the well written - thomas pynchon

Oedipa, perverse, had stood in front of the painting and cried.
No one had noticed; she wore dark green bubble shades. For a
moment she’d wondered if the seal around her sockets were
tight enough to allow the tears simply to go on and fill up the
entire lens space and never dry. She could carry the sadness of
the moment with her that way forever, see the world refracted
through those tears, those specific tears, as if indices as yet
unfound varied in important ways from cry to cry.

- Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

By Yoda Navarrete (Lady Orlando)

photo stories - harry callahan

Harry Callahan had a talent for capturing mood.  He was
disciplined, going out each morning to snap some photos,
spending the afternoon editing and developing (sounds like
writing).  "To be a photographer," he says, "one must
photograph. No amount of book learning, no checklist of
seminars attended, can substitute for the simple act of
making pictures. Experience is the best teacher of all. And
for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist.
Only the journey matters."  This advice applies to writers too.

Interestingly, Callahan was known for his hatred of storytelling
through photography.  I think stories shone through despite
him, however.  He captured moments, moments any writer
would imagine or spy and know to include in the prose.

on writing - anne lamott

The realities of writing via Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird:

"But how?" my students ask.  "How do you actually do it?"
You sit down, I say.  You try to sit down at approximately the
same time every day.  This is how you train your unconscious
to kick in for you creatively.

The first draft is the child's draft, where you let it all pour out
and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is
going to see it and that you can shape it later...  The second draft
is the up draft - you fix it up.  And the third draft is the dental
draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's loose or
cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.

a dreamer's wisdom - elizabeth hand

But talent—if you don't encourage it, if you don't train it, it
dies. It might run wild for a little while, but it will never
mean anything. Like a wild horse. If you don't tame it and
teach it to run on track, to pace itself and bear a rider, it
doesn't matter how fast it is. It's useless.

- Elizabeth Hand, Illyria

By Kristi Steffen

illustration - kristin vestgard

Kristin's work is full of melancholy atmosphere, some misty
fantasy meant for lavish words.  Her characters come from
ice, ivy, flowers, wind, and stars.  I love, love, love these
people, whoever they are.  The mood reminds me of the stories
of Elizabeth Hand.  A quote to illustrate:

[Her face] was gray.  Not a living gray, like hair or fur, but a
dull, mottled color, the gray of dead bark or granite.
And not just her face but her hands and arms: everything I could
see of her that had been skin, now seemed cold and dead as the
heap of fireplace rocks downstairs.  Her clothes drooped as
though tossed on a boulder, her hair stiffened like strands of
reindeer moss.  Even her eyes dulled to black smears, save for a
pinpoint of light in each, as though a drop of water had been
caught in the hollow of a stone.

- Elizabeth Hand, Errantry, "Winter's Wife"

the well written - catherynne m. valente

She stayed in the ground for no more than a quarter of an hour -
but in her memory it was all day, hours upon hours, and her father
didn't come until it was dark.  Memory is like that.  It alters itself
so that girls are always trapped under the earth, waiting in the dark.

- Catherynne M. Valente, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time"

By Mao Hamaguchi

on reading - helen exley

Books can be dangerous.  The best ones should be labeled,
"This could change your life."
 
- Helen Exley

By Jeff Donovan