Literary Trivia
Aga Saga
noun /ˈɑː.gəˌsɑː.gə/
Definition: A literary sub-genre, referring to fictional family sagas set in British middle-class country or village life.
Origin: The name comes from the AGA cooker, a type of oven in country houses in the UK. Novelist, Terence Blacker first used the word to describe Joanna Trollope’s novels.
Popular Aga Saga Authors: Joanna Trollope, Maeve Binchy, Rosamunde Pilcher, Catherine Alliott, Mary Wesley
From Writers Write
Nine Cats Who Live in Libraries
1. The library in Pine River, Minnesota, welcomed Browser in 2002. Browser has his own blog and Facebook page.
2. Piper, a kitten rescued from a drainpipe in 2000, moved into the library at The Arkansas School for the Blind. He was soon joined by Big Footsie in 2001. Current cats at the library include Alex, Shadow, and Bob.
3. Tober lives at the Thorntown Public Library in Thorntown, Indiana. You can follow Tober’s continuing adventure on his blog.
4. Sandy Rankine lives in The Central Library of the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Sandy is an elderly cat who suffers from diabetes, but library patrons and fans do what they can to help with her medical needs.
5. The Mooresville Public Library in Mooresville, Indiana is home to Cauli Le Chat, who is sometimes called Kit Cauliflower due to ear damage from a fight. She does not live at the library full time, but goes home with an employee at night. During the day, she is the library’s “roving reporter,” lending her name to a blog about everything that goes on at the library.
6. Page has lived at The Cazenovia Public Library in Cazenovia, New York since 2009.
7. The Schoharie Free Library in Schoharie, New York has a lovely ginger cat named Andy.
8. Libris lives at the Willet Memorial Library in Macon, Georgia. Libris was a feral feline adopted to replace the longtime library cat Squeakers, who passed on in 2008.
9. Anna Porter Public Library in Gatlinburg, Tennessee has a cat named Porter C. Bibliocat. Porter was named after the library’s founder, and the “C” stands for “Catalog.” He was adopted in 2009.
(Source: mentalfloss.com)
Literary Edinburgh - The Best Things for Bookworms to See
- Literary Tours & Museums
- Best Bookshops
- Writing Cafes
Annie Proulx - Writing Advice
Annie Proulx is most famously known for writing The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain
1 Proceed slowly and take care.
2 To ensure that you proceed slowly, write by hand.
3 Write slowly and by hand only about subjects that interest you.
4 Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading.
5 Rewrite and edit until you achieve the most felicitous phrase / sentence / paragraph / page / story / chapter.
This advice first appeared in The Guardian
“There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.”
Alice Hoffman
