Leila Howland's Blog, page 29

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"One reason that people have artist’s block is that they do not respect the law of dormancy in..."

“One reason that people have artist’s block is that they do not respect the law of dormancy in nature. Trees don’t produce fruit all year long, constantly. They have a point where they go dormant. And when you are in a dormant period creatively, if you can arrange your life to do the technical tasks that don’t take creativity, you are essentially preparing for the spring when it will all blossom again.”

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Marshall Vandruff, one of the best teachers I have ever had, on artist’s block. Said during a webinar done on Visualarium to advertise his upcoming online course on animal anatomy (source links to webinar)  (via pale-afternoon)

THIS QUOTE HELPS SO MUCH OMG

(via saathi1013)

Needed this! Today and every day. 

(via authorsarahdessen)

Text by Carol Ann Duffy

I tend the mobile now

like an injured bird.

We text, text, text

our significant words.

I re-read your first,

your second, your third,

look for your small xx,

feeling absurd.

The codes we send

arrive with a broken chord.

I try to picture your hands,

their image is blurred.

Nothing my thumbs press

will ever be heard.

Girls reading outside a bookstore, New York or New Jersey,...

Girls reading outside a bookstore, New York or New Jersey, 1890-1910

Via

Pictures of Nantucket in the snow are getting prettier and...

Pictures of Nantucket in the snow are getting prettier and prettier! I can imagine being there right now, taking a snow-hushed, red-cheeked walk through town.

Photo via ack.net

photo via ack.net

"Don’t write your books for people who won’t like them. Give yourself wholly to the kind of book you..."

“Don’t write your books for people who won’t like them. Give yourself wholly to the kind of book you want to write and don’t try to please readers who like something different. Otherwise, you’ll end up with the worst of both worlds. I write lyrical, introspective, experiential books concerned with consciousness and perception. If a reader wants to know what my protagonist’s insurance policies are, he’ll be better off curling up with a nice cup of chamomile tea and an actuarial table. Similarly, don’t write your books for bad readers. Your books will suffer from bad readers no matter what, so write them for brilliant, big-brained and big-hearted people who will love you for feeding their minds with feasts of beauty.”

- Paul Harding, 5 Writing Tips (author of Pulitzer Prize Winner, Tinker)

wordsbydan:On writing: 5 Literary voices we lost this yearThe...

wordsbydan:

On writing: 5 Literary voices we lost this year

The Guardian has a great article collecting quotes about life from writers we lost this year, but here’s what each had to say about writing:

Doris Lessing: “You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn’t care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can’t be a way of life - the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.”

Chinua Achebe: "Imaginative literature does not enslave; it liberates the mind of man. Its truth is not like the canons of orthodoxy or the irrationality of prejudice and superstition. It begins as an adventure in self-discovery and ends in wisdom and humane conscience."

Seamus Heaney: “The gift of writing is to be self-forgetful … to get a surge of inner life or inner supply or unexpected sense of empowerment, to be afloat, to be out of yourself.”

Elmore Leonard: "So many people say, ‘I’m dying to write.’ Well, if you’re dying to write, why aren’t you writing? If you’re not writing, you’re not dying to do it enough."

Iain Banks: “Writing is like everything else: the more you do it the better you get. Don’t try to perfect as you go along, just get to the end of the damn thing. Accept imperfections. Get it finished and then you can go back.

I have to admit, I love the cover of NANTUCKET RED!

I have to admit, I love the cover of NANTUCKET RED!

One of my favorite memories EVER is signing books at...

One of my favorite memories EVER is signing books at Mitchell’s Book Corner on Nantucket on a rainy July morning. Would love to be there now, sipping hot chocolate and browsing.

sarahenni:whitehouse:President Obama, Sasha, and Malia shop...

sarahenni:

whitehouse:

President Obama, Sasha, and Malia shop for books at Politics & Prose — a local bookstore in D.C.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!