Copyright 2016 by Annie Louise Twitchell
Image Credit to Artist
Reader, Writer, Poet, Artist
Smaug, one of my favourite dragons. |
This is the dragon I sketched while I was supposed to be working on math competition work. And Daddy dear, before you get indignant that I wasn’t paying attention to you, please observe that the above drawing is almost entirely lines. That style of drawing helps me concentrate, just like knitting helps me listen better. I was listening most attentively. I promise.
Bag End. |
So anyway, I do lots of other stuff besides writing, when the mood strikes. Every so often it strikes violently and I am left breathless, staring at a piece of paper in bewilderment.
Copyright 2016 by Annie Louise Twitchell
– Give your nominees 11 questions to answer on their blog when they post their nomination.
My Eleven Questions from Erudessa:
~AnnieLou~
Copyright 2016 by Annie Louise Twitchell
My cat Eleanor is currently upstairs in my bedroom, wrapped up in my comforter, and probably sharing a bowl of cream and some cookies with the fairy, named Sassi, who resides in my house plants. This is Elli’s day off. Yesterday she was out, doing important C.A.T. work for the agency. Top secret, you know.
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Elli is pink. Well, partially pink. She has a pink streak down her face and pink spots all over. Her markings are really quite similar to her Tortoiseshell sister, Arwen.
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This was little baby Arwen. This is behavior that she still frequently engages in. |
Elli likes to be in the thick of things. Which, since she is a cat, means that she likes to sleep curled up in the exact middle of whatever we happen to be working on.
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This is Elli. There really is a cat in there, I promise. |
One of my favorite things to do when I’m writing is to have an hour or two entirely my own, a cup of hot chai tea at my elbow (but not too close or I might knock it over), and Elli curled up nearby (but not on my wrist.)
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This is okay. |
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This is my writing desk. This is less okay. |
Elli likes books. She likes to be read to, she likes to sleep on them, she likes to bat at the pages with her paw when I turn them, and she likes to weave herself in, under, on, or around them while I’m reading and not paying enough attention to her. She probably reads them too, but she doesn’t write book reports for me so I can’t say for certain.
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Classic novels are a good place for a luxurious bath. |
Yes, I asked her permission before I shared pictures of her. She didn’t mind too much as long as I didn’t start telling embarrassing stories. She is a cat, thank you, and has dignity.
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In front of the kitchen cookstove is a good place, if I’m working in there. |
Elli likes to sit on the dog crate in the kitchen while I’m cooking and glare disdainfully at Lute. Lute is my family’s black Lab. They are not the best of friends.
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And the best place to be is right in the middle of whatever I’m working on. |
Elli is just generally a helpful sort of cat, you know?
Copyright 2016 by Annie Louise Twitchell
So today this is my favorite quote. It’s from my work-in-progress ‘A Promise Rose’. I wrote it a few days ago in a comment I made while half-asleep and it haunted me so I put it in my story. I’m wondering if maybe I should do some more creative thinking while I’m half-asleep, it’s almost as if the muse can get the information through my thick skull faster and more easily that way.
And also, I did the thing again – I used British spelling. I hope nobody minds because I like spelling ‘favourite’ that way…
Copyright 2016 by Annie Louise Twitchell
One winter, two or three years ago, I came down with a cold. It wasn’t a bad cold, you know, just the kind that makes you want to lie in bed all day and not move. So that’s what I did. And while I was doing that, I read. And that, my dears, is how I read all eight Harry Potter books by the fabulous J.K. Rowling in two weeks.
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I really, really loved Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies. The mental image I had constructed in the first few books didn’t work by the time I reached the end of the series (somewhere around day 9 3/4), and when I watched the movies several months later, something clicked. Oh, of course that’s Professor Snape. It all just made sense.
Then, this past summer when I was housesitting for friends, I watched Sense and Sensibility. I’d listened to the book off Librivox (which is incredible and if you haven’t heard of it, go check it out: librivox.org/) and I knew how the story went – but Alan Rickman’s potrayal of Colonel Brandon was breath-taking. There was so much heart in it, so much passion and feeling. It was hugely relieving to come to the end of the movie and feel so satisfied. He got rewarded for what he had laboured so hard for. It was… awe-inspiring.
I don’t feel like my poem has encompassed all that I wanted it to, but I haven’t been able to figure out how else to express what I’m trying to say. So here it is:
In October 2015 I had my first piece of writing formally published by the Homeschoolers of Maine (HOME) e-magazine. The piece, entitled ‘Remembering Apple Blossoms’, won first prize in HOME’s short story contest 2015, with the contest theme ‘Remembrance’.
Here’s what some people have said about ‘Remembering Apple Blossoms’:
Copyright 2015 by Annie Louise Twitchell
First of all, Happy New Year! It’s 2016 and for the next month anything I handwrite a date on is likely to look funny because I may have to change it from a 5 to a 6. Please don’t be offended.
Secondly, a collection of love lines that randomly occur in the middle of a batch of cookies. Actually, the first one occurred to me while I was elbow deep in lemon-scented soap suds. I made my brother get out my laptop and type it out because it was a glorious sink of water at just the right temperature and I didn’t want to waste it or the line.
Copyright 2015 by Annie Louise Twitchell