"He now is struck with wonder by what's wonderful in him. Unwittingly, he wants himself; he praises, but his praise is for himself; he is the seeker and the sought, the longed-for and the one who longs; he is the arsonist— and is the scorched." - The Metamorphoses of Ovid In his Metamorphosis, Ovid paints perhaps…
Bedtime Stories
As I grow older, it is often more difficult to fall asleep. I know I'm not alone in this. Age brings with it more anxieties and activities than the sheep we might otherwise be counting and, honestly, the only cure I've found (aside from melatonin) is to return to reading bedtime stories. As I recently…
Dear Mr. Dickens: An Open Letter
My dear Mr. Dickens, I hope you are well and not at all rolling over in your grave. (It is, after all, nearing Christmas and renditions of your famous holiday tale are promenading before audiences who are mostly wondering whether they actually turned off the oven or whether the turkey they pretend to like is…
____________ Publishers Release New “Mad Lib” Editions Just in time for Holidays
NEW YORK, NY- Prominent journal and book publishing company formerly known as Weakly Publishers has changed its title to "________ Publishers" in light of their new initiative, the 'Mad Lib Editions.' Books and journals formerly published by this company will be reprinted in new, special edition 'Mad Lib' format during this holiday season. Or, should…
The Girl in the Red Dress
I am a pianist, but I have long suffered from stage fright. My junior undergraduate piano recital was yesterday and, true to my philosophy that no art is complete without a proper understanding of other art forms, I used literature such as Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to create program notes to give greater depth…
Non-Writing Writer
I was inspired this morning as I walked to practice piano for an upcoming recital... this would have been great, had I been inspired to practice. Rather, I was inspired to set the opening of Wordsworth’s The Prelude to music. My roommate (bless her) stopped me just in time: “Ryanne, if you write a melody and…
A Sunset Reflection
I took this photo on a sunset run and added the words (surprise! They were not actually fabulous skywriting!) as I was doing some reading later. The exercise, combined with the wisdom of St. Hildegard, were a welcome relief to an emotional day. Sometimes on overcast days like today, we fail to remember the sun.…
Ray Bradbury: a reflection
Yesterday was the birthday of renouned American author, Ray Bradbury. Three more years and we can celebrate his 100th birthday. But even in 2017, Bradbury's birthday is special to me because his stories provided the kick-in-the-pants I needed to take my writing seriously. Before entering high school, my family and I made a trip to…
Misshelved: Winnie the Poe
Went to the children's classics section in search of some light reading...now I am just wondering how many poor young Winnie-the-Pooh fans have been traumatized by Poe instead... Perhaps Eeyore likes Poe's stories. "Nevermore" seems like his type of vocabulary. Still, "Welcome to your nightmares" is a daunting phrase to put on a book beside…
Just My Type and Fontly Yours
The title of this post is made of two puns, so I'd say it's off to a good start. Today I want to talk about fonts. I know, I sound like Brick Heck from The Middle, but I strongly believe that fonts and type style are crucial to the success of a piece of writing. The other day,…
