llewellyn.  "Wayne" by B. A. Llewellyn

Great! I was intrigued from the start! I could really envision what each character looked like in each moment, loved the choice of wording (very descriptive)! I really liked it~! Would love to read more Nicole!!!   "Meeting Julian"  by Nicole West 

Beauty in language...language in beauty. The Maestro's magical language and appropriateness trips me as a fellow writer for BLM. "The Maestro" by Malcolm Carvalho

That has cheered up an otherwise dull Friday in the office!!  More stories Sarah!!!!!!!  "Yoga with Fabio" by Sarah Lascelles 

I find this experimental music very interesting indeed. As a 'traditional' muso, I've always been a bit suspect of computer generated music for it's lack of soul, but this guy's stuff has a real haunting quality about it, and displays great potential. Keep going Sky, you've got something there.  Sky's Music by Sky

Simply beautiful. I am impressed with the style of Chris...his paintings suggest movement of people and trains...fleeting views captured so simply and yet so beautifully. Keep going.  "Central Station"  By Chris Bennett

Anaesthesia is an interesting piece with such suspense that is thrilling. Good work Bright Light Multimedia you are doing great for writers and artistes.  "Anaesthesia"  by Daniel Gbemi Akinlolu 

Read more applause ...

And now to the great array of new creative choices on the menu at The Bright Light Café this month. We have:

• two excellent short stories;

• one true love poem;

• one fascinating article;

• one peace-provoking anecdote;

• two, two-hander performances.

To tell you about these great pieces and their talented creators, here's my wonderful partner, wife, author of "Letters to Michael" and beautiful August birthday girl, Barbara Llewellyn.

Anecdotes

It is an unfortunate fact that we are often taught by our leaders and the popular press to view our neighbours as evil and terrifying.  This is not a new phenomenon but as old as war itself.  In an effort to counterbalance this absurd reality, history has regularly produced a "fool" who will give wisdom without fear of punishment due to his "insanity".  Bahlool, from Kufa in Iraq was such a fool who created this powerful tale.

Do I Know You?

... A cruel and foolish king wished to amuse himself by watching Bahlool in combat, even though it was well known that Bahlool was a hopeless fighter.  Bahlool pleaded for his life but soon realised that there was no escape from his ruler’s desire for amusement, so Bahlool asked for a last meal that was both scrumptious and plentiful.|

The next morning Bahlool stood with his king and the king’s many powerful warriors on one side of a field while the enemy’s king and powerful warriors stood on the other side of the field.   At the chosen time, a strong and mighty enemy knight rode onto the area of battle wielding a sharp and deadly sword, demanding that a combatant be sent to fight him.
Read More ...

Articles

Featured talent Daniel Gbemi Akinlolu, well loved for his insightful and often humorous stories, switches writing hats to present us with this scholarly and fascinating article about the difference in perspective between the European, Western and African super heroes.  Daniel was born in Nigeria and now lives in South Africa, so he is able to clearly present the belief systems that flavour the stories of his home continent.

Africa Vs Europe: Oral Tradition and The Comic Books   (1463 words)

In European literary endeavours, the epic is certainly the most ambitious of poetic types because of the demand it makes on traditional poets’ knowledge and creative skill in order to sustain the scope, grandeur and variety of aspects that tend to encompass the totality of the epic work.

However, in Africa, history is marked by its transference through oral tradition from one generation to another because verbal testimony is the basic form of preservation especially in the pre-literate communities.
Read more ...

Performance

In the coming months we plan to approach some of our contributing writers to see if they would like to have the existing audio performances of their work included on proposed CD and audio download Anthologies.  At that time their voiced pieces will be removed from The Bright Light Café and placed for sale in the Bright Light Multimedia online shop.  However, until that happens, you still have access to all the Bright Light Café's streaming audios for Frëë.  Here are two brand new performances from The Café's short stories that are decidedly script-like and very entertaining.  We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Blue Skies  
Story by Christine Tothill (United Kingdom/Spain)   Voices: Barbara Llewellyn & Rod Kirkham

Too Sweet the Wine 
Story by Tony Williams (Australia)  Voices: Barbara Llewellyn & Rod Kirkham

Poetry

Featured Talent, Stephen Pray (United States), does it again and brings us another poem of quiet elegance, scented with true love.

Time in New England  

Found time in New England
along the Maine coast.
Salt watered rocks braking waves,
seagulls diving for shrimp off the shore.
Read more ...

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Short Stories

Last month, Carl Palmer, from the United States, presented us with the humorous and ever-so-slightly naughty poem, "A Dog Named ---", and this month he shows himself to be, not only a creative writer, but a creative handyman too with his gentle humour bubbling through his words.  Bravo again to Carl for his photo, on the same page, displaying the joyous invention which has brightened his home, his street and our hearts.  

Im Felschen Fenster  (553 words) 

I was having a Martha Stewart moment. A large windowless wall on the front of our house was the perfect setting for a cottage window framed with country shutters and a flower box. 

Judy had recently redone the front bathroom and had me replace the old door mirror with one more to her taste. Being that I throw away nothing, I found that I now had two of the Kmart door mirrors, one cracked, but still too good to toss. The perfect items for my window.
Read More ...

Please, help us welcome into the Bright Light Creative Family the new and fine talent of Gary Kemble from Queensland, Australia.  Gary's story is inspiring and heart-warming and we feel sure many people will relate to it on a very personal level even if you, like us, have never climbed Mount Everest.

Summit   (2,996 words) 

... Rob sat up in bed, surveying the scene. His bedroom was a mess. His sheets were stiff with sweat, damp yet rigid from a week’s worth of bad dreams. All about the mountain. It was one year since he didn’t quite climb Everest. These days it was all he could do to climb out of bed in the morning and stay vertical for the 12 hours or so necessary to assure his parents he was getting his life back on track.
Read More ...

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As always, Brilliant friend, we wish you and your family good health and happiness.  "May there always be lucky stars above you and sunshine on your way.  May you have many friends to love you and joy in your work and play.  We wish you laughter to outweigh each care and, in your heart, a song – and gladness waiting everywhere, all your whole life long."

With our warmest regards,


Barbara Llewellyn & Rod Kirkham 
Publishers

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