Terri Windling's Blog, page 204

Stories underfoot

“I do an awful lot of thinking and dreaming about things in the past and
the future - the timelessness of the rocks and the hills - all the
people who have existed there. I prefer winter and fall, when you feel
the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead
feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't
show.”  ― Andrew Wyeth

It's good to be wandering the hills again, leaves and stories crackling underfoot and a gentle black dog beside me....

Tunes for a Monday Morning

It was autumn when I left Devon a month ago, and it's definitely winter as I return. So the first tune for today (recommended by Howard) is "Winter Coat" from The Martin Harley Band, a British roots & blues trio consisting of Martin Harley (vocals, guitar, Weissenborn), Pete Swatton (drums,
percussion, balalaika, backing vocals) and Jay Carter (double Bass,
guitar, backing vocals).

Below: "Carnival Girl," from the band's first album, Money Don't Matter.

Home again

“ 'Home' is the nicest word there is.” - Laura Ingalls Wilder

"Dog" is a pretty nice word too.

Photograph by Victoria Windling-Gayton

Holiday Print Sale!

Bunny birls, bird girls, and other little people seek good homes

I'd like to announce that there's a Holiday Print Sale running in my Bumblehill Etsy Shop
this month. The pictures above and below are among the ten designs
currently available -- five of them for the very first time (The Dreamer, Lost Child, Bunny Troupe, Best Friend, and Mother Nature), plus five images back by popular demand (Fairy Tales, Tea Time, Bird Girls, Brother & Sister, and Coyote Woman).

The prints are signed, and will be mailed from two locations: from here in Devon to addresses in the UK (and continental Europe), and from New York City to addresses in America (and the rest of the world). If you'd like your prints to arrive before Xmas, please order no later than December 15.

Can you give some frisky bunnies a home? Or perhaps pass on news of the sale to those who can? The Little People of Bumblehill would be grateful...and so would I. :-)

I'm aiming to add new print designs in the new year, but prices will go up a bit when the sale ends on January 1.

"It's the emptiest and yet the fullest of all human m...

"It's the emptiest and yet the fullest of all human messages: 'Good-bye.' ” - Kurt Vonnegut

Howard and I are leaving New York today, with fond farewells to all the friends, colleagues, and family members who have made the last month such a delightful, stimulating, and richly creative time. Thank you all.

Photo above: A stroll through Times Square on our last night in the city, with Howard and our NYC hosts (and dear friends) Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman.

Below:  A candle for me to wish on last night.... And may the wish come true.

I'll be back in my Devon office (and back on this blog) on Monday, Dec. 10. Till then, have a very good week, everyone. Be well. And be magical.

Tunes for a Monday Morning

I'm feeling a bit retro today....

Above: swing and jazz master Caro Emerald, from the Netherlands, playing "Back it up'" for Studio Brussel.

Below: the video for "Vagabond'" by Beirut (the New York band fronted by the amazing Zach Condon).

The purpose of art

“Art has always been the raft onto which we climb to save our sanity. I don't see a different purpose for it now.”
- Dorethea Tanning (1910-2012)

Tanning, of course, was one of great Surrealist writers and artists of the 20th century -- and, like Zora Neale Hurston, spent formative years in New York City; she also lived in Arizona and France over the course of her long life. The letter below is from Tanning to her friend and fellow-artist Joseph Cornell. More illustrated letters can be seen on the Smithsonian site. (And for those of you in New York, there's a terrific exhibition of Beatrix Potter's illustrated letters at the Morgan Library right now.)

Years that ask questions...

Today, three quotes from the great author and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960):

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

So very true. The last few years have been the former for me, but the wheel is slowly turning. And for you?

“Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled
it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder.
So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”

So very beautiful. Like an Edmund Dulac illustration in words.

"I want a busy life, a just mind, and a timely death."

I've certainly got the first at the moment; I'm working on the second. The third is out of my hands so I'll get to work and let the Mystery be....

On partnerships

My husband Howard has joined me in New York (hooray!), but that means the days ahead are very full and posting may become erratic for a little while. (Tilly is home with Howard's mother, having many adventures, the lucky girl.)

Quote of the day:

“A good marriage is where both people feel like they're getting the better end of the deal.”
-- Anne Lamott

This applies to good writing partnerships too. And in my current collaboration with my old friend Ellen Kushner (which is the reason I'm in New York this month), I'm definitely getting the better part of the deal. It's been a blast.

Image above: "The Hour of Grace" (an illustration from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam) by Edmund Dulac.

What writing is...

"We are lonesome animals. We spend all of our life trying to be less
lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the
listener to say -- and to feel -- ‘Yes, that is the way it is, or at
least that is the way I feel it.’ You’re not as alone as you thought. " 
- John Steinbeck

“If we had to say what writing is, we would describe it essentially as an act of courage.”  - Cynthia Ozick

Images above: Beauty and the Beast illustrations by Mercer Mayer and Eleanor Vere Boyle; and a photo of me and my own little beast, taken last month in Devon by Victoria Windling-Gayton. I'm still in New York, where Howard is joining me today. (Don't worry, Tilly, we'll be home soon!)