A Random Assortment

Chairs in a parking garage

~ From an interview with a writer I love, Jhumpa Lahiri:

Did you identify with any literary characters growing up? Who were your literary heroes?I identified with orphans, like Anne of Green Gables, or pioneers, like the characters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, or children who slipped in and out of different worlds and dimensions, like the siblings in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” And of course there was the writer, Jo, in “Little Women.”

Ah, Anne of Green Gables. But I like most of these other characters, too--especially Jo.  (And, ah! She has a forthcoming novel!)

~ And, while we're on interviews with women writers I love, I give you Marilynne Robinson:

What’s an ideal day for you?Aha! Rare. It’s generally when I have no demands being made of me—of any kind. And then I can sit on my couch and worry over a paragraph until lunch. And then sit back down on the couch and worry about the paragraph until supper. Sometimes I like to work in my very neglected garden. In any case, that’s basically it. I usually have a book or two that I’m reading. I have a book or two that I’m writing. I like to be at home and have on my slovenly clothes.

(I agree.)

~ (First Pennsylvania) criminal charges announced against frackers for a Lycoming County spill.

~ Sadly, behind a paywall: Flannery O'Connor's journal of prayers, in which she struggles with writing and desiring God:

Please let Christian principles permeate my writing and please let there be enough of my writing (published) for Christian principles to permeate. 

Oh Lord, I am saying, at present I am a cheese, make me a mystic, immediately.