Guillaume Apollinaire - A magnificent poet in Paris

The Paris Reivew (Autumn 2012) published a collection of ten poems by Apollinaire. The final lines of Cors De Chasse are:

"Memories
Are hunting horns whose sound dies in the breeze."

I found them incrdibly emotionally charged, they bring forth in my mind so many images, and for me this is the magic of them.

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 - 1918)

Such and intersting but tragically short life. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/737

Colette & Cheri

I first discovered the brilliance of French author, Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, after seeing a film adaptation of her short story, both titled Cheri.

Here is the trailer staring Michelle Pfeiffer & Kathy Bates; and the short story can be found in a collection of short stories by Colette.

Colette: My favourite female author

Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Good advice from the master of all life coaches - Napoleon Hill

You are more apt to “rust” out your brain from disuse than you are to wear it out from use.
The most intricate, most powerful machine in the world and the greatest minds will rust away unless they are used. Unless you manage your schedule to permit time for study and learning, it is easy to yield to the temptation to spend your free time in thoughtless, mind-numbing, escapist pastimes.

For a daily dose of advice for achieving your goals, sign up for Napoleon Hill's thought of the day!

http://www.naphill.org/

Hemingway Quote

In a letter to Malcolm Cowley in 1945 he wrote:

Do you suffer when you write? I don't at all. Suffer like a bastard when I don't write, or just before, and feel empty and fucked afterwards. But never as good while writing. (From Ernest Hemingway On Writing)

Hemingway in Paris - 1922 - suffering a head injury from a broken window

Hemingway, Stein & Woody Allen = Heaven

 

Woody Allen creates a magical interpretation of Paris in the1920s. Lights, artists, lovers. Would love to be standing in Steins living room surrounded by Stein, Picaso & my all time favourite author, Hemingway.

My favourite Gertrude Stein poem

Red Roses by Gertrude Stein

A cool red rose and a pink cut pink,

a collapse and a sold hole,

a little less hot.

Gertrude Stein (right) walking her poodle in Paris

Andy Warhol understands writers

Anne Rice gives writing advice

In September 2012, Anne Rice decided to answer the most commonly asked question from her fans (what advice do you have for new writers?) so posted this 12 minute video on YouTube. Among other tips she encourages writers to "go where the pain is" and "go where the pleasure is." I found this video, from a true master of the craft, both encouraging and helpful. I hope you do too!

Brilliant character development in 'Breathless'

This remake of a French film, is absolutely brilliiant! Richard Gere plays a reckless love sick Vegas boy on a mission to reach his girl in LA and elope with her to Mexico.

His character is revealed almost immediately and despite his inumerable faults it is imposible not to feel some affection towards the guy. The ending is ineviatable but still suprising which is just one of the reasons this film is so great. Gere's character is unique, irresponsibe, and a ticking bomb, but loveable.

If you want to witness intelligent character development and superb story, check it out!!

Felicity Aston: My Idol

After 59 days alone in Antarctica, solo explorer Felicity Aston finally made it to the other side. Her message: The most difficult part was winning the mental battle.

"I realized that the real (trick) of this would not be how strong I was or how much experience I had, it would literally be getting out of that tent." CNN

I think this is true of writing too - Once you believe you can do it, nothing can stop you!

Read the full article here First woman to cross Antarctic solo

Felicity reaches the end of her journey at Hercules Inlet on the Ronne Ice Shelf

A John Green Quote

I'm a quarter of the way through John Green's A Fault in our Stars and am loving it. It's such a moving book that I'm getting Goosebumbs just writing about it now!

So I thought I'd share with you a quote I found on his website http://johngreenbooks.com/ that's a unique answer to the question "Where do you get your ideas?"

"That’s where my books start, really. They begin at the intersection between people I’m imagining and questions that bug me."

Birds and Cables

Birds and Cables fabric by Raul

While researching crows for a short story I'm currently penning, I came across this wonderful artwork from the fabric designers at Spoonflower. It's a complete tangle of kites, wires and tied shoelaces of pairs of trainers, interspersed with birds. Really like it.

The Wisdom of Steve Jobs

 

I've just subscribed to www.dailylit.com - it's a fantastic website my husband found for me and they have over 800 free books which you can read online all at once or have bite-size bits sent to your phone or e-mail to read daily - so from The Wisdom of (Steve) Jobs by Steve Jobs, on the first day of my subscription I was sent the below quote which I just had to pass on to you:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”
-Stanford commencement speech, June 2005

Vince Gilligan is a true master of story

Vince Gilligan being interviewed about his Emmy Award winning show Breaking Bad

The creator, writer and director of hit TV show Breaking Bad is a master of story! For anyone wanting to write anything (plays, scripts or like me novels) watching Gilligan's work will teach you suburb character development and suspense building. If you haven't already, I can't stress enough - Watch it!

Czech RAF pilot - Battle of Britain

While writing a short story which features a Spitfire from the Battle of Britain I found this image. I was moved by the courage this Czech man must have had to fight.

Brilliant Short Story Writer John Collier

John Collier 1901-1980

 

Just read a short story from his collection Fancies and Goodnights (1951) and it was brilliant. He is most definitely a master of structure!

Love Psy's Enthusiasm in Gangnam Style!

With over 150 million views and getting more hits by the second, this video clip Gangnam Style will first make you gawk, then laugh, and finally buy into the moves, the energy and the tune (which will get stuck in your head.)

With such monumental belief in himself, a recording contract with Island Records, and an all expenses paid American tour planned, how can it get any better for Psy? Recognition in Korea where his clip has been banned for its risque content? Maybe not.

But his success certainly backs up the adage 'Enthusiasm is contagious!' We all want to feel enthused so next time you're selling your brand, I wouldn't bust out Psy's dance moves, but why not try to imitate his enthusiasm?!

A Great Literary Talent

John Steinbeck

I've just read my first Steinbeck, Cannery Row, and loved it. Tomorrow I'll be paying a visit to my local library to sift through the shelves for Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.

Just watching this trailer made me smile...

Really looking forward to catching Delicacy on DVD. The book, of the same title, was beautifully written and from the trailer this promises to be a superb adaptation!

The Most Romantic Music Video Ever

Edith Piaf - Sous le ciel de Paris

Classic Movie Star

James Stewart

Charles Bukowski: Factotum, 1975

"If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery — isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is." - Bukowski

From the diary of Anais Nin

The French-Cuban writer penned 16 journals over the course of her life -they are all published. Lisa Congdon has illustrated the one above.

The Great Gatsby Comming Soon!

Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic is due out in 2013 and judging by the trailer it's going to be a visual feast!

10 Rules for Students, Teachers, and Life by John Cage and Corita Kent

Verlyn Klinkenborg on Writing

Hemingway is by far my favourite author

I'm reading his masterpiece For Whom The Bell Tolls, which was published in 1940 and whom he dedicated to Martha Gellhorn.

Basil Rathbone - Most amazing voice actor ever!

1940

Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven

This T-shirt will be mine!

THE THOUGHT TRANSLATOR (Part 8)

Brad forgot his keys on Tab’s desk. I seized the opportunity but paused at Brad’s desk. I had an ominous feeling. I wasn’t this kind of guy. I returned the keys and bagged my brief.

‘I hope you’ve got a Fairy God Mother,’ Meg crowed.

I jumped.

‘Or a wizard!’

Stanley Kubrick in a 1968 Playboy interview

THE THOUGHT TRANSLATOR (Part 7)

‘How did you interpret invisible?’ I asked when Tab dragged herself away to answer the phone.

Brad gave a smug shrug and slipped the folder into his bottom draw before locking it. The silver key swung on the ring like a carrot next to his house key. He pocketed them.

A Writer's Goal

'It is our job to create books that are compelling enough to pull a reader out of that crazy beeping world and into a quiet place to have a real experience for 20 hours and if enough of us can keep doing that we'll keep the thing going.' Jonathan Franzen speaking to Meet the Writers (view below)

Jonathan Franzen on Meet the Writers...

... speaking about where he gets his inspiration, why writers keep writing fiction and how writers can compete with technology.

Sookie Stackhouse Box Set Coming My Way!

THE THOUGHT TRANSLATOR (Part 6)

I counted to ten then spun around to look at Brad. He was smoothing back his shoulder-length blond hair for the hundredth time that hour and leaning back into his chair flirting with the 20-something receptionist, Tab.

He met my eyes and raised his brows.

Bugger, he’s got a plan.

THE THOUGHT TRANSLATOR (Part 5)

VP meant a pay rise. A pay rise meant I could afford the ring in Benoir’s on Bond Street.

‘By invisible, he mean’s harmonious with the environment?’

'No moron, he means invisible,’ Meg said sipping then spitting out her coffee.

‘But that’s…impossible.’

‘Poor Nicole.’ She waggled her chubby ring finger.

THE THOUGHT TRANSLATOR (Part 4)

No joke.

She was tight lipped about the offer for the tender but we’d won easily. She was devastatingly cunning.
If we could pull this off I knew it would mean a lot to our reputation.

Meg made it clear that  one of us would make Vice President.

Charlaine Harris's Grave Sight: An Amazing Read!

I picked up a copy of this because I love Charlaine Harris and it is just as good as her Sookie Stackhouse series - Loving it!

THOUGHT TRANSLATOR (Part 3)

I sipped my cold coffee then flipped it open.

1.0 Brief
This brief outlines the requirements for a 400 Room Luxury Hotel at Hyde Park Corner as part of the ITL project.

BINGO, hotels were my forte. I skipped down the page.

4.0 Architectural Design

• Invisible structure
• Rotating rooms

Best Horror

There is nothing like Japanese horror - what makes it so devestatingly real and relatable, is that it is so unimaginably cruel! The human spirit is always severely tortured and as an audience member I feel both nightmareish fear and heart-breaking compassion.

THE THOUGHT TRANSLATOR (Part Two)

Monday 13:13, Megarific Architectural Firm, Ground Floor, behind Nando’s, East London.

My boss, an overweight dragon of a woman who wore too much pink, squeezed herself into my cubicle. I could smell her bacon breath before she opened her mouth.
‘9am Friday,’ Meg spat, slapping the brief on my desk.

Jack Vettriano: What I love about his work!

The Game of Life

There is such an intimacy in his paintings - he seems to be able to capture the unspoken when there is clearly a lot to be said. I can hear the thoughts of each of his subjects and can imagine their internal dialogue - the best part being the conflict you know would exist especially in his paintings of three.

Narcissistic Bathers


Check out more of his work at http://www.jackvettriano.com/

The Thought Translator: The First 50 words.

THE THOUGHT TRANSLATOR (Part One)

The thought translator was a bad idea from the start. But I had no choice - I had to come up with a better prototype than Brad and I couldn’t do it alone - it was that or my job. In hindsight I could have found another job…

Tomorrow I'll post the next fifty words, and the day after another fifty words and so on until the story is complete!

Check back daily!!

Inspiration for my short story on the subject 'Why I love Cornwall'

The 14th Century castle on St Michael's Mount, Marazion, Cornwall.

Women's Road Race London 2012

My husband and I were lucky enough to walk down and watch this today...

 The rain stopped long enough for these ladies to ride through Twickenham ;)

Matt and I had a front seat view. Well done to the Olympic volunteers for brilliant crowd control today ;)

Catching Up...

I just spoiled myself with these two purchases...

 So many competitions, industry news and tips! Love it, love it, love it!

Yet to begin this one... but just looking at the map of Australia on the cover tells me it's going to be good ;)

Trouble Organising?

Try Wunderlist! It is free to download and helps authors to store ideas in layers. Eg you can type in story titles for short stories or novels, then expand the bar to add notes, then expand it again to add more details.

Check it out on http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist/

Writers Can Only Write the Truth

In this 1933 speach delivered at Claridge’s Hotel in London Rudyard Kipling speaks about the truth in his writing.

Models walking Dogs

I don't know what I love more about this photo... Paris, the pastries, the coiffured poodle or the letter P ;)

Vogue 1999

And I have a soft spot for Great Danes...

Vogue 1956

Old Black and White Photographs

I love this photo which appeared in a 1935 edition of Vogue. Very elegant.

And this one from 1939... along a similar theme to the one I've chosen for my novel... I wrote a brand new synopsis today - this one I'm excited to expand out into a novel!

True Blood: Why it Works

After writing a one page synopsis of my novel today - drawing together all of the ideas I'd scribbled out over the last month - I was a little disappointed. What the story had boiled down to was too simple; I'd wanted simple but this seemed boarder line boring.

So I asked myself 'How is my story different? Am I excited to write it? Is it something I'd find unique and interesting enough to pick up in Waterstones and purchase? - like a book I saw in the store today titled The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson!

The answer was sadly, no.

So I looked to what is working for the Sookie Stackhouse Series author Charlaine Harris. Her novels have been turned into the highly successful HBO series True Blood. I asked myself how what she is doing is different - vampires are everywhere so how does she make the Sookie series work?

It's vampire meets mind-reader who in each season finds herself in the middle of a murder / missing person investigation and while trying to solve the mystery runs into a host of other supernatural creatures! At the same time there is a heavy romance element. So really Harris has woven three genres together - mystery, romance and horror - to create this success!

Now, to find a new angle or subplot or to create a genre-hybrid!

A Fish Quote


The setting of the sun is a difficult time for all fish

- Ernest Hemingway The Old Man and the Sea

After posting Gurtrude Stein's quote on the same subject - fish - I had to post this gem which I discovered in Hemingway's tale of an old man and his four day battle to haul in an 18ft marlin off the coast of Havana.

Ernest Hemingway And Henry Strater Examine The Remains Of A Huge Mutilated Blue Marlin Which Strater Fought Off Bimini In 1936.



 

My Hemingway Infatuation

Ernest Hemingway 1923 Passport Photo

I've just finished Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and today started The Old Man and the Sea and I love the way Hemingway writes for two reasons: 

The creativity/freedom of style which moves from third person to first and then to stream of consciousness doing away with needless punctuation; and the gentle banter of the dialog - which reads as everyday conversation and while being weighty in meaning is light on word count.

Stories which continue to haunt me in a beautiful way - What an absolute genius!

A Page Turning Memoir

  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is the most riverting memoir I've ever read!

It taught me a lot about the polarity of characters! The same character whom I warmed to for one action, I cringed at for another.

If you haven't already, read it!

　

How Analysing Story Threads in Breaking Bad has Helped Me Understand Degrees of Conflict

I am working on my third novel - still to be titled - and after plotting out the main thread of the story today (for the third time) and deciding on sticking to a theme for the sub-plot I was left feeling a bit flat.


Even though it was improving - because I was only including events essential to demonstrating exactly what I wanted to say (this skill has taken me 4 years to develop...and I think today was a break through because I cut out something that only diluted the story) - it still wasn't exciting enough.


So I thought of the television series I've watched recently that I thought were brilliant - Breaking Bad and True Blood - and decided to analyse the sub-plots in one of these.


I drew a spider diagram of the main sub-plots in Breaking Bad and discovered something that I thought I already knew. With each subplot/character or group of character's Walt faces conflict - not just minor-differences-of-opinion-conflict (which is what my protagonist was facing) but true heart-pounding, sweaty-palms, watery-mouth conflict! Just reading over the diagram I felt it!


I now have a better understanding of 'true conflict' and this is what I  now know I need to include in my novel.


I will keep you posted! ;)

Gertrude Stein: Bringing artists together

If fishes were wishes the ocean would be all of our desire.

– Gertrude Stein

What an amazing woman - born in America in 1874, she traveled to France in 1903 where she spent the rest of her life promoting and supporting the work of other artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Her quotes are magical.