by Daney

For the last year I have been working on a novel originally titled Another Way to Live a Life. As I neared the end of it for the third or fourth time it dawned on me that I wasn’t finished with the characters. It would have a sequel which has since morphed into Book 2. As the opus gained magnum proportions it became clear that AWTLAL applied only to Book 1 and I began to ponder what words would encompass the themes of both sections.

I wrote my master’s thesis on The Sound and the Fury and have always loved the opening of part 2 which is narrated by Quentin Compson. It is the day of his suicide and he awakes thinking of his father’s presentation to him of his grandfather’s watch. “I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire,” Mr. Compson said. Long for a title but exactly right for this novel. To locate the passage quickly I googled it and found a very charming blog written by Mehnaz Turner. She, too, was struck by the passage and translated it into poetry.

Sound strange? It’s not at all. See for yourself at http://mehnazturner.blogspot.com/2009/08/38-mausoleum-of-all-hope-and-desire.html#comment-form

One of the things I love most about living the life of a full-time writer is moments like this. One never knows where the day will take you.

by Daney

My friend Robin dreams of a teahouse in her garden. Actually, it’s more a plan than a dream. She’s saving money for it and her husband Glenn has committed to build it. That means it will be wonderful because he also built their house.

Now, for some this would be the kind of foolish consumerism that plastered suburbia with Macmansions. Not so for Robin. She and Glenn have recreated Shangri-La near Montague, MA (where I had the great pleasure of spending five days recently) and a teahouse will be the perfect touch. Robin is a scholar of tea (seriously) and Buddhism, among many other things, and I can just picture her in a charming little room sipping tea and meditating (if the two aren’t mutually exclusive).

It seems to me that there’s a difference between crass materialism and indulging our passions or purchasing something that will make a true difference in the quality of our lives. My tiny pond fills that role for me. I look out at it as I write, I sit by it when I read, weather permitting, and it buoys my spirits.

Do others have similar symbols that enhance their being?

by Daney

What’s the best way to revive a dormant blog? Maybe not the best, but one way seems to be–let it lie dormant for awhile. This one has certainly been silent for months, yet in the last week I have been notified of 15 comments, and most of them weren’t from spammers. It reminded me of how starved we can be for feedback. So welcome, new friends and commenters. Feel free to write your own posts.

As it happens, I have the best excuse in the world for not posting. I’ve been writing, writing, writing. The book that I declared finished several times is still a long way from complete. It has a new title and I’m working on a second section. It could be that I’m just trying to avoid the seeking an agent hassle, but I’m getting good feedback from readers and having a wonderful time.

On the reading front, I now have a Kindle and LOVE it. Still reading lots of “real” books, but read on the Kindle whenever possible because, to my surprise, it is more legible and my eyes do get tired. For fun I’m reading Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder and Per Peterson’s I Curse the River of Time. Book research entails a lot of books about the historical Jesus because the narrator of Book 2 is on a religious pilgrimage.

As for thoughts and ideas, I’m getting plenty from the course I’m auditing at Rhodes, Prejudice and the Human Condition taught by sociology professor Tom McGowan. We are reading Emile Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Heavy going but fascinating.

Life is good. Who knew retirement could be so stimulating?