Tag Archives: Inspiration

Daily Diversion #22: How Long Can I Resist?

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"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day."-Henry David Thoreau

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”-Henry David Thoreau

I’m not an early riser, but I like the idea of taking a morning constitutional. Not a plain old walk, mind you: a constitutional. Yes, yes…I know it means the same thing. The latter, however, sounds vigorous and lovely and a bit old-fashioned. As if it takes work, thought, planning. A clear head. For the last few weeks, I’ve been threatening to get up early (for me) and drag my husband to the cemetery down the street. A four-minute drive for an hour’s hike. After sunrise, but before the work day has dawned. It is such a tempting idea, in my head. On paper. The reality will likely find me achy and whiny and yawning for the first half an hour. Yet, yet… the destination is the above scene: vibrant, bright, wild. Serene. All in the shadow of the city. How long can I resist?

[News] The Daily Post Talks About Effective Book Blogging (And Mentions Us)

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Have you ever read The Daily Post, WordPress.com’s official blog about blogging? If not, you should head over there now! Why? Because we received a nice shout-out in yesterday’s article (Focus On: Book Blogs) about how to effectively review books on your blog. Can you guess which hyperlinked tip refers to us before clicking it for confirmation? Sounds fun, right? I’ve got to run, so this PSA is officially over. Thanks for your three seconds!

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 2nd-4th June

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  • Thomas Hardy was born on 6/2/1840. “And yet to every bad there is a worse.”
  • Barbara Pym was born on 6/2/1913. “My thoughts went round and round and it occurred to me that if I ever wrote a novel it would be of the ‘stream of consciousness’ type and deal with an hour in the life of a woman at the sink.”-Excellent Women
  • George S. Kaufman died on 6/2/1961. “When I invite a woman to dinner, I expect her to look at my face. That’s the price she has to pay.”
  • Franz Kafka died on 6/3/1924. “A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.”
  • Allen Ginsberg was born on 6/3/1926. “America, how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?”-America
  • Harry Crosby was born on 6/4/1898. “When I like people immensely, I never tell their names to anyone. It is like murdering a part of them.”
  • Arna Bontemps died on 6/4/1973. “There will be better days when I am gone And healing pools where I cannot be healed”-Nocturne at Bethesda

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[All images are in the Public Domain and are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

 

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 23rd-27th May

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  • Henrik Ibsen died on 5/23/1906. “Do not use that foreign word “ideals.” We have that excellent native word “lies.””
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson was born on 5/25/1803. “A great man is always willing to be little.”
  • Madame de La Fayette died on 5/25/1693. “Never refuse any advance of friendship, for if nine out of ten bring you nothing, one alone may repay you.”
  • Maxwell Bodenheim was born on 5/26/1892. “Poetry is the impish attempt to paint the color of the wind.”
  • Dashiell Hammett was born on 5/27/1894. “I deserve all the love you can spare me. And I want a lot more than I deserve.”
  • Rachel Carson was born on 5/27/1907. “Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.”

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Daily Diversion #9: Emily Dickinson

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I'm nobody, who are you?

I’m nobody, who are you?

This literary paper doll was a birthday gift from my mom about 5 years ago. She lives on a shelf in my studio, staring at me from behind a glazed ceramic urn full of Tardis dessert flags.

Beauty is not caused. It is.

Beauty is not caused. It is.

Her deceptively simple poetry quickens the mind, the heart, the blood, the creativity that dwells within us all, hidden yet frantic to escape.

 

The Dead Writers Round-Up: 17th-20th May

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  • Dorothy Richardson was born on 5/17/1873. “If there was a trick, there must be a trickster.”
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne died on 5/19/1864. “The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one’s family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.” Continue reading →