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Me packing for a holiday.

Me at the bookstore.

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If you ever feel like you’ve had an unproductive day writing, please know that one time novelist/playwright/essayist Dorothy L Sayers wrote a letter to Bun (her literary agent) that said “herewith the striking results of today’s literary labours” followed by two pages of rabbit sketches.

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Let’s not forget to acknowledge Alexandre Dumas this Black History Month

The writer of two of the most well known stories worldwide, The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo was a black man. 

That’s excellence.

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I'm an Emily girl myself, but still cool.

Hi.

Submitted by worstsimpsonspageever.tumblr.com

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Giveaway: 2 paperback copies of Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown

Hi, y’all! Remember this great book? Fantasy set in Regency London that reminds me of what if Harry Potter was focused on adults of color? Author Zen Cho was nice enough to provide two paperback copies for me to give away to interested readers. Here are the rules for the giveaway:

-To enter, you must leave a comment on my review of the book (not on this post, NOT ON TUMBLR, this website is wretched for private communications of any kind) with a recommendation for a fantasy book written by an author from a marginalized group. Give us a sentence or so on why I or my readers should check out this other book. My review of Sorcerer to the Crown should help you determine my tastes and pick a book you think I’d like! (If you want to know more about my tastes, feel free to peruse the blog at my other reviews.)

-You must live in North America because I’m paying for shipping myself.

-Winning entries will be picked on August 1. If you haven’t responded by August 8, I will start picking other entries. Winners will be chosen at random using Excel. You can either put your email address in your comment (I’d advise the “dragonfruit at perach dot moo” method in case those bots from my undergrad days are still a thing) or mention your Tumblr name and keep asks open.)

Best of luck, everybody!

**Reblogging this post is appreciated because it’ll help signal boost, but reblogs and likes are not entries.**

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Jhumpa Lahiri photographed by Dan Martensen in The Wall Street Journal

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What dreadful Hot weather we have!- It keeps one in a continual state of Inelegance.

Jane Austen in a letter to her sister (18th September 1796). (via aisforausten)

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Much like fairy tales, there are two facets of horror. One is pro-institution, which is the most reprehensible type of fairy tale: Don’t wander into the woods, and always obey your parents. The other type of fairy tale is completely anarchic and antiestablishment.

Guillermo del Toro on how horror is inherently political as a genre, Time Magazine (x)

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I wanted to write a book about ghosts, but I was perfectly prepared–I cannot emphasize this too strongly–I was perfectly prepared to keep those ghosts wholly imaginary. I was already doing a lot of splendid research reading all the books about ghosts I could get hold of, and particularly true ghost stories–so much so that it became necessary for me to read a chapter of Little Women every night before I turned out the light–and at the same time I was collecting pictures of houses, particularly odd houses, to see what I could find to make into a suitable haunted house. I read  books of architecture and clipped pictures out of magazines and newspapers and learned about cornices and secret stairways and valances and turrets and flying buttresses and gargoyles and all kinds of things that people have done to inoffensive houses, and then I came across a picture in a magazine which really looked right. It was the picture of a house which reminded me vividly of the hideous building in New York; it had the same air of disease and decay, and if ever a house looked like a candidate for a ghost, it was this one. All that I had to identify it was the name of a California town, so I wrote to my mother, who has lived in California all her life, and sent her the picture, asking if she had any idea where I could get information about this ugly house. She wrote back in some surprise. Yes, she knew about the house, although she had not supposed that there were any pictures of it still around. My great-grandfather built it. It had stood empty and deserted for some years before it finally caught fire, and it was generally believed that that was because the people of the town got together one night and burned it down.      By then it was abundantly clear to me that I had no choice; the ghosts were after me. In case I had any doubts, however, I came downstairs a few mornings later and found a sheet of copy paper moved to the center of my desk, set neatly away from the general clutter. On the sheet of paper was written DEAD DEAD in my own handwriting. I am accustomed to making notes for books, but not in my sleep; I decided that I had better write the book awake, which I got to work and did.

Shirley Jackson, “Experience and Fiction” (via

shirleymag

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Having read The Haunting of Hill House fairly recently, I’m even more terrified of it having read this anecdote from its author.

(via robintalley)

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i love that charles dickens got paid by the word. like i cant even be mad when he’s boring and long-winded bc i would do xactly the same??? i wouldnt use contractions or colours at all. want to say the word red? too bad. we r now only using “the colour of freshly-spilled blood on snow; the hue of the horizon when the sun sets over the deserts of sub-saharan Africa” BOOM guess who can afford 2 eat now: me and my boi dickens 

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Have you ever wondered where books come from?

Well then, let me show you, because that’s what I do for a living.

Right now, it’s this time of the year, and the little ones have just freshly hatched:

You’ll notice they’re still blind and naked when they hatch. So I make them little coats to keep them warm during their first winter:

See how they happily line up to put them on:

See? Better. Now they’re ready to go and explore the world.

And if they make it through the winter and we take good care of them, they will grow up to be strong and wise like their older fellows:

So, in case you were ever wondering, now you know.

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Simone de Beauvoir, Paris, années 1930. Photo: Denise Bellon. 

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Daphne du Maurier, author of The Birds (which later became a Hitchcock movie)