Tag Archives: Essays

What Are You Reading in November?

Posted on by
14

What is on your reading list this month?

Have you given yourself permission to take it easy, as the year comes to a close?

Or, as we race the clock to 2016, are you trying to stuff as many books into your brain as possible?

I am doing the latter.

Very much the latter.

Since 1 November, I’ve finished:

  • Holding on Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell
  • Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel Holmes
  • Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music by Neil Powell
  • All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays by George Orwell
  • Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchwell
  • Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star by Stephen Michael Shearer
  • Vintage Reading: From Plato to Bradbury: A Personal Tour of Some of the World’s Best Books by Robert Kanigel
  • A Woman of Temperament by Lucile Duff Gordon (in progress)

To Be Read by 30 November:

  • Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (the only novel on the list!)
  • Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee
  • Madcap May: Mistress of Myth, Men & Hope by Richard Kurin
  • White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple
  • The Mad Potter: George E. Ohr Eccentric Genius by Jan Greenberg & Sandra Jordan
  • Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker by Patrick McGilligan

And, if I finish all of these…I have Michel de Montaigne’s essays waiting in the wings.

What is your favourite book this month?

Which book on your list are you most looking forward to reading?

Please share with me in the comments!

Happy reading.

[Intermezzo] Wherein I Offer You a Few Disjointed but Heartfelt Memories of My Dead Friend Frank on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Posted on by
2

This was originally published on 7 December 2012. I am re-posting it today in honor of its subject, my buddy Frank.

maedez's avatarA Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea.

Dear World,

Frank died at 87 1/2 years old. Picture this: When he was a tow-headed little boy, just a toddler, his parents dressed him in short pants and a striped shirt and posed him on the hood of the family Model T, grinning. Feisty. He was named after a prominent ancestor, Benjamin Franklin, and they shared more than a name: both were brilliant, larger-than-life, charismatic. Actually, he came from a long line of characters: a grandfather who died, in his 90s, as the result of a bar fight, a father who was an early aviator. That family bred their men big, bold, and memorable. Frank, my Frank, my friend, came of age during the Great Depression. He had an older brother, equally brilliant; when it came time for Frank to attend college in ’37 or ’38, there was no money left. None. His brother had the degree that Frank…

View original post 1,042 more words

[Creativity Challenges] Why I Just Added a Dry Erase Board to My Amazon Wish List

Posted on by
12

It all comes down to time management. In fact, most of my professional difficulties can be traced to that annoyingly persistent foe. Time management is, if you will, my arch-enemy. While I am extremely organized by nature, I have a hard time keeping firm control over my writing day. The busier I am, the worse my habits become. In March, I am working on the launch of two new blogs, editing a book and consulting on another, and creating three pieces of short fiction. This is in addition to my regular blogging, ‘zining, and writing commitments. My self-control is a shambles. My desk is, even as I type these words, littered with notes, most of which are scraps of half crossed-off to-do lists. My lovely notebooks, ditto. While it is deeply satisfying to strike lines through finished tasks, having a pile of disordered lists lounging about mocking my intentions does not encourage me to actually do anything. Quite the opposite. Technology is equally sterile when faced with dozens of work assignments. I will ignore every single electronic notification put in place to help me along the path to finishing jobs, and will do so every single time with unchained glee. Technology is only my friend when it is helping me waste time or stay connected with people. Otherwise, it can fly off. Continue reading →

Daily Diversion #104: Lazy Sunday

Posted on by
8

The frozen sky spits out a combination pack of snowflakes: huge, miniscule, fat, puffy, wispy, deflated. Something for everyone, except me. I am ready for spring; curmudgeonly winter with his ridiculous whims needs to go away. Back to yesterday, or last week. Back to when he was wanted, appreciated, welcomed.

Snowy day, snowy day.

Snowy day, snowy day.

I have no energy, just a belly full of decadent food and a gaping need for a long, warm nap.

Creme Brulee French Toast

Creme Brulee French Toast.

Goodnight, all. I’ll write tomorrow.

 

Daily Prompt: Happily Ever After

Posted on by
12

Once Upon a Time, little girls were told they needed fairy tales. The goal was to hear the words, “And they lived happily ever after. The End.” It’s a scary idea. It says so right there: the end. A closed book. Happiness trapped under glass like a dead fly. The problem is that, when you are working toward an official Happily Ever After, you miss the nuances of the journey through the Big Bad Forest, the meat and mead of life: laughter, tears, growth, absurdity, knowledge, companionship, heartbreak, fulfillment, frustration, accomplishment. Life is messy, irreverent. It brooks no happily ever after. Why should it? Life is its own complicated reward.

Write your own story, but write it honestly. Live your own life, without succumbing to complacent platitudes. Embrace your own beautifully cracked version of success and happiness. Mine calls for writing words the best way I can, in reading more than is healthy, in loving a complex, brilliant, imperfect man. It allows for dust in the corners of my house and budding laugh lines around my eyes. I love every second of this broken bliss. It’s a thousand times better than any sterile Happily Ever After.

This is in response to the Daily Prompt: Happily Ever After. “And they lived happily ever after.” Think about this line for a few minutes. Are you living happily ever after? If not, what will it take for you to get there?

Here’s a Nifty “Poster” Featuring a Quote from One of My Essays

Posted on by
9

I made this “poster” from an excerpt of one of my essays. It was fun! If you want to make a quote poster of your own, go to Recite This. A big thank you goes to Gala Darling for introducing me to this site.

A quote from one of my essays.

A quote from one of my essays.

[Intermezzo] I’m Thinking About Cleaning Out My Idea Bank

Posted on by
10

I’m thinking about cleaning out my idea bank. It is a knee-quaking concept. Ten years of scraps, plots, extracts, phrases, titles, names, research and character studies are lovingly tucked away or carelessly crammed into various crannies and boxes and drawers. They contain a lot of good ideas and solid or beautiful writing. There are threads of greatness, however frayed and dirty and dusty; there’s a lot of crap, too, or things that I have outgrown or moved past. Legal pads, notebooks, torn napkins, loose leaf paper. Written in pen, pencil, marker, lipstick. It’s all there, waiting to be addressed. Faced. Embraced or conquered. Trashed or saved. Crumpled mounds of surprise or disgust. “I’m this good?” or “What shitty shit of a writer came up with this?” It’s all conjecture, of course, as I haven’t read any of it; but I know the odds, and they are even. The summer is young, and the days are long. I can do this.