1. Find a pen or pencil, paper, envelope, and stamp. 2. Locate a smooth surface in a quiet zone. 3. Choose a recipient with whom you have a connection, through blood or love, through school or work, through shared likes and dislikes; or someone whose opinion your like/abhor, and with whom you wish to share [...]
Continue Reading →I was on vacation last week and as usual for a beach vacation, I read a lot. Two mysteries, two novels, one epistolary volume, and one non-fiction, all so very different one from the other, and all good. I started the week with Penelope’s Way by Blanche Howard. A seventy-year old woman decides it is [...]
Continue Reading →July 22, 1840 My Dear Maclise, Kate has a girl stopping here, for whom I have conceived a horrible aversion, and whom I must fly. Shall we dine together today in some sequestered pothouse….?…If nay, whither can I turn from this fearful female! She is the Ancient Mariner of young ladies. She ‘holds me with [...]
Continue Reading →Every year in Britain around this time, the battle for Christmas-song-of-the-year rages. For some of us here in the United States, the battle is familiar only through the hilarious song “Christmas is All Around” promoted by an aging alcoholic rock star (played by Bill Nighy) in the movie Love Actually. The song that is sure [...]
Continue Reading →Dancing with Mrs. Dalloway, by Celia Blue Johnson is explained by its subtitle: “Stories of Inspiration Behind Great Works of Literature”. Blue Johnson takes us into the years, weeks, or moments before a great writer put pen to paper and explains how characters, plots, and backgrounds come from personal experiences — everything from being in [...]
Continue Reading →I loved The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry so much that when I had just sixty pages left to go and an appointment in ten minutes, I opted for the book and was late for my appointment. I got off at my subway stop, went up to street level, and sat myself down on a [...]
Continue Reading →Yesterday I read A Celibate Season (published 2000) by Carol Shields (Republic of Love) and Blanche Howard, an epistolary tale of caution against spending too much time away from your spouse. In the novel, a married couple with 2 teenage kids spend ten months apart with the whole of Canada between them; communicating almost wholly by [...]
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