Category: writing

Writer’s Words

~ Meg ~ 63 Comments

That photo is of WB Yeats’ desk at Thoor Ballylee.

I’ve had a difficult week. I’ve been under a lot of pressure both personally and professionally (and when I say professionally, I mean my writing).  The weekend is bringing some positivity, by way of my dear friends and some much needed fun and games. Neverthelesss, my WIP is never far from my mind. The next week I hope to have the fog lifted, the cobwebs cleared and the Muse whispering to me again. (Hear that James? I’m counting on you…)

In the meantime, when I can’t write, I sometimes read about writing and writers. I found these quotes in my travels and figured I’d share. Profound truths in an economy of words:

Prey 

~ Meg ~ 50 Comments

From early in 2016: one of my favorite rhyming poems…

Every night I drift to sleep
As darkness makes me blind
And yet my vision attenuates
With my sharply focused mind

I travel over a thousand miles
To a hostile, forbidding land
The witching hours drag so slowly
Moon lights the evil plan

The hungry mouths, the feral eyes
So dreadful is their gaze
Circle round with deadly purpose
Muscles tighten and I brace

They are confident that I am caught
But I’ve yet to meet my end
With guile and cunning, I make my move
On this my life depends

When I have dodged and feinted
I smell their fetid breath
As I flee into the forest
I escape those jaws of death

It’s only upon awakening
Chilled, yet dripping wet
That I realize the nightmare beasts
Haven’t killed me yet

Reading For Writing

~ Meg ~ 87 Comments

I’m not one for making resolutions. However, I don’t avoid them if they seem like worthy goals. In that spirit, I have been taking on the Goodreads reading challenge each year. Personally, I think writers ought to be avid readers, as well. Reading is what inspired me to try writing so why on earth would I give it up?

Nevertheless, the more involved I’ve become in writing and blogging, the less time I’ve devoted to my books. Last year, I set the goal of reading 25 books for the Goodreads challenge: 2 per month (plus one). I am sorry to say, I fell short by 5 books. But with researching for my writing, I still did a lot of reading. At any rate, this year, I’ve lowered the bar to 20 books and I thought I’d share the ones I’ve chosen to read:

  1. A Line In the Sand – The Anglo-French Struggle For the Middle East, 1914-1918; James Barr
  2. Living – Henry Green
  3. Loving – Henry Green
  4. Party Going – Henry Green
  5. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
  6. Down and Out In Paris and London – George Orwell
  7. Storm Of Steel – Ernst Junger
  8. Devil’s Brood – Sharon Kay Penman
  9. The Man In the High Castle – Philip K. Dick
  10. The Mother Tongue – Bill Bryson
  11. The Gods of Guilt – Michael Connelly
  12. Princess Margaret: A Biography – Theo Aronson
  13. The Collected Poems of Ivor Gurney
  14. Blue Mars – Kim Stanley Robinson
  15. A Farewell To Arms – Ernest Hemingway
  16. Garden Of Lies – Eileen Goudge
  17. On Writing; A Memoir of the Craft – Stephen King
  18. W. B. Yeats and the Muses – Joseph Hassett (started, but not finished)
  19. The Crimes of Love – The Marquis de Sade (started but not finished)
  20. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath (started but not finished)

If I manage that, I will clear the precariously stacked pile on my bedside table! Yes, I still read paper books. I consume books in three formats, actually: paper, e-book and audio-book. I also usually have several going at the same time. For example, I listen to an audiobook while exercising, read one non-fiction/biography and one fiction book all at once. As long as I keep the genres distinct, I can keep from getting them confused.

So, my writer friends, what are you reading this year?

Artwork: ‘Serenity’ – Sheree Valentine Daines