Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important…You are already […]
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A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Interview with Margaret Laurence Part II
A critic once said of A Jest of God that Rachel really wasn’t worth writing about because she was no more interesting than anybody you might sit next to in the streetcar. And I thought that doesn’t say much about the book but it says a lot about that critic. (- Margaret Laurence) It’s interesting […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Interview with Margaret Laurence, Part I
In a sense writing a novel is a sort of discovery . You know more or less where you’re headed but everything could change in the doing of it. And, you know, you can be very surprised. (- Margaret Laurence) This video interview dates from 1966 when Margaret Laurence was 40 years old and on […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Should I Combine 2 Blogs?
Okay friends, I’d like your input. After just starting Canlit Rocks, I’m wondering if I am biting off more than I can chew (especially with a still broken wisdom tooth!). What would you advise: should I combine that blog with this one or ke…
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: My Memories of the Literary Triumverate
When I was a teenager, 3 great literary icons were coming into prominence, all of them women writers: Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. Of these Margaret Laurence was the oldest, and her writing career was a relatively brief flash. Her best known books were written in one decade, her last novel published when […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: I love the pig!
Filed under: Miscellany
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Turul market photo
Turul / On the market – Documentary & Street Photos – Vaido’s Photoblog. Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: estonia photo
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: authors # 4 on happiest jobs list
Why were these jobs with better pay and higher social status less likely to produce happiness? Todd May writing in the New York Times argues that “A meaningful life must, in some sense then, feel worthwhile. The person living the life must be engaged by it. via The Ten Happiest Jobs – Forbes. Fascinating list: […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Writing Again
I have 2 projects on the go–a fun idea and a serious one. However, from past experience, I know that fun can morph into serious and serious can take a completely different turn from where I begin. So this time I have no expectations of where I’ll end up with either or perhaps with something […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: A Sweet New Year
Rosh Hashanah starts tonight, the Jewish New Year, and in celebration we’ll dip apples in honey to ensure a sweet new year for us and all our friends, online and offline. Have a wonderful one, dear friends. From The River Midnight: The village of Blaszka has reached the final moment of Yom Kippur. The Rabbi […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Poet and Mentor
I’ve mentioned Rhea Tregebov here before and am happy to have occasion to do so again. I’ve known Rhea for years, ever since The Writer’s Union of Canada matched us up to work together on my first novel, The River Midnight. Rhea was my mentor, a fine freelance editor, a children’s author and a poet. […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: New Blog!
Writers have so many ways of procrastinating. But this one is constructive and has a higher purpose…seriously. I was inspired by the bookclub Slaves of Golconda. When I was asked to suggest a few books for our next reading, I thought it would be fun and interesting to come up with a list of recent, […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: car ads on the Colosseum?
Rome is looking for “sponsors” soon to show their wares on tickets & exterior http://ow.ly/6EM8M Filed under: Miscellany
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: today’s smile: top cat
Filed under: Fun Tagged: cute animals
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: stuffies proves evolution is a myth
However the illiteracy of the Jewish fundamentalists belies their point. http://ow.ly/6Eai3
Filed under: Miscellany
A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: making the most of difference
people with Aspergers excel in company that tests software http://ow.ly/6D3KU
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A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Low Tech and High Tech
Today there was construction on my street and I have a cold. The combination of noise and brain fog meant no work. Instead I listened to music and sewed in the most low tech way, with a needle and thread. I am not a great sewer but I enjoy it greatly. There is something peaceful […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: women’s sex strike ends armed conflict
A whole new approach to peace keeping. http://ow.ly/6yCwI
Filed under: Miscellany
A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: First Reading of Web of Angels
This was on my desk when I arrived home yesterday. I’d spent most of the day at the first McLaughlin Literary Festival in Oshawa, all of my wired energy drained by the time I got home. And then this, made by my younger daughter, and pointed out to me by my older daughter. It was […]
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