The Bookity Book & Tall Grass Salon

Relayer · Apr 18, 2014

Hi,

I hear this the literary/mainstream/contemporary chat. How you guys doing? I'm kind of new since I lurked for awhile and only recently started posting around for fun while I'm waiting on response from a full that's out to an agent.

What do you guys write here - short fiction or full length?

Shadow_Ferret · Apr 18, 2014

Hi, Relayer. Welcome.

Good wishes on the full.

And to answer your question about what we write: Yes.

Relayer · Apr 18, 2014

Shadow_Ferret said:
Hi, Relayer. Welcome.

Good wishes on the full.

And to answer your question about what we write: Yes.

Thanks for the welcome.

Kylabelle · Apr 19, 2014

Morning all!

The Writer's Almanac for April 19, 2014

Another anonymous lyric memorialized as today's poem, one I bet we've all sung. (I have anyway.)

And it's the birthday of Etheridge Knight, who learned to "say" poetry from an itinerant folk bard called "Hound Mouth" and then went to prison for stealing a purse and made a career of his verse. (SYW has nothing on that learning curve.

)

And Mae West was imprisoned for Sex.

Have a fine and wonderful day.

kuwisdelu · Apr 19, 2014

Y'know how they say "don't start with a dream sequence"?

I wonder how people feel about ending with one...

Kylabelle · Apr 19, 2014

No idea how people feel but I say go for it.

kuwisdelu · Apr 19, 2014

Kylabelle said:
No idea how people feel but I say go for it.

Already did. It was a short story I wrote last year. I was just thinking about it today for some reason. The whole climax and resolution take place in a dream.

Kylabelle · Apr 19, 2014

kuwisdelu said:
Already did. It was a short story I wrote last year. I was just thinking about it today for some reason. The whole climax and resolution take place in a dream.

That sounds intriguing. (Sorry for the slow response time; I was doing easter egg stuff and then recovering from all the socializing.

)

I have an older story that I haven't looked at in a while which takes place in a series of dreams, which open successively one into the next, and the narrator changes with the dream, even changing age and gender, IIRC. I'll have to find that one and have a look again.

whiporee · Apr 19, 2014

Hi everybody --

If you celebrate, Happy Easter. If you don't, Happy Sunday, and if none of that works, I hope it turns into a pretty good day for you anyway. The Easter Bunny has just finished hiding 83 candy-filled eggs throughout the house, but I'm hoping the kids will sleep in regardless of the allure. And then I've got to go to Mass, even though I'm not Catholic the rest of the family is. I use the time to meditate on plot lines and resist the urge to pray for book deals.

So regardless of what you have faith in, I hope it's a great, warm and spring-like day (unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere. Then I'll pull for a slightly autumn breeze).

Kylabelle · Apr 20, 2014

Happy Easter, all! Whip I hope your Easter Egg event is excellent, and that the prayers yield fruit.

The Writer's Almanac for April 20, 2014

Today's poem is nicely done and I wonder if I actually detect the subtlest wry tone at the end or if that is my own bias....

Peter S. Beagle is a writer I've found much inspiration from, in the past. And it's the anniversary of the publication of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" which the Almanac calls the first detective story.

And it's Sunday and I am bushed from all the socializing around here. Not used to it. Gonna lay low for a bit now.

Kylabelle · Apr 21, 2014

Sure was quiet in here yesterday. Hope everyone had a good Easter and Sunday.

The Writer's Almanac for April 21, 2014

There's a poem by W. S. Merwin today that I am glad to have read.

John Muir's birthday is today too; he's a hero of mine.

*sips coffee*

whiporee · Apr 21, 2014

Damn, must have forgotten to take the closed sign down yesterday.

Wish I had exciting news for everyone but I'm just rewriting these days and trying to decide which is less cliche -- a pregnancy scare or a congressional hearing. I've got a few thousand words to decide.

Hope all is well wherever everyone is, and that the snows have missed anyone weary of them.

Kylabelle · Apr 22, 2014

Ah, well, Happy Tuesday. It's Earth Day today, I believe?

The Writer's Almanac for April 22, 2014

I'm often very appreciative of Mary Oliver's poetry, and the one today is not one that sings to me much. Rather rambly for my taste.

But, y'all! Today is the anniversary of the Oklahoma Land Rush! Woo! Given that I just had my own mini land rush (moving to a different state, that is) I feel connected.

I also feel connected to the earlier layer of that story, the "relocation" of the Cherokee. Moving where one abides is a deeper, more complex matter than we usually acknowledge, IMO.

Nabokov and Henry Fielding share a birthday today with my previous neighbor, Willy, a kick-ass li'l gal who is turning 90 today. I have to remember to call her.

Coffee's good this morning.

Maryn · Apr 22, 2014

Mmm, coffee, that's what I need.

If I start talking I will get ranty. My debit card and my Twitter account hacked in the last 48 hours. Why bother changing passwords post-Heartbleed if they're busted within a week anyway?

Maryn, who knows when to shut up

shakeysix · Apr 22, 2014

No comments on Lolita?

Kylabelle · Apr 22, 2014

shakeysix said:
No comments on Lolita?

Heh. Feel free.

I'll start. I read it a long time ago. I may have still been in high school when I did.

I had less concern about the age difference of the characters, and any implications of abuse, then, than I would now. At that time I was mostly eager to embrace "forbidden literature". I did find it engaging and the writing was pretty awesome. But I remember very little except those things.

Next?

Jorshington · Apr 22, 2014

I just read that novel not long ago, I believe. It somehow managed to be both disturbing and heart-achingly tender and bittersweet, particularly towards the end. From all the comments I'd heard, I'd been expecting it to be more. .I'm not sure, erotic? Explicit? It was really very low-key with just enough implications to possibly leave the reader with some feelings of revulsion.

And Maryn, have you got your problems sorted out?

shakeysix · Apr 22, 2014

Sad but also little creepy/funny. It definitely summed up the attitude towards sex in that age-- immature, under- developed and selfish. Like Maryn, I read it for the wrong reasons. Anyone ever read Candy ? Spicier by far and without the burden of being Great Literature.--s6

Kylabelle · Apr 22, 2014

I believe I did read that, but it didn't stay with me.

Chris P · Apr 22, 2014

shakeysix said:
No comments on Lolita?

Trivia: In what language did Nabokov first write Lolita? Highlight for answer: English

I read it about 15 years ago, as an adult. The writing was great ("dolorous Dolores"! I love it!). I didn't have a problem with the age difference, and to me the narrator (Humbert, it's first person) was detached enough from his feelings for Lolita that it didn't read to me like glorifying pedophilia at all. It read more as "I was a sick person, and here's the evidence." Very matter of fact.

Maryn · Apr 22, 2014

I read Candy, but it was farcical rather than erotic, and I didn't think it was especially well done. Maybe I just hadn't read enough of what it mocked.

But even then, there was decent erotica to be had.

I've sorted out Twitter and put in the order for a new debit card. I'm supposed to keep checking my account daily watching for unauthorized charges.

And the last time I changed passwords for all my emails, when Heartbleed erupted, I also added a signature telling people I would not send a link without much explanation and please don't click if I ever do, because it'll mean I got hacked again.

In the good-news department, I'm 80 pages into my edits and it's going fine. The last time I got edits back there was much head-butting, as the editor was taking text which was correct and making it wrong. This editor seems to know her stuff and is quite tactful as well. It's embarrassing how often my eye saw what ought to be there rather than what is.

Maryn, relieved

Kylabelle · Apr 22, 2014

Hey, Maryn, yay for good news and good editors.

kuwisdelu · Apr 22, 2014

Kylabelle said:
But, y'all! Today is the anniversary of the Oklahoma Land Rush! Woo! Given that I just had my own mini land rush (moving to a different state, that is) I feel connected.

An anniversary of more broken treaties and illegal landgrabs. Yay.

Ugh.

shakeysix said:
No comments on Lolita?

Jorshington said:
I just read that novel not long ago, I believe. It somehow managed to be both disturbing and heart-achingly tender and bittersweet, particularly towards the end. From all the comments I'd heard, I'd been expecting it to be more. .I'm not sure, erotic? Explicit? It was really very low-key with just enough implications to possibly leave the reader with some feelings of revulsion.

I thought it was very erotic. Not in the erotica genre way, no, but definitely erotic.

Kylabelle · Apr 23, 2014

Kuwi, I hear that. It was a flippant remark for me to make, for which I can only blame the early morning brain fog.

The Writer's Almanac for April 23, 2014

Today is "believed" to be William Shakespeare's birthday, and the almanac is all about Shakespeare, leading off with one of his many sonnets.

No mention is made of all the speculation as to whether Shakespeare is really the one who wrote all those plays and poems. (A controversy about which I have no opinion at present.)

Ah, let's hope it's a good day for most of us if not for all of us.

*sips coffee*

kuwisdelu · Apr 23, 2014

Kylabelle said:
Kuwi, I hear that. It was a flippant remark for me to make, for which I can only blame the early morning brain fog.

It's cool. I know you know better.

This morning fog is my midnight bright though...

I should finish my scotch and sleep...

So glad I finally put dark curtains in my bedroom.

The Bookity Book & Tall Grass Salon

Court Jester

unaccounted for

Revolutionize the World

unaccounted for

Revolutionize the World

unaccounted for

unaccounted for

unaccounted for

unaccounted for

Baaa!

blue eyed floozy

unaccounted for

Big Daddy

blue eyed floozy

unaccounted for

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Baaa!

unaccounted for

Revolutionize the World

unaccounted for

Revolutionize the World