Inspiration: Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë was a wild woman -- who lived quietly. One of my favourite quotes from her is:

 “There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.”

I use it on my main Facebook page because it captures that derangement of the thoughts that proves essential to creation. What seems like disorder is really a calculated chaos, one from which I can choose the things I need and put them into a coherent format in my writing. But that step into madness is needed. I suppose the important part is coming back from that state.

Brontë's best known work, Jane Eyre, is a wonderful book, originally published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. A middle child (third of six), she wrote elaborate narratives of imaginary lands with her sisters and brother -- the best early training. While we tend to think of this talented family as alone on the Yorkshire moors, Charlotte acutally worked as a governess and a teacher at a boarding school in Belgium, the latter supplying inspiration for Villette and The Professor, which supplies another of my favourite quotations:


"I must follow my own devices -- I must till the day of my death; because I can neither comprehend, adopt, nor work out those of other people." 

That attitude infuses her most famous character, Jane Eyre. While some people find Jane harsh and unsympathetic, I've always admired her zeal to achieve what she will -- will being an important word -- and her unwillingness to compromise her values, while at the same time refusing to bend to society's requirements if it did not reflect what she knew to be true in her own heart.

Hurrah, Charlotte!

Call for Submissions

"Passion. Vision. Daring. Humour. Any alone will be intriguing--but to have them all is to be sublime."

That is the mandate of the new journal for the Women's League of Ale Drinkers, for which I am editor. We seek only work that meets these criteria, the output of creative women who may feel that their vision and passion has been overlooked elsewhere, that their daring has brought only disapproving stares, that their humour has met with stony silence. We delight in work that crosses traditional genres. We do not ask for your credentials, awards or publications. We ask for your heartfelt work.

The inaugural issue will be out for Halloween. The full colour PDF format will be a showcase of talented women.



DEADLINE
September 21, 2010


FORMAT

Writing: fiction, drama, humour or non-fiction up to 5k; poems up to 100 lines total; submit as RTFs (or paste into an email).

Images: scans of paintings, drawings, multimedia, etc. or photos of handicrafts, sculptures, etc. or original digital designs in JPGs (resolution of 300dpi).

Music, Sound and Video: via links to your site or host site (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)


And if we select your work for WLoAD, we ask that you wear the badge proudly -- link to our site and your fellow artists, promote the journal assiduously and celebrate this forum (i.e. comment on the issue and your colleagues).


Submissions should be sent to VICTORIASQUID@GMAIL.COM

Be sure to include links to your website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc., in the email with your submission. Thank you!

Inspiration: Dorothy Parker

Hello darlings!

Today I want to add to the list of inspiring women my muse, Dorothy Parker. Okay, let's admit it, her life was a shambles, filled with tragic losses, bad love affairs, ambivalence about her Jewish heritage, institutionalized barriers to women, far too much drinking and too many small dogs. But her poetry formed the blooms that rose from all that fertilizer -- and what exquisite flowers they were. A brief selection of some of my favourite bon mots:

Brevity is the soul of lingerie.

I don't do any thing. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more.

A little bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika.

I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true.

Résumé

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smell awful;
You might as well live.

Symptom Recital

I do not like my state of mind;
I'm bitter, querulous, unkind.
I hate my legs, I hate my hands,
I do not yearn for lovelier lands.
I dread the dawn's recurrent light;
I hate to go to bed at night.
I snoot at simple, earnest folk.
I cannot take the simplest joke.
I find no peace in paint or type.
My world is but a lot of tripe.
I'm disillusioned, empty-breasted.
For what I think, I'd be arrested.
I am not sick. I am not well.
My quondam dreams are shot to hell.
My soul is crushed, my spirit sore:
I do not like me any more.
I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.
I ponder on the narrow house.
I shudder at the thought of men.
I'm due to fall in love again.

Penelope

In the pathway of the sun,
In the footsteps of the breeze,
Where the world and sky are one,
He shall ride the silver seas,
He shall cut the glittering wave.
I shall sit at home, and rock;
Rise, to heed a neighbour's knock;
Brew my tea, and snip my thread;
Bleach the linen for my bed.
They will call him brave.

Theory

Into love, and out again,
Thus I went, and thus I go.
Spare your voice, and hold your pen ---
Well and bitterly I know
All the songs were ever sung,
All the words were ever said;
Could it be, when I was young,
Some one dropped me on my head?

Bless you, Dotty. I aspire to match even a single line of your wit.

Inspiration: Marje-Leena Rathje

Yes, it's a kind of Finnish-themed week. I want to celebrate the stunning visual artist, Marja-Leena Rathje, Finnish-Canadian printmaker, photographer and visionary. I find her work breathtaking. We bonded over photos of ancient rock paintings. I had gone crazy photographing them in Finland, but I sure wish I'd had Marja-Leena along to take the photos instead. Her eye is amazing. See for yourself and drop by her site to tell her what you think:

This image from her ARKEO series has particularly strong resonance for me as I finish edits on my novel tentatively titled Owl Stretching or maybe Birdhead or perhaps Another Green World.  Bird women images are very powerful.

Inspiration: Ulla Suokko

I want to celebrate my friend Ulla Suokko: she's a wonderful musician, but that's only the beginning of her many skills: musician, teacher, healer. I first saw her at the original Mythic Journeys conference. I had never seen a bass flute before and was fascinated by the sensuous curve of the instrument and the amazing way Ulla played it creating all kinds of unexpected sounds. Ulla demonstrated so many of her talents throughout the conference and we became fast friends. I find her music, storytelling and wisdom endlessly absorbing. Here are some examples of her work, though there are several other videos on her website. At Mythic Journeys:








With our friend Gerry Henkel at FinnFling:






I was lucky enough to be allowed to use some of her music from Bridge of Light on my latest book trailer: I think it fits perfectly -- of course!

Inspiration: Joan Jett

Joan is inspiring for her tenacity, consistency, longevity and integrity: listening to years-old interviews and more recent interviews demonstrates that she is very much the same person today as she was when she was all of 20 years old.  I appreciate anyone who keeps her private life to herself, especially in this age of overexposure, who does good works and is a great musician and  entertainer.

Inspiration: Tori Amos

I think I will let her speak for herself:

Inspiration: Stephanie Johnson

Hello, darlings! Vicky Squid here. I get to kick off this month's celebration of women we find inspiring. You're all invited to join in -- just send an email to any of the team. In this traditionally hot and humid month (in the northern hemisphere anyway), when so many people take their holidays and few people feel all that energetic, we thought a brief tour of the women who delight our minds and replenish our inspiration would be a fantastic way to idle through the month.



I chose co-founder Stephanie Johnson as our first shining example, because she has exquisite taste -- of course -- but also because a whole slew of her art is newly available online. You can always visit her Repository of Visuals, but do yourself a favour and drop by Smoking Ant Records to see an orgy of delights that show just how varied her style can be. That nimbleness of mind proves to be a rare quality, but one SLJ has in abundance. You can see how each page suits the character of the band whether old school or new world jazz spunk or off-kilter power pop. Johnson's art has cheeky good humour and inventive dazzle. Every design makes you grin with pleasure.

And guess what? The music is terrific, too. Win-win! No surprise, I suppose -- why not surround yourself with the very finest people? Works for me.

More on the journal tomorrow, my dears. Must dash now.

Who is Vicky Squid?

Victoria to those she has not met formally. An enigma? Her origins remain unclear, lost not in the mists of time, but the whirlwind of her life. It's said she rubs elbows with the crowned heads of Europe, but there are also those who claim she is more likely to be found in the shadowy alleys of artists' mews and garrets, in fact many say she has been captured in oils and in marble. While her shape has been reproduced, no still art can imprison the spark of inspiration that fires those restless rambles across town and country.

For Vicky is a traveler, seldom content to linger in one location beyond a season, always seeking new adventures, new partners, new inspiration, new fashions. A bon vivant, it's true, yet so much more than that dissolute tag implies. Not for her the mere thrill of new experience. She searches for the unknown, the unheard, the unseen—jewels of inspiration not mere oblivion or sensual pleasure or novelty.

Asked once what excites her interest, she was reported to reply, "Passion. Vision. Daring. Humour. Any alone will be intriguing—but to have them all is to be sublime."

And that is the mandate of the new journal for the Women's League of Ale Drinkers, for which Vicky will serve as editor. We seek only work that meets these criteria, the output of creative women who may feel that their vision and passion has been overlooked elsewhere, that their daring has brought only disapproving stares, that their humour has met with stony silence. We delight in work that crosses traditional genres.

We do not ask for your credentials, awards or publications. We ask for your heartfelt work -- writing in RTF files, art in JPGs, music and video via links. We ask that you tell us why the piece embodies your reason to live, to breathe -- what the work means to you, even why you think it may not have received an audience before.

And if we select your work for WLoAD, we ask that you wear the badge proudly -- link to our site and your fellow artists, promote the journal assiduously and celebrate this forum (i.e. comment on the issue and your colleagues).

Our first issue will be available in full colour PDF in time for Halloween. Submissions should be sent to VICTORIASQUID@GMAIL.COM as RTFs, JPGs or as simple email text with links to your MP3 or video files. Be sure to include links to your website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc., as well as your account of the extraordinary work you are offering us. We look forward to your genius.

Tomorrow, Vicky kicks off our celebration of creative women who inspire. If you have a woman you'd like to celebrate, contact us and we'll give you a spot.

More Enigmatic Hints

The Anachronism (Official Trailer) from Anachronism Pictures on Vimeo.

and

a dash of Valentine de Saint Point...