BW44: November Notions

I have an idea and my idea is this, I have an idea. *grin*   Welcome to November Notions - a month full of what?  Ideas, imagination, suggestions, discernment, angles, wrinkles, twists, preconceptions or postulations?  Or better yet...nonsense!   This is your month to make of it what you will.  Whether you are interested in traveling down the path of nonfiction, riddles and rhymes, or climbing up the mountain of hyperbole, exploring fictional caves of mystery and suspense, or diving into the ocean of laughter and romance, the world is yours to travel.

I think my ship got lost somewhere in the middle of the South Atlantic, but I've finally found the Rio de la Plata and the friendly port of Buenes Aires.  We are going to spend the rest of the year exploring South and North America and follow in the footsteps of our author flavors of the month - Julio Cortazar and Laura Esquivel.

A few years back I read Cortazar's Hopscotch, 

 Horacio Oliveira is an Argentinian writer who lives in Paris with his mistress, La Maga, surrounded by a loose-knit circle of bohemian friends who call themselves "the Club." A child's death and La Maga's disappearance put an end to his life of empty pleasures and intellectual acrobatics, and prompt Oliveira to return to Buenos Aires, where he works by turns as a salesman, a keeper of a circus cat which can truly count, and an attendant in an insane asylum. Hopscotch is the dazzling, free-wheeling account of Oliveira's astonishing adventures.

And by free-wheeling, they mean a stream of consciousness book in which you can read in chapter order or follow the random pattern set out by the author.  Same as the title, you will be Hopscotching around. According to the Quarterly Conversation:

The most remarked-on aspect of Hopscotch is its format: the book is split into 56 regular chapters and 99 “expendable” ones. Readers may read straight through the regular chapters (ignoring the expendable ones) or follow numbers left at the end of each chapter telling the reader which one to read next (eventually taking her through all but one of the chapters). A reading of the book in that way would lead the reader thus: Chapter 73 – 1 – 2 – 116 – 3 – 84 – 4 – 71 – 5 – 81 – 74 – 6 – 7- 8, and so on. -

If you haven't read it yet, now is your opportunity.  But be prepared to set aside all expectations, take your time, have a glass of wine or two and enjoy.

Laura Esquivel, a mexican author, is most well known for her story, Like Water for Chocolate:

A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. In desperation, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that he can stay close to her, so that Tita and Pedro are forced to circle each other in unconsummated passion. Only a freakish chain of tragedies, bad luck and fate finally reunite them against all the odds.

Esquivel has a revised edition of The Law of Love coming out May of 2017: 

New York Times bestselling author Laura Esquivel brings readers a tantalizing sensory experience with her wildly inventive novel of a love spanning many lifetimes. It’s the year 2200, and Azucena Martinez is a lonely astroanalyst living in Mexico City. She has finally repaid the karmic debts she accumulated during her previous fourteen thousand lives, and in recognition of her newfound purity of spirit, she will at last be permitted to meet her twin soul, Rodrigo Sanchez. But their perfect union is limited to just one night of bliss, as Rodrigo is framed for murder soon after and banished. As Azucena sets off in search for her lost love, she will trigger a chain of events that puts her in the midst of an intergalactic political uproar.

While you are meandering about the american continents, check out Top 10 Contemporary Mexican Novels,  22 Classic and Contemporary Female Latin Authors to read, as well as  10 Essential Latin American Feminists Writers and  Goodreads list of Latin American Literature. 

Happy exploring! 

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BW43: Happy Birthday Robert Bridges

Robert Seymour Bridges
October 23, 1844 - April 23, 1930 

In Autumn Moonlight

In autumn moonlight, when the white air wan 

Is fragrant in the wake of summer hence, 

'Tis sweet to sit entranced, and muse thereon 

In melancholy and godlike indolence: 

When the proud spirit, lull'd by mortal prime 

To fond pretence of immortality, 

Vieweth all moments from the birth of time, 

All things whate'er have been or yet shall be. 

And like the garden, where the year is spent, 

The ruin of old life is full of yearning, 

Mingling poetic rapture of lament 

With flowers and sunshine of spring's sure returning; 

Only in visions of the white air wan 

By godlike fancy seized and dwelt upon. 

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BW42: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

I'm going to assume that everyone who has wanted to read Frankenstein has read it by now.  For those who have never wanted to read it, hopefully you won't be miffed by the telling of the story.  Yes, it is full of spoilers.  Who knows, you may be intrigued enough to finally read it. 

Synopsis: "Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders grave yards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her love Percy Shelley near Bryon's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity."

I was surprised by the story because I some preconceived ideas about it from various films I had seen over the years and those were shot all to heck.

The story starts with an Adventurer Robert Wallen, trying to reach the North Pole. He tells the story in letters to his sister, Elizabeth. Out in the middle of the frozen ice lands, they meet up with Dr. Frankenstein who is chasing the monster. Frankenstein takes over the narrative at this point, telling his story and how he came to be there.

He had created a monster. Upon creating this monster and shocking it to life, he became instantly disgusted with it and himself and abandoned it.

"The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and healthy. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bedchamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep....

I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed: when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced it way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eye, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs." pg 58 -59

He leaves the house for a couple days and when he returns is overjoyed that the monster has left. The monster disappears for a period of time only to resurface angry with Frankenstein and kills his brother. Frankenstein knows the monster is responsible, however he is very depressed and travels up into the Alps to escape and sooth his weary spirit. The monster finds him and approaches and asks him to listen and help him. The monster has managed to educate himself quite well.

"Be calm! I entreat you to hear me, before you give vent to your hatred on my devoted head. Have I not suffered enough, that you seek to increase my misery? Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it. Remember, thou hast made me more powerful that thyself; my height is superior to thine, my joints more supple. But I will not be tempted to set myself in opposition to thee. I am thy creature, and I will be even mild and docile to my natural lord and king, if thou wilt also perform thy part, the which thou owest me. Oh, Frankenstein, be not equitable to every other and trample upon me alone, to whom thy justice, and even thy clemency and affection is most due. Remember, that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good; misery made me a friend. Make me happy and I shall again be virtuous." pg 102-103

The monster educated himself while living in a storage shed by a French family's house and spying on them. He managed to get a hold of three books and learned to read. The three books: Milton's Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Parallel lives and Johann von Goeth's Sorrows of Werter. The monster wants Frankenstein to make him a woman, a mate who will keep him company and he promises to disappear forever. After some thought, Frankenstein decides to so. He disappears to a tiny island and in the middle of making the monster's mate, is so overcome with disgust, destroys the mate halfway through. The Monster, who had been keeping tabs on him, kills his best friend, Cherval,  and Frankenstein is put in jail for the murder. When he is acquitted, he returns home to his father and his lady love who is still waiting for him.

Even though the Monster told him he would be there on his wedding night and kill him and despite the fact the good Doctor tells his lady love he has a terrible secret, but can't reveal it to her until they are married, he and Elizabeth get married. Frankenstein sends his new wife off to bed, while he paces the floor in the library, overcome with worry about Frankenstein.

"She left me, and I continued some time walking up and down the passages of the house, and inspecting every corner that might afford a retreat to my adversary. But I discovered no trace of him, and was beginning to conjecture that some fortunate chance had intervened to prevent the execution of his menaces; when suddenly I heard a shrill and dreadful scream. It had come from the room into which Elizabeth had retired. As I heard it, the whole truth rushed into my mind, my arms dropped, the motion of every muscle and fibre was suspended; I could feel the blood trickling in my veins, and tingling in the extremities of my limbs. This state lasted but for an instant; the scream was repeated and I rushed into the room." pg 199

Yes, the monster killed Elizabeth and the chase is on. Dr. Frankenstein chases the monster until we get to the point where the doctor meets up with Robert Walden. He is in ill health and ends up dying. Robert discovers the Monster in the room with Dr. Frankenstein, saying goodbye to his creator. After a long and dramatic discourse over his body, jumps out the window and disappears into the night.

"But soon,' he cried, with sad and solemn enthusiasm, 'I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. The list of that conflagration will fade away, my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. My spirit will sleep in peace; or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell.' pg 225

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BW41: My first Stephen King Novel

My first Stephen King Novel 

I generally steer away from horror novels, same as I do horror movies. Blood and guts slasher movies have never really been my cup of tea. Which is the reason I have steered away from Stephen King for many years. Too much for my very vivid imagination. Until I read Stephen King's On Writing and found myself quite impressed as well as intrigued. I decided to give one of his fiction books a try. I picked one up at the used book store and five minutes into the story changed my mind - too icky. Can't remember the name unfortunately because I took it back for credit. However, when Duma Key came out, I decided to give him another try. I read the back cover, picked a few random pages out in the book, liked what I read and decided to get it. Duma Key wasn't so much a horror story as it was a supernatural, psychological thriller. Totally captured my attention and kept me reading long into the night.

Due to head injuries sustained when a crane backed over Edgar's truck, his temper is out of control. His wife wants a divorce and none of his friends want to be around him - he's too unpredictable and mean. His psychologist suggests he find a quiet place and take up a hobby, find something that he has always wanted to do and do it. Edgar loved to draw when he was young but had given it up. He moves to Duma Key, Florida and takes up painting. Soon his paintings take an eerie turn and he discovers what he paints becomes reality. He is also being visited by ghosts of Elizabeth's past and he must try to figure out what her cryptic statements mean, ones she can't explain as she slips farther and farther from reality.

 I don't want to give away any spoilers, so will leave you with an excerpt from the first page.


"How to Draw a Picture (1) 

Start with a blank surface. It doesn't have to be paper or canvas, but I feel it should be white. We call it white because we need a word, but its true name is nothing. Black is the absence of light, but white is the absence of memory, the color of can't remember.

How do we remember to remember? That's a question I've asked myself often since my time in Duma Key, often in the small hours of the morning, looking up into the absence of light, remembering absent friends. Sometimes in those little hours I think about the horizon. You have to establish the horizon. You have to mark the white. A simple enough act, you might say, but any act that re-makes the world is heroic. Or so I've come to believe.

Imagine a little girl, hardly more than a baby. She fell from a carriage almost ninety years ago, struck her head on a stone and forgot everything. Not just her name; everything! And then she recalled just enough to pick up a pencil and make that first hesitant mark across the white. A horizon line, sure. But also a slot for blackness to pour through.

Still, imagine that small hand lifting the pencil...hesitating...and then marking the white. Imagine the courage of that first effort to re-establish the world by picturing it. I will always love that little girl, in spite of all she has cost me. I must. I have no choice.

Pictures are magic, as you know."

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BW40: October Spooktacular Reading Month

 Spooky Forest by Mellon007

Bwahahahaha!  Welcome to the spooky and spectacular, fretful and frightful, eventful and exciting, thrilling and chilling October Spooktacular Reading Month!  

Our spooky reading month is not all about horror.  Oh no! Especially since I'm not into blood and guts, graphic violence but those reads that are spine tingling, finger nail chewing, blood pumping, and goose bump exciting.    There are a number of ways to go with psychological fiction, gothic, science fiction, supernatural, apocalyptic and dystopian.  Reads full of bad guys, vampires, werewolves and monsters of the deep. 

Who comes to mind when you thing about scary reads?  Stephen King, Clive Barker, Dean Koontz, or Frank Peretti?  Maybe Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill or Peter Straub?  What about Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft or Bram Stoker.  From the classics to the contemporary, you have a wide variety of choices.

I've been surprised and entertained, maybe not pleasantly but scarily thrilled by Joe Hill's (Stephen King's son) N0S4A2 and Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series. Glued to the edge of my chair of Robert McCammon's Swan Song and enthralled by Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.

If you haven't read the staples of the genre - Frankenstein or Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Grey or Something Wicked This Way Comes - now is your chance.  Put away your expectations, because you just may be surprised when they don't turn out how you suspect they will.

I have a few thrillers in my stacks for the month including Mary Shelley's The Last Man, Dean Koontz's The City along with Marisha Pessil's Night Film as well as an annotated version of Dracula.

Plus I'm contemplating a reread of Frankenstein or Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian. Both were equally good. 

What spooky books will you be reading this month? 

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BW39: Book News

George Goodwin Kilburne-  In The Garden 

Happy Sunday! My mind is full of chatter, complexity, corniness, characters and coltish conundrums, and since I haven't entertained you with babbling and bookish news in a while, now seems the perfect time.

For the couple months,  I've been immersed in the 18th century with Claire and Jamie in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series and just finished the whole series ending with Written in My Own Heart's Blood.  However, Gabaldon says there is more to come and is in the midst of  researching and writing the 9th book Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone.  Fortunately Heart's Blood didn't end in a cliff hanger so I'm not left with an unfinished feeling.  It's one of those series, just like J.D. Robb's In Death Series in which I will no doubt, want to revisit at some point.

This week the book world is celebrating Banned Book Week which runs from September 25 through October 1st and the theme is diversity.  Check out the list of frequently challenged diverse books and be sure to check out ALA's free webinar on September 29 on how Authors and Librarian's respond.

And while you are delving into banned books, check out the Library of Congress list of Books that Shaped America.

The 2016 Nobel Prize winners in all categories including literature will be announced the first week of October  and Literary Saloon (19 September post) contemplate who the winner will be along with links to several discussions.

Also check out PW's Inside the 2016 National Book Award Nominees. The finalists will be announced in October and the winner in November.

Have you ever read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson?  Publisher's Weekly lists 11 Things You probably didn't know about Shirley as well as Atlantic Monthly's review of  Haunted Womanhood.

And speaking of haunted, next week begins our October Spooktacular reading month.  Start brainstorming and figure out which spooky read you want to tackle.


Happy Reading!

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BW38: September Equinox

Paul Hugues - Women in the Park 

I've got James Taylor's You Got a Friend running through my brain today.

When you're down and troubled and you need a helping hand

and nothing, whoa, nothing is going right.

Close your eyes and think of me and soon I will be there

to brighten up even your darkest nights.

You just call out my name, and you know where ever I am

I'll come running to see you again.

Winter, spring, summer, or fall, all you have to do is call and I'll be there, yeah, yeah,

you've got a friend.

La la la la ~~~~~~  *grin* 

As of Thursday, it's Fall here in the Northern Hemisphere,and for those in the Southern half, Spring.   It's all about the leaves, springing forth  to brighten our lives or changing colors and decorating the earth.  ~Beautiful either way~.

Since I have music running through my head, let's run with it and see where it goes.  My trusty thesaurus  gives me for lyrical: melodious, soulful, passionate, dulcet, agreeable and orchestral to name a few.   Feeling a bit poetical as well as epic, dramatic, song-like or tuneful yet?  What about the melody of crackling leaves, the romance of flowers, the wind whistling through the trees, the song of birds and odes to the moon.  Hmm! There seems to be a number of directions to go, so pick a musical word or theme and see where it leads you.

My meanderings lead me to K.M. Aul and his Senses Novels #1 Aura and #2 Dulcet.

Have fun!

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BW37: Time for another mini challenge

Courtesy of Love to Sew 

Happy Sunday!   Just realized we are halfway through the year and I haven't done a Pick a Book by the Cover or Pick a Random Book mini challenge yet. Shame on me. Your mission this month is to go on an adventure to the library or book store in search of a new book.  Or play along using your home shelves if short of funds or time.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to pick a book based on its cover.  Don't read the synopsis on the back or the inside flap.  Tell us what you think the story is going to be about based on the cover.  Then after you've read it, let us know if you were close or no cigar.

Or you can pick a Random book based on its position on the shelf.  To choose a book: decide in advance  (1) which Genre, (2)  two numbers between 1 and 5, and (3) one number between 1 and 30. Using these numbers, find the chosen Genre in the book store or library, count over certain number of sections in the aisle, go down that number of shelves and count to the 3rd number and that's the book you'll get.

That's how I found Anne Bishop's Written in Red a couple years back. I chose the science fiction/fantasy aisle, counted over 3 sections, then down 2 shelves and looked for the 15th book on the shelf.

You can also challenge yourself to spread your reading wings a bit and chose a genre you don't normally read.

Have fun exploring!

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BW36: September Sojourns through the South

Welcome to September Sojourns through the South celebrating all things southern as well as our annual Banned Books Months.   We are going to stroll through the southern states with our author flavors of the month William Faulkner as well as Zora Neale Hurston.

William Faulkner is known for his southern literature and won a Nobel Prize in 1955 for his fictional story A Fable and posthumusly in 1963 for The Reivers.  However, he is best known for As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury. He set the standard for southern literature which focuses on the American South's history as well as family, community, racial tensions and social class.

Check out his 1965 interview in the Paris Review with Jean Stein in The Art of Fiction #12 as well as Ol' Curiosities Book Shoppe What is Southern Literature.

Zora Neale Hurston was a cultural anthropologist and writer during the Harlem Renaissance and is best known for Their Eyes Were Watching God,and  wrote 4 novels as well as numerous short stories, essays and plays. After she died, Alice Walker wrote an essay about Hurston introducing her work to a new generation of readers. 

Check out The Power of Prose presented by PBS on African American Women as well as History.com's The Harlem Renaissance.

Since I think we should start celebrating the freedom to read now, September is also designated as our annual Banned Books Month. For more on  Banned Book week which runs from September 25 through October 1, check out Banned Books website to read about this year's theme on diversity.

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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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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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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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