Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end
Continue readingAuthor: Lilian Nattel
A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Perspective
winter flowers, click to enlarge I held the camera under the flowers and pointed up, surprising myself in the frame. Filed under: Fun, Interesting Tagged: urban photography
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: The Process: 10 Years Ago
As you’ll know if you follow my blog, I sent off the first draft of a fun new book to my agent. He is a dear as well as smart, but not the fastest responder. So while waiting, I had in mind to return to embark (again) on another the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Albert Nobbs
Glenn Close as Albert Nobbs and Janet McTeer as Hubert Page via Gallery for Albert Nobbs Throughout history, there have been women who have lived as men either because of gender identification and/or for safety and opportunity as soldiers, pirates and doctors, for example. (This includes James Barry, an 18th
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Princess Shoes
These were custom made for Princess Lilian of Belgium, designed by Roger Vivier, whom I gather from my visit to the Bata Shoe Museum, was the shoe to M. Dior’s dress. You notice that she’s my namesake. But these, made for nobody with a crown, are more to my taste.
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Nutcracker
The choreography, sets, and costumes were new, at least to me. This was my family’s Christmas present from A’s mom: row F, seats 14 to 17. I haven’t seen The Nutcracker for years, not since I became a mom myself, and I’ve always wanted to take my children. It was
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Bravery: the Writer
I want to tell you about a writer who looked old in his mid-30s. He walked with a cane. He was overweight, lethargic, pasty-faced and depressed. It was no wonder. He was a writer trying to write vividly, truthfully and with compassion under a totalitarian regime. He believed in the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Writer’s New Year Resolutions
1. Create more, worry less. (h/t Diane Shoemperlen) 2. The market isn’t Stalin. Have fun writing. 3. The market is Stalin. Be subversive. [A]n invisible force was crushing him. He could feel its weight, its hypnotic power; it was forcing him to think as it wanted, to write as it
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Eugenides Advice on Writing
To follow literary fashion, to write for money, to censor your true feelings and thoughts or adopt ideas because they’re popular requires a writer to suppress the very promptings that got him or her writing in the first place. When you started writing, in high school or college, it wasn’t
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Buddha’s Flowers on Christmas
Click to enlarge I saw the day come into the sky this morning and waited for my family to awake. There was peace and there was joy, like the songs, like the face of the cloth bag monk. You can see him on the table to the right with the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: The Sun Keeps Rising
click to enlarge The world ain’t ending folks. View from my kitchen while getting kids their breakfast. Filed under: Miscellany
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sea Plane and Reading
WWII military supply plane That is the interior of the sea plane that took me from Vancouver to Gabriola Island. As the only passenger, I got to sit in front. I thought the ride would be scary. Instead it was a stroll through the sky. A magical row below the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera
Portrait of Diego Rivera and Malu Block and Frida Kahlo de Rivera by Carl Van Vechten (Click photo to enlarge) I am drawn to survivors whose spirit pushes through trauma to emerge in a life affirming way despite it all. In Frida Kahlo’s case, that emergence is a fireworks of
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Hanukah Last Night
click to enlarge Do you see the blue lights? And the evanescent ball hanging out with the plant? Who can say whether they are optical effects or angels? Filed under: Beautiful, Personal Tagged: Hanukah lights
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Draft One Done!
You may have noticed that I’ve been blogging less and less of late and the result is…drum roll please…the completed first draft of a New Book. Yes, folks, there is life after Web of Angels. The floundering that follows every book I’ve written has passed, and I’ve swum to a new shore. As is my […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Inspiring Ted Talk: Peace
I remember first coming across the Facebook Page that this talk is about, but I didn’t know the context, how it got started, or how it evolved. The video went fast–I didn’t want it to end. Watch this. It’ll make your day better: Filed under: Uplifting Tagged: desiging a vision
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: The Next Big Thing: What I’m Working On
Goddess Durga by Joydeep Thanks to Lauren B. Davis for tagging me on this great questionnaire for writers. I have to confess that I’m participating in this more because I want to hear what other writers are doing than wanting to write about myself–but I will do my best to
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Multiple Personalities: We on the Inside; We on the Outside
I’ve been intensely living with the Power of We for about 8 years, so it is karmic that today is Blog Action Day and the theme is The Power of We. Children survive the unimaginable by developing a multiple, instead of a singular identity. As “we”, they can live, function,
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Searching for the Canadian Voice – Imprint
Last week I was at the Kitchener Writers Festival, where I was interviewed by a delightful young woman, Catherine Vendryes, who is an English Major at the University of Waterloo, a slender spectacled smart girl, armed with steno pad and digital recorder. I loved her questions. Here is her write-up:
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Baseball
Today I’m writing about baseball. Have fun with this! John Fogerty – Centerfield – YouTube. Filed under: Fun Tagged: Centerfield by John Fogerty
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