by beatriceotto | Apr 19, 2019 | places & spaces, writing & writers
Another in a series of accounts by John Steinbeck’s wife, Elaine, of his perpetual search for the perfect writing space. This bright idea came of his frustration at one point of a writing room which had no sound insulation and therefore no privacy. But his...
by beatriceotto | Apr 12, 2019 | places & spaces, writing & writers
These quirky comments by Steinbeck charmed me – first his reaction to the first room he chose to work in, and then his decision to move elsewhere on the old property they rented near Glastonbury. ‘We lived in an ancient cottage that was listed in the...
by beatriceotto | Apr 5, 2019 | places & spaces, writing & writers
Another example of Steinbeck’s search for a perfect writing spot, in different houses, places, times of his life, as described by his wife. She never entered these spaces without being invited, which on occasion led to some surprises.This is a writing room high...
by beatriceotto | Mar 8, 2019 | places & spaces, writing & writers
Recently I read an old penny-paperback of The Grapes of Wrath. I was about three-quarters of the way through when I left it on a plane – I hope someone picked it up and read it. So I bought another copy of the same edition as it had a foreword by...
by beatriceotto | Nov 9, 2018 | poetry mojo, writing & writers
Yes, you can find a thousand things more urgent than writing, or at least more insistent. Writing for this and other websites takes precedence over a series of children’s stories I have begun. Blogs have a rhythm or schedule, books are open-ended. I find time...
by beatriceotto | Sep 18, 2017 | metaphors
Having occasionally lain in bed practically hypnotised by the dappling and dancing of light bouncing from water up to ceiling, I liked Hoban’s reference to flashes of mystic writing, like a watery, visual morse. ‘… dancing light reflected from the...
by beatriceotto | Aug 29, 2017 | triologisms
Such jaw-gripping tenacity is used to describe the force that the ending ‘-cious’ adds to words, as in the word ‘tenacious’. Thoreau observes and analyses language as incisively as he observes and analyses nature. ‘… the...
by beatriceotto | Aug 22, 2017 | triologisms
In his acknowledgements, Leigh Fermor thanks a number of people for ‘kindness and haven during restless literary displacements’, and it seems he spent considerable time writing at their homes, or homes in their possession, over the years. One of those...
by beatriceotto | Aug 11, 2017 | writing & writers
A fine parting injunction to a friend you are seeing off at the train station. Julián did as he was told. ‘Write,’ he said. ‘I’ll write to you as soon as I get there,’ answered Julián. ‘No. Not to me. Write books. Not...
