About maedez

Writer, biographer, poet. History nerd, silent movie maven. Punk rocker, amateur baker, bookworm. Cricket fan, Scotch drinker, craft beer snob.

Quote

Posted on October 30, 2012 by maedez

“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.”-Rita Mae Brown

Daily Diversion #63: River City, River Song

Posted on October 29, 2012 by maedez

The perks to living in a river city are largely ones of aesthetics and mood and philosophy. Ambiance, if you will. Attitude. State of mind. Peace of mind. The advantages aren’t material; they’re bigger than that. More vital. Rivers are wise, yet fierce. Their beauty is quiet and chaotic, changing pace quicker than a hummingbird’s tissue-thin wings. Rivers remind me of nineteenth century English literature, or of the early twentieth century’s John Cowper Powys. Romantic, desolate, abiding. Cosmic. Or, in the words of Herman Hesse: “The river is everywhere.”

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Voices from the Grave #43: Sylvia Plath Reading ‘The Applicant’

Posted on October 29, 2012 by maedez

Sylvia Plath reading The Applicant.

[News] These Thieves Must Not Be Fans of Jane Eyre, or: I Cannot Believe I’m Posting a Link to the Daily Mail

Posted on October 28, 2012 by maedez

The Brontë Bell Chapel in Thornton, West Yorkshire was vandalized. (Courtesy of Mail Online)

A Year in Books/Day 217: The New York Public Library Desk Reference

Posted on October 28, 2012 by maedez

Title: The New York Public Library Desk Reference Fourth Edition
Year Published: This Edition-2002 (A Stonesong Press Book)
Year Purchased: 2005
Source: Writers Digest Book Club
About: This is my go-to reference book. It is the perfect companion for when you don’t feel like searching the internet, with the added bonus of being undeniably factual. None of the entries were written by drunken or vindictive idiots trying to mess with us (as far as we know). At nearly a thousand pages, it does the word comprehensive justice. As with all good research materials, it’s fun to read, too. Really. I also love flipping through it for no reason, and randomly landing on facts or figures that have nothing to do with my life, writing career, interests or hobbies. Just like when I was let loose with an almanac as a 3-year-old. What bliss!
Motivation: My lifelong obsession with reference books had nothing to do with it, nothing at all.
Times Read: Used as reference resource only.
Random Excerpt/Page 331: “myth of Er A parable at the end of Plato’s Republic about the fate of souls after bodily death; according to Plato, the soul must choose wisdom in the afterlife to guarantee a good life in its next cycle of incarnation.”
Happiness Scale: 10+

Daily Diversion #62: Ghost Writer

Posted on October 28, 2012 by maedez

Ghost Writer

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 27th-31st October

Posted on October 27, 2012 by maedez

Enid Bagnold was born on 10/27/1889. “The pleasure of one’s effect on other people still exists in age-what’s called making a hit. But the hit is much rarer and made of different stuff.”
Dylan Thomas was born on 10/27/1914. “When one burns one’s bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.”
Sylvia Plath was born on 10/27/1932. “Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.”
Rex Stout died on 10/27/1975. “I have never regarded myself as this or that. I have been too busy being myself to bother about regarding myself.”
Ted Hughes died on 10/28/1998. “Most writers of verse have several different personalities. The ideal is to find a style or a method that includes them all.”
James Boswell was born on 10/29/1740. “A companion loves some agreeable qualities which a man may possess, but a friend loves the man himself.”
Jean Giraudoux was born on 10/29/1882. “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan was born on 10/30/1751. “The surest way to fail is not to determine to succeed.”
Ezra Pound was born on 10/30/1885. “A man of genius has a right to any mode of expression.”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox died on 10/30/1919. “All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon the sand.”
Rose Macaulay died on 10/30/1958. “Love’s a disease. But curable.”
John Evelyn died on 10/31/1620. “Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.”
John Keats was born on 10/31/1795. “A proverb is no proverb to you until life has illustrated it.”
Natalie Clifford Barney was born on 10/31/1876. “Youth is not a question of years: one is young or old from birth.”