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
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A Novelist's Eye: Lilian Nattel Online: Cat’s Eyes or Owl’s
Winter night It was pitch black to my human eyes, but this is the way an owl sees or a cat, I thought. The camera was on a tripod, the lens wide open for six seconds. The world was light. Filed under: Beautiful, Interesting Tagged: night photography
Continue readingA Novelist's Eye: Lilian Nattel Online: Camera Parable
Recently, I bought a new lens. It was a cloudy day with intermittent rain, but I couldn’t wait for better conditions. So as soon as I left the shop, I took my camera out of my purse, removed the jerry-rigged camera bag (a pink sweatshirt sleeve), and checked the light
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Grammarly vs Word
I used Grammarly to grammar check this post because summer is nearly at an end and I’d rather spend my time outside than proofreading…especially after putting Grammarly through all its paces. I evaluated Grammarly using two pieces, a project description of my own, and a 300 word assignment of my
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Spring?
Filed under: Interesting Tagged: odd weather
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: 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: Handy Words That Don’t Exist In English
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 readingA 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: 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: 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: More on Walmart
I dashed off yesterday’s post in haste and want to add a few thoughts. I’m not in favour of an economic model in which cheap prices depress wages (and working conditions), which require cheap prices, reinforcing the cycle. But what I am heartened by is that a subject which only
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Canada Tilts Leftward
The Canadian public is on a distinct tilt to the left, says a new national public opinion poll, suggesting concern over wealth distribution has traction beyond the Occupy tents and protest parades. The nationwide poll suggests the New Democratic Party would form a minority federal government if this were election
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Department of Amazing Life
Amazing animals – Mudskipper – YouTube. Filed under: Fun, Interesting Tagged: mudskipper
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Simply Reading: Web of Angels | Bookstack
“That must be a heckuva book,” the elderly man said. He stood before me, hand in hand with his lady friend, as they walked the boardwalk on an afternoon constitutional. “It definitely is,” I answered, emerging from my reverie. “I bet it’s a love story,” he said with a smile.
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Saving The Children | Tales from the Reading Room
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 readingA 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
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