Hello to everyone! This looks like a friendly forum and "a great place for magicians to chat" -- now, where have I seen that before?
I'm Roberta Davies (call me Robbie), 46, female, married, struggling to write a novel, and presently living in Bolton because we can't afford to leave. But that's another story.
I earn my living as a freelance editor/proofreader, inadvertently specialising in puzzle magazines. The level of English in most modern magical publications causes me actual pain, and I would very much like to proofread/edit/design in the magical field, but at the moment I've got nearly all the work I can handle and so don't want to advertise.
Not entirely sure about my magical status except it's amateur. Very amateur, in fact, since I don't even have any friends around here to bore rigid for free. I am basically inclined towards mentalism; classical magic leaves me pretty cold.
Like most people here (I venture to say), I started quite young when I got a magic set for Christmas. It was a pretty cheapo set, and I was a little too young for most of the tricks, but I got years of fun out of it just the same. Even at that tender age, my favourite trick in the box was the mind-reading wheel.
Over the years I collected up a few easy magic books as well. As with most of my hobbies, my parents tolerated but did not encourage. Once adolescence struck, I put it all away to concentrate on more urgent things, which eventually included getting work, and then rather later getting married. Moving, getting other jobs, getting a degree, etc. etc. All that sort of boring domestic stuff that gets in the way of living.
It's only been in the past ten years or so, since I've gone freelance, that I've managed to work my way back to magic and move beyond the "magic set" and "easy magic book" level. I'm now starting to get my bearings in the wider magic world and culture, which of course as a child I never knew existed. In the absence of opportunities to perform, I've been catching up on a lot of background and theory.
What really excites me is all the psychological work that's been going on in mentalism (Kenton Knepper, Luke Jermay, etc.). I was already fairly well informed in the overlapping fields of psychology, hypnosis, and subliminal communication -- finding such practical combinations of all three just blew me away, and continues to blow me away.
The next step is to put in plenty of practice on those bothersome technical skills!
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