Imagination-Inspiration-Creativity

Imagination-Inspiration-Creativity.

The Daily Scroll was created for visitors who want to learn more about all three. It’s bursting with imaginative micro-articles, cartoons & passages from the writings of authors & artists.

Fantasizing,Fotos,Fridays offer pictures chosen to stimulate our imaginations, awaken inspiration & allow creativity free rein to invent theories or micro-stories based on what we see. Imagination-Exercising entries--which appear on whatever day they feel like--provide a few words as inspiration for our creativity. Both are fun!

Please comment below when inspired by ideas, suggestions or reactions!

Or email me at, ScrollChamberPress@gmail.com

Thursday, August 28, 2014

The Other Swiss Army Knife

We all have at least one swiss army knife.

Probably not this one


Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife: 85 tools, 110 uses, 100% bonkers
"…absurdly stuffed Swiss Army Knife: over two pounds in weight and nearly nine inches across, it has 85 different tools and 110 ways to use 'em...    $800.00"

Talking about the one you were given in elementary school is "safe"


as is the one you later learned to use in scouts & have used ever since.


Mentioning the swiss army knife inside your brain, not so much safe. 

This in spite of expressions like, "She's sharp-witted." or "He's got a mind like a steel trap." Only small children will imagine we have a tiny mouse trap inside our heads.


Okay, there's your best buddy but they already know about that off-kilter way you look at things and how you express your reactions. They've got it too. Looking at the world differently from your other friends and family probably brought you together.


But claiming our minds are like swiss army knives? Most people won't try to debate this--they'll just wisk around the other side of the jeans rack as fast as they can. Preferably before you prove your point by opening the top of your skull to show off that Wenger Giant. 


Yes, that would be strange... Please don't back away. My brain is full of imagination, not teensy knives. Wanna see? ...Phooey! Lost another one.


Back on track. We were all gifted with a brain capable of astonishing multitasking and filled with so much data we sometimes need our internal version of Mr. Peabody's "Way-back Machine" to recall details or even an entire incident. (Associated scents help us recall memories, by the way.)


We all dream during the REM stage of our sleep. (REM=rapid eye movement)  Yes, all of us do, even those who never remember their dreams when they wake. If I remember right scientists say the building blocks of dreams are memories, issues not yet resolved usually from the previous day and current sensory input. We may also be gifted with unexpected insight and guidance. Viable solutions to the real life problems in our waking world. Hence the advice, "sleep on it."

For example, you dream that you're chocolate melting into a candy bar mold. Only to wake up and find the kitten curled up on your chest, your spouse's head on your shoulder, and the beagle wedged between your knees and ankles. As you gently shift souces of excess warmth, thoughts kick in. Heatwave... 3rd day... lightweight shirt... TWO water bottles... icepack on neck... ooh... Uh...Mmph... electric bill...get car's A/C chec...


Last Friday on FFF #4, I wrote... "we have the freedom to create as many scenarios as we wish from whatever raw materials we choose..."


There's a never-ending supply of fascinating "stuph" stuffed into our versatile brains and "room" to stuph in even more. And that's "just" our brains. We're surrounded by an infinite variety of "raw material". First, everything to which we have sensory access in Creation. Second, and increasingly, everything we have access to via human endeavor --whether we want it or not. 


Each bit is waiting for us to notice it when we're conscious. Or, close enough to conscious to get on with it. 


"Each bit is waiting.." Did you find my wording uncomfortably anthropomorphic?  Maybe you're reading the wrong blog.*   


We may tweeze and examine, or split something apart gently in search of its origin. Or study the movements of a hawk, the sparkle in a child's eyes, the sniffing of a dog on a trail we can't sense--only guess at by the animal's actions. Fascinated we may even scribble a word or three. (If you write it down, you're more likely to remember.) We sniff, taste, touch if carefully. Poison ivy! Personal space issues! No matter where we are or what we're  else doing. We only need be observant about everything selected things around us--including other people--to enrich our lives and stimulate our imagination. 


Immersing ourselves in our environments may seem like nothing more than a time well to some. EgoBoogling is a time well! The practice I've been describing isn't, whether you make practical use of the experiences you've gathered up like wildflowers. O savor on your own. Once you get the hang of it, the practice is virtually effortless. More trouble remembering to turn it off when necessary, than to turn it on.

I hope you give this a try, not once but many times. Pass what you've experienced on to others. Use relevant bits in classes, at home or at meetings. Where possible, don't just describe the hawk's drift along the thermals. Add hints about your physical, even your emotional reactions at a given moment. The shiny leaves, the itch, the feelings of stupidity and doom. 

Of course, you can't insert your experiences randomly into every conversation. If you do, you'll find yourself involved in far fewer conversations as friends flee your imminent encroaching on their personal hearing space.

Much of which you've taken note may find a comfy home inside your memories, next to be noticed in a dream, a fascinating image or a flash of inspiration. I hear on good authority that everything we've experienced remains somewhere in our thoughts. Maybe if we shake our heads vigorously, out will pop the elusive image of our tenth birthday cake.  If desperate, we could visit the paint shop and clamp our heads... Yeah. Maybe not. 

Unless we're misers, we don't gather up stuff just to store it. If we're creative--and we all are--we can select and blend images and every other type of experience into something new. And free!**

Myriads of sensory experiences--not just from nature--are waiting in our seemingly barren offices, sidewalks and staircases, supermarkets, car washes. Thousands upon thousands of words from conversations, books, media. Allow your inspiration and imagination to pick whatever they wish. No limits. No boundaries. It's all free. Never tell the "I & I buddies" to put something back.   ;-P

Creativity will pitch in without your prompting. Don't set limits. Don't clamp down. Accept. Nothing yet? No pushing! Toss that wonderful pile of experiences up into the air like a pitchfork full of hay. Eat dinner. Do your homework, work on tomorrow's report, listen to a concert, play with your pet. Do anything but push. Remember the brain multitasks. Creativity & imagination work best when you don't stare at them, tapping your foot.

Just before you go to bed (pets shut of the room tonight), later in a dream, the next morning as you dump yogurt on your cereal--or your coffee if you're not yet awake-- a line of poetry or a lyric, a new image, the beginnings of a tune or an unexpected link between seeming disparate thoughts will gift themselves. 

Enjoy!


For more on how to gather the good stuph:


"Discover YOUR place in the world!"

And the Places of Things, Joy, Living Beings, Curiosity, Thoughts. All in your world...



"Discover YOUR place in the world!"  Photo: Brain Pickings

Maria Popova owns the "Brain Pickings" blog.
You can have her blog entry issues emailed to you. Cool, huh?


~~~~~
*     "Maybe you're reading the wrong blog."   No, please! Don't go! Give me another chance! It'll get weirder!
**   Unlike those expensive natural food juicer/blenders "Hurry! Call now, and we'll send you two!" (for the price of ten blenders).

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Characters and Readers Joined By Imagination and Love

I found these graphics at Pinterest.
I found love within the pages of a book. Many times. I'm a bookdulterer.

Katy Henson: This is how I feel when I fall in love with fictional characters.

~~~~~

"Someone Should Write a Book Where The Main Character Slowly Falls In Love With The Reader"




Credits

...the content you are looking for could not be found...




Sunday, August 24, 2014

Extracts from Dean Wesley Smith's "Killing Your Sales One Shot At A Time"

A fellow author suggested I read Dean Wesley Smith's blog. My friend has been heeding DWS's publication advice for some time now and is satisfied with the results he has seen so far.

I began reading the blog with these two entries. The straightforward advice Mr. Smith offers to indie authors impresses me, more so because he gives sound reasons for each of his recommendations. I'm grateful for the advice, even though I read it after shooting off a few toes. Fortunately, many of my missteps are d/u/e/ t/o/ s/h/o/t/-/o/f/f/ t/o/e/s/  reversible.

The subject of this Daily Scroll entry is atypical. Readers who came here today in hopes of new insights about awakening their creativity may be disappointed. Not to worry! Imagination & creativity return tomorrow, after a well-earned day off.  In the meantime, emerging authors --and some artists--may want to consider Mr. Smith's advice. I could have suggested DWS's blog & given the URL but I really hope that you'll go read both of Dean Wesley Smith's entries in their entirety. Hence, extract-baited hooks. :-D


Speaking of which, all extracts are taken from Dean Wesley Smith's blog, The Writings & Opinions of Dean Wesley Smith , with thanks.
  



(Advice for Indie Authors Warning About "Shooting Yourself in The Foot")

Dean Wesley Smith’s “The First Foot”Aug 6 2012
Extracts:
“ (I’ve) started noticing how indie writers shoot themselves in the foot as far as sales. And not just once, but often so many times that it guaranteed that no sane reader (past family and friends) would pick up their book.”

Shot #1
“Tiny little author name on the cover, sometimes hidden in some part of the very busy artwork.”

Shot #2
“Wrong genre. In about thirty different ways.”
“…Always have someone else tell you what your wrote.”

Shot #3
“Dull blurbs, filled with plot elements.”
 “…to buy the book, the reader first wants to know WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT. Not the events in the book

Shot #4
“All your books look different, even if they are in the same genre or series.”

Shot #5
“Covers look like they are indie published.”
“Professional covers take a skill that is easily learned given some practice …if you just toss up a standard CreateSpace template cover, your book will shout indie and drive readers away.”

Copyright © 2012 Dean Wesley Smith
"This chapter is now part of my inventory in my Magic Bakery."


“…I know most of you don’t like this thought, but reader satisfaction is why you must get genre right. Besides sales.”

“…the toe that got no comment at all really was the 5th and most important toe. … If your book looks like an indie book and you can’t tell because you never hold it up beside a professional cover in the same genre, and understand that most professional bestseller covers tend to have four or five print elements, then the gun just isn’t pointed at that toe, it’s tied to it.

Shot #6
Spend all your time promoting your first book instead of writing your second and/or third book.

Shot #7
Too much ego or bad thinking to use a pen name.
“If you cross genres, be polite to your readers and use a name for each major genre.”

Shot #8
Underpricing your work for the wrong reasons.
 “… devaluing your work is not the way to start to gain readers.“ 

Shot #9
Ignoring 65-70% of your market. Or worse, going exclusive and ignoring 90% plus of your market.
Indie publisher after indie publisher ignore paper books, even though survey after survey show that print books are holding strong among all readers, even those with electronic devices.

Shot #10
Getting in a hurry.
Make a business plan that covers years, not months.

Warning #1… I don’t mean slow down in the writing process itself. If anything, speed that up…I’m saying slow down in the worrying about (and the focus on) sales.

Warning #2…The sales will come if you put your work out there and keep learning.
Nothing will kill a writing career except for a writer stopping writing.
Have fun. The sales will come.

Copyright © 2012 Dean Wesley Smith 
"This chapter is now part of my inventory in my Magic Bakery."

Friday, August 22, 2014

Imagination-Exercising #2

If you had to give up one indulgence for a month, what would it be?


This is about tickling your imagination so answers shouldn't be products of soul-searching.


Think:

Unexpected

Humorous

Off-the-wall nonsensical

And of course creative.



My answer? I'm thinking about it...



Why this picture? Why not?

Okay I'm trying to distract you while I think...

I could give up bunnies if I had any... 

Or salads, except they're not an indulgence


Oooh. Got it.




I'm giving up the giving up of playing QBz! 
Hey, guys! Haven't seen you in years!
Why so glum? Didn't you miss me? 
Yeah? Me neither.



Fantasizing Fotos Fridays #4



Pinned from magicalnaturetour.tumblr.com


Remember to think about the picture and imagine what is going on before looking at what I wrote. No two people will imagine the same thing. That would be weird.


Curious. Why is this slender tree protecting a moonlight egg?

Or is the tree hatching from it? When the tree matures, in a century or a hundred centuries, will it produce a host of new moons as its fruits?  

Notice the swirls of light around the tree? Do they echo light shifting about inside the egg? Or are they evidence of creatures flitting about, disturbing the air?

Tiny fairies? Bitsy beings battling the tree for possession of the egg? Is the tree a protector, a hatchling or is it a captor?

And the bright moonlight egg--Is it in fact our moon? Could it be a "New Moon" not in our common daily parlance, reduced to a mark on a calendar, but a new moon struggling to reach its proper place in the heavens?

I suspect the artist had something specific in mind when he painted this. Maybe it's "actually" cover artwork or a screen capture from a game. If so, I apologize for choosing something totally unambiguous to anyone who recognized its source.

But... Nothing has only one meaning or only one purpose. The fruits of your imagination are as true as the mundane role for which this painting was created. And we have the freedom to create as many scenarios as we wish from whatever raw materials we choose. 

The photo for next week inspired a few lines of dialogue in a scene from a story that doesn't exist.  :-D

Until then, happy creating!



Four Stories Incognito

Have you ever known the entire plot of a story but can't remember the author or the title? I have and so have friends. Films can be worse since they have more variables. You begin describing what happened, only to stray from the plot in pursuit of an actor's name, the film title or the director.

At least we're not the only people with this problem. Someone on a mailing list just asked the group for help identifying the title of "a time-travel movie" which "takes place at a party". I could only sympathize. Is anything more frustrating than trying to use IMDb when you don't know the title, the director or actors? In my experience searching IMDb armed with just a plot is fool's errand territory. With luck, the database may remind you of a couple movies you had forgotten.

Are you burdened with a years long search for the title of a book, story or movie? If so, you might want to write about it in the Comments. Someone may know the answer.


~~~~~

The titles and authors of four stories have eluded me for years. 

When I was in college, I read a pastiche of Homer's "Iliad" set in modern times or rather what was modern times back then. Really all I remember about this book is characters talking and flirting at parties. Rereading is pretty low priority. I would just like to know the author's name.


~~~~~


I read a YA or children's book in elementary school or junior high in which gargoyles (maybe) had taken over a town. I think the gargoyles were pretending to be the mayor etc or else they were controlling those people in some way. Possibly the adults were unaware of what was going on, so only the young protagonists could save everyone.

A girl (?) received counsel from a sage(?) or wise animal. They told her/him that the solution was "to call a spade a spade."  If you named the fake person with their real identity--aka that they were a gargoyle or whatever they were--they lost their power.

Does anyone remember a book based on that garbled description?


~~~~~

Perhaps early in my twenties I read an engrossing but gritty time-travel story--the kind where the author alternates present and past day scenes. The plot is very complex.  I only remember one scene with any certainty. It involves a pregnant woman who may have been having an affair. A woman, possibly an in-law who is a midwife, helps with the delivery but she loathes the baby's mother. She takes the baby, leaving the mother to die. 

For years, I was convinced the book's title was either "The Octagon Room" or "The Octagon House" but trying to use that title to search for the book didn't help.  I have no clue re the rest of the plot or the author.  It's not Andre Norton, who actually did write a book with that title--which is probably why I latched on to it as the title of my mystery book.


~~~~~


The last mystery story is the one I would like most to solve.

I bought a paperback of fantasy stories in very late 2000 or 2001. The largest entry was either a novelette or a novella. I lean toward the latter. The author was a well-respected fantasy author but I have no idea who she is. Based on when I bought the book, I assume it was published in 1999 or 2000. I wonder how many fantasy anthologies were published during those years. Anyway, I told a teenaged girl how good the story was & she asked to borrow the book. I lost contact with her shortly after that and she never returned it.

I recall a substantial part of the plot compared to my other mysterious books. Does any of this sound familiar? I would so love to know who wrote this story!

The protagonist is a young woman being held captive in a tiny suite of rooms on the top floor of a keep. The story is entirely in her POV. It's winter, brutally cold and her garments aren't made for the season. If she wants to see outside she has to step out on to a tiny balcony. The balcony offers no escape route but she can look down at a small building surrounded by a high wall. (A wing of her building?)

Within that wall a man older than she is and of some importance is being held captive. He walks about the bit of grounds every day. Eventually he looks up when she's on the balcony and sees her. He takes care to look away and never calls out to her--possibly to prevent their captors from realizing they've seen each other?

Periodically, a man with a guard visits the woman. He asks her questions she can't answer, in fact questions she doesn't understand. Back when I read this, I theorized that the woman might have amnesia about recent events in her past, severe enough that she couldn't understand the context the questions. Near the end of the story, I began wondering if her captors might have the wrong person in custody. Her interrogator frightens her because he has say over her living conditions, possibly her life, and because he gets increasingly frustrated with each visit. I don't remember him physically hurting her. I think, maybe, he can put psychological pressure on her via magic. Or not.

My remaining memories of the plot are pretty scattered. The people in the castle are at war, likely with people in another part of their own country. The captive man is of high rank, perhaps an earl, and they may be holding him for ransom in the European middle ages sense. His son/nephew visits him briefly. The earl has much more freedom in his captivity than the heroine does. He uses it to send blankets and warm clothes up to her. At their traditional winter feast (Yule?) she receives a basket of non-prisoner type food from him and an encouraging note. I think she's able to send a note in return.

She guesses that their captors have lost the war when the earl is released and rides away. Eventually she's freed from her living quarters. Having nowhere to go or rather not knowing where home is, possibly due to amnesia, she stays in the keep. She spends her days half-expecting and hoping the earl will send for her. He doesn't, but news arrives that he and his bride-to-be have been reunited and that their wedding is imminent. Giving up the now obviously misplaced hope of the earl's return, the protagonist begins working in the keep. (perhaps as a maid?)

A very dissatisfying end for someone hoping for a romantic conclusion!

~~~~~

Now it's your turn, oh fellow losers of plots or titles or names of characters and actors. Have fragments of stories eluded you for years to the point where you no longer expect a solution?

Take heart! Describe your plight. Maybe someone will know exactly what you're talking about.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Finding My Voice in Fantasy (excerpt)

Formerly a literary author, Mr. Grossman describes the call of fantasy and what it felt like to write it.
(excerpt from his NYT Draft essay)


By Lev Grossman,  August 16, 2014

"I wrote fiction for 17 years before I found out I was a fantasy novelist." 

"...I was starting to realize what on some level I must have known all along: Fantasy was offering me something I needed, something I couldn’t get anywhere else, not even from literary fiction. That’s when I stopped reading fantasy and started writing it."

"The first time I wrote a sentence about a person casting a spell, it was like I heard distant alarms going off. I felt like there must be a control room somewhere with a bunch of people sitting wearing headsets and looking at a red dot blinking on a map, and the dot was me, and the people were saying, He’s breaking the rules! We can’t let him get away with this! I was writing against my education and my upbringing. I was writing against reality itself — I was breaking rules, and not just the literary kind but the thermodynamic kind, too. It felt forbidden. It felt good."

"The thing about life in the real world is, all your hopes and dreams and desires and feelings are trapped inside you. Reality doesn’t care — it’s stiffly, primly indifferent to your inner life. But in a fantasy world, all those feelings can come out. When you cast a spell, you use your desires and emotions to change reality. You reshape the outer world to look more like your inner world."

"I felt myself connecting with a much older literary tradition, ...writing about magic felt like magic..."




Finding My Voice in Fantasy
By Lev Grossman,  August 16, 2014
New York Times:  Opinionator - A Gathering of Opinion From Around the Web
Draft is a series about the art and craft of writing.
Lev Grossman is the author of the “Magicians” trilogy, including most recently, “The Magician’s Land.” He is also the book critic for Time magazine.

~~~~~

I'm glad I was never a literary writer. Writing--and reading--fantasy has never felt wrong.

Imagination Always Disobeys

I just discovered "The Story Starter"!  Joel Heffner's website reads,


"The Story Starter was selected as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers in 2008, 2012 and 2014 by Writer's Digest Magazine."

Guess I'm running behind schedule. Darn watch!

"The Story Starter randomly generates 215,572,250,880 story starters. This idea generator can be used for short stories, novels, plays, scripts, or just for fun."

Click Here for a Random Story Starter Sentence
[                                           ]

Write your story starter sentence on a piece of paper or copy and paste it into your favorite word processor and start writing your story!

Please bookmark and link to this page and come back again to use The Story Starter.
The Story Starter was created by Joel Heffner.
Copyright 2003-2014 Joel Heffner
All Rights Reserved. 


I enjoy playing with random word or phrase generators but if I click on the randomizer too much, the building blocks become too "Clue"-like. 
Miss Scarlet / bludgeoned / Mr Body / with / the candlestick / in / the study.


I love fiddling with prompts, looking for a meaning that the software never intended. "Intended"? Don't deny it. You know software is sentient, especially malfunctioning software.


I generated about 15 prompts and chose 10 of them to play with--not as an author in desperate need of a story idea but as a woman looking at writing prompts sideways for amusement.

"Imagination Always Disobeys." 
  -- Calvin


The soft-spoken college president struck out near the small town after the party to clear the record.
"Struck out" lends itself to misinterpretation and from there to novel story prompts. Did our college president physically strike the person who had besmirched the college's record or his own? Did he strike out to catch up with the group of people who left assuming the record really was besmirched? Maybe he struck out in baseball to ...uh... prove that the team pitcher... Hmm... 


The inebriated bowler boiled a potato in the underground cave in April for the dentist.
The image of a cartoon bowler hat reminiscent of a butler appeared before I reached "boiled". Poor Mr Potato Head! As for the rest, every year the dentist hides in the cave to escape the insidious dangers of Easter candy. I hope he brings his children.

The narrow minded author threw a feather within the skyscraper in October for the team.
Throwing a feather inside a building is pretty useless, unless it's symbolic. A white feather used to be an accusation of cowardice. October. Halloween Party. Incensed that reviewers have written disparaging critiques of his horror novels just because certain scenes terrified them, he invites them all to a party... 

The caring fingerprint expert cleaned the keyboard in the ghost town on Tuesday to find the missing horse.
A villain is holding the expert's horse hostage! He sent an edible message warning he would shave hairs from the captive's tail every hour until our fingerprint expert slips past the crime scene tape and wipes every print off the accordian. The fingerprint expert swallowed the story and is even now wiping down the keyboard clean. Only the horse realizes that ghosts have no fingerprints but he's not talking. The grazing is excellent and he scents mares. 

The jolly cat owner carved the profile in the car at dawn to eliminate the competition.
Simple! The cat owner, grand champion in the cat-car parade 3 years running,  keyed his biggest challenger's car in the shape of a dachshund.

The exhausted priest duplicated a map in the airport in July to discover the dark secret.
So Dan Brown!

The happy captain repaired the bomb in Fort Knox at noon to quiet the angry mob.
Yowza! Where to begin?
Take it as read that the angry mob stormed Fort Knox and breached security via their bomb. Now they want to use it again--maybe to get into the vault? Dumies. Good luck repairing a bomb that was blown to smithereens! About that captain... He's fooled the mob into thinking that he can repair the bomb as a delaying tactic. So far, no one is seriously hurt. If his strategem works, maybe he'll make brigadier general after all.Help is minutes away. He suppresses a smile.

The rich general cut the grass near the sunken ship during the heatwave for the team.
The Army-Navy game will be played Ocean City New Jersey this year, site of the "Sindia" wreck. It sank, full of treasure from the orient, a hundred years ago. The entire Navy team diving in search of treasure. In the meantime, the townsfolk are ready to detain anyone who succeeds and tries to keep whatever they found. The general grins to himself as he rides the mower back and forth across the Ocean City "Hurricanes' playing field.

The tired doll maker sold a green mouse in a broken elevator in January to win the contest.
The town's poster said, "Welcome to the Annual Toy Makers' Sales marathon! Be sure to pick up your sale venue for the week at Registration. This year, the Toy Maker's Marathon  begins at midnight!" That was seven days ago. One minute until midnight! Surely he would win this year as long as Melanie Mouse was motionless until the judges completed their count!

The sadistic cashier spoiled the joke near the movie theater when the grandmother arrived to quiet the angry mob.
The grandmother smiled to herself as she slipped out of her cinema and drove home . Win-win. There was no joke. Why bother devising one? Her viscious daughter-in-law didn't know how to deliver a simple joke, to save her job! Humor was beyond her.
The disgruntled patrons--already fired up about her ticket increase--would certainly plunder the snack bar. Popcorn sticking to the lobby floor. Jessica screeching her usual threats at the patrons Police arriving in the midst of the pandemonium. Finally, a believable excuse to fire her!

 ~~~~~

I have more fun playing with writing prompts than I do writing stories based on them. Playing is always more fun than work. But people like Joel Heffner don't spend hours programing and phrase-creating(?) just for the fun of it.

(Maybe Joel does. Joel, in his home office at 3AM, his chuckles setting the dog barking, awakening his wife... )

Try it yourself! Generate some prompts of your own and misinterpret their meaning, or use random fragments of the ones above. I promise--the prompt fragments won't cry. They may giggle and get your cat or your husband barking.

~~~~~

Prompts have given me ideas for two stories, "The Pumpkin Smasher" and "No Substitutions".   Both will be in my Tree House Tales anthology, out later this year.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Oh, For A Book!

I used to have a copy of John Wilson's poem (below) about reading books, tacked to a corkboard above my desk. I worked in a library for decades--surrounded by books--but we were only able to read them on break. Of course, I wrote during most of my breaks.

When I retired I took down the scrap of graph paper and brought it home, tucked it somewhere and forgot about it. 


I think I forgot about the poem, first because my reading time was no longer limited and, second, because I used the extra time to write rather than read.


I still imagine sitting on one of those circular wooden benches people build around the base of a shade tree, immersed in a tale so fascinating I hear only the sounds described by the author.


Stopping only when soft sunset slips through the lowest leaves and reminds me I'm not walking along that village path minutes before dawn.





"Looking up a Tree" (photograph of a tree in Lewes, Delaware)




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"Oh for a book and a shady nook,

either in a door or out;

with the green leaves whispering overhead,

or the street cries all about.

Where I may read all at my ease,

from both the new and old;

for a jolly good book whereon to look,

is better to me than gold."

by John Wilson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Have I forgotten how to read for hours, sometimes all day long, the way I used to when I was a child and still in school? Very possibly.


I just found this at my old blog,
"…Of course, I haven't read it yet. Have I mentioned that I've been having trouble making myself read --for enjoyment --for a very long time now? I may need to blog about that."     --             Scribblings, May 29, 2009 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~