Flynn: I read this morning that Bette Midler’s husband bought her the entire Penguin Classics series. That’s adorable. I have a real soft spot for her cause she’s just so brassy and sassy but self-aware and, you know, Beaches.

Me: I’m with you on Bette. Also, she’s top heavy. And I like those sort of birds.

Flynn.

Me: I’m reading (or rereading) 100 books in the new year. One of my resolutions. Everything on my shelves as well. Even the fluff. I’ve put Sontag’s journals down.

Flynn: HOLY SHIT BUFFY, I got on the computer an hour ago and decided to buy the journals today. You are my psychic soulmate.

We really need shot for not updating this. Circa December 2000.

Flynn: Perhaps we should try to dig up works by authors who are championed, if quietly, but are seldom discussed or not terribly popular. Who have we not heard of that we should have? Oh! Barbara Pym. I managed, by luck, to come into a pile of books that had been left in the office of one of my former professors – an eccentric Yalie genius named XXXXX without whose Literary Theory class I would have been grossly unprepared for grad school – who died while on sabbatical in New York city last summer. Anyhow, there were several Barbara Pym books and I’ve been staring at them on my shelf, wondering about her, the spines being lovely and intriguing.

Me: Have you seen the gorgeous hard backs Penguin are selling? Not sure if you can get them in America though.

Flynn: Maybe we should focus on Penguin? Penguin classics??? Holy shit, and may I just say that the covers of the Penguin editions of Graham Greene are gorgeous. And on the Penguin guy’s alphabet list, Pym is his ‘P’ and he mentions that someone once declared her the most underrated writer of the 20th century.…I’m stealing Nella Larsen from him too.

Still Flynn

Flynn: Getting back to these “unknown to me/us” writers. Let’s start a list of these? Barbara Pym, Raymond Carver. Who was that Italian-American who used to write about growing up in California? Dammit. Can’t remember his name…. John Fante, that’s it. Shirley Jackson, Paula Fox.

Flynn: Also, I love you. This is fun.

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Type your answer to the questions into flickr search
-Using only the first page, pick an image
-Copy and paste each of the urls in the Mosaic Maker

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3.What high school did you go to?
4.What is your favorite color?
5.Who is your celebrity crush?
6.What is your favorite drink?
7.What is your dream vacation?
8.What is your favorite dessert?
9.What do you want to do when you grow up?
10.Who/ what do you love most in life?
11.Choose one word that describes you?
12.What is your Flickr name?

Am ridiculously proud of myself for being able to compact a week’s worth of luggage (sans shoes) into one not-large suitcase. Have a sneaking suspicion my carry-on is going to outweigh checked.

These links are more for me than anything. I use to print and bind articles of interest into a journal. I’ve now gone digital. And yeah, I still have a crush on my pink western digital passport, but it’s no comparison to paper. Nothing really is.

The diaries of the novelist George Orwell are now published online as a daily blog.

Interesting video interview with Ray Bradbury on Literature and Love.

And in The Economist…Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. His and Hers.

Most favoured of all the Man Booker award winners. Salman Rushdie’s recent CNN interview.

I’m sitting here eating dry cereal and making my Christmas list. That’s really all there is to it.

1. Bobby Brown Sandy Gold Collection (Bobby is Beautiful.)
2. Diptyque Parfumée Encens Candle. (I love myrrh.)
3. J.Crew Tartan Toggle Coat (Saw it. Want it.)
4. Shavata Brows. (Best. Brows. Ever.)
5. Sephora Antibacterial Brush Set (Please take note.)
6. Vaishaly Cleansing Balm (Balm is better.)
7. Smythson Floppy Manuscript Book (For all those notes.)
8. Mark by Marc Jacob Soft French Purse (Pink and Pretty)
9. Nougat Mirrored Compact. (Audrey Hepburn. Enough said.)
10. Jo Malone Bath Oil Collection. (The more the merrier.)

I try to choose a handful of ‘unread-by-me’ books from this list every year. Novels I would have never otherwise been moved to try on. Like Hilary Mantel’s Beyond Black, a 2005 listee. Or The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler which sounded a little too pink to pick up through any other recommendation. This year I’ll be making a selection from the Non-Fiction list. Leonard Woolf: A Biography by Victoria Glendinning, because I’ve recently developed an irrational fascination with Virginia’s husband. But back to fiction and poetry…

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
The loss of loved ones.
Where would you like to live?
Everywhere. At least once.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
To be whole.
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
Idleness.
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
Sydney Carton. David Dunn.
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Simon-bar-Jonah. Elizabeth I of England.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
Susan B. Anthony. Harriet Tubman. Mother Teresa.
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
The Slayer. Of course.
Your favorite painter?
Albrecht Dürer. Lucien Freud post-1960.
Your favorite musician?
Depends on my mood. At the moment, David Fonseca.
The quality you most admire in a man?
To quote Proust himself: Intelligence and moral sense.
The quality you most admire in a woman?
Wit.
Your favorite virtue?
Wisdom.
Your favorite occupation?
Authoress.
Who would you have liked to be?
I’ve never wanted to be anyone else. Not really.

1. Neck it. No. Not nekkid. Neck it!

2. Panna cotta. Whoever came up with such a dreadful thing?

3. It’s not climbing into a medieval tower that’s the hard part. It’s getting down.

4. West Virginia. North Carolina. It’s all the same. Mountains and banjos right?

5. So my mom says ‘There’s no need to call. If you die they’ll let me know.’

6. You’ll be constipated for a month. Last time I went, I took a bag of prunes. Didn’t help. At all.

7. Ever got drunk in a 600 year old hunting lodge before?

8. My sister’s at the Concert for Diana. She’s calling me when Take That come on!

9. Two minutes after I met her, she walks up to me and says ‘Get your coat. You’ve been pulled’.

10. Really, I have to be going. One doesn’t keep Lord Webber waiting.

Full Name: Dewey D Payne
Birthday: Dog days of summer.
Birthplace: Bear Town, West Virginia
Current Location: Rather not say.
Heritage: I got Indian blood. And that’s a fact.
Right or Left Handed: Right. But it don’t work so good.
Major Strength: A dashin’ good-lookiness my daddy gave me.
Major Weakness: That same good-lookiness. A burden I tell you.
Fears: Haints
Life Goal: To not raise no kids.
Dream Profession: Another kind of Bill Monroe.
Actual Profession: I aint about capitalism.
Favorite Meal: Anything but onions. I hate onions.
Coffee Drinker: Yes sir.
Favorite Alcoholic Drink: None thanks. Hurts my liver.
Has Character Been in Love: At least once a week.
Is Character Attractive: I reckon I am.
Does Character Think of Self as Attractive: Now, what’d I just say?
Healthy Habits: I sleep alot.
Unhealthy Habits: It aint at night.
Favorite Movie: They Call Me Trinity.
Vices: I got my share.
Number One Regret: Congregatin with ole man Leach.

A Writers Digest Prompt: Character memes.