Windmills, watercolor by Suzy Anderson
31 August 2012
Dear Theresa,
I always love your envelopes and small things, but I especially enjoyed the typewriter with wings on the envelope and so what? And the yin yang cartoon from The New Yorker. Mary loved the organ and bats on the back of the envelope.
The penny does have value. I just purchased a copy of The Diary of Soren Kierkegaard myself for a penny. Thank you for sharing some of the entries with me. The barb is applicable because I feel like even though I want to be free of the past, I am also afraid to lose it. Perhaps I feel like I’ll lose a part of my identity if the past is entirely let go. I hope I bother to do the sums myself instead of cheating. Sometimes the noise lets me focus more deeply on myself and forge new surroundings. Mary prefers to work in silence while I prefer to work with some noise (music or other people milling about) and we thought this could be because my household as a child was silent except for outbursts and her house was loud.
“The Unnerving Embrace of a Vague Idea” sounds like a great book title! It amazes me to find lines of poetry that have been used for book titles. One beauty about writing for me is to adopt another’s persona and from the experience learn more about my own identity. There was a quote on WordPress recently that struck me: The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe. Gustave Flaubert
I’m still discovering the reasons why I’m wearing Charlotte’s name. It’s like acting and putting on a different mask for each project.
Amazing how people jump to conclusions about being reserved and aloof. I’m glad Allen said they didn’t know you. Being aloof has definitely been a defensive mechanism for me. I think I learned that if I left myself be vulnerable in front of others, they would attack, make fun, and manipulate me. I’m glad I have a rich inner life. I don’t resent my own company and can be solitary, but I can also connect to others I trust.
Thank you for the compliment! I will have to use it in my novel. Sometimes I feel like there’s a piece missing, but I think it might be because I’ve never really been to Missouri. I’m planning a trip to go in September. Whenever I go to a new place, I absorb what’s around me. Once my aunt called me a sponge and said she wanted to travel with me just to watch me absorb the place. Christine says I fall in love with every place I go to (like Chicago and New Orleans). Without falling in love with a place I can’t learn its personality and commit the city and sights to memory.
When Mary and I get Netflix, I will have to check out The Sopranos.
I think every writer should go at his or her own pace. Not every writer who produces multiple books a year is an improving writer. When I was a teenager I started reading Garth Nix’s work. He is Australian and writes fantasy and science fiction. I kept up with his works till I discovered that he did not improve over a period of five years, using similar language and plotlines. I was disappointed. What broke him from the list of my favorite authors was reading a book he co-authored. I still love the first books I read, like “Sabriel,” “The Ragwitch,” and “Shade’s Children,” but I can’t read his new work. I have to improve and try new things, or I won’t be satisfied with my writing. When I attempt short stories, poems, novels, scripts, and letters, I’m trying to approach it from different angles like short, concrete, indented poems, etc. I’m not sticking to the script I discovered that works. Garth Nix is not the only author that I have a problem with in this area. Hilari Bell too did a wonderful job with the Farsala trilogy and “The Goblin Wall” was good but I didn’t care for the sequel. I still admire their work but have learned that I need to continue climbing the mountain and not stay stuck on a ledge admiring the same flowers.
I do want to have a presence online with Twitter and Facebook, but I am going to focus on writing. The shy ones are just as valuable as the relentless authors. I haven’t heard of Klout. I’m not sure I want to sign up and be assigned a number. What about tracking who buys the books and reads them? That is certainly one way for the writer to reach readers and isn’t included in Klout’s numbers.
A chapbook is a great idea. Here’s my next page.
I started watercolor this week. I already used all of the sheets I purchased last week. I’m sending you “Don Quijote vs. Windmill Giants” because I love reading about Don Quijote. Even saw a piece at the museums in California that reminded me of him and Sancho Panza. I hope you enjoy the windmill flowers as Don Quijote prepares for battle.
Watercolor plus your last letter about phoenixes plus the reminder of The Letter Project albums on Facebook created a new project. I made eleven watercolor paintings of phoenixes titled “Firsts.” I’m working on writing poems on the back and mailing them to different people. I’ll put up the entire collection on Facebook.
Love,
Suzy
The Letter Project 