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Sunday, August 28, 2016

BW35: Summer Sun by Robert Lewis Stevenson







Our summertime break is coming to an end and 11th grade is about to begin. So decided to entertain you with Robert Lewis Stevenson.


Summer Sun

By

Robert Lewis Stevenson



Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.


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Sunday, August 21, 2016

BW34: 52 Books Bingo mini challenge - Pick a book with color in the title




Painting is silent poetry and poetry is painting that speaks ~ Plutarch


Time to add a bit of color to our reading lives - a dash of vermilion, a pinch of amber, a rainbow of blues and greens, a dab of sienna or a splotch of tangerine. Find a book with color in the title. Let your imagination run wild and paint your day!



















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Sunday, August 14, 2016

BW33: Ray Bradbury and Zen in the Art of Writing






Last year,  I read Ray Bradbury's writing essays from his Zen in the Art of Writing and felt like he’d given me marching orders for Bradbury's Book Camp for Writers.  Zen is a short but powerful book and lights a fire under you with his passion and zest for life and writing. I've been in sort of a writing slump lately and decided to revisit his book. 

There are so many snippets I underlined and wrote down, it is hard to know where to start.

Everything you have ever experienced in life goes into your subconscious as food for your muse.  How do you tap into that food to help you grow as a writer? Bradbury kept a book full of lists of nouns; words that reminded him of experiences. He'd refer to the list and a word or collection of words would spark an idea such as the ones that lead him to write Something Wicked This Way Comes:

The lake. The Night. The Crickets. The Ravine.  The Attic.  The Basement.  The Trapdoor. The Baby.  The Crowd.  The Night Train. The Fog Horn. The Scythe. The Carnival. The Carousel. The Dwarf. The Mirror Maze. The Skeleton.

In his essay How to Keep and Feed the Muse he says:

What if the Subconscious to every man, in its creative aspect, became, for writers, the Muse. 

How do you feed your muse? Read poetry every day which will flex your muscles and expand your senses. Consume essays, travel through the centuries. Learn and fill up your senses with the shape and size of the world, every color, smell, texture and sound. Read Short Stories and novels. Not only those who write the way you think but those that don't. It all serves to stimulate your Muse's tastebuds. And while you are feeding your muse, you have to keep it shape.  And you do that by writing 1000 words a day for the next ten to twenty five years.  Why?


...to learn enough about grammar and story construction so that these become part of the subconscious without restraining or distorting the muse.

In the essay Zen in the Art of Writing, he goes on to say follow your own path, write for the right reasons and not for the money or accolades.

Fame and money are gifts given us only after we have gifted the world with  our best.

Write from the heart and emotions and learn. Keep writing.  There is no failure as long as you keep writing.  His Zen mantra is  WORK -- RELAXATION -- DON'T THINK

So work at your writing and shoot for 1000 to 2000 words a day for the next twenty years.  Write one short story a week for 52 weeks for five years. Much like the surgeon or artist or athlete train for years before they become proficient and successful, so must you train. Quantity provides the experience and with experience eventually comes quality.  As in all things, writing takes practice.  So feed your muse and start practicing.


To feed well is to grow. To work well and constantly is to keep what you have learned and know in prime condition.  Experience. Labor. These are the two sides of the coin which when spun is neither experience nor labor, but the moment of revelation. The coin, by optical illusion, becomes a round, bright, whirling globe of life.

His idea to read one short story, poem and an essay a night applies for readers as well. You know me and my rabbit trails.  Just think of all the directions our reading could take. So, whether you need reading or writing motivation,  read  Zen in the Art of Writing. 

Also, when you have the time, check out this video – An Evening with Ray Bradbury 2001 of his keynote address at The Sixth Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea.

If you have any favorite poetry or essay books, I'd love to hear about them.

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Sunday, August 7, 2016

BW32: Bookish birthdays and news



Step into my parlor and join me for a cup of tea as it's time for another edition of Bookish birthdays and news.

Neil Gaiman on Why We Read and What Books Do for the Human Experience.

Nicholas Bakalr - Read Books, Live Longer?

The Strand's Literary Quiz - Want to Work in 18 miles of Books?  First, the Quiz

The Millions - A Thousand Hands will Grasp You with Warm Desire


Authors celebrating birthday this month are:

1  - Herman Melville
2  - James Baldwin
3  - Leon Uris
4  - William Henry Hudson
5  - Conrad Aiken
6  - Janet Asimov 
7  - Garrison Keillor
8  - Elizabeth Ann Tallent
9  - Daniel Keyes
10  - Witter Bynner 
11  - Alex Haley
12  - Mary Roberts Rinehart 
13 -  Alfred Hitchcock
14  - Russell Baker
15  - Edna Ferber
16  - Hugo Gernsback 
17  - Charlotte Lottie Forten
18  - Paula Danziger
19  - James Gould Cozzens
20  - H.P. Lovecraft
21  - Lucius Shepard
22  - Dorothy Parker and Ray Bradbury
23  - Edgar Lee Masters
24  - Mason Williams
25 -  Bret Harte
26 -  Barbara Ehrenreich
27 -  William Least Heat-Moon
28 -  Rita Dove
29 -  Oliver Wendell Holmes
30 -  Mary Shelley
31 -  Dubose Heyward

Have fun following rabbit trails! I did!

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Please link to your specific post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, leave a comment telling us what you have been reading.