Any aspiring professional willing to take writing advice from E.L. James is an idiot. Although her bank account is inspirational, her ability is not. The opposite direction is this way. —————> You are welcome.
E.L. James’ ‘Shades of Grey: Inner Goddess’: a writer’s journal [courtesy Los Angeles Times Books]
Morning view.
That is snow on the roof of the low building above the truck. It was 70 degrees just 3 days ago.
An inadequate but satisfying breakfast.
When it is cold I could stay in bed all day. This morning, the siren’s call of the electric kettle was too strong.
“You will be successful in your career.”
The universe is obviously trying to tell me something, in the form of this dark chocolate orange fortune cookie. The message? “Get to work, you lazy woman.”
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”-Confucius
“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”-Jerome K. Jerome
“Out of clutter, find simplicity.”-Albert Einstein
“Hide not your talents, they for use were made,
What’s a sundial in the shade?”-Benjamin Franklin
Take Your Choice, 1885, by John F. Peto. (In the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
Take Your Choice, 1885, by John F. Peto.
Oh, Jean-Louis. You problematic, magnetic SOB. Ninety-one years to the day after your birth, and we-the writers, readers, and open souls of the world-still cannot escape your torturous orbit. As for me: my heart is willing, but my mind is not quite able to sprint the final few yards into your embrace. I promise to try again, like I always do. You know how it goes. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s not me, it’s you. It’s the two of us, together. I love you and hate you and love-hate-hate-love you. This dance we do will never end; the steps and the rhythm will change, but the tune will echo to eternity. Until next time.
Love and kisses and shrugs,
Maedez
On the Road
“I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”-Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Lord Byron Quote
Only very special books live on the shelf above the desk in my studio. I am about to start reading Hung in the Middle, a memoir by my dear friend Alana Nicole Sholar. Methinks she is in good company.
Hung in the Middle
Never forget: Zelda had a gift for words, too. Muses aren’t always mute.
Zelda Fitzgerald Quote Poster
“The slivers of artistic vision which she was able to develop reveal a singular sensibility, her raw ability yielding under a surprisingly effective command. Zelda Fitzgerald is, possibly, best known as the ultimate liver of life, a rare talent at which she excelled with panache, humour, and fortitude. She was also a creator of things beautiful, witty, complex, and sensual. How much was left unrealized, we will never know: that answer died with her in a sanitarium fire, on 10 March 1948.
The greatest work of art that it is in our limited power to create is that which we salvage, fashion, and edit from the raw material of our lives. Zelda Fitzgerald, in potential and adversity, made much of what she was given, as a human being and as an artist.”-from Zelda: The Other Fitzgerald, by Alicia Austen
This mesmerizing gent is writer and publisher Robert McAlmon, who was born on 9 March 1895.
Robert McAlmon, one of my great inspirations, looking spiffy.
QUOTE: “He (Owen Johnson) didn’t have to argue with me about the beginning of the jazz and the flapper age. It began actively for me when I was fourteen. As a child I had noted it without curiosity in my elders. That means the jazz age proper and the flappers were going strong before 1910, some years before Scott Fitzgerald was beyond his own childhood. It was in its heyday when Irene and Vernon Castle were famous as ballroom dancers, and none of us as children considered ourselves grown up unless we could bonton, pigeon-trot, barn-dance, Spanish tango, or turkey-walk our two hundred miles a week of so-called dancing. In those days the hobble skirt and the sheath gown were creating a sensation, and I remember seeing the smart young ladies from the university doing a step or two on the street corners as they waited for the streetcar to come along.”
SOME WORKS: Village: As it Happened Through a Fifteen Year Period; A Companion Volume; The Portrait of a Generation; North America, Continent of Conjecture; Being Geniuses Together: An Autobiography.
FUN FACT: In 1923, Robert McAlmon started the Contact Publishing Company. It is in this capacity, more than any other, that he ranks as one of my great professional inspirations.
Vita Sackville-West was born on 9 March 1892.
Birthday girl Vita Sackville-West in 1916.
QUOTE: “I worshipped dead men for their strength, forgetting I was strong.”
SOME WORKS: Sissinghurst; Solitude; The Edwardians; All Passion Spent; The Dark Island; No Signposts in the Sea.
A KEEPSAKE:
The Edwardians by Vita-Sackville West at Eager for Word. $12.34.
The Fascinating Self-Portraits of 20 Famous Authors [courtesy Flavorwire]
Do you have a favourite?
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 