June 29, 2019 at 4:41 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Memoirs, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, Relatives, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: essay, inspiration, Latin American writers, Rosario Ferré, Saturdays, short story, writing process
The day of my debut as a writer, I sat at my typewriter for a long time, mulling over these thoughts. Inevitably, writing my first story meant taking my first step toward Heaven or Hell, and that made me vacillate between a state of euphoria and depression. It was as if I were about to be born, peering timidly through the doors of Limbo. If my voice rings false or my will fails me, I said to myself, all my sacrifices will have been in vain. I will foolishly have given up the protection which, despite its disadvantages, at least allowed me to be a good wife and mother, and I will justly have fallen from the frying pan into the fire.
Recommended Reading: Rosario Ferré’s short story, The Youngest Doll, from the collection of the same name
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October 8, 2017 at 2:14 am (Artists and Writers, Lists, Recommended, Sayings)
Tags: advice, humor, San Francisco, Saturdays, wisdom
Karma Repair Kit: Items 1 – 4
- Get enough food to eat, and eat it.
- Find a place to sleep where it is quiet, and sleep there.
- Reduce intellectual activity and emotional noise until you arrive at the silence of yourself.
-
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September 2, 2017 at 9:57 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, short story collections, Surprises)
Tags: discoveries, fiction, reading lists, Saturdays, translation
Seiobo There Below is her first Krasznahorkai (translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet), and she can’t believe she didn’t know before that this author is known for writing sentences that go on for as long as 50 pages.
From Story # 6 (Which appears in the Table of Contents as Story # 13, like we’re being punked by the author. Punked, punked, punked!), He Rises at Dawn.
(P.S. If you want to know more about Japanese temples, and that stillness of being which is only possible for true adherents of Buddha or Zen Mind, this book is for you)
- He rises at dawn; more or less the same time as the birds; he is a bad sleeper, only falling asleep is easy for him — in the evenings this happens quite often, although afterward there are frequent startled awakenings, where he’s drenched in sweat, worn out from a dream, and it goes on like this till dawn, when finally the skies begin to turn greay in the neighborhood of Kita . . .
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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September 2, 2017 at 3:20 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: literary awards, poetry, Saturdays
Excerpt from “Pyrrhic”
from My Favorite Tyrants, winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry
Art can make war look wrong, but most of the time
it doesn’t. Consider this terracotta jar, once filled
with olive oil to anoint the dead, now a souvenir
of fire, clay, and spittle standing in the back
of the Ancient Wing. Look closer: some dancers
are clothed in robes, others are naked, and all
wear helmets while the musician plays a double flute
and taps his toe. First, they join hands, then the delicate,
ceremonious footwork begins.
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August 12, 2017 at 5:06 pm (Artists and Writers, Links, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, Weather, Women Writers)
Tags: Calyx, Literary Magazines, poetry, Saturdays, summer
Moon Over Park Avenue, New York, May 2016
Human Weather (an excerpt)
by Laura Jean Baker
August made a habit: warming our bodies
to the point of sacred.
On Dog Star days for twenty years
we loved to our dew point,
honeyed our moon,
and kneaded our bodies
into the wholesome shape of babies.
Girl-boy-girl
slid into the not-yet warmth
of every other May.
Better late than incomplete,
we made our last
between Autumn sheets; a boy named Frank,
he’d skid across the cusp of June and July.
The poem originally appeared in Calyx, a Journal of Art and Literature by Women, summer 2012.
About Laura Jean Baker: she earned her MFA from the University of Michigan. Her poetry, fiction, and memoir have been published in The Gettysburg Review, Connecticut Review, Cream City Review, Third Coast, Confrontation, and War, Literature, & the Arts.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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July 29, 2017 at 4:30 pm (Artists and Writers, Dearest Mum, Family, Flowers, Links, Lists, Places, Plays, postaday, Traveling, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Annaghmakerrig, Cork, Events, Ireland, London, memories, Paris, postaday, postaweek, Readings, Sacramento, Saturdays, Shakespeare, summer, Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Washington DC, Wordpress
- Share a photo of something that brings you satisfaction. It can be monumental, minor, or something in between.
— Jen H., The Daily Post
For this post, self decided to kill two birds with one stone. She’ll look back at her fondest memories of 2017 (thus far) — the moments that gave her the most satisfaction.
From Shakespeare’s Globe, her last night in London, June 2017
The Eiffel Tower: May 2017
Quarterly West reading at Sixth Engine, Washington DC, February 2017
Bus Stop (near the Cathedral of Notre Dame)
Waiting for the beginning of Kenneth Macmillan’s beautiful, stunning ballet, “Mayerling”: Saturday, May 13
The Main House, Under a Crescent Moon
The Forest Seen From the Lake: Early March
Going to the Globe and seeing Tristan and Yseult; sorting through old photographs of Dearest Mum; seeing the Eiffel Tower up close; reading her story First Causes at Sixth Engine in Washington, DC; watching Mayerling at the Royal Albert Hall; visiting Cork; Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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February 25, 2017 at 7:25 pm (destinations, Food and Drink, Links, Lists, Places, postaday, Traveling)
Tags: New York, photography, postaday, postaweek, Saturdays, United Kingdom, websites, Wordpress
Some things just work together: babies and stripes; roadtrips and loud music; beaches and beer. — Ben Huberman, The Daily Post
Here are some good matches from others around WordPress:
Check them out!
Self is gonna be posting from her next trip (United Kingdom) very, very soon!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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February 19, 2017 at 3:57 am (Books, Recommended)
Tags: history, reading lists, Saturdays
This book is about The Battle of Quebec, an epic battle which ended French rule in Canada. The two commanding generals, named in the title, were killed.
Self had never heard of historian Francis Parkman until a few months ago, when an article in the New York Review of Books made passing reference to him.
On p. 54, the French governor of territory disputed by the English sends a message to Queen Alequippa of the Iroquois, who is rumored to hold British sympathies:
- They (the British) hide from you their plans, which are to settle here and drive you away, if I let them. As a good father who tenderly loves his children, and though far away from them bears them always in his heart, I must warn you of the danger that threatens you. The English intend to rob you of their country; and that they may succeed, they begin by corrupting your minds. As they mean to seize the Ohio, which belongs to me, I send to warn them to retire.
Love the way the “belongs to me” is uttered almost casually. About territory. Which belonged first of all to the native Americans.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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February 11, 2017 at 8:08 pm (Movies)
Tags: action movies, blockbusters, Dakota Johnson, indecision, indulgences, London, memories, Saturdays
Fifty Shades Darker or John Wick 2?
Self is a big fan of Dakota Johnson.
Yup, that’s right. DAKOTA JOHNSON.
Plus, the Jamie. Come on. Ever seen this guy’s back blown up on the side of a building?
Well, self has. London, 2015. Somewhere in the South Bank. That back was pretty fine.
She is also a big fan of Keanu Reeves. Yesterday, an NPR reviewer called John Wick 2 the apogee of something: “designer violence” or “designer mayhem” or, anyway, something designer. Niiice!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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February 11, 2017 at 7:27 pm (Artists and Writers, Links, Lists, Movies, Surprises, Women Writers)
Tags: adaptations, Events, Jane Austen, lists, museums, Saturdays
- It is the Year of the Rooster. Kung Hei Fat Choy!
- There will be a Trainspotting 2! Also a Baywatch movie! Also a Barbie movie! Also another Star Wars movie!
- EU will abolish roaming charges for cell phones!
- The world will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen, today’s most bestselling author!
- Museum of the Bible becomes DC’s newest museum!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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