Timothy Miller's Blog, page 25

Ridicule

 

Clues

 I forgot to mention: some of these posts are clues. Some are clues to The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle, which, unless you just stumbled on this blog, you've probably already read, but some are clues to the Dutch Painter, or the Pharaoh's Heart. Some may even be clues to my fourth book, The Murder Downstairs, or even my fifth book--well, I'm getting ahead of myself. But the point is, you can get ahead of the casual reader by putting these clues together--you may even get ahead of me.  I've labeled clue posts as such, and even included the symbol to the right in each one. Let the games begin.

Crowley

   
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I write in expectation that readers want to participate in a kind of two-sided game: They are trying to guess what I am up to - what the story's up to - and I'm giving them clues and matter to keep them interested without giving everything away at the start. Even the rules, if any, of the game are for the reader to discover.                                     –John Crowley 

First Book

                                                                                                                          Here's a cause that's  dear to my heart, putting books into the hands of kids who can't afford them.                                                                                                                                                                                                    Equal Access to Quality Education

First Book believes that education is the best way out of poverty for children in need. First Book aims to remove barriers to quality education for all kids by making everything from new, high-quality books and educational resources to sports equipment, winter coats, snacks, and more – affordable to its member network of more than 500,000 educators who exclusively serve kids in need.

Since 1992, First Book has distributed more than 185 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income communities in more than 30 countries. First Book currently reaches an average of 5 million children every year and supports more than one in three of the estimated 1.3 million classrooms and programs serving children in need.

With an additional 1,000 educators joining each week, First Book is the largest and fastest-growing network of educators in the United States exclusively serving kids in need. First Book members work in classrooms, after school and summer or early childhood programs, shelters and health clinics, libraries, community programs, military support programs, and other settings serving a majority of children in need. Learn more in our 2019 Annual Report. 

First Book is rooted in diversity, inclusion, and togetherness and we aim to apply our expertise to join the fight for racial equity. Click here to read a message from First Book.

Elementals

 It is neither decent nor safe to take from their resting places the bodies of old kings. The Egyptians knew much more about the occult than we do today. This must have been a peculiar element of an Egyptian curse.

The ancient Egyptians were very anxious to guard the tombs of their Kings, there is reason to believe that they placed elementals on guard, and such may have caused Lord Carnarvon’s death.

An evil elemental may have caused Lord Carnarvon’s fatal illness. One does not know what elementals existed in those days, nor what the form might be. 

These elementals are not spirits in the ordinary sense, in that they have no souls. 

An elemental is a built-up, artificial thing, an imbued force which may be brought into being by spirit means or by nature.

                     –Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the death of Lord Carnarvon

Brunswick Wharf

 

                                                                       --The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle

Millhauser

 

Stories, like conjuring tricks, are invented because history is inadequate for our dreams.      –Steven Millhauser

Stoppard

 “I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead.”

― Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing

M. Vernet/Mr. Holmes

 

“My ancestors were country squires, who appear to have led much the same life as is natural to their class. But, none the less, my turn that way is in my veins, and may have come with my grandmother, who was the sister of Vernet, the French artist. Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.”                         --Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter

27A Wimpole

 Shaw's inspiration for the home of Henry Higgins:

"Much like the fictional professor of phonetics, who famously lived on the same Marylebone street, the property's original owner, Professor Horace Wilson, was a linguistics expert." --The Daily Mail