‘it had come about exactly the way it happened in books.’
-agatha christie
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art credit: tom gauld
erma bombeck’s writer’s conference
Mar5
Category Archives: writers
Dec8
‘the covers of this book are too far apart.’ – ambrose bierce
1936, John Steinbeck’s dog Toby, an Irish Setter, turned the first draft of Of Mice and Men into a snack. In a letter dated May 27 of that year, the future Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner wrote that he “was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically.”
Steinbeck estimated that Toby making “confetti” of the manuscript would set him back by about two months, but it may have been worth it: Steinbeck’s short, tragic tale of two migrant workers eking out a humble existence in California during the Depression is among the author’s most moving and accomplished works, which is saying something for the man responsible for both East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck, a lifelong dog-lover, later wrote a travelogue featuring his poodle called Travels With Charley.
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‘a critic can only review the book he has read, not the one which the writer wrote.’
-mignon mclaughlin
source credit: interesting facts
image credit: luckylaika, olivia
Mar3
tangerine dreams.
wh0 wouldn’t love to have a tangerine cat?
—
“our holiday food splurge was a small crate of tangerines, which we found ridiculously thrilling after an eight-month abstinence from citrus. lily hugged each one to her chest before undressing it as gently as a doll. watching her do that as she sat cross-legged on the floor one morning in pink pajamas, with bliss lighting her cheeks, i thought; lucky is the world, to receive this grateful child. value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family’s attempts to eat locally. Lily, mentioned above, is her daughter, now also an author and an environmental scientist.
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image credit: pinterest
Jul7
in gear.
what i imagine it looks like inside of our heads –
along with
the scientific explanation for how this all works.
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“it usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.”
-steven wright
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image credit: milton bradley game company
Feb11
this says…
“this says – i love my whole family.”
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“writing isn’t letters on paper. it’s communication. it’s memory.”
-isaac marion
Jan3
watching.
just a subtle reminder that
olive the cat not the martini garnish/editor at large/bon vivant
is always watching
ready to offer ‘worldly suggestions’ to improve my writing.
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“you can observe a lot just by watching.”
-yogi berra
Oct21
write something.
after 4 years and 4 tries
at last i find myself in
the erma bombeck writer’s workshop
at the university of dayton
her alma mater
where she has left an endowment
to support writers of humor and the human condition
i’ve always admired her style of writing
her daughter spoke of growing up in the family
the joy of erma’s looks at life
already feeling inspired and so lucky
with very welcoming writers
of all shapes and sizes, ages and stages
beginning to accomplished author
each with a unique story and reason
all with a common passion
the desire to write.
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“to say, ‘well, i write when i really get into it’ is a bunch of bull.
put the paper in the typewriter, stare at it a long time,
get snowblindness if you have to, but write something.”
-erma bombeck
I didn't have my glasses on.... 