Word Painting

Always be reading!

10 Powerful Female Characters in Literature

Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre

Hermione Granger, the Harry Potter series

The Wife of Bath, The Canterbury Tales

Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games trilogy

Hester Prynne, The Scarlet Letter

Éowyn, The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Lyra Silvertongue, His Dark Materials trilogy

Janie Crawford, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hua Mulan, The Ballad of Mulan

Lisbeth Salander, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series

Great list! Except that Katniss Everdeen ended up being a ball of muddled mess.

heyoscarwilde:

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” - Ernest Hemingway

illustration by Christopher Hunt :: via flickr.com

Flickr / lazzyfair

Make up a story… For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don’t tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief’s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear’s caul.

Toni Morrison; From The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993

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A couple that reads together stays together.

simplygoodstuff

I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

T.S. Eliot (via larmoyante)

larmoyante

aaknopf:

“The plot in which all this unfolds is magnetic, the characters fascinating, and Rice’s style as solid and engaging as anything she has written since her early vampire chronicle fiction.”

[via The Boston Globe]

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If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats.

Lemony Snicket; The Wide Window

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Spending the Day With Writers

Because I’m the digital sales manager for my Barnes & Noble, I gave a Nook presentation to one of the largest school districts in Texas today. We had two authors set up at our table. So, I spent the day with young adult authors Mary Lindsey (Shattered Souls) and New York Times best selling author Rachel Caine (Last Breath, etc.). I have not read any of their works, so I’m not a huge fan. But, it was pleasant to talk to Mary Lindsey about landing an agent. She gave me some great advice on how to improve my query letters and what agents are looking for in new writers. She was very helpful and friendly. She also signed a copy of her first novel (shown in the picture below). This was a day well spent learning from the professionals.

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iliketoread:

Visit beanforest’s Etsy page for more sweet literary pins!

iliketoread

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…

Dr. Seuss; Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

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And I don’t want to begin something, I don’t want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the novel are known to me. As if the story has already taken place, and it’s my responsibility to put it in the right order to tell it to you. —John Irving

[Happy birthday, John Irving. Born March 2, 1942]