Reading and Writing Quotations

https://en.wikipedia.org

“Read a lot. Reading really helps. Read anything you can get your hands on.” J. K. Rowling

“I always advise children who ask me for tips on being a writer to read as much as they possibly can. Jane Austen gave a young friend the same advice, so I’m in good company there.” J. K. Rowling

https://en.wikipedia.org

“Believe in yourself. Keep writing.” Neil Gaiman

“Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you’ve never been. Once you’ve visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.” Neil Gaiman

https://en.wikipedia.org

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” Ray Bradbury

“You must write every single day of your life… You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads… may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”

Ray Bradbury

Milly – Part 7

Here is part 7 of Jennie’s (the excellent teacher) series!

A Teacher's Reflections

In Part 6, the quilt, Milly, and the children were VIPs aboard the Intrepid Museum in NYC. What an event! The museum’s Curator called me to say the quilt was too large to hang at the museum. Their Executive Board unanimously agreed to give the quilt to the Fisher House Foundation – which was started by Zachary Fisher, who also rescued the USS Intrepid. So, we were off again…

Part 7

We arrived at the Massachusetts Fisher House with children and families in tow to deliver the quilt. It was to be a proper send-off. In turn, they would send the quilt on to the Fisher House Foundation.

Beth the Director abruptly excused herself to make a phone call. She had seen the quilt and looked rather shocked. We all looked at each other in very uncomfortable silence. It didn’t help that you could hear a pin drop in…

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Quotations on Bigotry and Taking Action

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“What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.”

Albert Einstein

Martin_Luther_King_Jr_NYWTS

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

(https://commons.wikimedia.org)

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Elie Wiesel

“Wherever and whenever bigotry and oppression exist, we must oppose it. We must not remain silent–tyrants, fascists, and oppressors count on our not speaking out.”

Charles F. French

California Coast~

Please enjoy these beautiful photographs from Cindy Knoke!

Crescent City, nearing the border with Oregon.

Battery Point lighthouse began operation in 1856.

Coastal Oaks covered with moss in temperate rain forests.

Southern forests are much drier.

Point Reyes National Sea Shore. (Click to enlarge)

Fierce winds have bent the trees at The Point Reyes Lighthouse.

Klamath California (click and see if you can spot the distant grazing elk herd).

Cheers to you from coastal California~

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Help for #SFFpit on Wednesday 7/28/2021

Please!

Hello everyone! This may sound like an odd request, but tomorrow I am participating in #SFFpit on Twitter, on Wednesday 7/28/2021, a day long event in which authors tweet a pitch for a book to agents.

If any of you have Twitter, please consider RETWEETING my pinned tweet, which I will put up tomorrow morning around 8 a.m. EST.

My Twitter handle is @French_C1955

**This is also important– DO NOT LIKE THE PITCH–that is for agents to let writers know they are interested in your work.**

The tweet will be for my Dark Fantasy novel The Curse Of The Demon Mine.

It will look something like this:

It x Stranger Things

In 1957 South Dakota, 13-year-olds, Dancer, Micah, and James fight an ancient creature threatening their beloved teacher. To save him and live, they face homicidal bullies and supernatural threats, all controlled by the creature. #SFFpit #YA #DF #ND #IRMC

Again, thank you to all!

Milly – Part 1

Please follow Jennie’s series on Milly — through part 4!

A Teacher's Reflections

Our “This Land is Your Land” quilt was the last quilt my class made.
Let’s start at the beginning.
How did quilting in my classroom even begin?
It was a divergent pathway.

Every good story has a great backstory. To know how Milly came into my life and tell you about her early years in my classroom, I have to back up and tell you what really happened. It’s a great story, and began what would become a legacy. Hang onto your hat!

“It happened like this…”

My husband and I were at a fall wedding in Philadelphia. We had an hour to spare, and went to the historic district to visit Carpenters Hall. After the tour, we had ten or fifteen minutes until all the museums closed. Directly across the street was the National Liberty Museum, so we headed over. Walking into the museum I was thunderstruck by a…

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A Wish For A Happy Writing Day!

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This is a simple wish for a happy and productive writing day for all the writers out there!

I hope you are able to reach your daily goals and keep your WIP going forward!

So, Happy Writing Day! (This is an unofficial declaration!)

Thoughts From Chaucer and Shakespeare

Today I will offer a few quotations from writers from earlier eras about creativity, learning, and teaching.

(illustration from Cassell’s History Of England – Century Edition – published circa 1902)

“And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche”

“And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach.”

These are the Middle English and the Modern English versions of this quotation from “The General Prologue” of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. This idea is of enormous importance to me, because I am both a teacher and a life-long student. All people should try to continue to learn throughout their lives and to teach someone else the wisdom they have amassed.

shakespeare

(Portrait of William Shakespeare, attributed to John Taylor
NPG London)

“Suit the action to the word,

the word to the action, with this special observance,

that you o’erstep not the modesty of of nature. For

anything so over-done is from the purpose of playing,

whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to

hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue

her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age

and body of the time his form and pressure.”

William Shakespeare (Hamlet Act 3. Scene2. lines 16-23)

Shakespeare speaks to the importance of representing life and humanity as it is and to examine the world in its complexities; it can also be an injunction for all creative efforts. I do not mean we should eliminate abstraction, metaphor, or altered forms, but that, at our core, we are creating art about humanity and our world.

Keep learning and keep sharing what you know.

Baby Stellar~

Here are beautiful photographs from Cindy Knoke!

Curious & handsome,

baby,

stellar jay,

wanted to be friends.

I was most happy,

to oblige!

Cheers to you from the Oregon Coast~

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Quotations on Justice

(https://commons.wikimedia.org)

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Elie Wiesel

theodore-roosevelt-393205_960_720

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“No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.”

Theodore Roosevelt

(https://commons.wikimedia.org)

“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?”

Eleanor Roosevelt

“An injustice to one person is a crime against everyone, and we must always try to achieve true justice in the world.”

Charles F. French

Have A Good Writing Day–Everyday!

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I simply wanted to wish all writers a good writing day–today and always. I also hope you will have excellent production on whatever project you are tackling.

Never doubt your abilities, and work on getting your first drafts done. They will not be perfect, but you will then have material to revise.

Remember to try to write every day and read everyday.