Authors don't always have it easy ~

Scott Fitzgerald wrote to editor Max Perkins:

Dear Max:

. . .

"My big mistake was in thinking I could possibly deliver this collection for this fall.  I should have known perfectly well that, in debt as I was to the tune of about $12,000 on finishing "Tender," I should have to devote the summer and most of the fall to getting out of it.  My plan was to do my regular work in the daytime and do one story every night, but as it works out, after a good day's work I am so exhausted that I drag out the work on a story to two hours when it should be done in one and go to bed so tired and wrought up, toss around sleepless, and am good for nothing next morning except dictating letters, signing checks, tending to business matters ect; but to work up a creative mood there is nothing doing until about four o'clock in the afternoon."

~ Baltimore, Mayland, November 8, 1934

~ Dear Scott Dear Max/ The Fitzgerald ~ Perkins Correspondence,  Edited by J. Kuehl & J. Bryer.  CASSELL & COMPANY LTD.  1971

You cannot box a sunset.
    It is hard to wrap up snow.
There is no way to package
A lighted candle's glow.
Enjoy each lovely moment
As you walk along the way.
There is a bit of beauty
In every passing day.

~ Joyce Sandeen Johnson

Photo:  Cayuga After the Ice Storm lbw

Week at the Bridge ~

Old & New Side-by-Side

[For larger image, click on photo ~ lbw]

"HOW could I tell?" the innkeeper asked.
          "How could I have known 'twas He?
There were just a carpenter and his wife
   Come up from Galilee.
I would have bade them enter,
    And found them food and wine;
If only they'd explained to me,
If only there'd been a sign. . ."

~Author unknown

Here's wishing you ~
Peace for the pathway,
Wisdom for the work,
Friends for the fireside,
Love to the last.

~ Author unknown

Photo:  files lbw

THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY THORN

Cuttings of the original Glastonbury Thorn (which was destroyed by the Puritans, who did not approve of Christmas celebrations) were fortunately taken and planted elsewhere, and some of these are still alive today.  There is one in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey and another in Herefordshire.  More than once it has been recorded that these winter-flowering hawthorns have bloomed precisely at midnight of Old Christmas Eve.

~ The Tasha Tudor Christmas Book TAKE JOY!
 PHILOMEL BOOKS, 1966.
~ Illustration, Cover Leisure Arts, 1992.


Our best wishes for health, happiness and prosperity in the coming year ~
John & Lorna