Was chatting to a friend about poetry and novels and our love for them recently. During our conversation, she gave me one of the best compliments I have received in a long while….
“When I talk with you about writing or read your posts about writing, you remind me of Jo March from Little Women – Genius Burns. Strong fierce beyond talented and stubborn – but always a lady.”
Thanks Apryl…you have no idea how much these words mean to me 😀
This surrealist’s art has always made me wonder at the “characters” within his art. They speak to me of places I’m too wary to travel to, whilst giving me insight into the complex nature of his perception of life.
This is my favourite Dali piece which is titled “Woman Aflame” .
It helps me momentary escape and explore infinite possibilities as a woman as I compartmentalize my responsibilities and dreams…I might be held up to society’s standards but that is just a crutch which I use to propel myself forward.
The first book I recall from my earliest memories as a child, is learning to read using Aesop’s Fables. I loved the simple story telling full of allegory and re-read them over and over again. Filled with moral and ethical lessons I feel this is the book which shaped me the most.
I truly believe that whatever you write will have an affect on others so this quote rings true with me…
“the only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life or better to endure it.” Dr Samuel Johnson
I’ve been away for a long vacation which I haven’t had in years. I travelled to some beautiful places filled with nature which always inspires me.
I wrote everyday and continue to do so, focusing on my fiction as well as non fiction.
Its triggered a new story in me which is a completely different genre and so I look forward to seeing it bloom.
Love Wordsworth and this sonnet which to me sings of a writers freedom yet being trapped…
Nuns fret not
Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room;
And hermits are contented with their cells;
And students with their pensive citadels;
Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,
Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,
High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells,
Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:
In truth the prison, into which we doom
Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me,
In sundry moods, ’twas pastime to be bound
Within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground;
Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)
Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
Should find brief solace there, as I have found.
W. Wordsworth
I have a slight obsession with some antiques – usually the ones which are from early to mid last century.
Looking and touching these items, I ponder who bought it, why they bought it and what they did with it.
It enables my imagination to run wild and imagine the various time periods and the kinds of lives these items touched.
Something which I have a great love for is: reading.
Being born to immigrant parents, I learned to speak English in school. I used reading anything I could get my hands on from the local library, to help me conquer the language.
My passion for reading increased as a teen, where I started to write my own stories, after being inspired by authors like Robin Klein, S.E. Hinton and Lucy Maud Montgomery. As I got older, my tastes broadened and I fell in love with classical literature, horror and science fiction. Authors like Steven King, Paulo Coelho, Christian Jacq, Anne Rice, Raymond E Feist and Janny Wurts encouraged me to get back to writing because their words touched me and reignited the creative spark I had been suppressing.
I’m always reading several books at a time and love to open my inspiration to new ideas whether they be fiction or non fiction. This is why I have been puzzled when I meet people who say they never read. I find that weird…mainly because I love to read for fun as well as for knowledge. I find reading a great self educator and feel it can help writers hone their craft or encourage them to try our new genres or styles of writing.
Whatever I am reading all I want is to get “something” out of it and even if I dislike the book itself – at least I learned that!
I am working on a short story retelling of a classic fairy-tale, but from an ancient world mythological point of view and a woman’s perspective.
Therefore, I have been re-familiarizing myself with Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales for inspiration.
After rereading a few volumes of said fairy tales I was reminded why I became a feminist at age 4.
Those tales are full of so much sexism that it hurts my brain.
If I was one of the female fairy tale characters set in the 17th -19th century I would of ended up like this:
Once upon a time in a land far far away there lived…
An outspoken girl with no titles yet was educated and self assured regarding her own opinion.
She didn’t live happily ever after, as she was promptly executed (or excommunicated) for being a feminist.
The End
Suffice to say my re imagined fairy tale is going to come from a feminist point of view…or so I envision it that way…lets see how she fairs 😉
One of my favorite books is Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The following quote resonates for me when it comes to creative writers…
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