Blog with the Wind - Day 1 of 5

Hiya readers

Between Snowpocalypse and still having to work it’s been tricky finding time to write on the blog plus the novel.

To help with the novel writing process, author Sol Stein recommends reading an author with respectable style and a similar voice.

I’ve selected “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell.

“Gone with the Wind” is a classic work of literature and one of the first major novels to come from the South. Mitchell also flicked her dainty middle finger to everyone who ever disrespected Georgia's esteemed citizens.

The version I’m reading is prefaced by Pat Conroy, author of “The Prince of Tides”. As Conroy wrote of Mitchell’s famous book:

“The characters are wonderful, the story moves with swiftness and bright, inexorable power. The novel allows you to lose yourself in the glorious pleasure of reading itself, when all five senses ignite in the sheer happiness of narrative.”

That’s the type of novel I’m hoping to achieve.

Mitchell’s story won a Pulitzer Prize in addition to being made into a film that took home numerous awards (those would be great too).

I’d love to create a novel transferred onto the silver screen which can have such a profound effect on its audience as “Gone with the Wind.”

Attempting to read “Gone with the Wind” in its entirety has been challenging because it’s several hundred pages. Plus I’m reading the book on my spiffy new Kindle, which I swear is so much more reader friendly than the iPad. If you don’t have a Kindle, pinch your pennies and buy one. This is the best device of the 21^st century (sorry Apple).

Since most folks don’t have time to read the 1,000 pages of “Gone with the Wind”, I’d like to share some gloriousness of Margaret Mitchell’s epic over the coming week.

Today is the first of five quotes from "Gone with the Wind"

To start our week off right, here’s my favorite quote frrom the book which never made it into the film:

“A lack of the niceties of classical education carried no shame, provided a man was smart in the things that mattered. And raising good cotton, riding well, shooting straight, dancing lightly, squiring the ladies with elegance and carrying one’s liquor like a gentleman were the things that mattered.”

So remember, guys and gals, about the virtues gentlemen of the Old South used to uphold. Hope everyone has a week filled with gentility.