Daily Archives: May 11, 2012

[11 May 2012] This Week’s Lessons in Reading and Writing

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  • My Nook e-Book reader is my friend.
  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula is even better than I remembered.
  • Waking up a little earlier than normal is great for my writing brain.
  • Buying a fat stack of books is a natural high.
  • Success is at least 50% discipline, organization and perseverance. Self-promotion doesn’t hurt any, either.
  • I don’t hear pounding on my front door when I am in the writing zone. Which still does not give someone the right to walk in uninvited, even if this is an apartment. Ahem.
  • I’m not as attractive as I think I am when I am writing. I’m usually quite disheveled, apparently. Perhaps even wild-eyed. Whatever. This is what creation looks like, people. We don’t all look as preppy as Sylvia Plath whilst in thrall to the muse.
  • Taking a holiday-including from writing, however brief-is soul-illuminatingly wonderful.

A Year in Books/Day 130: Passionate Minds

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  • Screenshot of Mae West from the trailer for th...

    Screenshot of Mae West from the trailer for the film I’m No Angel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    Title: Passionate Minds Women Rewriting the World

  • Author: Claudia Roth Pierpont
  • Year Published: 2000 (Vintage Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2002
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: This is a subject close to my heart, and one that I frequently write about: women writers. Especially dead women writers. Twelve women (with different view-points, strengths and contributions), twelve in-depth profiles: each chapter is a study in grace, perseverance, individuality and talent. The subjects present interesting juxtapositions, from the expected (Gertrude Stein) to the controversial (Margaret Mitchell, Ayn Rand); the forgotten (Olive Schreiner) to the unexpected (Mae West). It offers complexity where so often there is indifference or cliché; it’s uplifting and respectful without resorting to heroine worship. Brisk and engrossing, you’ll be hard-pressed to put it down without finishing it in one straight read.
  • Motivation: DEAD WOMEN WRITERS.
  • Times Read: 3
  • Random Excerpt/Page 81: “Because there were no available acting roles for a woman who drove men wild and enjoyed them in bed by the dozen and gave as good as she got and didn’t want to marry and never suffered for any of it, Mae West had to become a writer before she could be a movie star.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10