[Book Nerd News] Poet Seamus Heaney is Dead!

Posted on August 30, 2013 by maedez

Seamus Heaney, Irish Nobel Prize-Winning Poet, Dies at 74 [courtesy PEOPLE]

Seamus Heaney Dead: Irish Nobel-Winning Poet Dies in Dublin [courtesy HUFF POST BOOKS]

Inspiration Board: 29th August 2013

Posted on August 29, 2013 by maedez

Umbrellas in the Rain, 1899, Maurice Prendergast

Marilyn Monroe, 1962, by George Barris

John Barrymore as Hamlet, 1922

The Solemn Land, James E. H. MacDonald, 1921

Joe Strummer

Beach Scene with Boats by Maurice Prendergast

William Butler Yeats, 1920

Gene Kelly, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, 1949

Hietaniemi Beach, 1921

Actress Kay Laurell and friend, 1922

[Book Nerd Links] Illustrations of Literary Heroines

Posted on August 28, 2013 by maedez

9 of Literature’s Most Beloved Heroines [courtesy HUFF POST BOOKS]

Do you have a favourite?

[Alternative Muses] Coming and Going: Bret Harte/Truman Capote Mashup

Posted on August 25, 2013 by maedez

Bret Harte was born on 8/25/1836.

Bret Harte, 1862.

“If, of all words of tongue and pen, The saddest are, ‘It might have been,’/More sad are these we daily see: ‘It is, but hadn’t ought to be.”-Bret Harte

Truman Capote died on 8/25/1984.

Truman Capote, 1959, by Roger Higgins.

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”-Truman Capote

Like Pulling Teeth. Out of my Scalp 6: Sublime felines.

Posted on August 22, 2013 by KM Scott

Holy cats, I’m self-published.

(Blinks)

Oh, there’s a bunch of digital rigmarole [rigital digamarole] I’m still sorting out – such as the appearance of the actual Amazon page that features the book, getting the “LOOK INSIDE!” feature set up, and all that other none-too-challenging jazz to do. But then, I stop dealing with that (and the student reports I have to type up, and the Flash games I’ve been playing, and the constant Rifftrax Twilight vids I’ve been watching), and it hits me …

Holy cats. I’m a self-published author.

The book’s been available now since about lunch today (August 22, 2013). And yet, I’ve been a little hesitant to toot about, given that I want to make the amazon page and other associated webpages really sing. But for now, I can’t help but toot like crazy (or tweet, I guess they call it), because today, for the first time in my life, I have published a book. Two emotions hold sway over my mind right now. The first is thankfulness – to God, to my friends, my dear family, my awesome editor, my great collaborators, my inspiring students, my amazing illustrator, and the gallons and gallons of cola that fueled the whole ordeal. The other feeling I have is indescribable, so until more sophisticated language comes to mind for me to more adequately express myself, I shall simply have to settle for the following:

Holy cats.

EDIT: BTW, if you want to check out the fruits of my (and my illustrator’s) labor, you can find it here.