I had a whole different blog post swirling in my mind, for today.
But. Then.

Then a friend messaged me on Facebook
with words that I thought completely and utterly wonderful —
surely worthy to share with you all.

That’s a lot of adverbs.
(My MFA professors are rolling their eyes.)

BUT.
This. Is. So. Cool.
(and spot on)

So, thank you, Dick —
And I hope you guys enjoy my friend’s note
and these words of Mark Twain as much as I did…

“Hi there, I have enjoyed reading your blog, *Thup. This morning, I don’t know how I got there, but I found myself reading an iBook I have of Mark Twain excerpts.

I came across this, and I thought, ‘I know somebody who would appreciate this!’ (You). Enjoy!…[Excuse me as I Break the Fourth Wall and say, Yuppers, he was right :)]…

‘A man who is born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of it when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience.

He has no clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has some people in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality.

He knows these people, he knows the selected locality, and he trusts that he can plunge those people into those incidents with interesting results. So he goes to work.

To write a novel? No—that is a thought which comes later; in the beginning he is only proposing to tell a little tale; a very little tale; a six-page tale.

But as it is a tale which he is not acquainted with, and can only find out what it is by listening as it goes along telling itself, it is more than apt to go on and on and on till it spreads itself into a book.

I know about this, because it has happened to me so many times.”

From Quotations from the Project Gutenberg Editions of the Works of Mark Twain. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright. Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=361726363”

So. Cool.
(I love Mark Twain, don’t you?)

Here’s to getting acquainted with your work today.
(Listen.)

* Thup