When you stand there in a place as immense as our own continental west with not another creature in your sight for miles and miles and miles around, you realize you are standing in the jaws of your existence. That the journey you make through time – where you light out to – is the only meaning you can claim.
from The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins
A thick veil of fog this morning hanging in the hills and temps in the 50's. We're slowly being pulled into fall {on a broken down rickshaw} The highs today won't top 75 degrees. A good day to sit at the art table with something warm to drink and scribble over the tops of collaged pages.
Or read a book in bed till noon. I'm enjoying The Shadow Catcher very much. It's a novel about the life of Edward Curtis, and of course the west. The subject of most of the books I've read this year. If you've got a title in mind for my next novel about the west, do let me know. I don't want to break my stride.
The page above is actually covered over with black inky writing, but sometimes it's just easier to take the photo before I begin the writing. Then I don't have to think up clever ways to cover things up. That's the trouble with making collages that you write on top of – do I really want to burden you, gentle reader, with my neurotic disastrous personality? Um…no.
Tiny plaster flowers are blooming on my flapjacks succulent. I love their delicate frostiness.
good morning !!
i have been reading your blog for a long time now.
i want you to know i find you very inspiring. i
myself, do not blog…but if i did, i would hope
i did it with all the effort and creative that you do!! i love all your works, please contuine to keep me inspired, along with many, many other !!
xoxo
debi
HI Mary Ann – Just wanted to let you know I’ve been tuning in and am loving all your yummy journal work. The white palette that has caught your imagination is thrilling. And you are able to use the old ephemera – in a non -“person-with-a-pointy-hat” (know what I mean?) kind of way – that makes it interesting and contemporary and your very own. Love it. Just so you know after I read the Marianne Wiggins quote I went out and bought The Shadow Catcher and I am enthralled. I’m only one chapter in, but hooked on the prose and curious to see how Mr. Curtis is unfurled for me. Am loving her descriptions of L.A. traffic, an added insiders bonus for you as you drive those very streets! So glad you have discovered Doig, one of my favorite western writers. Right after Wallace Stegner, who I know you have already fallen for. Please, please read “Dancing at the Rascal Fair” when you finish the Doig you are currently reading. You will fall hard, my friend. I promise. Love your work, you are an inspiration! xo fran
The Giant Joshua by Juanita Brooks – a story of a polygamous wife in the early days. She was ex-communicated from the church for writing it. Recently reissued after being out of print for years. I read it twice a year at least.
I just read JUNIPER BLUE, by Susan Lang. Not the best book I’ve ever read, but it is set in the desert of Southern California, and I found it entertaining.
I also read I MARRIED WYATT EARP, by Josephine (I think her last name is Marcus, but ???). Also, pretty much any of Barbara Kingsolver’s books are worth the read – like HIGH TIDE IN TUCSON. I love her books.
I did enjoy Cormac McCarthy’s border trilogy, although they were sad (for me).
love the photo with the stack of journal pages.
The Journey by Anne Cameron. An oldie but a goodie to be sure.
That bloom…mmmmmm
A Ladies Life in the Rocky Mountains…Isabella Bird, I love this book.
beautiful pictures! I think that rickshaw has no wheels, or driver as we are moving so so so slowly into fall. I want to come play so badly!!!
I thought you meant an idea for the next novel YOU are writing.
…why am I the only one who never “get’s it”. Forget how the west was won…Titles like…How to Take Great Photos while Dodging in and out of Traffic …How to Find Teeny Tiney Priceless Graffiti Shots while Dodging in and Out of Traffic….How to photograph Blue Spandax Rollar Skaters while Dodging in and Out of Traffic…How to put on panty hose? (panty hose?) drink coffee and take photos of great peeling paint….
I just realized that I am oddly short on books that take place in the west, but I guarantee that I’m taking notes here. I love some of the Tom Robbins books like EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES. Does THAT count?
what riches of resources!!! Now we’ll all go booking through the West
How about the midwest? Edgar Sawtelle, by Kroblewski
Mary Ann — anything (A N Y T H I N G) by Ivan Doig, if you consider Montana ‘west’.
I think that you would like The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss. Takes place in eastern Oregon at the start of WWI. I would love to hear what you think of it if you read it. I am still haunted by it.
PS: also, THIS HOUSE OF SKY and THE WHISTLING SEASON by Ivan Doig
I just read ON SARPY CREEK, set in Montana after WWI. Written in the late “30s, good reviews and then it disappeared. The only book written by the author. I never wanted it to end. Sweet and sturdy…it reminded me of Plainsong by Kent Haruf.
Death Comes For the Archbishop
Desert of the Heart by one of my favorite writers of all time
I love those plaster flowers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them.
I ran out this morning and snapped some fog, but of course the streetlights were knifing through.
More nonfiction, read long ago and too late to take the class offered by the author : Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey by Lillian Schlissel . I can remember moments from the book even now. A completely different perspective on the westward expansion, including the difficulty of bathroom stops on a tree-less, shrub-less plain…
Great quote. I’m going to have to check out this book.
Great journal pages, I love how they look, love the white color over everything or most everything. Love the edges photo.
Love the flapjacks flowers, how beautiful. It’s great that fall is reaching you. It’s warmer here today, we’ve got the doors and windows open, airing things out while cleaning. Smells great, lovely fall smells.
I, too, loved The Shadow Catcher, as well as novels set in the American West. I am sure you have already read my favorites, Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain (the only novels I ever dreamed about at night), but I think you would also really enjoy Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling and Mother Tongue by Demetria Martinez. Both are just gorgeous prose! Also, if you haven’t read it already and are interested in nonfiction, Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams is astounding! Happy Reading!!