Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 108

Dog was ecstatic over our return from mini-hols

Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. ― Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin -

I wanted to name our dog Puck. I was overruled.

If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, - William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream -

On childhood dreams

If you read this poem, write to me. I have been to Paris since we parted. - Carolyn Forché, As Children Together -

On an election day

I woke up on 4am to watch the news via ipad. Unfortunately, I also woke up Husband. He was displeased. 'It's the US election,' I said. He remained unimpressed. Especially when I confessed the race had yet to be called. The news slowly trickled in. As I waited for each little tidbit I kept myself amused by reading Ana Marie Cox's tumbler. On political parties digging up the past: This is how Bret Baier framed the results coming in from Indiana (at 6% in, Mourdock leading Donnelly by a few points). It’s a closer race than it had been, he...

On Mary Swann*

- Like a spider who eats her mate, she has absorbed the sadness of the world into her heavy bones and bloodstream.- - Women can never quite escape their mothers' cosmic pull, not their lip-biting expectations or their faulty love. - - Only a sister gives you a kettle. Only an older sister. - - It is a myth that people in rural communities are all acquainted with one another and know all about each other's business. - - Then the shock treatments wiped away his Latin and French and left behind only his sputtering, faltering high-pitched English. - -...

Time up! Onwards to editing, I go. (I am ridiculously excited about this.)

How long you let your book rest - sort of like bread dough between kneadings - is entirely up to you, but I think it should be a minimum of six weeks. During this time your manuscript will be safely shut away in a desk drawer, ageing and (one hopes) mellowing. Your thoughts will turn to it frequently, and you'll likely be tempted a dozen times or more to take it out, if only to re-read some passages. . . Resist temptation. If you don't, you'll very likely decide you didn't do as well on that passage as you thought...

Its been almost six months

Off of the St Blaize Trail Since I last took a hike. There was a time in my life where I walked for days, carrying all my needs on my back. Lately, I've been limited to daily civilised pedestrian walks. There was a moment, back in September, when I seemed ready to return to the trails. 'We'll try this weekend,' I said to Husband. But before the weekend arrived, I tore a muscle, popping a bone in my rib joint. It has yet to fully heal. 'I love it when you come with us,' Thing 2 said. 'You never come...

This is me

Readers of this blog may have caught on that I am loving The King's English by Betsy Burton. Each day I take a nibble at the pages. Only a nibble. I'm holding the end at bay. There is so much in this book I'd love to share with various family and friends that when I hit the States I'm going to have to buy a number of copies to bring back with me (I'm not loaning my copy out!). There is so much in this book that has the potential to speak to many. But yesterday I read a passage...

On Disney buying Lucasfilm

I guess Princess Leia is a Disney princess now? Does that mean she’ll have to lose 15 pounds, burst into song inappropriately, and start dressing exclusively in taffeta? - Jezebel, 30 Oct -

There's a short story in this

BANDON — Coos County authorities are trying to figure out how a local farmer ended up being eaten by his hogs. “For all we know, it was a horrific accident, but it’s so doggone weird that we have to look at all possibilities,” Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier said of 69-year-old Terry Vance Garner’s death. - Jack Moran, Registered Guard -