The Guardian featured a pets in literature quiz. News that the hero of Charlotte’s Web was based on a real-life pet of EB White is a good reminder of the touching role of pets in literature.
Pets in literature
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Taking the challenge
I decided to take on the 31 Day Blog Challenge , a list of topics to be addressed, one each day. The first one is ‘introduction and recent photo.” I’ll give you the full list tomorrow. Here’s today’s:
What? There are plenty of pictures of me out there where you can see my face. What about one where I’m reaching out for something grand and unattainable, where I lead your eye in that direction? And what if the real man, Nikola Tesla, who created that thing in the picture just HAPPENS to be one of the best characters who has ever wandered the pages of my fiction…?
As for the introduction – Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya… well, no, it isn’t. The world knows me best as Alma Alexander although I’ve gone by other names in my time on this earth – but Alma Alexander is the storyteller who stands behind my books and she defines me. I’ve written and published millions of words in my lifetime, some of them in languages which I do not now speak – nor have ever, nor will ever. This is awesome.
I was born in a country which no longer appears in any contemporary atlas,. Perhaps it is fitting for a writer of fantasy to be from a vanished place. But I carry its memory within me, and I think the ghost towns of my past have shadows of me still walking their now only half-familiar streets.
The best and most comprehensive introduction you can have to me is this – I write.
Stories come to me, and I share them. If you wander into any of my worlds and meet me somewhere in there, come and say hello – I’m always glad to see you.
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Have you ever crossed a book?
Unh, let me put it another way. Ever shared a book via BookCrossing?
It’s a fascinating idea that I first tried a decade ago and promptly forgot about. I think it’s time to try it again. It works like this:
You sign up on the website and then register a book, any book, that you want to share. Your book is assigned a unique code which you write onto the front cover along with a message indicating the book is registered on BookCrossing. You can order labels from the site to make things easier, or even download free labels templates.
Then you release the book into the world — leave it on a park bench, at the airport, anywhere it will be a serendipitous find for someone. The finder can then read it, comment on it, and send it out into the world again.
According to the website, bookcrossers tend to be the most generous, innovative, earth-friendly, good-hearted, whimsical, fun and educated people on the face of the planet. Good company to be in.
There are currently nearly 10 million books traveling throughout 132 countries.
Welcome to the bookcrossers World’s library!
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Go Through
“There are houses. They are old, built of brick, mortared, painted; the windows are framed in carved wood. There may be gargoyles on…”
So begins one of the most unusual stories I ever wrote. The illustration by Amandine van Ray is haunting, weird and wonderful and a perfect fit for the story.
The Journal of Unlikely Architecture
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