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A Gift of Frozen Words
Soundtrack to today’s post: “Some Children See Him” (piano solo by George Winston from his album December; click Play button to start, and adjust volume with the little row of bars at the left): [Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Getting There, vs. There
From an appreciation of novelist (and biographer, etc.) Penelope Fitzgerald, by novelist (etc.) Julian Barnes, appearing in The Guardian in July: Novels are like cities: some are organised and laid out with the colour-coded clarity of public transport maps, with each chapter marking a progress from one station to the next, until all the characters [...]
“Stand by Me,” Worldwide
From the previous post‘s ridiculous heart, to this one’s sublime: Per the “more info” box at this video’s YouTube page: From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”, comes the first of many “songs around the world” being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around [...]
The Tiny Heart of Darkness
[I'm working on a seasonal offering with my co-blogger. But, as you can perhaps imagine, complications abound in working on anything with a gargoyle. Communication problems, for one -- we're still getting used to each other's language. And no computer "hard"ware known is meant for handling by someone with fingers of stone and eyes incapable [...]
Story Starters: The Writer’s Idea Bank
When I first started programming, both I and a brother-in-law worked for AT&T. This was back in the days before all the local phone networks got spun off into their own companies — when the entire US phone network was called, collectively, “the Bell System.” My brother-in-law, whom I will here call The BiL, was [...]
The “Greener” Other Side of the Fence
Agent Jessica Faust of the BookEnds, LLC blog, on “Offering Representation to Published Authors,” seeks to reassure new authors that things could be worse for them: they might have a track record. If a previously published author comes to me seeking representation, I need to, of course, look at the new work to see if [...]
Bookwormed
Seems I have been “bookworm tagged” by Julie Weathers. “Bookworm Award” rules: Open the closest book — not a favorite or most intellectual book — but the book closest at the moment, to page 56 Write out the fifth sentence, as well as two to five sentences following Tag five innocents [or more] With the [...]
Near-Misses: The Legend of 1900
The Missus roamed the aisles of the video store a few nights ago, not looking for anything in particular. (Which is to say, she’d ceased looking for anything in particular: it was one of those in-between times when all the “new releases” on our must-see list had already been claimed by renters with more disciplined [...]
Sweet Mystery
[Image above is a "Kitty Kitsch" sculpture by C. David & Ferbie Claudon, depicting feline versions of Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy serenading each other in the Canadian wilderness. Click image for more info.] From whiskey river: Strange Life It’s as if you are alone in a room in an empty house and there’s music [...]
I Can Has Claus. Teef Too.
From the Associated Press, December 10, 2008: Santa Claus posed with a very large kitty on his lap — and now, unfortunately, he might need rabies shots. Jonathan Bebbington was playing the jolly old elf during a Santa Paws photo event at a PetsMart store when he was bitten Sunday on the wrist and hand. [...]
