accidental poetry

It’s the easiest way to compose a poem, he tells me.

I don’t believe him, but I nod in what I hope is a thoughtful-looking way as he throws the letters up into the air. I make a silent mental note that he used the word compose and not write.

We both watch as the letters cascade to the ground in random patterns: a W overlapping an R, a zig-zag that could be a Z or a sideways N.

An O joins an M for a momentary meditation before they separate again.

Once the letters settle they’re all nonsense and I can’t find any proper words.

I try to tell him that I’m still not sure I understand how it’s supposed to work but he shushes me, already scribbling in his notebook.

I stare at the pile of letters, searching for words though there aren’t nearly enough vowels.

There’s a B next to an R with a Y that reminds me of a girl I once knew named Briony who laced her shoes backwards with the bows near the toes.

And now I think I get it.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

I am going on holiday, which always sounds more festive than “on vacation” for some reason.

It is mostly a writing holiday. I shall be hiding myself away and working on the new novel. Hopefully getting it something closer to novel-shaped or at least adding more words to my Scrivener file and doing some novel-related research as well.

I will not be checking non-personal email pretty much for the rest of the month. I am going to try to catch up a bit before I leave but I doubt I’ll get to everything. If you’ve written (or plan to write) about something important or time-sensitive please contact Jen Marshall at Random House or Inkwell Management, contact links are in the blog sidebar.

I am mostly going to be avoiding the internet but I will be posting occasional, likely pre-written blogs and flax-golden tales. I will also be limiting the tweeting but I will probably Instagram pretty things because I like Instagram and pretty things.

I haven’t taken a proper leaving home, just-for-myself holiday since… I don’t even know. At least before the book sold.

There are going to be palm trees involved. They will likely be captured via Instagram for posterity.

So, be good while I’m gone. Though keep in mind my definition of “good” is fairly flexible.

(Photo at top of this post was as appropriate a journey-bound pic as I could take still in the confines of my apartment, of a corner of the bulletin board in my office.)

the storied pasts of carousel ponies

Once they were real ponies, because that’s how such stories go.

(Before that they were real boys, of course. Princes and paupers and a solitary thief, each with their own individual pre-pony story.)

It was a curse of some sort, though none of them would tell the same tale now were they able to speak of it. They were frozen mid-gallop and later, much later, there was music and lights and the delighted laughs and squeals of children.

It wasn’t so bad, as curses go.

Quite a few of them found it rather fun, unless the children kicked too hard. And even the grumpiest pony agreed that the feel of wind as they spun was decadent and wild, reminiscent of the real-pony days.

But the spinning and the lights and the music all ceased long ago, replaced by stillness and slowly fading paint.

Sometimes they hum tunes from various past lives softly to themselves as they wait for their next story.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

This is the US paperback cover of The Night Circus.

Trust me when I tell you it’ll be even prettier in person. (On sale July 3rd!)

And now some things in no particular order and in unnumbered list form:

• Have I mentioned that I’ll be at Book Expo America again this year? Because I will be at Book Expo America again this year. It’ll be all full-circle and surreal and I’ll likely look less like a deer in headlights this time. I hope.
• I have blog posts that are not post-shaped yet but I will be posting them in the next while. They involve things like books (not by me) and a follow up to the time and the not having of it post and likely photoblog travelogues but more on that later.
• Speaking of time, I’m doing that thing where I have so many little things to do that they end up piling up to that big thing time consuming size and thus I am again behind on things like emails and laundry and laundry ends up taking priority because it’s still chilly out so I’d like to be able to wear clothes.
• I don’t actually have a fourth thing to add, I just thought this list would look better with four items rather than just three.

visualization tools for dreamtime adventures

I’m not that good at visualizing.

I practiced constantly but I only managed to master everyday objects. Apples, pens, coffee cups. Not particularly inspiring dream fodder.

No matter how I tried I couldn’t capture anything fantastical that didn’t feel fragile and thin and fleeting. But I knew I must be doing something right, what with the crispness of the dream-apples and the perfect level of sweetness in my dream coffee.

So I found more adventurous objects to fill my everydays, though it required creative shopping.

I found the ship in an antique shop.

I studied the masts and the rigging and the curve of the bow, slowly learning every detail.

Now I can sail the seas in my dreams.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

Email is also working (though I’m still way behind on replies) and I may have lost some comments in all the construction, my apologies for that.

I appreciate your patience and in thanks I share a picture of my new elephant:

So in the process of moving the site to a new server something got… grumpy with my wordpress theme and it seems the theme support has vanished from the internet and I have managed to make it functional if less pretty for the moment.

I’ll be spending the evening trying to either make it less grumpy or find a new theme (suggestions welcome – something minimal & customizable) and also eating ice cream.

Also! This means my site-based email is down, rah.