When I was thinking of old writers, newly discovered, my thoughts turned to C. S. Lewis, whose book, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," the first of the seven Chronicles of Narnia, was recently made in to a movie, but was 1st published in 1950. (Which just happens to be the year I was born.)
As fellow writers I thought you might enjoy hearing a couple of quotes from C.S. Lewis:
“Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
Although I believe C.S. Lewis was speaking of a very special woman in his life, we as writers risk exposing our heart & soul as we put our deepest feelings into our writing.
Another quote from C.S. Lewis
“We all wish to be judged by our peers, by the men 'after our own heart.' Only they really know our mind and only they judge it by standards we fully acknowledge. Theirs is the praise we really covet and the blame we really dread.”
It was my privilege over the last weekend to present Merit Awards to several well deserving Kansas Authors. As in the quote by C. S. Lewis it was their peers who thought them worthy.