Carolyn See, author of the book, Making a Literary Life ~ Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers*, recommends that her students of writing send "one charming note, five days a week, to an author, an editor, a journalist, a poet, a sculptor...someone whose professional work or reputation you admire...

"Life is a matter of courtship and wooing, flirting and chatting. If you don't know a soul in the literary world, you can choose to stay home and sulk until the cows come home. You can write stuff and look at it and agonize and worry and wait five years and send something out to a periodical where they've never heard of you and a bored clerk or intern will send it right back with a printed rejection slip."

Carolyn See suggests that by reaching out to people in the field, you can make your own literary life ~ an intriguing idea. Certainly, under any circumstances a complimentary handwritten note is probably a good idea. Five days a week could be taxing and impractical given our Canadian postal rates.

~ *Random House Publishing Group, 2002.

Some insightful advice from Canadian author Pierre Berton:
"In order to write effectively it is necessary to hear the rhythm of your own words. In my later drafts I listen for it after each sentence, and before the next I listen to both together. I then write the next sentence and listen to it in concert with the previous two. Thus the work proceeds smoothly, like a sonata, and the sentences don't go bump-bump-bump, like a car on a rocky road."
"There is no easy way to write a book... (letter to a writer)
Dear Mrs. P. I'm afraid I have to be fairly blunt with you. If your work is not selling, it is clearly because nobody wants to buy it. If nobody wants to buy it, it is quite clear there is something wrong with it from a professional point of view. Wanting to write isn't enough; you've got to know how. It is a long, hard apprenticeship and there is no room in it for amateurs."
~ Pierre Berton, Canadian author (1920 - 2004) The Joy of Writing, Random House of Canada, 2003

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way.

To the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, so he sees."

~ William Blake (1757 - 1827) English poet.

Photos: Along The Grand

A remarkable book about Hamiltonian Thomas McQuesten, brings to mind a sad fact: many a photograph, many a bit of history is lost when the contents of closets or drawers are discarded. Sometimes sheer volume of stuff makes it impractical to go through papers, correspondence, documents, photos one-by-one.
A visit to Whitehern some time ago, home of the McQuesten family in Hamilton, Ontario, provided me with an insight to the importance of taking the time. A regular search on the internet rewarded the staff of Whitehern with a missing artifact ~ an observant curator recognized an unidentified photograph as one of the family members and was able to acquire it for the collection.
Someone recently told me that he fondly remembers the hours he spent with an elderly aunt looking over old black and white photos of Cayuga. He then reluctantly confessed that family members brought in a dumpster on the event of his aunt's death and everything was apparently lost.
One can only ponder what early history of our village disappeared with that convenient dumpster.
~ Thomas Baker McQuesten, Public Works, Politics and Imagination, John C. Best, Corinth Press, Hamilton, Ontario, 1991
Photo: Colour along The Grand River today.

The Sinking of the Steamboat Victoria, 1881, London, Ontario.

Author, John Passfield's latest historical novel.

How did so many die without any obvious memorial or lasting public awareness? Of five hundred passengers on a steamboat restricted to three hundred, almost two hundred people died.

Well over a century later, Passfield has researched and through articles in the London Free Press and London Advertiser, using the real names of victims and personalities of the day, he brings to us an amazing tale of unbelieveable tragedy.

For more about John Passfield, visit his website http://www.johnpassfield.ca/

"It's extremely important not to have one's life all blocked out, not to have the days and weeks totally organized. It's essential to leave gaps and interludes for spontaneous action,for it is often in spontaneity and surprises that we open ourselves to the unlimited opportunities and new areas brought into our lives by chance."

~ Jean Hersey, The Touch of The Earth, The Seabury Press Inc. 1981.

Autumn Thoughts ~ photo by 4 year old,  Elizabeth's Rocks

Thoughts ~ by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy

I love the Autumn,
And yet I cannot say
All the thoughts and things
That make me feel this way.
I love walking the angry shore;
To watch the angry sea;
Where summer people were before,
But now there's only me.
I love wood fires at night
That have a ruddy glow.
I stare at the flames
And think of long ago.
I love the feeling down inside me
that says to run away
To come and be a gypsy
And laugh the gypsy way.

"I love walking on the angry shore,

To watch the angry sea;

Where summer people were before,

But now there's only me."

~ by Jacqueline Bouvier, Poem Thoughts, A Family of Poems, My Favorite Poetry For Children, Caroline Kennedy, Hyperion Books For Children, 2005.

Photos: Shore of Lake Erie, Ontario

Gone Fishin' ~

"Who Loves a garden still his Eden keeps,
Perennial pleasures plants,
and wholesome harvests reaps."
~ Amos Bronson Alcott* (1700 - 1888) American educator, writer.
Nature's Bounty ~ Elderberries
*A. B. Alcott may not be as well known as his four daughters, one of whom is author Louisa May Alcott.

Author John Passfield, admits that folks sometimes accuse him of writing only about tragedies.

Tuesday evening, September 20, John will be talking about the Victoria Day Tragedy. The Neat Little Bookshop carries John's books ~ we are not familiar with the Victoria Day Tragedy but we are anxious to learn whether it is a St. Thomas story. John grew up in St. Thomas, Ontario, and has spent years researching the history. Even the small towns and villages have their stories to tell.

Everyone is welcome to attend The York Grand River Historical Society, 7:30 p.m. in the Golden Horseshoe Hall, Hwy. 54 in the village of York. Join in the discussions with a dedicated circle of historians. Enjoy a coffee and sweets.

Photo: John Passfield in The Neat Little Bookshop. In the photo ~ Molly Cooper of Cayuga.

View From The Neat Little Bookshop Window

John, Keith & Emma
take a break after putting up our sign.

View From Bookshop Window.

Float on its way to Haldimand Motors Annual Tricycle Race .

"Achieved art is quite incapable of lowering the spirits. If this were not so, each performance of King Lear would end in a Jonestown."

~ Martin Amis, British novelist in his appreciation of Philip Larken, Financial Times column Aug. 19. The Larkin Puzzle (P. Larken, British poet, 1922 - 1985.)
Amis' Philip Larken Poems published by Faber will be out in September, 2011.

Quotation came to our attention via Laurie Miller. Thanks, Laurie.

Smile For Today ~ Sunflowers

Note to Our Authors:

Neil Paul with Mrs. Huitema ~ Neat Little Bookshop Poetry Reading

In The Neat Little Bookshop we have always had the pleasure of hosting authors and other fascinating personalities. We look forward to rescheduling folks who were on our calendar when we were interrupted by suddenly having to relocate the bookshop. Just to mention a few ~ Neil Paul, John Geddes and Jose Penny. We welcome all authors to once again visit with us whether it is to do a reading, sign books or launch a new book.

Meet the authors, read and share stories. Watch for exciting updates!

T R A V E L

"Whether we wish it or not we are involved in the world's problems, and all the winds of heaven blow through our land."

A Preface to Politics [1913]

"In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture."

A Preface to Politics [1913], ch. 6 Stereotypes

~ Walter Lippmann (1889 - 1974) American journalist, author, philosopher

Source: BARTLETT'S Familiar Quotations, Sixth ed., 1992

They don't call it mania. . .

""It's gotten so I can tell when I see that furrowed faraway gaze in the eyes of a customer in a used-book store, having come to a dead stop, that he is trying to conjure up his bookcases in his mind's eye and remember whether or not he has the book he has found."


"That's one of the things that all bookaholics share, like a common symptom of a genetic disease. You come across a fine volume and you can't remember if you have it, or maybe you have it with a different jacket, or maybe in paperback and here is this fine hardcover copy -- or is your copy back at home also hardcover?"

~ A Passion for Books, Three Rivers Press, 1999. Edited by Harold Rabinowitz & Rob Kaplan

September 11 ~ We Remember . . .

Cayuga-On-The-Grand

Boating on The Grand ~ Sat., Sept. 10

View from Conway Park (Please click 3x on photo for larger image.)

Snapshots

Doors Open Ontario 2011 ~ 10th Anniversary

Another year has rolled around but scarier than that, ten years have come and gone. Doors Open is a program of the Ontario Heritage Trust.

Established in 1967, the Ontario Heritage Trust is the province's lead heritage agency, "identifying, preserving, protecting and promoting built, cultural and natural heritage across the province."

Probably the most visible evidence of the agency's work are the distinctive blue and gold provincial plaques that identify "historic events, influential people and landmarks that have shaped the landscape around us."

On Saturday, September 17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. celebrate our heritage by visiting some of the significant sites in Haldimand County. For more information go to:
http://www.doorsopenontario.on.ca/ and http://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/

Photo: Ruthven National Park, Hwy 54 Haldimand County ~ Lw (Click 3X for larger image.)

On Achievement ~

"Man's nature, his passions and anxieties, are a cultural product, as a matter of fact, man himself is the most important creation and achievement of the continuous human effort, the record of what we call history."
~ Eric Fromm (1900 - 1980)

"The splendid achievements of the intellect, like the soul, are everlasting."
~ Sallust (86 - 34 B.C.)

"Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 - 1882)

~BARTLETT'S Familiar Quotations, John Bartlett, Justin Kaplan (General Editor), 16th ed., Little Brown and Co., 1992

Many thanks to our friends of the bookshop. Many of you arrived yesterday making our first day open a welcome event. Thank you for believing in us and thank you for your labour and continued encouragement.

The bookshop layout is entirely different in the new location, making reorganization of the categories necessary ~ even installation of additional shelving. It is a work in progress. We hope that if you haven't been in, you will come in soon.

John & Lorna

Post Script: Someone wrote on Facebook, "Aren't they the perfect couple to run a bookstore." We will take that as a compliment. Many thanks!

29 Talbot St. (Hwy 3) at the Cayuga St. Stoplight
Usual Hours: Wed. to Sat. open at 11:00 a.m. See Above for Complete Store Hours.

"Ninety percent of inspiration is perspiration."

"Walking yields a greater closeness to the earth, an independence. The solid thud of boots on the path means freedom to stop and admire a flower, to move at one's own speed, to rejoice in crossing a stream on risky stepping stones, to explore off the trail, to get a close-up of dew jewelling the grass." ~ John Muir

~ Source: Country Walks The Niagara Escarpment, Ross McLean, Anne Craik, John Sherk. Boston Mills, 1994.

"Laugh and the world laughs with you,
Weep and you weep alone,
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own."

~ Ella Wheeler Wilcos: Solitude (1883) Amer. author/poet.

Ella's inspiration for the poem came after attempting to console a weeping young widow who was travelling on the same train as Ella.

In consoling the widow, Ella had become so bereaved herself that she could barely attend scheduled festivities. She wrote the poem for which she is best known: Solitude. It was published in The New York Sun and later in the book Poems of Passion.

Sources: DICTIONARY of QUOTATIONS, Bergen Evans. Photo: Wikipedia.

Lucy Maud Montgomery's home in Leaskdale, Ontario, will be the attraction for fans this October. The LMM Society is hosting a three-day event featuring tours of the church and manse where Lucy made her home and her pastor husband preached. The weekend will include lectures, displays and time to socialize and ask questions.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, October 13, 14, 15, 2011.

http://www.lucymaudmontgomery.ca/

When one door closes, a better one usually opens!

Love this door on the old train depot in St. Thomas, Norfolk County ~ L. Walker