I’d just picked up my prescription when Gerry took off down the road. Our town isn’t that small geographically, but it is–was–a one industry town, and when the factory closed, people moved out. It’s not a new story, and it’s one that’s been repeated all across the country, ever since
Continue readingAuthor: Lilian Nattel
A Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Better Late Than Never
I’ve been meeting weekly with a writer friend to play at writing. I have tea, she has a latte, and we write randomly for fifteen minute stretches. I’ll be posting these mini-stories weekly until I run out! Here’s today’s installment: He had waited twenty years to return it. He had
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Better Late Than Never
I’ve been meeting weekly with a writer friend to play at writing. I have tea, she has a latte, and we write randomly for fifteen minute stretches. I’ll be posting these mini-stories weekly until I run out! Here’s today’s installment: He had waited twenty years to return it. He had
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Welcome!
I’d love to hear from you. Contact me here! Filed under: Miscellany
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Rough Cut
Here’s a little something I wrote for fun today as a timed exercise: The King Edward Hotel was not specifically fitted out for aliens, especially water breathing aliens, but fortunately, the Gnasticollas were used to the terrestriocentrism of many provincial planets, and arrived with their water helmets on and other
Continue readingA Writer's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Thoughts on the Moon
Many years ago, I decided to write a story that deliberately incorporated archetypes. It was called, “Woman Menstruating on the Moon,” and it was my first story to be accepted into a literary magazine…in fact, to my shock, it was accepted at two. The experiment worked, and here I am
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: 7 Habits According to Tolstoy
1. Keep an open mind 2. Practise empathy 3. Make a difference 4. Master the art of simple living 5. Beware your contradictions 6. Become a craftsman 7. Expand your social circle Via BBC News Filed under: Literary, purpose Tagged: Tolstoy philosophy
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Russian Letters
After ten years of research, and doing back and forth translations using google translate while scrutinizing its Russian/English dictionary, I am learning Cyrillic letters. I have to hope that this is keeping my brain agile! And for another meaning of Russian letters, I’m reading a wonderful collection of short stories
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Winter Joy
Snow Friend (click to enlarge) This fine fellow is the creation of H. What a good way to spend Saturday morning. Filed under: Fun Tagged: creative snow
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Two Jews
J and The Betrayers are both novels about antisemitism and social violence, both powerful. And yet who would talk about them in the same breath, one a dystopia, the other hyper-realism? The authors, Howard Jacobson (J) and David Bezmozgis, are a generation and an ocean apart though united by their
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Moon and Autumn Leaves
(click to enlarge) Filed under: Light
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: At The Breaking of Day
Day broke, a liquid egg: Filed under: Light
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sunrise
Photo by Lilian (click to enlarge) And then this: a gift freely given every day. Clouds floating on a sky like water. Fire above, mysteries of home below. Filed under: Light Tagged: spirituality
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sharing Joy
Photo by Lilian (click to enlarge) He owed me nothing. I didn’t know him. But he looked at me holding my camera, and he smiled, this city worker with a front tooth missing. His joy infected me, and the colours of the world became brighter. The beauty is in its
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: So You Want Me To Get Screened?
I had the privilege of talking about cancer screening with a dozen women who have a history of child abuse. This is what I learned: Filed under: Concerning, Uplifting Tagged: cancer screening, health care and child abuse
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Ugly Duckling?
Photo by Lilian (click to enlarge) I don’t buy it Mr. Andersen. Maybe the mother duck was surprised, overwhelmed, or even envious, but the baby wasn’t ugly, and she lied. We come into the world as beautiful cygnets. Every one of us. Filed under: purpose Tagged: spirituality
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Shadows
Photo by Lilian (click to enlarge) If you’re afraid of shadows, look at them more carefully. Can you see how they reveal another dimension that is not otherwise apparent? New leaves grow in cracks, and shadows are beautiful. Filed under: have no fear Tagged: spirituality
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Your Real Job
Photo by Lilian (click to enlarge) Your job is to love. Everything else is your occupation. Filed under: purpose Tagged: spirituality
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Atwood & the 100 Year Forest
Depending on perspective, it is an author’s dream – or nightmare: Margaret Atwood will never know what readers think of the piece of fiction she is currently working on, because the unpublished, unread manuscript from the Man Booker prize-winning novelist will be locked away for the next 100 years. via
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Review: A Stranger to Myself: The Inhumanity of War: Russia, 1941-1944
A Stranger to Myself: The Inhumanity of War: Russia, 1941-1944 by Willy Peter Reese My rating: 5 of 5 stars The powerful memoir of a German infantry soldier during WW2, A Stranger to Myself was written in 1944 a few months before the author died, drawn from his detailed journals
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