a dreamer's wisdom - virgil

Fortune sides with him who dares.

- Virgil

By Mara

on writing - neil gaiman

 Neil Gaiman's writing advice via Brain Pickings:

1. Write

2. Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.

3. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to
friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for
them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they
think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

6. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection,
you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing.
Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

7. Laugh at your own jokes.

8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and
confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for
life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your
story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. 
I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

By Stacey Jane

photo stories - polaroids

There are some really great groups on Flickr for polaroid photographers,
which is where I found these.  Polaroids are great because they're often
blurred enough, vague enough, that there's much mystery to what's
actually going on in the photos.  Vague lines offer vague imaginings
to jump off of into a hundred different stories.  What do you see?

The bridge will only take you halfway there, to those mysterious lands
you long to see. Through gypsy camps and swirling Arab fair, and moonlit
woods where unicorns run free. So come and walk awhile with me and
share the twisting trails and wondrous worlds I've known. But this bridge
will only take you halfway there. The last few steps you have to take alone.

- Shel Silverstein

By Alison Garnet

By Enrico

the well written - jerry spinelli

"Did you know there's a country with officially designated 'enchanted places'?"

"No," I said.  "Where would that be?  Oz?"

"Iceland."

"Imagine that."

"I'm ignoring your sarcasm.  I think it would be neat if we had that here.
You'd be walking or riding along, and there would be this stone marker
with a brass plate: 'Enchanted Site.  U.S. Department of Interior.'"

"We'd litter it up," I said.

She stared at me, her smile gone.  "Would we?"

I felt bad, as if I had ruined something.

-Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl

By Megan Adelaide

from unexpected places - vintage astronomy prints

These are from Etsy's Antique Print Store.  What kind of characters
would own them?  What kind lived through some of these spectacles,
lives forever changed by wonder?  Are any of these characters yours?

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
- Carl Sagan

Ziva Comet, 1858

Comet Nuclei, 1940's

on reading - alberto manguel

At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book - that
string of confused, alien ciphers--shivered into meaning. Words spoke to
you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You
became, irrevocably, a reader.

- Alberto Manguel

photo stories - sophie fontaine

Sophie's photographs have appeared in Vogue Italia and Seeance Magazine
among other places.  She likes to explore forgotten and abandoned locations,
putting subjects into frames where they wander and even become one with
the mysteries around them.  Each of these is a snapshot in some story of
restlessness and secrecy on the countryside.

Seek treasures amid ruins, sincere one.  - Rumi