Top Five Friday: Readers in the Storm

A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend. 
~ Author Unknown

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 ednesday’s post made me think of my favorite books to read while the wind is howling and the rain is pounding and the thunder is snarling and the lightening is stabbing.

I love storms, can’t you tell?

Well, at least ones that don’t uproot trees and kill people.  I like excitement with a hint of danger, not a full blown massacre!  So here are the books that show up on my bedside table on a dark and stormy night.

Endless Night – Agatha Christie

A man, a house, the woman he loves, and a curse. I just read this one during this last storm.  What a gifted writer!  And the ending!  Well, I won’t give it away ~ I hate spoilers. If you like mysteries, you’ll love this one.

And of course, anything that Dame Christie wrote.  A remarkable storyteller.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes – A. C. Doyle

Really, is there any greater detective than Mr. Holmes?  No matter how many times I’ve read them, the stories are always fresh, the mystery always thrilling.

Eight Cousins – Louisa M. Alcott

None of Alcott’s stories ever grow old.  And talk about reading about life off the grid!  It certainly had its moments of romance!  And what can I say, I still harbor a liking for granny boots. 

The one book many don’t know about ~ for what reason I don’t know ~ is A Rose in Bloom which is the sequel to Eight Cousins.  Ahh, the romance of bygone era.

Anything by Emilie Loring

No, that’s not the name of the book.  I mean, literally any book that Emilie Loring has written.  They’re light, very old-fashioned romances, written mostly in the 1930s and 1940s.  Her heroes patriotic, manly, and usually from New England.  Her heroines are patriotic, loyal, and usually from New England.

I’m noticing a pattern here.  Well, they do say write what you know.  So I’m going to say that Loring was a New Englander.  With a fondness for light and fluffy rolls.  Her characters are always eating them!

Anything by Jane Austen

Confess.  This last doesn’t surprise you, does it?  Ovation was just replaying the A&E version of P&P.  Even though I own it, plus the soundtrack, plus the sheet music, I watched it anyway.  And like Alcott’s writing, I never tire of reading her.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What do books do you read by candlelight on a stormy night?  Take one off your shelf and share it with us!

Theme Day: Movies that Inspire Writing

Personally, I would sooner have written Alice in Wonderland

than the whole Encyclopedia Britannica. 

~ Stephen Leacock

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know: I missed posting on Saturday and Sunday.  Bad time management plus a mix of minimal ADD = no posts written to be published while I was away from my computer for the weekend.  Honestly, however, not only is posting everyday bordering on insane (yet good for me to work my writing muscles) but it must be insane for you the reader to have to keep up with seven posts a week! I know when I put my reader hat on, I am overwhelmed by all the posts I haven’t read and may never get to because of everything else that captures my attention!

Anyway, that’s my excuse for not posting on the weekend.

Today is the first theme day of the Blogathon: movies that inspire my writing.  That’s a tough one.  I have written before about some television shows that have a really talented team of writers.  But to say that a movie inspired my own writing – I can’t really think of any.  However, there are quite a few authors who have been translated successfully into film that inspire me. 

Jane Austen

Shocker, I know.  I didn’t bother to look up how many posts I have written about dear Jane since beginning this blog  ~ I am sure it is quite a few.  You would have to be dead or live under a rock on the moon not to have at least heard of the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice ~ considered the best version ever made.  Although I adore Jane’s writing style, I am more inspired by her courage and determination and sheer dedication to her art in a time when women received no encouragement or support for using their literary talents. 

Actually, I would go one step further: it’s not a gender thing at all.  Artists in general are not given the love and encouragement they need ~ and sadly that is still true today.  One day I will write a post about creativity and psychological development.

Another story of hers that has influenced my writing is Persuasion.  Gents take note: best damn love letter ever written is in that book.  That letter alone has inspired me to write several different poems and letters.

Evelyn Waugh
Brideshead Revisited.  Don’t bother with the remake ~ horrid.  No one but Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews could ever be Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte.  Plus, that version really nailed the character sketches for everyone and understood the author’s intention behind the story perfectly.

Phantom of the Opera
Great story.  Great translation to film in 2004.  When I was in high school, I wrote a version of this for my friends, where we were all characters.  Slightly different in that it was modern times, but it was in Paris, there was an opera house and there was a sexy phantom.  Ahh, the memory of raging teenage hormones.

Some of them are still raging, but we won’t talk about that here.

The Lake House

So Keanu can’t act.  It is still a great love story.  And it involves my favorite kind of writing: letters.  If you haven’t seen it, Netflix it.  Totally worth it, dude.

Hmmmm, now I want to go write some letters!

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What movies, television shows, or books have inspired you?

Poetry without Fear: National Poetry Month

We are living in a great age for poetry.

~ Anne Eliot

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pril is National Poetry Month.  I’ve already begun to celebrate it by composing a new song.  It doesn’t match the spring colours, or warm spring days at all.  Forbidden love, angst, and large doses of frustration.  And of course, minor chords.

Oh. Yeah.

You already know some of my favorite poets.  Another one I enjoy reading is T.C. Samford.  His poems appear in different literary publications, including a chapbook of original poetry, Crossing the Border, written with poetry buddy Peter McEwen, and which he very kindly sent me.  Tom is one of my more fascinating and prolific pen friends.

Many people, both writer and reader alike, shy away from poetry.  Too difficult to pen, too complex to read and understand.  There are some self-important poets [and painters, sculptors, etc] who seem to create in order to confound and confuse.   But it doesn’t need to be that way. 

Art should not be feared. 

The point is to play ~ in writing poetry, with words, rhythm, structure, rhyme, imagery. This month, I encourage you to try some poetry play.  Share your playtime creations with us in the comments.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

By the way, the first person who can identify where today’s quote comes from will receive a free copy of Josephine Ross’s Jane Austen’s Guide to Good Manners.  Happy Easter and Blessed Passover!!