Do you have a favorite Christmas story? Burnside published one of the most beautiful stories of sacrifices — and irony — I’ve ever read. The O. Henry story, “The Gift of the Magi,” is published with a short introduction by me.
Tag Archives: O. Henry
Yiasou!
Stephanie Nikolopoulos is a writer, editor, writing teacher, and speaker based in New York City.
She is the author with Paul Maher Jr. of "Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road.'"
She's also currently working on a memoir about growing up Greek American.
You can email her at stephanie_701 {@} yahoo.com
The best writers are avid readers. Reading isn't just about subject matter. It's about style. It's about admiring and learning from the craftsmanship of a beautifully constructed sentence, a well-chosen narrator, or a circling back in the story structure. You can read a thousand love stories, and each is unique. Each meet cute. Each devastating heartbreak. Each sacrifice. :::
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#lisasee #writersarereaders #readtowrite #howtobeawriter #howtobeabetterwriter #storytelling #growinyourcraft #amreading #storystructure #booksbooksbooks #toomanybookstoolittletime
In "Quotes for Mindfulness," edited by Carol Kelly-Gangi, I came upon this tantalizing bit of wisdom from Martha Graham: "The body is a sacred garment. It's your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor." In many cultures, religions, myths, and stories, hair is treated as almost sacred and mysterious and powerful: Delilah cutting Samson's hair; the woman who in all four gospels anoints Jesus's feet with an outrageously expensive perfume and then dries them with her hair; Orthodox Jewish women wearing wigs so only their husbands see their natural beauty; Muslim women wearing the hijab, a veil worn in the public sphere for modesty; the German fairytale of Rapunzel letting down her golden hair from the tower for the prince to use as rope. With this in mind, I'm luxuriating in a bit of self-care this Sunday. Greek women have the most beautiful, thick hair. I am a halfling, though, and did not inherit that coveted gene. I have thin Swedish hair that's been ravished by years of harsh dyes. After a lot of research online I discovered Olaplex #4, which is specially designed for hair like mine. A woman in my writing group had given me a gift certificate to Sephora so I used it to purchase the shampoo, and they gave me a sample of Briogeo's Don't Despair Repair deep conditioning mask, which lo and behold had been my runner-up product when I was deciding how to invest my gift card. I've been using the Olaplex for about four months, and while my hair still isn't silky smooth like when I was a little girl, it's definitely been restorative enough to make my hair more touchable. Today I decided to finally treat myself to testing out the Briogeo; my first impression is that the conditioner that comes with hair dyes is still my #1, but we'll see how my hair is after drying. I finished up with the Hask Biotin Boost 5-in-1 Leave-in Spray for thickening and detangling, which I bought at CVS a while ago and smells incredible. :::
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@olaplex @briogeo @haskhair @sephora
#quotesformindfulness #mindfulnessquotes #hairmyth #carolkellygangi #marthagraham #sacredbody #sacredhair #greekhair
I am living my dream life. I am a published author. I live in New York City. I earn a living as a writer and editor. I have traveled extensively and made it to my #1 bucket list place. I feel surrounded by the most incredible family and friends. I am blessed beyond measure. I had a lot of privilege that helped me get to where I am today. There's no denying that. Still, it took sacrifice, heartbreak, rejection, and overcoming personal trials that I don't write about and share. I continually chose positivity and optimism and put one foot in front of the other, and that takes work, physically, emotionally, spiritually. We're all a mixed bag of dreams achieved and dreams buried, of privilege and trials. We must celebrate our wins to get us through our losses and to give us encouragement to try again. My cup runs over with gratitude for my life because even my setbacks made me who I am today and gave me a story for my life. And yet... I am living my dream life, and yet I still have more dreams. I want to write another book but struggle with finding time. I love my apartment but would prefer something larger than a closet. I wish I had more time and money to see family and friends, as years go by sometimes between visits with even my immediate family. I live in the tension between profound gratitude and deep desire. What's something you're proud of accomplishing, and something you are working to still achieve? :::
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#dreamlife #marykarr #dreambig #dontsettle #mycuprunnethover #gratitudeanddesire #gratitudepractice
When your ice cream has ears! 😋 Happy start to Memorial Day Weekend!! I'm pumped for a weekend bursting with creativity. I spent last night flipping through Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" for some inspiration. I want to absorb the genius of others by reading and exploring visual arts, and I want to do a few artistic exercises to reintroduce art as play as I've spent years doing art as career -- a huge privilege that I am honored I get to have but also at times a creativity killer as it's so hard to turn off my editor brain and just create for pure pleasure. I even am doing a bit of meal planning to maybe make some healthy Buddha bowls and spa water -- I maaaay have been inspired by all the cucumber water in "Better Call Saul." Does anyone have any tips for creative play, things like non-cheesy writing or art prompts? Right now I'm thinking of doing something like Burroughs' and Gysin's cut-ups. :::
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@juliacameronlive @williams._burroughs @bettercallsaulamc
#juliacameron #juliacamerontheartistsway #artistsway #williamsburroughs #briongysin #cutups #cutupmethod #cutuppoetry #creativeplayideas #writingprompts #writingandart #artandliterature #nerdlife #writerandeditor #lifeofaneditor #editorbrain #creativeretreat #creativeweekend #bettercallsaul #brainfuel #foodforcreativity #cutuptechnique #beatgeneration #creativitykiller #embraceplay #bechildlike #jumpstartcreativity #howtobecreative
What books have brought you back to life? Have inspired you to live more fully? A few that have done that for me are:::
📚 Frank Asch's "Bread and Honey." -- My entire literary self-worth is wrapped up in this book.
📚 E. B. White's "Charlotte's Web." -- I already loved books as a child, but this is the book that made me fall in love with Literature with a capital L. This is when I began writing in earnest.
📚 Wilma Yeo's "Gypsy Summer. -- I was captivated by this novel as a child. My mother had told me I had gypsy blood, which I later came to understand was Sami ancestry.
📚 Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock." -- This satirical poem taught me how scandalously witty writers of the past were. Read classics! 📚 Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." -- Hysterical word play in this play had me recreating the Question Game with friends. It also taught me authors can riff on characters in other authors' books.
📚 Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." -- I didn't understand that the Beats were that big of a deal when I first encountered them so I didn't really come to this book with the same cultural baggage as readers today often do. I just loved loved the descriptions of the graph dusk over tangerine fields, so with biographer Paul Maher Jr., I cowrote "Burning Furiously Beautiful" to dispel the myths and focus on Kerouac's literary merits. 📚 Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz." -- I became part of the Burnside Writers Collective from reading this, and that gave me the literary community I'd always dreamed of. The website has been defunct for years, but I consider the writers friends, confidants. 📚 Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor's "Traveling with Pomegranates." -- I felt seen reading this dual memoir.
📚 Laura Vanderkam's "168 Hours." -- I got to hear the author speak at a Mediabistro event, and her book empowered me to take ownership of my time.
📚 Julie Otsuka's "The Buddha in the Attic." -- The "we" narrator revived my intrigue in authorial choices and creativity.
📚 Angela Duckworth's "Grit." -- This book taught me that perseverance is even more important than mere talent.
I stayed up late reading last night. It was delicious. I have a terrible habit of buying too many books, and when I worked in book publishing I had access to shelves just full of free books. I hoarded them, piling them on top of my bookshelf when it overflowed and stacking them in kitchen cupboards like ingredients to a savory life. The problem was I had more books than I could feasibly get through. Now, amidst the library and bookstore closures, I am making my way through the books on my shelves and reveling in it. What have you been reading during the pandemic? 📚
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#pandemicreading #moretimeforreading #bookhoarder #toomanybookstoolittletime #bookworm #bookseverywhere #readinglifestyle #ireadpastmybedtime #freebookshelf #bookpublishing #lifeofaneditor #alwaysreading #badhabits #readinghabit #readingislife #writerswhoread #readingandwriting #travelingthroughreading
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