A Small Press Life

Daily Diversion #129: If You Want to Be Happy, Marry a Chef

maedez — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:53:32 +0000

I eat better when The Chef is home. I miss that man.

Tasty, tasty dinner.

“You can’t just eat good food. You’ve got to talk about it too. And you’ve got to talk about it to somebody who understands that kind of food.”-Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird

maedez — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:43:30 +0000

“Literature is painting, architecture, and music.”-Yevgeny Zamyatin

Voices from the Grave #70: Patrick Kavanagh Reading ‘The Hospital’

maedez — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:51:31 +0000

Patrick Kavanagh reading The Hospital.

Creativity Challenges: Staying Motivated During the Moving Process

maedez — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:08:29 +0000

We have to be out of our flat in two weeks. We are surrounded by a swiftly growing assemblage of boxes; they are eagerly closing in on us, covering pathways, blocking the easiest routes of egress. Worse still, is their power to sap me of my will to write. As they increase in number and size, my ability to function as a creator decreases accordingly.

Wherever my eyes look, they see chaos: dust, empty shelves, fraying carpet seams. My studio is slowly being denuded of charm and character. I look around and wonder, “How did I ever write in this place? How did I create things of purpose and beauty? Did I?” From certain angles, it just doesn’t seem possible. This indignity, it’s monstrous.

It’s an illusion, naturally. Creative spaces are not enchanted rooms or bewitched nooks. They do not bestow extraordinary abilities on all who enter, but instead offer us serenity or stillness or mental and physical discipline. They are practical, safe places rooted in the everyday needs of difficult professions.

Through this tatty veil, though, a bit of magic shines through. Talismans. Books and other scraps of inspiration: photos, quotes, fancy pens, markers, colourful paper clips, a mountain of notebooks, art, calendars, strange ephemera, re-purposed junk. These are the inhabitants that make my studio what it is: a visually and emotionally appealing sanctuary where work gets done.

This brings us back to the lamentations of the opening paragraphs. The growing starkness of the studio is messing with the normal structure of my days. If it ever came down to it, I could write anywhere and under almost any imaginable circumstance. Write with blinders on, focused, unaffected. Unfortunately, the fact that I do not have to means that I do not have to, will not, cannot. I will struggle on for the next couple of weeks, searching for poise. Ideas piling up in notebooks, phrases and plots reaching the edge of fruition. Waiting. Waiting to be unpacked. Waiting to be developed. Waiting.

“I lived to write, and wrote to live.”-Samuel Rogers

Daily Diversion #128: Do Not Be Angry With the Rain*

maedez — Sun, 19 May 2013 00:13:41 +0000

Rainy Day Window

* “Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”-Vladimir Nabokov

The Dead Writers Round-Up: May 18th-20th

maedez — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:37:27 +0000

Nathaniel Hawthorne died on 5/18/1864. “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which one is true.” (The Scarlet Letter; The House of the Seven Gables; The Blithedale Romance; Twice-Told Tales)
George Meredith died on 5/18/1909. “There is nothing the body suffers the soul may not profit by.” (The Adventures of Harry Richmond; Diana of the Crossways; Modern Love)
William Saroyan died on 5/18/1981. “No enemy is so annoying as one who was a friend, or still is a friend, and there are many more of these than one would expect.” (The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze; The Human Comedy; The Time of Your Life)
James Boswell died on 5/19/1795. “I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.” (The Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides; Life of Samuel Johnson)
Lorraine Hansberry was born on 5/19/1930. “There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing.” (A Raisin in the Sun; The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window)
T.E. Lawrence died on 5/19/1935. “There could be no honor in sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.” (Seven Pillars of Wisdom; The Mint)
Booth Tarkington died on 5/19/1946. “So long as we can lose any happiness, we possess some.” (Monsieur Beaucaire; Penrod; Penrod and Sam; Seventeen; The Magnificent Ambersons; Alice Adams; Presenting Lily Mars)
Ogden Nash died on 5/19/1971. “People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up.” (Candy is Dandy; I’m a Stranger Here Myself; Private Dining Room; Everyone But Thee and Me)
Sir John Betjeman died on 5/19/1984. “I don’t think I am any good. If I thought I was any good, I wouldn’t be.” (Mount Zion; Continual Dew; High and Low)
Honore de Balzac was born on 5/20/1799. “The more one judges, the less one loves.” (Cromwell; Les Chouans; Sarrasine; La Cousine Bette)
John Clare died on 5/20/1864. “The best way to avoid a bad action is by doing a good one, for there is no difficulty in the world like that of trying to do nothing.” (The Rural Muse; Sonnet; The Firetail)
Adela Rogers St. Johns was born on 5/20/1894. “Happiness is a sort of atmosphere you can live in sometimes when you’re lucky.” (A Free Soul; The Honeycomb; screenplays; newspaper articles)
Sir Max Beerbohm died on 5/20/1956. “All fantasy should have a solid base in reality.” (The Happy Hypocrite; Zuleika Dobson; A Peep into the Past)

Click to view slideshow.

[Book Nerd Art] Gentle Julia by Booth Tarkington

maedez — Sat, 18 May 2013 17:24:19 +0000

The frontispiece from Gentle Julia by Booth Tarkington. 1922. Illustrated by: C. Allan Gilbert and Worth Brehm.

Frontispiece of Gentle Julia by Booth Tarkington

[Book Nerd Links] Fascinating Early-20th-Century Color Photos of Famous People

maedez — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:57:22 +0000

Fascinating Early-20th-Century Color Photos of Famous People [courtesy Flavorwire]

There are several writers included. Be sure to come back and let us know your favourite!

[R]evolving Incarnations: A Questionnaire for Passionate Readers-Let’s Review

maedez — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:11:35 +0000

[R]evolving Incarnations: A Questionnaire For Passionate Readers is an interview series done in classic Q&A format. Each entry features one intrepid writer/blogger/artist/creative mastermind as they take on the same 40 reading-themed questions and scenarios.

So far we’ve featured 3 amazing bloggers. If you missed any of their interviews, now is a great time to catch up!

Inspiration Board: 16th May 2013

maedez — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:48:58 +0000

“Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers.”-Janis Joplin

O, You Bad Girl!

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