Posts Tagged ‘inspiration’
Posted Without Comment
Posted in Funny, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, cats, inspiration on February 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Holes, the Filling Of
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, continuing education, Fiction, inspiration, reading, Writers, writing on February 2, 2022| 1 Comment »
I have a minor confession: I have never read Charles Dickens. I may have started A Tale of Two Cities but I don’t think I finished it. Scratch that, I know I didn’t finish it.
Many of Dickens’ major novels were written for publishers who paid by the word. The man wasn’t stupid. He wrote A Lot of words. He also wrote across class boundaries, giving readers a window into the lives of those they might not otherwise encounter.
We live in a world shaped by his works and ideas. Movies, characters, what makes up some of the foundations of modern Christmas, a lot of that has to do with Dickens’ works.
But I haven’t read the original source material.
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If someone wanted to remedy a hole like this in their literary education, where to start?
One nice thing about the classics, they are everywhere.
- Books by Dickens, Charles – Project Gutenberg
- Tips and Tools to Make Reading Charles Dickens More Enjoyable: Dickens also wrote shorts, including sketches of life at the time.
- Discovering Dickens – A Community Reading Project: As a bonus, this site contains a lot of detailed notes on the anachronistic elements in the stories covered. If you’ve ever wanted to know what a copper-stick, jack-towel, plaister or tarwater was, they’ve got you covered. Check out the notes for Great Expectations.
- Where To Start Reading Charles Dickens
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Writing A Better Future
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, cli-fi, climate change, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, sff, Writers, writing, writing contest on February 1, 2022| 1 Comment »
tl;dr scroll for climate fiction contest info
You may have noticed that we are in the midst of a climate shift that is affecting all facets of life. What comes next, and how do we fix it?
Science is great for understanding what will change but to better understand the squishier bits like how it will impact our lives and societies? That is where fiction excels.
I’ve mentioned climate fiction before but if you’re interested in what’s out there, here are a few examples:
- Stories to save the world: the new wave of climate fiction | Books | The Guardian
- The definitive climate fiction reading list – 20 books to explore cli-fi | Fix
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Want to try at hand at writing us all into an optimistic future? Good news, Fix is back with another short story contest titled Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors.
We’re looking for stories of 3,000 to 5,000 words that envision the next 180 years of climate progress — roughly seven generations. The winning writer will be awarded $3,000, with the second- and third-place winners receiving $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. An additional nine finalists will each receive $300. Winners and finalists will be published in Fall 2022 in an immersive collection on Fix’s website and celebrated during a virtual event.
- Entry is free!
- Submissions close May 5, 2022, 11:59 p.m. U.S. Pacific Standard Time.
- The contest is open to writers anywhere in the world.
- Authors must be 18 years or older at the time of submission.
- Submissions must be fictional stories between 3,000 and 5,000 words.
- We do not accept previously published or simultaneous submissions (stories can only be submitted to this contest and not to others, until we have informed you of the result).
- Only one submission will be accepted per entrant.
There is no cost to enter and story copyright and ownership remains with the author. More details here.
Let’s write ourselves a better future!
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To Be a Light in Darkness
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, inspiration, quotes, Thoughts on January 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I’m working on a bouquet of smaller projects today, so I’ll leave you with this thought:
“I don’t care what you do in life, but challenge people with greater power than you and defend those with less power.”
— Nick Clooney, to son George
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Everything It Is, Then
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, inspiration, life, quotes, Thoughts, writing on January 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“What are you going to do? Everything, is my guess. It will be a little messy, but embrace the mess. It will be complicated, but rejoice in the complications.”
― Nora Ephron
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Past is Present & Future
Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, #AfterCovid, England, history, inspiration, Thoughts on January 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I love history. Not the memorization of dates and tests and such, but that moment where you realize in a sudden, visceral way that the past isn’t ever really gone. That the present is built on its bones.
I also like the idea of uncovering that past, either via literal bones or the items that people leave behind. Gold is nice and all (not least because it lasts) but I have a soft spot for the ordinary. What was once worthless, like a broken pot, a used envelope, translucent blue glass jar or a single button, becomes a window into the everyday.
A window in time, if you will.
From museums to restored footage to dragon bones (ok, not exactly but still) and virtual reconstructions, there are a lot of ways to see the past.
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I tend to prefer the more tactile alternatives.
My mother used to take us out to a friend’s cabin in the woods. In winter we helped her gather sap for maple syrup, but in summer my brother and I would head to the stream at the base of the hill. The water had cut a small cliff into the shale, and if we were lucky and good we could find fossils.
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Here are two examples of hands-on history I think would be fun to experience.
The fossil hunters of the Jurassic Coast
… with the West Dorset cliffs eroding at such a rapid rate, scientists alone could never hope to save even a fraction of the fossils emerging onto the beaches before they’re swept away by the waves. This has left amateur collectors as key partners in the fight to preserve the area’s extraordinary fossil bounty for study and display, and has, over the past two decades, fuelled a huge rise in the number of people visiting the local beaches in search of prehistoric treasures.
… the majority of the things salvaged from the mud are more recent—often medieval or later—and are small, humble reminders of what people used, maybe loved, and eventually discarded. Exploring the shore as a mudlark is like conducting a swift, simple, satisfying archaeological dig, with almost no digging at all.
More fun for the future!
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Feeling Lucky
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, inspiration, space, Tuesdays on January 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Yes, it’s Tuesday and work is crazy as usual but it’s not all negative news. We will not be hit by an asteroid today!
A huge asteroid will fly safely by Earth today. Here’s how to watch it live. | Space
See? Tuesdays aren’t all bad.
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Snow Day!
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, home, inspiration, Thoughts, winter, yay on January 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »
It’s a snow day! True, I still have to work and all that but regardless, there’s something about a fresh blanket of deep snow that brings back childhood feelings of joy.
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“Perhaps I write for no one. Perhaps for the same person children are writing for when they scrawl their names in the snow.”
― Margaret Atwood
The Chimera Chronicles
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, #ChimeraChronicles, Affinity Photo, creativity, inspiration on January 15, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Apparently I am not done with the Chimera Chronicles, or whatever you want to call this animal-human hybrid portrait thing I’ve got going on.
Behold, King Cassowary!
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Captain Cat
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, #ChimeraChronicles, Affinity Photo, creativity, inspiration on January 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Some days you get an idea in your mind and you have to go with it or spend the rest of the day pestered by the project that was not.
Meet Captain Pepper Griff McCaticus. She lives with friends and, apparently, spent a previous life rising through the ranks. Which helps explain her current position as queen.
“You know how it is with cats: They don’t really have owners, they have staff.”
― P.C. Cast
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