to be nobody-but-yourself
in a world which is doing its best, night and day to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting e. e. cummings
Taking courage
No coward soul is mine, No trembler in world’s storm-troubled sphere. I see Heaven’s glories shine, And faith shines equal, arming me from fear. ~Emily Bronte I wish I could say that I always share dear Emily’s indomitable confidence, but the truth is, fear is a foe I have to take arms against every single…
In the shop…
When I was in England visiting friends last month, I picked up some gems for the bookshop (and maybe one or two for myself ;)). It’s taken me a while to get them listed here, but I so enjoyed scouting in some of the most fertile book-county in the world for titles I knew my…
And then there were two…
We’re delighted to announce that Hermione has a sister. Hermione is delighted, too. Perdita is exactly one week younger than her sister, (one week old today!) and she hadn’t had as much experience with the joy of life as Hermione already had at her age. But if anything’s catching in this world, it’s goat joy….
sweetest distraction
Meet the newest member of our family, our beautiful Nubian doeling, Hermione. Afraid I’m going to be a little occupied around here, what with bottle brigade and romps in the yard and stroking those gorgeous Nubian ears. And I may or may not have had her in my lap at the breakfast table this morning……
Another Spring
This is just a smile and wave to say that things are going to be pretty quiet around here for the next couple of weeks as I tend to the sweet business of living. Life’s been burgeoning with such glad persistence of late that something’s got to give to make way for it. Thus a…
From away…
Very jet-lagged and slightly muddled after an irresistibly impulsive flight to our beloved England and the sheltering hospitality of beloved friends. But oh, so happy and grateful to have been there… It was one golden day after another of early spring sunshine and snowdrops and daffodils, of long talks over guttering candles at the dinner…
Laura Alice
I had been planning the menu for well over a month. We’d set the date for a week after our return from a trip to England, and the whole time I was there I was taking notes for the dinner party I wanted to throw for these fellow Anglophile friends of ours at home. Friends…
Written out
Made it. Exhausted but happy. A lovely celebration dinner and the sweet taste of a shared victory. She finished. I made my stout word-count goal (literally gasping over the finish line with about an hour-and-a-half to spare). Six weeks of writing frenzy and roughly a third of a first draft under my belt and some…
Notes on pruning from a novice
It was a brilliant but brisk winter day, and I was none too sure I wanted to brave the cold with my clippers and shears. But the calendar would not be denied. For it’s a cardinal rule of gardening here in God’s country that pruning must needs be effected no later and no earlier than…
Helps and Hurts
My writing partner suggested we exchange lists of the things that inspire creativity in our scribbling and the things that hinder it. How do we feed the Muse (or, conversely and tragically, starve her)? I thought it was a gorgeous idea and darted off a silly little list off the top of my head. I…
Little Gidding
It’s gone all misty-cold here again in our part of the world, but this past weekend we were blessed with one of the customary miracles of a Southern winter: three days of sunshine and warmth that whispered secrets of April to our hearts. Neighbors came out of hiding in shorts and tee-shirts and songbirds split…
Coming up for air…
…before diving back into words with a wild abandon. The Challenge is going well. Every day I sit down at my desk and write, pounding out words to meet the day’s quota. Critique, revision, ripping apart and putting back together again will come later (and probably within the bounds of its own ‘challenge’–is it possible…
Under the Omnipotence
I’ve made no secret of my heartfelt writerly crush on The Rabbit Room, and it is always an honor and a joy to get to chime in on the Great Conversation that’s going on over there. Most recently I’ve aired some opinions on one of the Inklings, Charles Williams, the man C.S. Lewis called his…
Resolved
It’s not a New Year’s resolution. Not really, seeing as we made it last summer. More of a debt of honor, an appointment with our laptops. A date (seemingly so far away in the all the bustle and huff of kids out of school and family vacations and launching businesses and whatnot) towards which we…
A new song in my mouth
Twelfth Night has come and gone with a last bright flourish, and today I’ve had my own little personal bonfires of Christmas greens in each of the fireplaces. Down came the garlands of pine and the scarlet jewels of holly, the ivy wreaths and the festal red ribbons. Beloved ornaments have been swaddled in tissue…
Five Golden Rings
It’s been a lovely one, and we’re still keeping it, fondly and heartily. I just wanted to pop in here to wish all of you a very Merry 5th Day of Christmas! Note: Lanier’s Books will be closed for Christmas holidays from December 21st, 2010 through January 6th, 2011. Any orders received during this time…
Christmas Greetings!
I wanted to emerge from the piles of holly and cedar and mountains of cookies and candy just to wish you all the very merriest of Christmases. There is so much I would say had I the time to craft it as lovingly as I’d like, but as the moments and the mental powers are…
The End
The End