Life is Hard. Here are some quotes about it. 1.“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss 2.“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” ― George Bernard Shaw 3.“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ― Mark Twain 4.“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”― Oscar Wilde 5.“You get what anybody gets – you get a lifetime.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes 6.“It is not the length of…
Category: Literary Liaisons
A Writer’s Tale- Arthur Conan Doyle
You probably remember Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from one of the previous installments of this series, where he featured prominently on a certain cricket team of some infamy. Or perhaps you simply know him as the creator of the most famous detective in all the world (sorry Hercule). Either way, I would wager that you do not know him from the strange tale I am about to tell. The period after the first world war was a strange one for many people. The world became a place caught between two eras; the Victorian and the modern. For Doyle, who had…
Wily Wordplay- On Time
Time is both an immutable universal constant and a completely arbitrary human construct. To celebrate this paradox I thought I would share with you some of my favorite quotes about Time. 1.“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring 2.“Time is a game played beautifully by children.” ― Heraclitus, Fragments 3.“The…
In Stores Now- Artemis
I’m not sure if it’s because of some subconscious effort on my part to reassure myself as I prepare to release my own sophomore manuscript but I seem to be making a habit out of using this section of the blog to review the second outings of author’s whose first outings were personal favorites of mine. This month I picked up Andy Weir’s new novel Artemis (coincidentally the name of a character in my next book). If Weir’s name sounds familiar its because is initial outing The Martian was an international bestseller and was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film. This…
A Writer’s Tale-Stieg Larsson’s Guerrillas
The name Stieg Larsson is one you may not be familiar with. The Swedish author of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo died before his novels became a global sensation, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t experience some wild things in his life. One of the main characters in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy is a journalist for a left-wing news organization. This is very much a reflection of Larsson’s own exploits as a young man. Back in 1977, when he was just twenty-two years of age, Larsson traveled to Ethiopia under the cover of being a journalist. What his employer and…
Wily Wordplay- On Nature
With everything going on in the world, I thought it might be the appropriate time to take a step back and reconnect with nature. And, since you and I both seemed to be attached to our computers at the moment, I’ve come up with my favorite ten quotes about nature to give us at least a minor respite. Enjoy! 1.“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson 2.“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden 3.Look…
On The Shelf- The Road
Sometimes our title On the Shelf means a book that’s been out a while that I’ve been meaning to read but haven’t gotten around to it yet and sometimes the books we look at have literally been on my shelf for years. The Road is a novel that falls into the latter category. Cormack McCarthy’s novel about a father and son trying to survive as they journey across a post-apocalyptic America is a poetic meditation on the things that drive us forward in life. What is the point of living when every day is a struggle to survive? When there…
A Writer’s Tale- Lord Byron’s Bear
We here at the Eclectic Eccentric love to buck authority as much as the next blogger, but some times thumbing your nose at the man can escalate rather quickly. Such was the case in 1805 when Lord Byron, who would later go on to become one of history’s greatest poets, enrolled in Trinity College at Cambridge University. Lord Byron, who inherited his title at the age of ten, was not accustomed to being told what he could and could not do. And so he took it rather sourly when the administration told him that he was not allowed to keep…
On the Shelf- The Colour of Magic
Have you ever wondered what it would look like if Mel Brooks had decided to sit down and write a fantasy novel? Me too. And I’ve decided that the result would read a lot like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. And if that’s not something you’d be interested in I question your life choices. Full confession I’ve read Colour of Magic more than a few times and while it is not my favorite entry of the twenty plus novels set in Discworld it is up there. It’s also the first in the series and so as a holiday gift to you…
Wily Wordplay- Cheesy Pickup Lines
Hey everybody! With the world being such a serious place right now I thought it would be fun to take a break from the depressing and have a bit of a laugh. How you may ask? Why with cheesy pickup lines of course. So here is a list of some of my favorite one-liners to try out on that certain guy or gal who has caught your eye. (Disclaimer: None of these lines have been known to work. Ever.) I’m Mr. Right, someone said you were looking for me? I’m sorry, were you talking to me? [No] Well then, please…