John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Pick a caption for this cartoon

Rattling Books is sponsoring a contest that allows you to do a little writing: specifically, you enter a caption for the cartoon below. The winner gets a yaffle ... of books, that is. All the rules, etc., are here.

A thought on writing and sobriety

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
- Ray Bradbury

How PowerPoint can help you catch up on your reading (at work)

Above is a screen capture from one of the short stories posted to a New Zealand-based website called Read at Work, which, basically, sets up reading materials that you can read at your desk. The above is from the Virginia Woolf story The Mark on the Wall, with each section of text set up like a different style of PowerPoint presentation; in other words, the kind of thing that wouldn't look too much out of place in a work environment. Read at Work has an old-school "boss mode" function - just hit the Escape key to return to normal.

A thought on morals and novels

"People look for morals in fiction because there has always been a confusion between fiction and philosophy."
- John Cheever

A thought on poets

"The poet is a reporter interviewing his own heart."
- Christopher Morley

Margaret Atwood on writing

Margaret Atwood started writing at such an earlier age, and with such vigour, I always assumed she had been gearing up for the career from the start. Not so, as I learned in this short video:

For hitchhikers heading to the beach

I did not know until today, via a note from my friend Samantha, that May 25th is Towel Day, in honour of the late, great Douglas Adams, creator of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Nor did I know you can get such great swag!

A T-shirt for vengeful and aspiring writers

Yes, it's funny ... and it's true! As seen here. Click on the link below for other T-shirts in this collection.

A thought on literary voices

"Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking about everything in every possible way."
- Salman Rushdie

Doris Lessing, sore winner

Who would have guessed that winning a Nobel prize could wreck your writing career?