Mary C.M. Phillips's Blog, page 8
May 25, 2018
Writing, Reading, and Listening to Nature
It was a long winter. For everyone.
But today — as I was hiking under a clear blue sky — I felt the weight of winter (finally) lifting.[image error]
Oh, the joy!
Nature has the incredible power to change our mood and also open doors of inspiration that allow words to flow easily and naturally. She also helps us to notice beauty (if we listen).
During my hike, halfway up the hill, I sat down on a bench and took out my paperback copy of The Selected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay to a most appropriate page:
***
I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
I will look at cliffs and clouds
With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
And the grass rise.
And when lights begin to show
Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,
And then start down.
— Afternoon on a Hill, Edna St. Vincent Millay
I’m hoping that the coming (warmer) months will bring more days “under the sun” and will fulfill us all in such a way that the simple touch of a flower will bring us joy, gladness, and inspiration.
To be outdoors — experiencing nature in her full glory — just feels “right,” doesn’t it?
Going forward, I will be spending less time on the computer and more time just “listening.” [image error]
I will not miss my computer.
I don’t think anyone on their deathbed has every uttered, “Oh, how I wish I’d spent more time on my laptop.”
So, enjoy the weekend,
breathe some fresh air,
and spend an afternoon, outdoors,
perhaps on a hill,
and listen.
May 22, 2018
Exposition, Development, Recapitulation and Austen
Today, over at What Jane Austen Didn’t Tell Us, we are r
evisiting a post on the similarities between the sonata form and Austen’s writing.
I found it interesting and compelling, when listening to Pleyel’s Sonatina in D Major in its sonata form (exposition, development, and recapitulation), to imagine Jane Austen, the musician. Did she, I wonder, internalize the sonata three-part formula for her stories? Her novels, as we know, are in three-part volumes. There are some that speculate that, in fact, she did.
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May 20, 2018
Inspiration for writers and poets
While compiling a collection of my writing (some poems from a chapbook and three short stories), I felt a wave of optimism and inspiration. “What an eclectic piece of work this will be,” my muse declared.
However, as many writers know, these feelings of optimism are often interrupted with self-doubt.
“Who are you to write a collection of poems and short stories?” asked my anti-muse. “You’re just too small and insignificant to write something such as this.”
Fortunately (and timely), I stumbled upon an inspiring poem about the milkweed by the great American poet, Richard Wilbur:
Anonymous as cherubs
Over the crib of God,
White seeds are floating
Out of my burst pod
What power had I
Before I learned to yield?
Shatter me, great wind:
I shall possess the field
Excerpt from Two Voices in a Meadow by Richard Wilbur
Seeds, like words, floating from our minds onto the page, and across the “amazon.”
I hope his poem inspires you as it has me. With that said…
Happy writing,
Mary
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May 8, 2018
Jane Austen and the Accomplished Woman
Today, over at What Jane Austen Didn’t Tell Us, Meg Levin discusses what Austen meant by an “accomplished woman.”
One of the most interesting scenes in Pride and Prejudice is the three-way conversation among Elizabeth Bennet, Caroline Bingley and Mr. Darcy on the subject of accomplished women. Along with skill at needlework and various crafts, Miss Bingley declares that “a woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.” Darcy adds, “…and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”
[image error]Miss Bingley‘s views were commonly held by upper class women who wanted to catch an eligible bachelor. But many of Jane Austen’s readers would have known that the proper education of women was a controversial subject at the turn of the nineteenth century.
May 1, 2018
Bathing Machines in Austen’s Day
With summer fast approaching (not fast enough for me!), Meg Levin writes about bathing machines in Austen’s day.
When Jane Austen sends Lydia to Brighton she doesn’t tell us what the youngest Miss
Bennet does aside from enjoying Wickham’s attentions. No doubt she and the young wife of Colonel Forster enjoy the shops and hope for glimpses of the Prince Regent. Sea resorts such as Brighton and Weymouth had become popular, much like Bath in the previous century. Young Georgiana Darcy visits the fashionable Ramsgate by the sea. The attractions [image error]of a popular resort included shops, a theater, assembly rooms for dancing and the sea. It was believed that exposure to sea air and salt water improved your health — as Mrs. Bennet says, “A little sea-bathing would set me up for ever.” So it is quite likely that the two young ladies in Brighton would have tried immersion in the sea by using the bathing machines.
April 24, 2018
Public Schools in Jane Austen’s Time (Life at Repton)
Today, over at What Jane Austen Didn’t Tell Us, Paul Wray discusses public schools in Jane Austen’s Time.
In our backstory for Mr. Wickham, we imagine that he attended Repton, a school in Derbyshire. We do not speculate about Mr. Wickham’s experience – good or bad – but we learned something of Repton during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when Wickham would have been a student there.
April 19, 2018
Dear writers…
Once there was a little document who lived all alone in a WIP folder. After several years, the folder grew and housed several other little documents.
“One day I will become an ebook,” said the youngest document who was smart, brave, and fell within in a specific genre. “No!” shouted the others. “Stay here on the computer, where it is safe and warm, for it is ugly and mean out there in the world. People (readers) will judge you and rate you.”
But the young document persisted, replying, “Although I am safe and secure on the computer, I am not happy here. I must get out into the world and experience life.”
And so, the Master of the keyboard, acknowledging the little document’s frustration, turned it into an ebook.
“I’m alive!” shouted the ebook, who felt very much satisfied with the ultimate decision. “I’m being read. I’m finally being read.”
Be brave, dear writers.
Or at least let your document be brave for you.
Pride and Prejudice and Coffee (my doc-turned-ebook) is now alive on amazon.
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April 17, 2018
Wedgwood, Austen, and Staffordshire
Today, over at What Jane Austen Didn’t Tell Us, we’re discussing the genius of Josiah Wedgwood and the special ground that both he and Jane Austen walked upon.
[image error]Jane Austen didn’t tell us what brand of china the Bennets used, but the Austens ate off Wedgwood plates. She refers to her family’s own Wedgwood collection in a letter to Cassandra in which she writes to her sister about “the pleasure of receiving, unpacking & approving our Wedgwood ware.”
Staffordshire’s soil, in the Midlands of west central England, offered miners rich deposits of clay unlike any other region in England. It was Nature herself who provided this rich clay for potters such as Josiah Wedgwood.
April 10, 2018
Jane Austen and Conduct Books (Oh, behave yourself)
Today, over at What Jane Austen Didn’t Tell Us, Gene Gill discusses conduct books — such as Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women — that were popular popular in Austen’s time.
Conduct books that defined what society believed were acceptable and desirable behaviors for young women were enormously popular in the 18th century. The majority of such manuals were written by men to help fathers and husbands in the instruction of their daughters and wives. Continue reading…
April 7, 2018
“Pride and Prejudice and Coffee” – Review & Giveaway — Just Jane 1813
I’m delighted to share JustJane1813’s review and giveaway of Pride and Prejudice and Coffee! 
by Mary C.M. Phillips Buy on Amazon Goodreads “If he does not come to me, then,” said she, “I shall give him up for ever.” 1,383 more words
Click here to read and enter giveaway “Pride and Prejudice and Coffee,” By Mary C.M. Phillips/ A Review, Excerpt & Giveaway — Just Jane 1813
