Folly Farm: Returning to Magical Places by Kelly McKain

This week I grabbed one of the final places at the SAS’s Folly Farm Winter Warmer retreat. I’m excited about the opportunity to connect and collaborate with old friends, and to meet new ones… And we certainly do collaborate and inspire one another! One year, Liz Kessler, with music playing in her headphones from the previous evening’s drinks, tunes and general vibe out, took an early morning walk with her camera… and came back with an entire novel fully formed, which had unfolded within her over the walk. I think it was the following year, or a couple of years after, she presented it to a very honoured June Crebbins, Elen Caldecott and I, dedicated to us with thanks for our little part in igniting the creation. The book? Haunt Me. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. It’s got all the misty magic of that Folly Farm morning, and all of Liz’s breath-taking depth of spirit and breadth of heart held within it. And that’s just one Folly Farm creative story. I know there are many, many, many more! (If you have one, maybe add it in the comments!)

  

At Folly Farm (probably in about 2015), I began powerfully imagining and playing with a project of my own, Green Witch. I walked in the incredibly beautiful wild wood there and felt my characters come to life – Tol, the broody, beautiful, troubled young man who appears to be walking between worlds while in a coma, stalking terrified heroine Delilah in dreams and visions. I could almost see Delilah herself slipping between the trees ahead of me, a fragile, braced young woman with no confidence who then comes into her power as the next Green Witch in a long line, with a huge destiny and mission ahead of her. A bit slower off the mark than Liz (!) I wrote the book, and Green Witch is out next year. 

When I return to Folly Farm in January I’ll be walking in the same wild wood, soaking up the same magic, and closing some kind of circle with gratitude and appreciation as Green Witch is ushered out into the world on a wave of grace and magic (and like most of our beloved creations, probably a bit of a wing and a prayer!). I’ll be sitting by the fire with fellow writers - old friends and new – and all old souls for sure. We’ll be raising a glass to the beautiful, magical soul Kit Berry who very sadly passed away this year. Dear Kit, I will have a good roll round the floor to Wuthering Heights while screeching the lyrics at the top of my voice to properly honour you… 😉

Connection with nature is deeply sustaining, the friendship of warm, kind, funny people is deeply sustaining, writing and creativity is a deep, deep primal well of truth… Folly Farm has all of this, plus probably someone will bring a massive tub of Quality Street, and I cannot wait to find out what gifts are there for me in January…

Find Kelly at www.kellymckain.co.uk and www.soulsparks.space and out in the wild wood.