a dreamer's wisdom - walt whitman

This is what you shall do:
Love the earth and the sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to every one that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life,
reexamine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,
dismiss whatever insults your own soul,
and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only
in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of
your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.

- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

By Jakobo Trevizo

the well written - willa cather

I wanted to walk straight on through the red grass and over the edge of the world,
which could not be very far away. The light and air about me told me that the world
ended here: only the ground and sun and sky were left, and if one went a little farther
there would only be sun and sky, and one would float off into them, like the tawny
hawks which sailed over our heads making slow shadows on the grass.

- Willa Cather, My Ántonia

By Jennifer Emery

from the screen - beginners

ANNA
There is a tree, and cars, another building like this one.  People in the building like us.
Half of them believe this will never work out.
The other half believe in magic.  It's like war between them.

OLIVER
How do you know so much about people?

- screenplay by Mike Mills

Via Olympus Pictures

on writing success - a successful query letter

Dear Ms. Kriss:

As you represent strong authors in the adult urban fantasy genre such as Vicki Pettersson
and Lilith Saintcrow, and your agency’s website also states an interest in Young Adult fiction,
I thought you might be interested in seeing my contemporary fantasy novel for older YA
readers, THE IRON WITCH.

Freak. That’s what they called seventeen-year-old Dona Underwood in high school after a
horrific fey attack that killed her father when she was just a child. Her injuries and subsequent rehabilitation resulted in magically enhanced strength, thanks to the iron tattoos branding
her hands and arms.

Now, after ten years of wishing for a normal life, she finally has to accept her role in the
centuries-old war against the darkest outcasts of Faerie. Aided by a gorgeous half-fey dropout
and a depressed biker-chick vampire, Dona must race to save her best friend’s life – even if it
means betraying one of the world’s greatest secrets and confronting the very thing that
destroyed her family.

Although I am from London in the United Kingdom, I think my writing will find a more
natural market in the United States. THE IRON WITCH is set in the imaginary city of
Ironbridge in Western Massachusetts, and I hope it will appeal to readers of Melissa Marr
and Holly Black. The novel is complete at 65,500 words and I have just begun work on
nother book set in the same world.

As per the current submission guidelines, I have pasted the first ten pages and a detailed
synopsis below, and would be delighted to send the full manuscript at your request.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Karen Mahoney

Via Writer's Digest

on reading - ezra pound

Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.

- Ezra Pound

By Brett Grunig

the well written - james joyce

His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide. He heard what her eyes
said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether in life or
revery, he had heard their tale before.

- James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

By Lisa Falzon

illustration - kat cameron

Angsty young dreaming girls in nature discovering wonders left and right.
Sounds about right to me.