I can hardly read. My focus just isn't there. True, I've been busy putting up with a series of minor health issues, but it isn't just that. Most of it's innocuous stuff; only one detail looms larger. It takes a lot of energy pretending that's not so. I'm not sleeping well. All day I'm yawning, …
I blame it on the Olympics.
A couple nights ago, the crown on tooth #2 (top right, back molar) popped off again, for the second time in as many weeks. It chose to do so in the evening, after my dentist was closed. Instead of bucking up like a brave little toaster, I ran to my phone and scrolled …
Muriel Spark on Mary Shelley, and the sport of curling
I've become one of the cheapest people I know. I have the lowest cell and internet plans, buy my clothes either thrifted or at the cheap stores, and I try to keep my grocery bills under $ 40/week. It was $ 30, until I realized that wasn't sustainable. There's always some non-grocery item, like laundry detergent …
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Early February check in: Spark & Shelley & Bowie (and abject misery)
Screw April; February is the real Cruelest Month February heard me telling it to sod off. It's only the 10th, and it's already wiped the floor with my pasty arse. Hell, so far all of 2018 hates my guts. Yes, I said I wanted an exciting year. But my definition of "exciting" is …
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Frankenstein 200: Muriel Spark on Mary Shelley
2018 marks not just the 100th anniversary of Scottish writer Muriel Spark's birth, but also the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley's science fiction classic Frankenstein. Time flies, friends. Spark admired Mary Shelley. Extra exciting for me, her biography of the English novelist is where both my Muriel Spark project and participation …
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Writing: Deconstruction is the sincerest form of learning
I've had this argument with a friend unfamiliar with the writing process, yet interested in writing, himself: It's not plagiairism to use another writer's framework. Plagiarism is lifting someone else's work verbatim, plonking it down in your own piece without attribution, pretending it's your own. It's not only illegal, but a moral wrong. What's …
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Bookmarks: As the books come marching in.
Re-building my library is a whore's paradise, I ain't gonna lie. But it's also terribly sad. Why? As I search the shelves of bookshops I see titles I used to own, but can't afford to buy back. It would cost a fortune. Visions of grabbing a couple dozen of them, running out the door …
January in Review: Books and Bitchery
The only thing worse than January is.... drum roll... February! The second month of the year tends to be colder in Chicago - colder and snowier. Plus, you think hey, March is around the corner, so it's almost spring, right? Nope and nooooope. March may have stray warmer, sunnier moments here and there, …
Daily: Bits & Bob’s yer uncle
After a long stretch of feeling pretty okay, insomnia and that black dog depression reared their ugly heads once again. The all too familiar slide began before Christmas. I thought once the holidays passed I'd bounce back; a couple weeks later, I realized that wasn't going to happen without intervention. You can't be …
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
I hardly know what to say. I disliked the book - at times, loathed it. The cover is splashed with blurbs saying this is Spark's best novel to date, at the time of its publication in 1959. I couldn't wait for it to be over. If I'd have read Memento Mori first, I might never …
