Literally Blogging

Okay, a question for readers and writers, and writers who are readers, and most of all readers who want to be writers:
What book or books do you wish you had written? If you could travel back in time and steal the manuscript out of someone’s outgoing mail and send to an agent with your name on it, what would it be?
I’ll start this off with two books that I love on their own merits but also secretly resent the authors a little for being the ones who wrote them.
The first is Watership Down, by Richard Adams. It was …read more

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I was twelve years old when I first fell in love, the quick-burning, star-dazzled kind that hits you suddenly and leaves you dizzy.
It was with a boy I saw after school, a boy who leaned against the railing with its peeling brown paint, unaware of the after-school shrieks and grinding gears of school buses all around him, his eyes never leaving the book he held. I couldn’t see what book it was, but it was a thick book, the long kind with no pictures that only real readers would read.

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One of my biggest regrets in childhood was that I did not have a governess. Yes, I read too many Victorian novels. But really, could I be blamed for turning out such a mess without that faithful role model to guide me with a firm yet kind hand? How could I ever be expected to learn to act like a lady?
If there’s one archetype that rules 19th century literature, it is the governess. She of the tight bun, grim dresses, and unadorned face. The woman so plain, and poor, and alone, that she should’ve been completely overlooked… yet she always …read more

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All the beloved books of my childhood—still beloved today—almost invariably took place in the 1800s or thereabout. Being young and impressionable, it was there that I developed my ideal of feminine beauty.

And what was beauty in those days? In a word: dimples. Not only in the cheeks, but in the knees, and elbows, and hands, and anywhere the skirts may have covered.

Who could forget the description of Meg March’s pretty, white, dimpled hands? Or how Anne Shirley told Diana Barry that she longed for Diana’s elbow dimples, because they were so lovely, like ‘dents in cream’?

Growing up, I hated my …read more

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First, I want to give a big welcome to my wonderful friend Adelle Tilton, who is now writing here at Literally Blogging! You’ll love Adelle…trust me, you just can’t help it! Hooray for Adelle!
And now, on to our topic. I was listening to Bang Go the Bells in the car the other day, a song so glorious it’s nearly impossible to believe that Babylon A.D. never produced another noteworthy song. In my opinion, anyhow. Of course, I am the Rock Goddess, so my opinion is right.
It’s not an original story; the road to fame is littered with the broken bodies …read more

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Hello! My name is Adelle and I am so excited to be here as a part of “Literally Blogging.” I can think of few things I love and enjoy more than books. Classics, contemporary lit, science fiction (hey, we all have our weaknesses), non-fiction… my list of favorites goes on and on. I am really interested in hearing what your favorites are!
I have been writing professionally for about a decade now. In my “previous life,” I was a nurse but fortunately, I also studied journalism and have had an interest in literature, both American and European, …read more

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Tom and Huck, those classic icons of boyhood, still color my perception today of what childhood should be like: sunrises and fishing trips, wholesome packed lunches and adventures with schoolyard chums.

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