The Commonplace Book

such as Popular Passages and the ability to link to any public domain page! (this was the original impetus for The Commonplace Book, which I launched in 1994…)

“For more than 35 years my routine varied very little. I would start writing in January and the deadline for the manuscript to get to the publishers was mid May. Proof copies would arrive in three or four weeks and I would have to read them over and over to correct the printing errors. I would then take a summer rest and a holiday. All the time I would keep my eyes and open to think of a new story and to do some early research. Publication was September or October and I would spend a few weeks doing some promotion work in both the UK and the USA and sometimes in Canada or Australia and New Zealand. Then there would be a month or two of serious thought and research ready to begin writing again in January.”

(from THE DICK FRANCIS COMPANION by Jean Swanson and Dean James)

If it worked for Dick Francis, it’s not a bad routine … I’d be hard-pressed to think of an author who had a better run of work.

The Commonplace Book: Occasional notations of beautiful writing noted in passing.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Source: Francis Thompson (1859-1907), from “The Hound of Heaven” via Bruderhof.org