November 4, 2019
Gleanings
- I kept making notes. Why do some road trips lead to essays and some don’t? I have no idea.
- If you’ve never had a look under the structures that support what we take for granted, give it a try. That applies to more than bridges.
- Oh, dear readers, there was an abundance of ethereal moments…
- CERTAIN THRILLS AND CHILLS OF THE PREVIOUS MONTH STUCK WITH ME. AND, I WANT TO KEEP REMEMBERING THEM AS I MOVE AHEAD.
- I want for everything to make sense; but it doesn’t.
- And we create things, truly, to transform our own lives.
- These amazing women and their epic to-do lists make me feel as if I’ve found my tribe.
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October 28, 2019
Gleanings
- He encouraged us to think less in terms of tying the word “professional” to the idea of making money and more toward the idea of what we are doing as an integral part of ourselves.
- Can I make Saskatoon pie with dodgy Toronto berries?
- It’s inspiring to me how women, throughout time, have continued to create art.
- It was page 236 before I finally caved and looked up a picture of The Dress
- The thing is, I’ve been all over the place, and can’t really settle on any one topic…
- The monarchy is a helluva drug, you guys.
- I’ve been on page 9 of Ducks, Newburyport for some days now.
- Here’s the foolproof way to write your story faster: identify the scenes you are avoiding and get them over with.
- If I’m feeling tired, I open the file and aim to do just one thing.
- Happy second anniversary to our east end Toronto silent book club!
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October 21, 2019
Gleanings
- Is “A Bargain for Frances” the best book ever written about childhood friendships?
- Why I Had to Rewrite the Ending of My Middle-Grade Book After Charlottesville
- My feet are my locomotive. I walk, a lot.
- I am not going to reproduce or respond to an email that yelled at me, and not in a humorous way, for not blogging often enough.
- Of course, I do believe it, but it’s good to sit with these things or, as the case may be, to blog about these things.
- Still, it was kind of luxurious to spend three days just reading.
- One of the pleasures of being an author is knowing that your characters are out there living their own lives, separate from you, totally out of your control.
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October 7, 2019
Gleanings
- It is telling that this dedication is not to Stein herself, but to her words and sentences – those notoriously obscure, dense, allusive syntactical puzzles that require dedication and persistence to parse and comprehend.
- It’s lovely to choose your life again, even when you think you already appreciate it.
- Having breast cancer and knowing how little funding goes into research for metastatic breast cancer, and how it mostly goes into overhead and pink trinkets, has made me want to hate October.
- When I go into the kitchen and see the pot of hips on the table, I wonder how the summer passed so quickly.
- I am so grateful for this portal, and it’s always a delight when I hear that a post has inspired or moved someone, or just simply made them happy.
- It strikes me that reading Tove Jansson is like stepping through the back of the literary wardrobe into a Narnia-like world of magic and difference.
- The conservation area is located at #902 Ballyduff Road; small problem though, the road ends at eight hundred and ninety something. Beyond that was a very rough (very, very rough) track through the woods….
- Sometimes it’s fun to know next to nothing about a book prior to picking it up.
- Or the fact that I have been reading Tolstoy for decades and still only have the foggiest idea what a samovar is….
- If you are looking for consolation as a reader, you would be well advised to look elsewhere.
- Yet never has a colon done so much heavy lifting.
- I found her book in my building’s laundryroom’s bookshelf.
- If the bullshit-merchants have no shame about repeating themselves, their critics shouldn’t either
- There is a lot of work to be done out there, Readers! Kids need mirrors and windows!
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September 30, 2019
Gleanings
- In praise of kind ruthlessness: a writer’s appreciation of the intelligent non-expert
- This is a space to indulge the author’s enthusiasms, without recourse to chasing trends or fashion and with no claim to comprehensiveness or universality.
- I’ve confessed here before that I can have trouble staying “objective and professorial” during discussions of Gaudy Night because I love the novel so much.
- Deep delight, in a moment of mania. That was me, in the night, writing by starlight, telling the story over and over again.
- In simplifying my choice, I’ve given myself a greater chance of success, and created an opportunity for a cohesive collection and stronger personal aesthetic.
- For me, being lost unexpectedly turned out to be an entirely internal exercise.
- It is all ebb and flow. Some periods will feel quite desperate, and at other times we will feel light.
- What happens after a protest?
- I still have emails saved in a folder called SELLOUTS GET SENSITIVE.
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September 23, 2019
Gleanings
- We must be brave enough to change the things we can.
- I dared to trust, to try something that was ever-so-slightly beyond me…
- On Mondays we talk about cancer.
- But really, in a still life, who every really notices the table?
- For me, noticing the good things – however tiny – has been a sort of hook into the world when I had been feeling like I was drifting.
- Hosting a dinner party, or brunch, or lunch, or happy hour is a magical thing.
- Some people said, It must be like a death! It was nothing like a death. It was like burning a cake.
- Okay” is one of my favourite words.
- The satisfaction is almost entirely in the process, the weighing and testing, and I know that the resulting work is never quite what I thought it would be.
September 16, 2019
Gleanings: The BLOG SCHOOL LAUNCH DAY EDITION!
- But, in blogging, I found my own purpose.
- June to September
- 9 books about trees
- One of the most enlivening side effects of these movie marathons is that I get so involved in the dream vision of movies that it becomes a lens that transforms the everyday world.
- The years of dithering and backtracking as I wrote the novel now felt like a blessing that allowed its completion to sync up with this moment-within-a-moment.
- I had gone in looking for a mystery that featured trees.
- Writing is gathering.
- Feeling a bit shit? Well maybe some of these things will make you feel a wee bit less so?
September 9, 2019
Gleanings
- Your responsibility is what you can control.
- So, if I’m getting this correct, the universe is telling me to be generous
- Blogging about my teaching prods me to reflect on it rather than just get through it and move on; I think it has made me a better teacher as a result.
- One can’t think too much about the idea of a dozen almost naked bodies sharing a large, be it chlorinated, bath tub.
- Let’s generously share our history, our knowledge and experiences, the lessons we’ve learned and our hopes for their futures.
- The main thing I learned about baking this summer is that many things are cake.
September 16 is one week away, which means one more week for you to receive 15% savings on Blog School: Pickle Me This with discount code “early bird”. Find out more here…
September 3, 2019
Gleanings
- What would happen if we claimed our expertise, and if we claimed our power? What is it that you know? What happens when you share that joyfully with the world? How can we be great and kind and powerful and mindful and joyful and decent?
- Nature is astounding. Human nature is confounding.
- There’s so much to see and discover in her world of trees…
- One day somebody is going to be sorting through my debris and wondering what some of it meant.
- This is how it was in The Long Ago Days of The First Radishes.
- It helps to be alone for a huge chunk of the day, in a silent cabin, on the edge of the ocean.
- So today, I’m here to tell you: INHABIT YOUR NATURAL STATE.
- I’m grateful daily that I can work wherever I find myself.
- I’ve been on some amazing journeys to far off places (from my armchair) so far this year.
- But any day, any weather is a good day and fine and acceptable weather for a silent book club meeting.
- I can attest to the value and impact of the Shine Theory.
- There’s still a place, a quiet place, for the books that don’t aspire to Big.
- If I could let go of the idea that I should know, I might actually learn a great deal.
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August 6, 2019
Gleanings
- What is new is that I have decided, at the age of 60, that I am a goddamn knockout. Like Dorothy at the end of the film version of The Wizard of Oz, I had the power I sought all along.
- Just as “home” will always be the spot on the map where I am not at the moment, class is the same: one foot in each world, at home in both, never completely belonging to either.
- And reading continued to do its deep and secret work: it created for us a place each day where we could talk about things. How seasons change.
- Libraries are vibrant and fluid places that help us to adjust to the world and their doors must be kept open to everyone – for free!
- We’ve had a good long marriage, the still life painter and me.
- One of the things I love about concerts, theatre, lectures, any large spectacle, really, is taking in the audience.
- That ambivalence makes The Tortoise and the Hare more interesting…
- Along the way, there are a few rueful mentions of disappointments and reading gone astray … but it is all enchanting to listen to, and such a privilege to have shared.
- In fact, living here, along a beautiful country lane miles from the bustle, it’s quite easy to be in denial about just about anything…
- Classic Mennonite Elderberry Pie
- When life hits me hard, one of the first actions I take is to buy movie tickets.
- A narrative is purposeful and directed, but the news confuses me.
PS Big News: The Blog School website is live and our official launch is September 16! Learn more…
