Mary C.M. Phillips's Blog, page 16
May 7, 2015
Dear Writer, You are not alone.
Today in Electric Lit, Lindsay Merbaum writes about the writer’s inner struggle with self-doubt.
“There have been moments where I have considered giving up on writing altogether, but those moments are fleeting and usually born of exhaustion and the frustration that comes with never feeling like there���s enough time for writing, that no matter how many pages I produce, I could���ve written more. Deep down, I know I���ll never quit because I feel a compulsion to write. It can be a torturous, thankless process, but the act of storytelling is so essential to my identity that I���m not sure who I would be without it.”��– Lindsay Merbaum
Not a Real Writer: How Self-Doubt Holds Me Back
May 3, 2015
May I? — A Poem on War, Unrest, and a Centenary of Change
“May is not always just a month of change, it is a month of reflection, revival, and growth.”
Originally posted on Red Pickle Dish:
May is not always just a month of change, it is a month of reflection, revival, and growth.
Not just in seasonal and allegorical ways, either, but in historical, individual ways.
On May 1, 1915, the RMS Lusitania set out from her American port en route to Liverpool. She was a ship of wonder, the equivalent of The White Star Line���s Titanic, famously lost three years earlier, a rival of the Cunard line���s crowning glory, and icon of Edwardian engineering and maritime pride.
She never made it back home through the ���war zones��� of Britain, and fell in spectacle on May 7, 1915, to the bottom of the sea, seven miles off the southern coast of Ireland, in vantage point from the lighthouse that caps the cliff of ���The Old Head of Kinsale'; with 1,198 souls lost, many of them Americans, the murder of the Lusitania outraged the American���
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April 28, 2015
Edith Wharton and Margaret Mitchell: Would-be rivals? Or fellow bedfellows?
Originally posted on Red Pickle Dish:
A portrait of Margaret Mitchell stares me down every time I hop off the elevator to the floor housing my current workplace at the Atlanta library system. It���s one of those it-doesn���t-matter-where-you-are-in-the-room gazes, (what portraits are not?), and it can be creepy as she wildly projects the dominion of her vision over her typewriter, her premiere editions of Gone With the Wind, and her Pulitzer, all displayed in glass casings that reflect the obnoxious glare of the florescent rectangles of light overhead. It is a shrine to a woman and writer I���ve known so little about, and frankly, until now had the least bit of interest in. The ���sensation��� of GWTW, both the novel and the film, though unrivaled in popular American culture, just never seemed palatable to me, a kid who attended most of grade school only miles from ���The Road to Tara���, a kid still, who���
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April 21, 2015
Happy Birthday Charlotte Brontë
Happy Birthday to my favorite Brontë.
Charlotte’s books (particularly Jane Eyre and Villette) continue to be a source of inspiration and I cannot think of anything more pleasurable (other than reading Jane Austen) than sipping iced-coffee on a summer day while reading one of Charlotte’s books. Villette is often overshadowed by Jane Eyre, and although lengthy, I believe it is well worth taking the time to read.
I believe in some blending of hope and sunshine sweetening the worst lots. I believe that this life is not all; neither the beginning nor the end. I believe while I tremble; I trust while I weep. ― Charlotte Brontë, Villette
Happy Birthday Charlotte Brontë (21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855)
Happy Birthday to my favorite Brontë.
Charlotte’s books (particularly Jane Eyre and Villette) continue to be a source of inspiration and I cannot think of anything more pleasurable (other than reading Jane Austen) than sipping iced-coffee on a summer day while reading one of Charlotte’s books.
Villette is often overshadowed by Jane Eyre, and although lengthy, I believe it is well worth taking the time to read.
Happy Birthday dear Charlotte!
I believe in some blending of hope and sunshine sweetening the worst lots. I believe that this life is not all; neither the beginning nor the end. I believe while I tremble; I trust while I weep. ― Charlotte Brontë, Villette
Happy Birthday Charlotte Bront�� (21 April 1816 ��� 31 March 1855)
Happy Birthday to my favorite Bront��.
Charlotte’s books (particularly Jane Eyre and��Villette)��continue to be a source of inspiration and I cannot think of anything more pleasurable (other than reading Jane Austen) than sipping iced-coffee on a summer day while reading one of Charlotte’s books.
Villette��is often overshadowed by��Jane Eyre, and although lengthy,��I believe it is well worth taking the time to read.
Happy Birthday dear Charlotte!
I believe in some blending of hope and sunshine sweetening the worst lots. I believe that this life is not all; neither the beginning nor the end. I believe while I tremble; I trust while I weep.����� Charlotte Bront��, Villette
April 15, 2015
Undine
Today, I’m writing over at The Dark Jane Austen Book Club.
We’re talking about Friedrich de la Motte Fouque’s lovely tale of Undine, a story that has inspired authors such as Edith Wharton and Hans Christian Andersen. Read more…
Undine and the Underworld
Today, I’m writing over at The Dark Jane Austen Book Club.
Undine by JW Waterhouse
We’re talking about Friedrich de la Motte Fouque’s lovely tale of Undine, a story that has inspired authors ��such as Edith Wharton and Hans Christian Andersen.
March 29, 2015
But he who dares not grasp the thorn…
“But he who dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose.”
― Anne Brontë
February 23, 2015
Birdman, Garc��a M��rquez, and Gonz��lez I����rritu
The best tribute to author, Gabriel Garc��a M��rquez, at this year’s Academy Awards (other than being mentioned in the��In Memoriam��segment) was the big win for
Garc��a M��rquez’s beautiful, mythical, and mystical stories and Gonz��lez I����rritu’s disturbing and dark film both fall into the genre of magical realism.
From Wikipedia: Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is literature, painting, and film that, while encompassing a range of subtly different concepts, share in common magical or unreal elements that play a natural part in an otherwise realistic or mundane environment. Magical realism is the most commonly used of the three terms and refers to literature in particular.��
It’s an acquired taste and I’ve been happily immersed in the genre for several months reading books by both Garc��a��M��rquez��and��Haruki Murakami. I don’t know why I’m attracted to these stories of dysfunctional families, ghosts, and talking cats…but I am. Perhaps it’s because I’ve always believed in the miraculous and love how it’s conveyed through art.
I’ve only started querying my own novel, The Model Home, a story about love triumphing over greed and materialism. It falls into this lovely genre of magical realism and after last night’s win, I’m encouraged.
Birdman��is dark. It plays with our emotions and shows human nature at its very worst. But that’s where the lessons are. ��In the worst of times. I’m happy it won this year. It’s a great tribute to the author of the��greatest Latin American novel ever written,��One Hundred Years of Solitude,��and the entire genre of magical realism.
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