I’m participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, where I post every day in the month of April (except Sundays) and each day is a letter.

My theme for the month is a series of posts about the things that shaped me.

Emily of New Moon

I have already professed my love for L.M. Montgomery once, but she deserves another mention. While I love the Anne books, Emily is a whole ‘nother ball of wax.

I read the Emily books after I finished my Anne series and was determined to read everything Montgomery wrote. Like Anne, Emily Starr is an orphan and a dreamer, living with at least one strong, unbending female type who softens over time. But unlike Anne, Emily is consumed with a passionate desire to be a WRITER. (She’s very fond of italics.)

And it’s that desire that pulls me along her story. I too had that dream (hence this blog), so I see Emily as a kindred spirit. But there’s something magical about these books, at least to me. There are three books in the series — Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily’s Quest. And it’s the third book that gets me; I have to be careful when I reread it, because no matter how many times I read it, I’ve never been able to put it down once I start.

If you like Anne, please meet Emily. She won’t disappoint you.

e.e. cummings

April is National Poetry Month, so I have to mention at least a few poets. And my favorite of all time, is e.e. cummings.

As mentioned in a previous post, I love writers who play with words and language, who turn English inside out. e.e. cummings did that better than anyone in the world.

He turned verbs into nouns, nouns into actions, and words into art. His classics include [anyone lived in a pretty how town] and [All in green went my love riding], which, if you were an English major like me, you may have read before.

Besides those, I have two particular favorites — one is [in Just-], about spring and a questionable balloon man, “when the world is puddle-wonderful”. I took a picture of the poem and included it here, because part of what makes it beautiful is the spacing and line breaks that cummings used, and typing it in a blog just won’t do it justice.

My other favorite is [love is thicker than forget], which doesn’t have the unique visual so here you go:

love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Speaking of visuals — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is absolutely stunning.

Between Charlie Kaufman’s mind-bending script, Michel Gondry’s visual style, and Jim Carrey’s surprisingly dramatic turn, I don’t know what was a bigger surprise at first watch. But I loved every single minute of it. And

For those unfamiliar: the film tells the story of Joel Barish who receives a card informing him that his ex-girlfriend, Clementine, has had her memories of their relationship erased. Joel decides to have the procedure himself and as they are being erased, we experience his memories along with him, both the good and bad.

I don’t have enough superlatives in my vocabulary for this movie. Just watch it.

E.B. White

We had a bookcase filled with kids books when I was little, and I read every single item on its shelves. This included some well-loved hardback copies of E.B. White’s brilliant stories: Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan.

I didn’t just read them once; I’ve been a re-reader my whole life, and these were in frequent rotation. I loved Stuart and Margalo, cried with Wilbur, and enjoyed Louis’s music.

E.B. White certainly contributed to my early reading life. And he contributed in my older writing life as well. Imagine my surprise when I found that the “White” of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, THE manual for every writer everywhere, was the same man who so affected my childhood with his animal tales.

But in hindsight, it made sense. I mean, of course he knows how to write.

Empire Records

My 90s is showing again.

Empire Records is not cinematic brillance (see Eternal Sunshine above), but man is it fun.

The music, the cast, the quotes. Warren the shoplifter. Deb shaving her head. Lucas talking “like the Chinese guy from the Karate Kid.” Mark rocking out with Gwar. Gina singing on the roof. And the ultimate event — Rex Manning Day. All of it adding up to a day in the life of working in a music store. (I did that for a while. It’s almost as fun as it looks.)

Excuse me. Now I have to go watch it for the 9034th time.

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