An on going series of a quote a day from those most worthy of individuals, writers… Disclaimer not all quotes are meant to inspire… Not all comments I make upon them are entirely honest either, occasionally Hannibal writes them…
Today a quote form Dear old Douglas, which is wisdom incarnate and I can not help but feel reverent to the world today given the current incumbents of number ten, and both white houses…
Sadly it is also wisdom that is never applied…
Old Hannibal says some strange things at times. As such this is the start of an irregular series of quotes form the Hannibal Smyth novels, because occasionally one should probably remember to do some promotion work for ones own novels for a change…
This quote comes not from the novels but from a short story set earlier in Hannibal’s life, while he was still a serving in the Royal Air Navy and had was yet to be sentences to perform the Tyburn jig… It was published in Harvey Duckman presents Volume 1, an ecliptic collection of short stories from a host of very talented indie writers (and me), the next volume of the Harvey Duckman Presents anthologies (volume 4) will feature another of these glimpsing into Hannibal’s early life. Ponderously entitles The Elves and the Boot-maker. I may make mention of this again in April when it hits the shelves… around the same time as the first Maybe Novel will be launched at Scarborough Sci-fi, which are set right at the dawning of Hannibal’s world a a hundred and fifty years before our ‘hero’ first finds himself ‘invited’ to work for the good of the empire by the omnipresent Ministry.
An on going series of a quote a day from those most worthy of individuals, writers… Disclaimer not all quotes are meant to inspire… Not all comments I make upon them are entirely honest either, occasionally Hannibal writes them…
Today’s quotes comes from the writer of Sandman, beloved of the children of midnight and the wearers of black. Shockingly its a quote about books and dreams. It is also a quote which I hold dear to my heart and consider to be one of the great truths. But then I wear a lot of black, prefer the hours of darkness, and listen to an awful lot of Amanda Palmer records…
If it wasn’t for the sheer talent, beautiful turn of phrase, fame and success I would be probably Neil Gaiman, but hell at least we share a wardrobe…
(its also quite possible that at least one Neil Gaiman charter wanders into Esqwith’s Passing Place on occasion, but i would never admit to that, and its not plagiarism when its a nod to the wise in a fleeting mention, this is my excuse and I am sticking to it)
An on going series of a quote a day from those most worthy of individuals, writers… Disclaimer not all quotes are meant to inspire…
Today’s quotes comes the King himself (no not Elvis) and is taken form his excellent non-fiction work on writing , called on writing. As titles go that ones a bit on the nail, but I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to pursue the craft. In particular it offers a perspective on rejection and perseverance which can only be inspiring when it comes from one of the best selling authors of the 20th/21st century.
All hail the King, who resides in the Tower Dark, draped in crimson…
An on going series of a quote a day from those most worthy of individuals, writers… Disclaimer not all quotes are meant to inspire…
Today’s quotes comes form the goth father himself… No not Andrew Eldritch, so don’t start singing This Corrosion… Oh go on if you really want to , Hey now ,, hey now now….
No its the other goth father, Mr Poe, dear old Edgar, who’s tell tale heart is forever beating beneath the floorboards of the writers of horror, and at the back of the minds of a million writers of bad poetry… Who doesn’t like a little Poe in there life, to wander the Rue Morgue in the fog shrouded streets of Paris… I think we have all been a little inspired by the master, certainly those who came to the quill after him have often drawn form his inkwell…
An on going series of a quote a day from those most worthy of individuals, writers… Disclaimer not all quotes are meant to inspire…
Today’s quotes comes from the doctor who was everyone favorite as a child… No not Tom Baker, though he is utterly awesome clearly. And no not David Tennant… Yes I know your a millennial… and yes David T was fabulous. But I don’t mean Doctor Who , I mean the Doctor who we all grew up with… the man who brought us green eggs and ham… Bless his rhythmic rhymes…
An on going series of a quote a day from those most worthy of individuals, writers… Disclaimer not all quotes are meant to inspire…
Today’s quote comes from the mind behind the Sword of Shannara and all the hugely successful Shannara books that followed it. Despite my love of fantasy I never got past the first of the Shannara’s. However his Landover novels ‘Magic kingdom sold’ and the rest are utterly wonderful.
I suspect this particular quote may have its roots somewhere else however, as Brooks also wrote the novelised version of ‘The Phantom Menace’… But then no man is without sin.
An on going series of a quote a day from those most worthy of individuals, writers… Disclaimer not all quotes are meant to inspire…
Today we get a little deep with dear old Oscar. But hen it is Sunday and Sundays are a very traditional day to discus great moral issues, generally in the tap room of the Nags Head over a pint or three.
I finished the first draft of the final two chapters of ‘Maybe’ book 1 through the week. For complex reasons know as ‘the writing process’ the rest of the manuscript is on its fourth draft and as done as done can be, and had to be before I could write the final two chapters. Things needed tinkering with before I was happy to write the final 5k or so.
As I needed a degree of separation between writing a first draft and editing it I needed busy work. one part of which was working on complex things like deciding what the actual title of book one was going to be… Making the final dissension about the cover, then changing my mind and doing it again, and again. Then finalising the cover and the name of book one, and the actual name of the trilogy and all the other book related stuff. And designing book marks because, well, I wanted some bookmarks. Which if you interested in bookmarks, and who isn’t , you can see framing this bit of text.
But enough about bookmarks, and the utter pain in the arse designing them turn out to be, I definitely did not scream in frustration a lot while doing so…
None of this was enough procrastination to achieve separation between church and state so that the people could thrive in a tolerant society… Which is a terrible analogy for the time I need between a first draft and a full edit of a body of text. But the struggle is real, the desire to tinker is real, I need time between the stages to come at the words fresh…
In short then I needed a project, a project entirely separate to writing, yet creative and consuming in the same kind of way, that had came with a sense of achievement in its completion and would bring a little peace to my inner being….
I needed a peace maker…. So I bought a nerf gun and set to work with leather , plastic and a whole lot of paint…
Because what a writer really needs when they want to procrastinate, is a new gun…
An on going series of a quote a day from those most worthy of individuals, writers… Disclaimer not all quotes are meant to inspire…
Today quote is from Virginia Woolf, who’s reputation as a timid, peace loving individual who would never say boo to the proverbial goose lead people to believe it was this passive nature that led to that great philosophical question. “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf…”, Which proved to be unfortunate for some people because the question is actually a misquote, the correct question is “Who’s afraid of Virginian wolves.” which given they rove in pack and have been known to ambush and eat unwary hikers who were unaware of the correct saying…
I may have made all that up, you could go wonder about the blue ridge mountains on your own for a few days to find out if I did…. But I don’t advise it.
The Passing Place 