Inside our minds great forces rage and collide and strange convoluted processes are developed in order to avoid internal obstacles and keep the status quo. Former versions of ourselves wander through the inner labyrinth, exerting terrific pressure on our decision making and often dictating reactions in illogical ways. We have
Continue readingAuthor: Lilian Nattel
A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: A Different Drummer
I just finished The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones, and found it delightful, which spurred me to tell you about how I came to it. I met Sadie Jones at the author series hosted by A Different Drummer Books. She and I and Liza (pronounced Lisa) Marklund were on the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Fiction for Good Living
For a long time literary critics and philosophers have argued, along with the novelist George Eliot, that one of fiction’s main jobs is to “enlarge men’s sympathies.” Recent lab work suggests they are right. The psychologists Mar and Keith Oatley tested the idea that entering fiction’s simulated social worlds enhances
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sunday Ramble
I never did post all the photos I wanted from my last Sunday Ramble and there’s been another ramble since! (Click on any photo to enlarge.) This old Hi-Fi cabinet reminded me of my childhood though I think it pre-dates it with about 4 settings for different radio stations imprinted
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: #8!
BookNet bestsellers: Canadian fiction in great company! Web of Angels hanging out with Why Men lie by Linden MacIntrye, The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak, Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan and Room by Emma Donoghue! | Quillblog | Quill & Quire http://ow.ly/aDxgZ Filed under: Literary, Personal Tagged: day brightener
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Really Seeing
Anyone who follows this blog knows how much I love photography: Holding a camera makes me pay closer attention to what’s around me. I look at the ordinary—for instance a picket fence in late fall, a shriveled vine clinging to it, a single flower still blooming—with new eyes. I notice
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: How Kids Shape Parents
An excerpt from my third “special to National Post“: Now I’m doing something quite different: watching an episode of Bewitched with my younger daughter. Though it was a TV show I adored as a kid, when I saw it again a few years ago, I winced over the sexism. Before
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sharing a Delightful Photo
This isn’t one I took, but I just have to share it with you. This is in my neighbourhood. In fact I may just walk past it this afternoon to crow (quietly of course)! Look at the picture and then I’ll point something out to you (other than the obvious).
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: About Books and Writing Space
A taste of my second guest blog at the National Post: In retrospect I’m guessing that my school library was donated. Most of the books dated back to the Victorian era, the more recent books being early twentieth century. In grades two and three, I thought these were all the
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Most Unique Interview Ever
This week I’m guest blogging for the National Post. I decided that my first post should impart some of the wisdom I’ve gained with experience. For example, years ago before my first novel was published, I had a, let us say instructive, lesson in giving interviews to media: The technician,
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Sunday Ramble
I can tell that spring promotion is winding down because a) I’m walking again; b) I’m taking pictures again; and c) I’m in the mood to blog again. It’s true that, like any writer, my experiences, for eg my neighbourhood in Web of Angels, end up in my work. But
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: No Translation Needed
Fabulous images in different media from Russian artists in LiveJournal. This one is my favourite because it transcends alphabets: Тоже люди. But a close second, vivid thumbnails bursting with life on sheet music, are here. Filed under: Beautiful, Interesting Tagged: paper art
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Does Facebook Make You Lonelier?
It might. According to Moira Burke, interviewed by Stephen Marche for The Atlantic, her studies show that people who compose comments on their “friends’” walls are less lonely than people who just “like” a post or who just read their friends’ status. Stephen speculates that’s because everybody is glossing up
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Winnipeg Web of Angels
It’s taken me all week to recover from my week of travels, and I’m off again tomorrow. Winnipeg was a whirl of media, a live TV interview early morning, and four back to back in the afternoon (print, radio, TV, radio). But I managed to get a walk in right
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Passover Dance: the Story in Silhouette
Filed under: Fun Tagged: dancing shapes
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Not From Another Era: Jalutavad / Walking
Jalutavad / Walking – Landscape & Rural Photos – Vaido’s Photoblog. Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: rural photography
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: On the Eve of Festivities
Today there was sun and A and I walked along the railway tracks. This is what I saw (click any photo to enlarge): a kestrel and there was this… and this… So thank you to the birds and the graffiti artists for speaking to the festivals of spring and renewal,
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: From Grimsby to Winnipeg: Web of Angels Travels
If only I had a cell phone with a camera I’d have taken a shot of the view of the lake and the city skyline across from it yesterday evening. I was reading at the Casablanca Winery Inn, Grimsby, aka Ontario’s wine country. The Grimsby Author Series attracts a dedicated
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Web of Angels in Calgary
I’m in a whirlwind of travel. Thousands of KM west, 3 provinces, then back home. In an hour my taxi arrives to take me west again. So I’ll just leave you, my friends, with these pictures of Calgary, Alberta! (Click any pic to enlarge). Filed under: Miscellany
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Shout-Out to Young Women
Picture the Isobel Bolton Hockey League finals, Blue team against White. Blue had been the best team from the beginning of the season. But White came from behind, improving week by week until they were facing Blue in the final game. My older daughter M was on White; a classmate
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