Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Ristorante Alte Amore My Fiction Setting

Ristorante "Former or Old Love" was the setting in the short story "Arrivederla." These are the two Roman locations which served as the inspiration for Ristorante Alte Amore:  Ristorante Checco dello Scapicollo and Ristorante Cecilia Metella

http://www.checcoscapicollo.it/
http://www.ceciliametella.it/

Friday, January 23, 2015

Fiumicino, Italy to Rome, Italy





As the taxi drove from Aeroporti Fiumicino to Rome, we did encounter a flock of sheep and a shepherd on the road.http://www.initaly.com/travel/lomax.htm

Monday, January 19, 2015

Short Story Excerpt The Pacific by Mark Helprin

The entire story hangs on the fourth word from the end; you can search for it and read it. The short story, 5600 words, details a World War II factory worker. Here is part of a paragraph:


Paulette, who worked with an electric arc, never tired of watching this woman adjust her torch.  When she lit it, the flame was white inside but surrounded by a yellow envelope that sent up twisting columns of smoke.  Then she changed the mixture and a plug of intense white appeared at the end of the torch, in the center of a small orange flare.  When finally she got her neutral flame—with a tighter white plug, a colorless core, and a sapphire-blue casing—she lowered her mask and bent over the work.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Arrivederla My Latest Short Story




Here is the link. The goal was to craft a short story that ended on one word.


Arrivederla http://www.e-stories.org/read-stories.php?&sto=11096


Ildebrando D'Arcangelo Rossini Stabat Mater

Handsome.


Saturday, January 10, 2015

The Book I Brought Home

At a contest last month I unwrapped a mystery book in a plain paper wrapper. In the very last paragraph on the back dust cover, I read the author is someone whose main occupation is publishing books on opera. Meant to be mine.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Do You Write In Your Books?

My mentors write in their books, usually in different colored inks.  To me, they've made their books more valuable. When technology makes more intelligent advances, we should be able to reproduce their marks, notes, in different color inks. Last week I saw an annotated copy of Jane Eyre, and while there are many annotations, I like the idea of everyone having a chance to annotate. Imagine buying a classic and being able to pick the annotations you want and add them to your electronic edition. The pixels and electrons are yours forever. Here is a link to Brainpickings and an excerpt from How To Read A Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/09/best-books-on-writing-reading/

"When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, just as you do in clothes or furniture when you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book. Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it — which comes to the same thing — is by writing in it.

Why is marking a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake — not merely conscious, but wide awake. Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author."