To Be Universal

One of the tenets for writing is to read, read, read, and so I have been doing just that these last couple of weeks (to the detriment of my studies).  And I thought I'd share this particular passage with you...

"I hope you'll come soon; I am longing for some one to talk to.  Mrs. Semple, to tell you the truth, gets sort of monotonous.  She never lets ideas interrupt the easy flow of her converation.  It's a funny thing about the people here.  Their world is just this single hilltop.  They are not a bit universal, if you know what I mean."

Daddy-Long-Legs, Jean Webster

Truly love this book, it's so fresh and bubbly and fun!  A definite recommend for those who like light-hearted romantic stories.

Quarterlife Crisis

These days, I find myself wondering what the heck I'm doing, following Camus' "métro-boulot-dodo" pattern to a T.  It's not that it's a bad life, it's just I find it so... uninspiring.  Isn't there some kind of energy boost I could take for my writing career?  

Pondering this heavy question these days, I have.  But then this dropped into my virtual inbox this morning:

"Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing." 

~Benjamin Franklin

Seriously, subliminal message much?  Now to figure out how to tackle this Presidential injunction...

En guarde!

Scarlett O'Hara's Unknowable Secret

What’s in a name?  Well, let tell you a story. . .

Once upon a time lived a young girl who was the belle of three counties in Georgia.  She loved to wear fancy dresses and always had a bevy of young men buzzing about her.  But that Southern paradise was rent asunder with the coming of the Civil War and the young heroine found herself forced to adapt to this new life or perish.  This heroine was none other than. . . Pansy O’Hara.

What?  Something wrong?  Well, that was the exact same reaction Margaret Mitchell got from the editor who read her story.  Somehow that name Pansy didn’t jibe.

And thus Scarlett was born.  And Gone With the Wind went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize a year after publication.

So what is in a name?  Well, maybe nothing special, but I believe Pansy would beg to differ. . .