Inkling Explorations Link-Up // January 2016

(Note: if you're interested in participating and new to the blog, you can find our link-up explanation/guidelines + more buttons here. :))

This month's selection is: A New Year or 'new beginning' passage in literature

I've highlighted this passage before on my personal blog, but it's such a favorite it immediately won hands down for this month's entry. ;)

“Outside darkness stayed, darkness and snow and ice, as if it would stay forever.

"So no one in Greenwillow was prepared for the morning when it came, not in a slow snowy dawn, but with the sun shouting up over the hills and catching a million mirrors of ice storm, as if the music from a harp had been frozen and splintered and flung from the west and the east and the north and the south. The great trees were sheathed in ice, and so were the tiniest meadow grasses. Branches glittered and cracked under their frozen weight, and small autumn seed-coats turned to diamond stuff.

"The sky was as blue as the first dawn itself, the one that woke Adam, and there was a fresh powdering of snow that had fallen before the ice began to creep. It was next to impossible to look abroad for the dazzle, and the Reverend Birdsong stood on his doorstep and shielded his eyes and felt very near to bursting with God’s wasteful glory and this new Creation. Charity the cat came out beside him, walking very daintily in the cold, looked at the snow, sneezed in protest and withdrew to the warm hearth. Birdsong rubbed his hands together and crowed.” Greenwillow by B.J. Chute

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Just leave your own link here in a comment and I'll add it to the post. :) As always, entries are open through the end of the month and I can't wait to see your selections!

Meredith ~ Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol

Hamlette ~ L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables

Olivia ~ C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces

Natalie ~ K.M. Weiland's Behold the Dawn

*How to do it*

1. Post the Inklings button on your sidebar.

2. Do a post on your own blog relating to the month's selection/subject (a literary excerpt as short or as long as you like AND/OR—if specified that month—a screencap from a film with an explanation of how the scene builds/develops the story). Link back here somewhere in your post.

3. Come back here and paste your link in the comments box and I'll add it to the post. Then enjoy visiting and reading everyone else's contributions!

That's all there is to it!

Up next month: A scene involving a disguise in book or film

Quote of the Month ~ November 2015

click to enlarge

This is our 50th post! And what think you of Lewis's advice? :)

Click here for more great Quotes of the Month!

Heidi Peterson is a lover of wide-spreading land, summer dust, white pounding waterfalls, and mountain tops; also of good dark coffee and rich stories. Most of all she's a lover of the One who is the Word, the Word made flesh. You can visit her additional blog (where she shares more about books, movies, and further marvels of life) at: Along the Brandywine.

Visit and contact at: Sharing the Journey // Along the Brandywine // ladyofanorien(at)gmail(dot)com

Inkling Explorations Link-Up // August 2015 & New Must-See Buttons!!!

As this is our fourth Inklings month I decided it’s high time to mix in some new buttons!

How do you all like them? :) Feel free to use any—or all five!

And our topic for this month is: A scene happening on/at/around a train or train station 

July specific notes: Selections can be from either books or films

And you can probably all guess my choice.... ;) Yes, indeed—the ending scene in the '04 North and South! (And a couple notes: while I love both versions of N&S, the following specifically applies to the BBC '04 adaptation with Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. Also, I’m actually lifting this post almost entirely from my review which you can read in full here.)

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And now for our North and South scene in which the themes of the entire wonderful story are captured to brilliant perfection. 

First, the train appears throughout—beginning and ending the film, tying it completely and richly together with its portrayal of continuation and change—and while the ending scene (with its kissing at a public place) may or may not be historically accurate, from a story perspective it’s dazzling. 

In the beginning, while hoping to remain settled, Margaret finds herself uprooted to a new and completely foreign world. And with that catalyst (even as she tries to remain fixed within herself) the ground is pulled from beneath her by the inescapable rushing forward of life. Everything she had deemed simple and immovable—her world, her entire family, even her own mind, opinions, and (at last) emotions—are caught in that great unstoppable impetus. 

From the beginning there’s a ripeness and maturity about her. Yet with that softness there’s also an inflexibility—a resistant immobility—dyed into her very character and desire for a solidity of place, for the clearly delineated safety found in habitual routine and a clearly defined social world. There’s safety in stagnation... while change can involve both danger and heartache. 

But real change generally comes unasked and unlooked for. 

Margaret learns she cannot box herself and she cannot box others in closely defined categories. Yet one of the greatest things I love about the story is that—changing—she doesn’t lose who she is. Lovely and gracious, she’s still Margaret, but—growing in humility—she learns also an active, diligent rest. 

So comes the train station at the end. The station—that stopping place in the forward push of life and progress—that place with the dizzying potential for a full face, 180-degree turn. The stopping place encapsulating those few, tangible, epic—fully historic—moments in life that completely reorient us, changing everything. Yet again. 

And arriving at such a stopping place Margaret reaches forward to the future—finding tried and tested strength to lean on—finding again a field of rich fulfillment and labor.

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As always, entries are open through the end of the month and I can’t wait to see your selections! Remember, you can write as little or as much as you like. And don’t forget to check out and share one of the new buttons!

Naomi @ Wonderland Creek
Inkling Explorations in Gone With the Wind @ a room of one's own
Hamlette @ The Edge of the Precipice
Rose @ An Old Fashioned Girl
Natalie @ Raindrops on Roses & Whiskers on Kittens

*Rules*

1. Post the Inklings button on your sidebar.

2. Do a post on your own blog relating to the month's selection/subject (a literary excerpt as short or as long as you like AND/OR—if specified that month—a screencap from a film with an explanation of how the scene builds/develops the story). Link back here somewhere in your post.

3. Come back here and paste your link in the comments box and I'll add it to the post. Then enjoy visiting and reading everyone else's contributions!

That's all there is to it!

Up next month: A Funny Story Opening in Literature

Inkling Explorations Launch and Celebratory Giveaway!

Inkling Explorations is an exciting link-up for any and all story lovers who love discovering treasures in everything they read—whether it's in an old favorite or something crisply and deliciously new on the shelf.

It's completely optional (you can enter some months and not in others) and it's open to entries from literature and film—and with selections from fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, romance, action, poetry, even sometimes non-fiction! The range is pretty much limitless. (Note: Entries will be moderated, however, and must be clean, edifying, and suitable for all ages.)

*Rules*

1. Post the Inklings button on your sidebar.

2. Do a post on your own blog relating to the month's selection/subject (a literary excerpt as short or as long as you like AND/OR—if specified that month—a screencap from a film with an explanation of how the scene builds/develops the story). Link back here somewhere in your post.

3. Come back here and paste your link in the comments box and I'll add it to the post. Then enjoy visiting and reading everyone else's contributions!

That's all there is to it!

Subject for May

Since we're just getting started here in May, I thought we'd pick something easy. Hence, this month's selection is “violets.” (And for a few whispered hints: L.M. Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, and Laura Ingalls Wilder all share about them. ;))

And some May specific notes: If you absolutely, positively can't think of any violet references, feel free to share something referencing any other type of flower....EXCEPT roses (we're saving those for a later month). This month is also open for film/screen entries. (They just have to be integral to the plot: i.e. Colonel Brandon and Willoughby both bringing Marianne flowers in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.)

My entry for this month comes from Greenwillow by B.J. Chute: 

“He had been kneeling to single out the widest violet-faces, but he turned and stood up. “It's not my wish, Dorrie! Do you think I'd not stay forever if only I could?”

“I know.” She looked down at the roots of the tree he was standing by, moss so thick about them that the twists and gnarls were all cups of green velvet. “Gideon, at the candle-walking on Christmas Eve I used my wish against your call, though I've never told you.” She raised her eyes. “The candle blew out.”

“You should never have wasted your wish, Dorrie. You should have asked something for yourself.”

“I was asking for myself, Gideon,” said Dorrie.

“All the violets he had picked spilled through his fingers, and their bits of sky and their heart-leaves fell and lay at Dorrie's feet. He looked at her with the west wind lifing her unbound hair from her shoulders and April all around her and the earth jubilating, everything new and winter past and no more than a step between where she sat and he stood.”

Lovely, isn't it?

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And you can share your link here!

Hamlette's Soliloquy
The Edge of the Precipice
Raindrops on Roses & Whiskers on Kittens
An Old Fashioned Girl
Meanwhile, in Rivendell...
Violets -- Montgomery sure loved them! -- Wonderland Creek
Sweet with Violets -- Captured by the Word
Inkling Explorations in Gone with the Wind @ a room of one's own

And now for our giveaway! 

As part of our grand, opening celebration, I'm giving away a paperback copy of Greenwillow! (Note: you can participate in the link-up without entering the giveaway, but if you do choose to enter, you have to have done the link-up for your entry to be valid. The happy winner will be drawn on Friday, May 29th.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now let the fun begin! Entries are open through the end of the month and I can't wait to see what you all share!

Up next month: A Gripping Story Opening in Literature

Announcing....a new link-up!

The date of the grand announcement has arrived! Coming the week of May 11th, I'll be starting a monthly link-up here for any and all readers who love delving deep into their favorite works while also sharing and discovering with fellow story lovers. It promises to be an entirely wonderful experience and I hope you'll join us!

More details to follow when the link-up officially starts next month, but meanwhile, tell your friends—and be sure to share the button!

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Heidi Peterson is a lover of wide-spreading land, summer dust, white pounding waterfalls, and mountain tops; also of good dark coffee and rich stories. Most of all she's a lover of the One who is the Word, the Word made flesh. You can visit her additional blog (where she shares more about books, movies, and further marvels of life) at: Along the Brandywine.

Visit and contact at: Sharing the Journey // Along the Brandywine // ladyofanorien(at)gmail(dot)com

Book Review: The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

I am not (by definition) into grammar textbooks. I am tremendously into the careful use of language, and so far The Elements of Style is the one book on the subject that I have recommended on any and all occasions without reservations!

This thin little book belongs in every writer’s arsenal. Easily accessible, pertinent and succinct, it touches on subjects that matter (elementary rules of usage, principles of composition, matters of form, and commonly misused words and expressions). In short, all those small, daily, irritating trip-ups which too often bring our writing to the dust. And it’s all done in roughly 80 small pages!

The ending chapter, An Approach to Style, is worth the price of the entire book and (in my opinion) if thoroughly studied is all you might ever need on the subject. To quote: 

“Write in a way that draws the reader’s attention to the sense and substance of the writing, rather than to the mood and temper of the author. If the writing is solid and good, the mood and temper of the writer will eventually be revealed, and not at the expense of the work. Therefore, the first piece of advice is this: to achieve style, begin by affecting none—that is, place yourself in the background. A careful and honest writer does not need to worry about style. As he becomes proficient in the use of the language, his style will emerge, because he himself will emerge, and when this happens he will find it increasingly easy to break through the barriers that separate him from other minds, other hearts—which is, of course, the purpose of writing, as well as its principal reward. Fortunately, the act of composition, or creation, disciplines the mind; writing is one way to go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supply it, too.”

Most excellent, is it not?

Heidi Peterson is a lover of wide-spreading land, summer dust, white pounding waterfalls, and mountain tops; also of good dark coffee and rich stories. Most of all she's a lover of the One who is the Word, the Word made flesh. You can visit her additional blog (where she shares more about books, movies, and further marvels of life) at: Along the Brandywine.

Visit and contact at: Sharing the Journey // Along the Brandywine // ladyofanorien(at)gmail(dot)com