KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

Huge news is inbound here at INKROCK, which I think you’ll find excuses my lack of updates and posts – so stay tuned.  In the meantime, though, I wanted to share something amazing I came across while researching my new novel, THE FAR AND NEAR BEYOND.

I love the video below (great production quality aside) because it captures the power of words, the importance of bookstores, and just how dramatic the narrative of history can be. And in some small way, it reminds us that fate and luck are big players in all our lives. 

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON is iconic in our modern culture, and yet the famous red and white posters were nearly lost to time, relegated to an obscure note in the war records if not for the owners of one amazing bookstore in the Northeast of England. 

In a story worthy of cloth and paper, the video nicely captures the narrative of how KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON found a second life in modern culture. 

A Box of Chocolates

INK ROCK has been tagged!  Eli Ashpence graciously included me in a meme floating around that asserts Writing is NOT like a Box of Chocolates while seeking to discover a personal definition of what exactly writing is from different authors. The person tagged is then to finish the sentence, “Writing is like…,” post it on their blog, and then tag three others to join in the fun.

Though I can’t for the life of me find the passage to get an exact quote, one part of Stephen King’s On Writing that stuck in my head was when he likened writing to a sort of telepathy, a supernatural dialogue between two people, the writer and the reader, where images and scenes from the author’s mind appear in the reader’s, as if by magic.  Basically, mind reading. 

This is definitely part of what writing is for me.  There is a communicative value in the words on the page and though the conversation is one sided, there is still something being said between two people.  Try not to think about the whole “I wrote this now so in the future you can go back in time and read my thoughts.”  Your brains, they will melt.

Adding to King’s definition, writing is like astral projection.  Through the author’s ideas, as a reader, I feel as though I’m traveling, exploring the places, cultures, and characters in the book.   Yet physically, I don’t even have to leave the comfort of my favorite reading spot.  This is why INK ROCK focuses on the connection of place and prose.  Haven’t you ever just “felt like you're there” when a good book is so well written, it can transport you to its world?

That’s writing.  Now if only I could figure out a way to rack up frequent flyer miles through all this astral projection. 

Tagged: 

Mindy McGinnis - Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire
Alexa Martin - Dirty Girls Diary and author of Girl Wonder
Caroline Tung - Caroline in Space