Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Words: Flies in Amber, Corpses in Ice



People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic.

-Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale


I want my stories to outlive me. It's one of the reasons I will get published, so something remains of me even after I'm gone. People may forget about me, but a hundred years from now I hope someone can pick my book off the shelf and read what I wrote.

What about you? Will your words outlive you?