Artist at work: an Ancient Egyptian style decorative collar by M (click to enlarge). And it’s finished! Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: young artists
Continue readingAuthor: Lilian Nattel
A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Joyce Carol Oates on 1st Draft
Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor. Filed under: Fun, Literary Tagged: Writing Life
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Railroad Ramble
It’s been a while since I’ve had one of these. It was beautiful up there in the sun with new leaves all around. I saw so much in that peaceful one hour walk. Here’s a bit of it. (Click any photo to enlarge.) Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: urban nature
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Pothole Problem Solved
click to enlarge This pothole has been around on Palmerston Square for a while. Recently someone anonymously filled it in with earth and planted flowers. Neighbourliness and creativity abound. Filed under: Fun
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Spring?
Filed under: Interesting Tagged: odd weather
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Wordless Wednesday
Spring (click to enlarge) Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: spring buds
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Words on Wednesday
Passover is here, which means eating matzah, also chocolate and more eggs than usual. This year during the seder one line struck me from our (radically abridged) reading of the Hagaddah: “Today we are slaves; next year may we be free.” It contradicts a note I have taped to my
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Wordless Wednesday
Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: urban nature
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: What I Learned from Figure Skating
The figure skaters at the World Championship competition, held this past week in London, Ontario, are the top skaters in the world. And they fall. They fall on their bums in front of a packed stadium, eyes upon them, and in front of TV cameras that represent the millions watching
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Two Views of a Telephone Post
Shape and colour and reflected light. You have to imagine the smell of muddy grass, the sound of the camera clicking, which is itself an artifact, an imitation of shutter and film, since digital cameras don’t need to click. I saw a toddler with an IPad the other day. She
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Starling
(click to enlarge) This is a starling, not one of the nobility like eagle and hawk, but a common bird. I see them around here all the time. They’re extroverts, gregarious, noted for nothing more particular than their strong feet. But look at the sheen on the feathers, the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Alice Munro’s Brilliance
I am reading Alice Munro because she is brilliant. In the mid 1990s, I studied her stories for “weather,” ie the external details that make a story come alive. In the margins of a book of her short stories, I wrote “clothing,” “smell”, “rain.” Then I added weather to the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Looking Deeper
I was walking and saw a slight indentation in the sidewalk. It was the shape of an inverted V. I stood over it with my camera and took a series of pictures. As I bent closer, I noticed a crevice at the tip. Bending closer still, I crouched over it.
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Wheat Sheaf Tavern
wheat sheaf tavern, est 1849 King St W, Toronto (click to enlarge) Inside the upper window is a wide bottomed jar with yellow paint or yellow peppers, also a blue-green mural with a giant eye, which might be the reflection of something across the street, or a black and white
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Literature Trumps Erotica
The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler is #8 in the top 100 books on amazon.ca, surpassing all three Shades of Grey. I’ve loved The Imposter Bride since it came out last year. It’s a finely written novel about the relationship between an enigmatic mother and her daughter. A holocaust survivor,
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: An Everday Story of Cats
(Click photos to enlarge) Filed under: Fun Tagged: cats in motion, urban photography
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: In Memory of Esther Levin
There are words that people use at a time like this: “unexpected passing,” “beloved mother, sister, daughter, friend,” “after a short illness.” These words can be said electronically, but the virtual world must bow here to 3D. The reality of breath halted must be faced, its gravity given due honour.
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: New Delhi
This morning my younger daughter asked me if I was cross. I said no, then yes, and explained why. She told me to blog about it. This is what I know about New Delhi. There are 20 telemarketing companies devoted to calling Canadian households about duct cleaning. This is what
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Music From Trash
Filed under: Uplifting Tagged: moving stories
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Leaves in January
That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. – Sonnet 73, W.Shakespeare click to enlarge There was a cute resident at the fracture
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