I want to write more this year. I am a bit surprised to be starting this blog, but several things have happened in the past few days that have influenced my decision.
I saw the movie Julie & Julia just a few days ago; it was a present from my husband. I was struck at how Meryl Streep portrayed Julia Child, and I enjoyed the interchange between the two stories being told. I own My Life in France and devoured it immediately I got it home after a reading and signing by Alex Prud'homme at the Wellesley Booksmith. So far, I do not own a copy of Julie & Julia by Julie Powell; I am currently reading a borrowed copy. I loved the movie, and want to watch it again. I want my daughter to watch it too, as she also loves Julia Child and the WGBH French Chef tv series, from the time she was about 4 and watched the show on chickens and came running upstairs early on a Saturday morning yelling, "Mummy, mummy, now I know how to truss a chicken!".
One of my favorite writers is Neil Gaiman. He spoke at the Boston Pops Concert on New Year's Eve, in an impromptu appearance after the clock had struck. I was so taken with his words, that I chased them down, because he said them so eloquently.
" May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art—write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.
...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind." ~Neil Gaiman
There is a YouTube video here:http://bit.ly/5ZpOpZ (Then I found a video of Henry Jenkins' interview with Neil and had to tear myself away.)
So, as Neil says, do something to surprise yourself.
We shall see where this leads.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
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