Archive for June, 2010

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Mon 14 Jun 2010

Both sides now

Posted by PJ under quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:

“Behind every cloud . . . there’s another cloud.”

—Judy Garland

(I couldn’t verify she actually said this, but it’s widely attributed to her from usually reliable sources.)


Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Fri 11 Jun 2010

The entire except

Posted by PJ under art, prose, writing
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Here’s the entire excerpt for today’s quote.  I liked it so much I thought you might like to see it in full.  The letter was quoted in Raymond Chandler Speaking.

May 25, 1957
To: Helga Greene
…To accept a mediocre form and make something like literature out of it is in itself rather an accomplishment.  They tell me—I don’t say this on my own information—that hundreds of writers today are making some sort of living from the mystery story because I made it respectable and even dignified.  But, hell, what else can you do when you write?  You do the best you can in any medium.  I was lucky, and it seems that my luck inspired others.  Steinbeck and I agreed that we should like the writer who is to be remembered and honoured after we were gone to be some unknown, perhaps far better than either of us, who did not have the luck—or perhaps the drive.  Any decent writer who thinks of himself occasionally as an artist would far rather be forgotten so that someone better might be remembered.  We are not always nice people, but essentially we have an ideal that transcends ourselves…There are, of course, cheap and venal writers, but a real writer always at the bottom of his heart, when he runs across something good, makes a silent prayer that “this guy may be better than I am”.  Any man who can write a page of living prose adds something to our life, and the man who can, as I can, is surely the last to resent someone who can do it even better.  An artist cannot deny art, nor would he want to.  A lover cannot deny love.  If you believe in an ideal, you don’t own it—it owns you, and you certainly don’t want to freeze it at your own level for mercenary reasons.

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Fri 11 Jun 2010

Living prose

Posted by PJ under art, love, prose, quote of the day, writing
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Random quote of the day:

“Any man who can write a page of living prose adds something to our life, and the man who can, as I can, is surely the last to resent someone who can do it even better.  An artist cannot deny art, nor would he want to.  A lover cannot deny love.”

—Raymond Chandler, letter to Helga Greene, May 25, 1957

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Thu 10 Jun 2010

Reasonable

Posted by PJ under quote of the day, reason
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Random quote of the day:

“Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.”

—Karl Marx, letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Wed 9 Jun 2010

Wow, seemed like much longer

Posted by PJ under drafts, novels, venus in transit, writing
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I always put a date in the filename when I start a new draft of a novel as a convenient reference for when I started, then tend to gloss over them and ignore them as irrelevant.  I just looked at the date on the file for the first draft of Venus in Transit: June 26, 2009.  That means I spent just about a year on the damned thing.  I would have sworn I was at least at the year and a half mark.  It seemed interminable.  It was a longer time span than other recent novels have taken to produce a first draft, and it was interminable, but dang.  I’m surprised.

Oh, and I was able to leave the draft alone for one whole day in order to fix up and post a short story I wrote about a month ago.  I woke up this morning itching to do the read-through on Venus.

I apparently have my writing Jones back.

Talk to me again when I’m halfway through the read-through.  My attitude may have altered somewhat.

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Wed 9 Jun 2010

How they could jive

Posted by PJ under entertainment, partying, quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:

“That’s the secret of entertaining.  Make your guests feel welcome and at home.  If you do that honestly, the rest will take care of itself.

—Barbara Hall, Northern Exposure

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Wed 9 Jun 2010

New story up at OWW

Posted by PJ under OWW, stories
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My latest story, “The Comfort of Stone” has been posted to the Online Writing Workshop. It’s the first new story I’ve written in awhile so I’m afraid I may be rusty…

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Tue 8 Jun 2010

Crime and punishment

Posted by PJ under earworms, tv
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So I said to my boss this morning: “You’re a pill, you know that? But I mean it with the utmost respect.”

As punishment for my insubordination, he started singing the theme to The Beverly Hillbillies, thus lodging a hateful earworm in my brain. I thought the punishment far too severe for the crime and I told him so.

“Oh? You want me to cure you of that earworm? I can do that.” He then proceeded to sing the theme from Green Acres.

He was right. It dislodged The Beverly Hillbillies, but in this case I think the cure worse than the original affliction.

Later, he asked me, “Do you think anyone’s done a Gilligan’s Island/Lost crossover yet?

“I don’t know,” I told him, “but I ain’t looking.”

But I couldn’t help myself. I did. And they had.

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Tue 8 Jun 2010

And beyond

Posted by PJ under infinity, poetry, quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:

“The poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.

—Joseph Brodsky, interview, Writers at Work, Eighth Series, ed. George Plimpton

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

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Mon 7 Jun 2010

My WIP is whipped

Posted by PJ under finishing, novels, venus in transit
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Thirty chapters, an epilogue, and over 120k (and ohmygod, that has to be cut down a lot), but for now I am

d-o-n-e.

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