Private Tours of Edith Wharton's Library

I had the pleasure of visiting The Mount several (many!) years ago. At the time, it had fallen into disrepair and was undergoing extensive renovations, but you could definitely see the beauty. I'm sure that now it is truly breathtaking. I saw this advertised online today and must say that this has been added to my dream to-do list. A Private Library Tour at the Mount

The Catholic Imagination and You

Gene Logan has this to say about The Catholic Imagination:

Such an imagination is one that stems from faith – from a belief so powerful that it demands expression. It is something that needs to be shared in prose or poetry or any art form that bears witness to Our Lord’s presence in this world.

In prose writing, God’s interaction in human nature is often couched by the writer in a story that imitates life in a moving and plausible way. It is identifiable and relates to the readers as something familiar and reassuring about their faith and the nearness of God in their lives.

The leap of faith that sparks the Catholic imagination is instilled in artist. It inspires the desire to imitate that way of life embedded in God’s love and trust. It is a faith that is freely embraced and yearns to be given voice by the writer in words or more generally by the artist in some other form.

Please read the full post at The Catholic Imagination and You

When Writing Loses Its Joy

Billy Coffey has an interesting guest post on Rachelle Gardner's blog: The One Thing Every Writer Needs

He writes:
Writing no longer brought me joy.

To admit that feels like a confession. Even a week later, I find I cannot not write those six words straight through. My pen stopped between “longer” and “brought.” My hand went to my forehead, as though I was trying to hide myself. Writing has become a pillar of my life over the years, just as much as family and faith. To have one of those pillars shake and buckle was not an easy thing to endure. Writing is what I do. In many ways, it’s who I am. To find the delight and purpose gone from it brought a sense of hollowness. . . 

There are few callings higher than that of a writer. We inspire through story. We remind others of truths that have defined humanity since the beginning. We provide a necessary break from the monotony of the everyday. We create worlds. The words we string together serve an invaluable function: They become a mirror the reader holds to himself. They show us not how we are so different from one another, but how we are so much the same.

Perhaps it is because that calling is so high that it is also so fraught with peril. Writing is not for the weak or timid. It requires courage to face the page every day. To send out queries that may not even be answered, to pour yourself into a story that may or may not be read, and to lay yourself bare to a world that may only reject you.

The full post is definitely worth reading. It is hard to keep pursuing any creative venture when the world rejects or ignores your years of effort. Why bother to keep at it? It is a question every artist must face on a regular basis, unless of course you are one of the blessed who has achieved worldly success. Perhaps even then one still asks the existential question of "Does what I do matter?" If the answer is "yes," than the only choice is to keep at it, whether the world ever notices or not. 

A Place of Reading: Three Centuries of Reading in America

Neilson Library at Smith College in Northampton, MA is currently featuring an exhibit called A Place of Reading: Three Centuries of Reading in America.

This exhibition illuminates the rich history of reading in America that showcases—through books, broadsides, woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, watercolors, etc.—the places and events that particularly prompted the act of reading. By exhibiting these material and visual objects of the past, and in exploring the geography of reading, we hope to raise new questions—and answers—about readers and reading in America. A Place of Reading is a collaboration between the Smith College Mortimer Rare Book Room and the Center for Historic American Visual Culture at the American Antiquarian Society , which has loaned most of the items on display. Main themes of the exhibition include: the Colonial Home; Revolutionary Taverns; North/South/East/West: Newspapers, Periodicals, and the Popular Press; and Reading at the Front: The Civil War. In addition, a section called “Caught in the Act” highlights other places of reading, such as the kitchen, bedroom, bath, prisons, and public spaces.
 

To find out more, please visit A Place of Reading

There is also a corresponding on-line exhibition: http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Reading/contents.htm

Library Wishlists

I received the Friends of the East Longmeadow newsletter via email a few days ago. In it was a link to their Library Wishlist. This new site allows libraries to create "wish lists" and solicit donations for improvements they would like to make to their library. Check out http://www.librarywishlist.com to search for your favorite library and ways that you can help!

More Adventures in Cemetery Exploration

Last week my explorations took me to the Springfield (MA) Cemetery where I came across this stone. I'm pretty sure that this is the oldest one I've ever found - it dates from 1664.

Another stone truly caught my interest however. It was almost as old - unfortunately the sun was very bright and the deep shadows wouldn't allow me to capture a good photo, but in front of it was a very modern statue with some flowers. Someone remembered that person - after all these years. I wonder what that story is.

How (Not) to Record an Audio Book

If you'd like to read all the mistakes I made while trying to record an audio version of The Rose Ring, please read my post for the Catholic Writer's Guild: How (Not) to Record an Audio Book