Terri Windling's Blog, page 205

Tunes for a Monday Morning

Today, Maya Beiser, whose gorgeous music Ellen Kushner (my host and writing partner here in NYC) introduced me to some years ago. I've loved it ever since. Raised on a kibbutz in Israel by a French mother and Argentinean father, Beiser studied at the Yale University Music School and now lives in New York.

Above: Beiser's version of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir," from her album Provenance.

Below: Beiser performs "Mariel," composed by Osvaldo Golijov.

Book characters and imaginary friends

“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your
characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”  - Ray Bradbury

"It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much com- panionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them." - Anne Tyler

“All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world
seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you
start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had
time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and
themes -- characters even -- caught in the fibers of your clothes, and
when you open the new book, they are still with you.”
  - Diane Setterfield

Art above by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) and Adelaide Claxton (1840-1900).

In praise of imaginary friends

"It's true that writing is a solitary occupation, but you would be surprised at how much com- panionship a group of imaginary characters can offer once you get to know them." - Anne Tyler

Art above: An illustration for Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939)

Thanksgiving

I posted the picture above on Thanksgiving Day last year, and I'm re-posting it now because it says all I want to say -- although I'm celebrating the holiday in America this time, an ocean away from my sweet pup and and our beloved Devon hills. (If you find the type hard to read, click on the image for a larger version.)

Speaking of pups, for fellow dog lovers I recommend a new article by Virginia Hughes on how a dog sniffs, at the science blog The Last Word on Nothing. "It’s humbling to think of how much of this big wide world my microsmatic
self will never get to experience," she says. "The only whiff I get comes from
watching my dog’s delight." The last picture below relates to the topic, and is also re-posted from my picture archives.

Also, please don't miss Annie Lamotts's lovely Thanksgiving essay, in praise of books, writers, and bookish families, in The New York Times.

Chasing wonder

"At its best, fantasy rewards the reader with a sense of wonder about
what lies within the heart of the commonplace world. The greatest tales
are told over and over, in many ways, through centuries. Fantasy changes
with the changing times, and yet it is still the oldest kind of tale in
the world, for it began once upon a time, and we haven't heard the end
of it yet."  - Patricia A. McKillip

“Nothing can be more limiting to the imagination than only writing about what you know.”  - John Gardner

Illustration by Howard Pyle (1853-1911)

What we need, what we remember, what we are

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”   - Philip Pullman

"Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you.
You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes
you’ll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it
will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely
ever visit."    - 

Neil Gaiman

 

Images above: Ducks on the Reservoir in Central Park, Manhattan; and "The Ugly Duckling" by William Heath Robinson (1872-1944)

Tonight in New York:

Ellen Datlow and I are co-hosting a NYRSF Reading tonight featuring three wonderful authors from our latest anthology, After: Genevieve Valentine, Matthew Kressel, and N.K. Jemisin.  If you're anywhere near the city, please come join us at the Soho Gallery for Digital Art. More info here.

Tomorrow in New York:

Ellen Datlow and I are co-hosting a NYRSF Reading tomorrow night featuring three wonderful authors from our latest anthology, After: Genevieve Valentine, Matthew Kressel, and N.K. Jemisin.  If you're anywhere near the city, please come join us at the Soho Gallery for Digital Art. More info here.

Tunes for a Monday Morning

Today's tunes come from Ben Howard, a terrific songwriter from Totnes, Devon (a town just across the moor from our village).

Above: "Diamonds," performed in a French brasserie, backed up by London-based cellist India Bourne.

Below: "The Wolves," performed for BBC1 Radio's Live Lounge, back in February -- with India Bourne again, and the lovely lads of Brother and Bones (from Cornwall) chiming in with background vocals.

The charming wolf illustration above is "Perfect Sunday" by Julianna Swaney , in Portland, Oregon.

Recommended Reading

The great mythic fiction writer Alan Garner discusses inspiration, the mythic landscape, living with bi-polar disease, and his new book, Boneland, in "Alan Garner: A Life in Books" (Alison Flood, The Guardian) and "There is Light at the End of the Tunnel" (Robert Chalmers, The Independent).

I also recommend a 2008 video of Garner, made on the 50th anniversary of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen; and Garner's fascinating collection of essays: The Voice That Thunders (Havrill Press, 2003).