Marly Youmans's Blog, page 70

March 7, 2014

"Sing whatever is well made"

Courtesy of sxc.hu and Lieven Volckaert of Belgium.

I found this in my blogger drafts folder--I wonder, what book was it that inspired this little rant? I must have thought it was too over the top to publish. Or perhaps I thought it would hurt somebody's feelings. I can be a downright wimp, as I am a kindly soul and also a Southerner brought up to be awash in empathy and guilt. I suppose it
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Published on March 07, 2014 07:54

March 6, 2014

Carrington's Sidhe

  

Compilation by DistantMirrors, youtube 2012


I've been reading Susan Aberth's Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy, and Art in my little bits of stray time and may have something to say about it later... I started with the alchemy chapter because my The Book of the Red King in part rises out of alchemical lore, and so I was eager to read that portion.



But now I am back to the start
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Published on March 06, 2014 06:59

March 4, 2014

Portrait of a poetry critic

Last week I was noodling about in Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh, a story in which a marriageable bit of property is carried off to meet Aliris, her bridegroom and king-to-be. In it, "Fadladeen, one of Lalla Rookh's entourage on the journey, assumes the role of ill-tempered critic of Feramorz's tales in the manner of the Tory critics of Blackwood's and the Edinburgh Review (this was the year before
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Published on March 04, 2014 03:32

March 3, 2014

Clive's "Marly and me"

Clive Hicks-Jenkins takes a look at our collaborations, past, present, and future. Please hop here for a peep.


* * *

At left is Clive's English lion, one of the interior vignettes for Glimmerglass, out from Mercer in September.
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Published on March 03, 2014 07:17

March 2, 2014

Taking a posting break until Tuesday, when I will have fi...

Taking a posting break until Tuesday, when I will have finished my author questionnaire for Glimmerglass. Stick around and enjoy some other leaves on my online tree, or come back then.
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Published on March 02, 2014 04:49

February 27, 2014

Don't follow your bliss--

William Blake, "The Genius of Shakespeare"

The idea of "following your bliss" seems to have successfully invaded all precincts of our world. I seem to meet it everywhere online, but I don't approve of its sentimentality, smarminess, and false illusions. No doubt I have mentioned it before. But my mentioning it hasn't stopped the flood of bliss-advocators. I'm like the little boy with his thumb
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Published on February 27, 2014 07:41

February 26, 2014

Madness and blue roses

How to order hardcover or paperback from anywhere? Go here.Phoenicia Publishing of Montreal, 2012:Book design by Elizabeth Adams,The marvelous interior and exterior art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins of Wales.




Here's the merest snip of dangerous weather on the lake from Thaliad . . .  . Because I am dreaming of hot weather and a thunderstorm over Lake Otsego instead of ice and ice and blebs and
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Published on February 26, 2014 14:44

February 25, 2014

Man-weevils and A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage

early 20th-century poster

Chapter 3 begins...


     The spang! of insect cries, fused into a single vibrating note, soared into the sky where Pip thought perhaps he could see its shrillness when he looked straight into the burning sun—and saw something like a rope made of gold, its frizzled threads on fire. The sound and the light jabbed at his eyes, and he ducked his head.
     For three
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Published on February 25, 2014 11:50

February 24, 2014

A Child at the Tropic Pavilions

A CHILD AT THE TROPIC PAVILIONS

    from The Throne of Psyche





The smolderings of Pele’s hair

   
Are her delight, with fires

Of eucalyptus in the rain

   
And coral’s glowing spires.




braided crown of palm adorns

   
Her buoyant curls, and leis

Of frangipani scent her throat:

   
She has no need of praise,



For sea’s auroral whisperings

   
Aren’t secrets to her ear--
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Published on February 24, 2014 06:27

February 21, 2014

Dear passers-by and keen readers,

Courtesy of sxc.hu + magstefan of Graz, Austria

Due to the Yankee Bug of Doom and the need to finish edits for the upcoming novel, I will be off-blog (aside from answering the occasional stray comment) for a few days. Please send chocolates (absolutely no wax, must be at very least Dove-level or else the cat gets them), citrus fruit suitable for juicing (dreaming of blood oranges), and
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Published on February 21, 2014 07:27