Guest Post and Giveaway: On Quotes and Inspiration by Kathryn Fitzmaurice, Author of The Year the Swallows Came Early
Earlier this year I read Kathryn’s debut middle grade fiction book The Year the Swallows Came Early and I raved about it. I was also fortunate to not only interview Kathryn but to also meet her at the LA Times Festival of Books. She was absolutely lovely and I’m thrilled that we were able to chat. I wanted to share this book with you again and so not only has Kathryn donated a signed copy of the The Year the Swallows Came Early to be given away (details below) but has also written a guest post which is short and sweet and absolutely wonderful. Please welcome Kathryn . . .
People are sometimes surprised when they come to my house. I’ve got two boys, a husband, and a very charming dog, and there are pictures of them around if you look hard enough to find them. But mostly, the frames in my house contain quotes from my favorite books, parts of poems I’ve fallen in love with, and even single words that seem essential. I hang them on walls or stack them two or three deep against things. I move them from room to room, wall to wall. Every so often, when I come across a new line or paragraph in a book I’m reading, or a poem that touches me, I’ll type it up on my computer and insert it into a new frame. I usually keep it on my desk at first, and then as time goes by, and I’ve read it enough that I can let it go; I’ll find a place for it. I’ve been doing this for over twenty years now, way before I ever started my serious writing.
Inside those frames are the words and phrases that inspire me every day, the things I was trying to write but someone else beat me to it.
Thank you Kathryn! Here is your opportunity to read more of Kathryn’s work by entering to win a signed copy of The Year the Swallows Came Early. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post and share one of your favorite quotes. Something, like Kathryn, you wish you had written. Giveaway is open internationally and will close on August 17th. Good luck!
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The poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley. Wow, it’s amazing.
on August 10th, 2009 at 9:18 amIt is great to see Kathryn’s love for words. I have words around my home too and hope to put more in the reading room soon. I love author quotes and just overall great words…
Thanks for introducing her to me.
on August 10th, 2009 at 9:20 amThe Year the Swallows Came Early. Just the name of the book has me excited! The book sounds wonderful. Please enter my name in your draw. Thanks!!
on August 10th, 2009 at 10:17 amwandanamgreb (at) gmail (dot) com
Please add my name to the drawing. I love your idea of framing words and quotes. I think I could use a few of those in my library, even though there’s not a lot of bare wall spaces.
Here’s one quote I like:
“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.” –Jane Eyre
booklogged AT gmail DOT com
on August 10th, 2009 at 11:36 amWhat a very cool idea. When I was young I kept a notebook of saying and phrases and quotations.
This isn’t necessarily my favorite, but it for some reason comes to mind. I can’t guarantee it’s exact accuracy:
“Let’s treat men and women well; treat them as if they were real. Perhaps they are,” –Emerson.
BFish (dot) Reads (at) gmail
on August 10th, 2009 at 11:58 amThere are so manu quotes that come to mind. And poetry invigorates my soul. Here’s the famous last lines of Frosts’s Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening:
“The woods are lovely dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.”
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
on August 10th, 2009 at 12:19 pmThis is such a beautiful idea. I’ve always kept books (and now, the e-version, a running list on my computer) of quotes I love. Thank you for sharing this with us!
on August 10th, 2009 at 12:26 pmWell, I suppose I wish I would have coined this phrase which I heard in the old movie Buckaroo Banzai
‘Wherever you go, there you are ‘
However it might even be attributed to Confucius (according to internet googling)
Thanks for including me in your giveaway!
on August 10th, 2009 at 1:53 pmShawna Lewis
weloveourdogs@juno.com
Thanks for this chance to win this book!!!
I love this one
on August 10th, 2009 at 2:35 pm“If you see someone without a smile give them yours”
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi
I love words and how they fit together to make beautiful sentences…this is one beautiful sentence!
on August 10th, 2009 at 5:11 pmThanks for the giveaway. I’ve heard great reviews about this book.
I like this quote from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Some wise words from Dumbledore, “It is our choices, Harry, that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
That’s the only one that is forefront in my mind at the moment.
on August 10th, 2009 at 5:26 pmOne of my favorite quotes is from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: “When you are imagining you might as well imagine something worthwhile.”
This book has been on my to-read list for a while. Thanks for the chance to win!
Megan
on August 10th, 2009 at 7:26 pmHow lovely to read her post; I have quotes all over my office and my home…..here is a favorite:
I am only one, still I am one. I cannot do everything, still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
Helen Keller (1880 – 1968)
As the parent of an adult child who is a disabled individual, this quote since his birth has inspired me!
on August 10th, 2009 at 7:47 pmOh, that last line is beautiful. I feel just that way sometimes.
If I could have come up with a phrase, it would be this:
“I wish you all the joy that you can wish.”
Some famous playwrite *cough*Shakespeare*cough* beat me to this one!
on August 10th, 2009 at 9:45 pmOh, what a beautiful idea. Thinking about it just now, I’d really love the Serenity Prayer on my walls somewhere.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
I wish I was a collector of quotes, but I am not. Maybe I’ll become one! Interesting post.
on August 11th, 2009 at 2:28 am“A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.” Imaginary Homelands – Salman Rushdie
Thanks for hosting this contest Natasha! Wonderful idea…
I’d really LOVE to read this one1
xoxo Amy (Park-Avenue Princess)
on August 11th, 2009 at 3:02 amIAmHiMaintenance at aol dot com
Thanks for sharing your favorite quotes. Each one is inspiring. As I read through them, I had to sit and think a minute until I knew which room of my house I’d put it in. The ones from Helen Keller and Salman Rushdle go in the office for sure. I’d put Shakespearea’s in the powder room on the side of the sink, and a few of the others in my boy’s bedrooms.
on August 11th, 2009 at 7:51 amThank you! They’re lovely!
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr Suess
This sticks in my head!
Love the title of this book. Thanks for introducing us to it.
on August 11th, 2009 at 8:16 amKathryn is such a wonderful lady!! And what a neat idea for inspiration.
Let’s see my current favorite quote if from a poem by Sarah Morgan Bryant Piatt – The Witch in the Glass.
“My Mother says I must not pass
on August 11th, 2009 at 10:21 amToo near that glass;
She is afraid I’ll see
A little witch who looks like me”
Sounds like a great book–thanks for having the giveaway!
Didn’t Hamlet say “Words, words, words”.
You can always count on Shakespeare.
on August 11th, 2009 at 1:50 pmThis sounds great. Thanks for the entry!
My quote:
“He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad and that was all his patrimony.”
-Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini
gaby317nyc at gmail dot com
on August 15th, 2009 at 7:51 pm“Lord, I know you give a great number of things to be grateful for, this day isn’t one of them.” from Who Invited the Dead Man by Patricia Sprinkle
on August 16th, 2009 at 11:11 amI would love to read this book and pass it on to my granddaughters!
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.
Charles M. Schulz
mittens0831 AT aol DOT com
on August 16th, 2009 at 11:22 am“May you always have sand in your shoes, and a
on August 16th, 2009 at 3:05 pmseashell in your pocket…..Thanks, Cindi
“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
on August 17th, 2009 at 9:41 amQuote: “If your teacher has to die, August isn’t a bad time of year for it”.-Richard Peck from the book The Teacher’s Funeral.
I would love a signed copy of the book! Sounds interesting! I’ve shared your blog with some of my library/teacher friends! I was sad that it was down last week (I thought it might not exist anymore), but happy to see it up and running again!
on August 19th, 2009 at 7:32 pmWhat a wonderful giveaway! I keep a journal of quotes that inspire and touch me. I have done it since I was young. One of my favorites is:
“There is a story of a Navajo Grandfather who once told his grandson, “Two wolves live inside me. One is the bad wolf, full of greed and laziness, full of anger and of jealousy and regret. The other is the good wolf, full of joy and compassion and willingness and a great love for the world. All the time these two wolves are fighting inside me.” “But Grandfather,” the boy said. “which wolf will win?” The Grandfather answered, “The one I feed.”
on August 21st, 2009 at 5:58 pm-Elizabeth Berg “The Year of Pleasures”
Therefore a caring and loving family is at the heart of who we will become. ,
on October 22nd, 2009 at 7:43 am