Reading Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb, & enjoying so far. This phrase seems odd to me, though, about a family becoming poorer: “they had slipped from comfortable to well-off”.
That seems the wrong way around to me. Well off is better than just comfortable, no?
Is this a UK/US thing or am I just wrong?
No particular line to quote, but The Fisherman by @johnlangan.bsky.social literally just made me shudder. Not specific words, just cumulative horror. My kind of horror novel! (By which I mean I’m loving it; I’m only two plays into my career as a horror writer. This is something to aspire to!)
Always frustrating when ads for shows appear on socials without pertinent details up front. Usually it’s Where? What theatre/city/country?!
Just now, though, an ad popped up on facebook showing a nice review, but lacking even the title. And the review wasn’t nice enough to make me *that* curious!
I usually groan internally when characters in novels relate dreams. I know it’s supposed to serve a purpose but it’s the same as anyone relating their dreams: boring. The Fisherman by John Langan just bucked that idea with a dream that started (per usual) boring but ended with lovecraftian horror!
Coming soon!
Lovely line, or at least section of a sentence, in Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens: “imagination flattens to that of adulthood.” (Something all creatives have to guard against.) The phrasing is up there with Beckett’s “habit is a great deadener.”
“The train, which had begun late, and become later still, was passing into a fresh territory of such an exuberant delay its arrival would become a cause for celebration.” Brilliant line from The Story of Jenny Greenteeth by David Renton!
Just finished The Impossible Fortune by @richardosman1.bsky.social. I won’t spoil the end but chapter 76 (really the epilogue) should be required reading for anyone ‘earning’ upwards of a million a year.
Really well written book, Richard, thank you.
Read the book for context but “It is fun to hide, and Kendrick is very good at it. He has hidden from his dad many times. All you have to do is be small and quiet.” from @richardosman1.bsky.social’s The Impossible Fortune gave me a chill. Put me in mind of Valentine’s Day by the great Andy McQuade!
‘I’ve got you under my skin’ is playing in the pub. The Sinatra version. He’s a great singer, obviously, but this is arguably the best example of him being pleased with himself as a singer at the expense of the song. To hear the song done right listen to Ella Fitzgerald sing it!
And discuss… 😜
Also from The Impossible Fortune by @richardosman1.bsky.social: “she would have been full of questions. What are we going to ask him, Elizabeth? Why do you have a gun in your bag, Elizabeth? Would you like a fruit pastille, Elizabeth?’”
It’s ‘Fruit Pastille’ that makes it art!
Though I’ll grant, the context is much more humorous, and the description of the hangover certainly rings true!
Started The Impossible Fortune by @richardosman1.bsky.social & enjoyed “Ron raised his head in the absence of further blows, he saw the officer swinging his baton at the press photographer’s camera, and then at the press photographer himself. They were different times.” I’m not sure how different…
“‘Has everyone got a flashlight, by the way?’ the doctor asked, and they nodded, more intent upon sleep than the waves of darkness which came after them up the stairs of Hill House.”
The end of that sentence is SO good! From, of course, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
Perhaps not in keeping with the overall tone of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, but on a dreich day here in Scotland I enjoyed: “It was clearly going to be wet all day, but it was a summer rain, deepening the green of the grass and the trees, sweetening and cleaning the air.”
Resonating from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House: “When they left, the little girl waved goodbye to Eleanor, and Eleanor waved back, sitting in joyful loneliness to finish her coffee while the gay stream tumbled along below her.”
For whatever it’s worth, I predicted exactly this in a letter to Estelle Morris when huge numbers of us were campaigning against New Labour’s new HE set-up. We were ignored. This hasn’t come out of nowhere. Part of me says the bed is made, lie in it. This isn’t a glitch, it’s a feature.
I do recognise that politicians have to be careful with their words. Still, I’d like to outright ban the phrase “we’ve been very clear”. Is it just to give them a half-second to gather thought? Because it really doesn’t mean anything.
That’s a relief. After all, his word is his bond.
From ‘Salem’s Lot’ by @stephenking.bsky.social
I was following my orders. Yes, that was true, patently true... But where were our orders coming from, ultimately? I was just following orders. The people elected me. But who elected the people?
Stephen, you’ve often been called prescient, but this… 😶
As in any book by @stephenking.bsky.social there are too many great lines to quote all, but from ‘Salem’s Lot’:
“Less than two minutes ago they had been discussing this business calmly, under the rational light of electric bulbs.”
Really, *such* a great turn of phrase!
I’m in need of a sound designer (ideally, but not necessarily Edinburgh-based) for a show at this years Ed Fringe. Horror solo-show, wants fx & music to build creepy atmosphere.
If you’re interested, Dm me. If you know someone, put us in touch. Cheers!
#theatre #horror #sounddesign
Actually, also, @stephenking.bsky.social (or anyone who knows) on the next page it refers to “an eternity of… celestial drag strips”. For a non-American is that vegas-style drags (roads) or drag stripteases?
I appreciate that post was ambiguous (blame the character limit) but actually it’s probably a thought better reflected on than me just explaining my own thoughts 😉😅
Diff context, diff time & of a complex character, but this from @stephenking.bsky.social’s Salem’s Lot could apply, I think, to most Culture War/liberation issues: “He wanted this struggle to be pure, unhindered by the politics that rode the back of every social issue like a deformed Siamese twin.”
Re-reading Salem’s Lot by @stephenking.bsky.social partly cos my next planned play has vampires, partly cos it’s the scariest book I’ve read. Many, many quotable lines, but I came across this and must share: “It proves little, except that perhaps in America even a pig can aspire to immortality.”
Although I enjoy the folk tale style I’m reminded of the advice to KISS. Not always, but check this for a simile to leave one stumped: “whiter her palms and her fingers than the shoots of the marsh trefoil from amidst the fine gravel of a welling spring.” Who can’t picture that?!
Another from Welsh Legends and Folk Tales (ed Gwyn Jones): “‘If I can do no more, I can likewise do no less,’ said the boy. ‘If I can go late, I can as well go soon.’”
I especially like that last, but am concerned that if I use it then people will be apt to misunderstand…
Oh, this is nice, from Welsh Legends and Folk Tales, of a message-carrying starling:
“Then Brân took the letter and read it, and to the starling he gave a bowl for food and a bowl for water and a perch in every royal palace throughout his dominions.”
Just started Welsh Legends and Folk Tales, ed Gwyn Jones. Not so much a line to quote, but one character repeats “shame on my beard if…”.
I’m currently clean-shaven for a role, but when I’m more hirsute I shall begin using that! 😂🏴