This & That

A MOTHER’S LOVE

By: Donna L Martin

Alas, my poor fair-haired child

With eyes that twinkle so,

You’ll never meet your own mother,

Her hugs you’ll never know.

You’ll never know all the times

She held you late at night.

Kissing away your little tears,

Making it all seem right.

You’ll soon forget all the times

The love she showered on you,

When making your first halting steps

And saying your first words, too.

But as each year passes you by

When closing your eyes at night,

Try to remember your mother’s love

Shining out like a heavenly light.

Even though she’s left too soon

When her warmth you needed to find,

She may have gone to some other place

Yet she’s left her love behind.

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A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. - Sidney Smith

The vital point to remember is that the swine who just sent your pearl of a story back with nothing but a coffee-stain and a printed rejection slip can be wrong. You cannot take it for granted that heis wrong, but you have an all-important margin of hope that might be enough to keep you going. - Brian Stableford

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. - Henry David Thoreau

An essential element for good writing is a good ear: One must listen to the sound of one's own prose. - Barbara Tuchman

The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible. - Mark Twain

This & That

THE SEEDLING

By Janet Lavergne

I planted a little seedling

And watered it so it would grow

I talked softly into the pot

And waited for the plant to show.

I played everything on my stereo

From Bach to Brauhm’s lullaby

I urged the little seedling

“Come out and don’t be shy.”

One day I heard a rumble

The house began to shake

I wondered what was causing

That somewhat small earthquake

Out came that seedling

And he said with a grin

“Turn on the Rolling Stones!”

And promptly went back in.

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"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."  Mark Twain

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."  E.L. Doctorow

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon."  E.L. Doctorow

"Read a lot, finding out what kind of writing turns you on, in order to develop a criterion for your own writing. And then trust it—and yourself."  Rosemary Daniell 

"Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the most. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window."  William Faulkner 

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