MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
006 – October 2025
Quotes – Symbolic.
· "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
· "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." — Robert Louis Stevenson
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Titles.
To me the title is critically important. After the cover it is the first thing the potential reader sees and it should make him or her want to pick up the book, or read more.
I particularly like titles that are symbolic, suggest to the reader that they will be rewarded for proceeding. Sources I like are the Old and New Testament, Shakespeare, Omar Khayyam, various poets and songs.
Some of my titles and the origins.
OR LIGHT A PENNY CANDLE FROM A STAR – Galway Bay by Arthur Colahan
NEITHER A BORROWER NOR A LENDER BE – Shakespeare – Hamlet
PAST REGRETS AND FUTURE FEARS – Omar Khayyam
A MEMORY EVER GREEN – Cole Porter – Begin The Beguinne
NOR ALL THY PIETY NOR WIT – Omar Khayyam
THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA – Bible – Revelation
Favourite titles and the origins:
THE GRAPES OF WRATH – The Battle Hymn of the Republic – (in turn Old Testamental)
EAST OF EDEN – Old Testament – Bible – Genesis Chapter 4
OF MICE AND MEN – Robert Burns
THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT – Shakespeare – Richard 111
HOME FROM THE HILL – Robert Louis Stevenson – Requiem – poem
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY – Rudyard Kipling – poem
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Last month Norma and I went up to Salamander Bay (Nelson Bay area north of Newcastle) for just on three weeks. Once again we took a couple of dozen DVDs. We watched 17 which ranged across TOOTSIE, SCHINDLER’S LIST, THE CONSTANT GARDNER, THE SEARCHERS, PRIMAL FEAR and GHOST. Norma read 11 books and I spent many hours on final preparations to publish my novel THE PRICE TO PAY (100,000 words – about 375 pages in print). I have now sent off the order to the cover designers to create the cover and expect to publish it on the 17 Digital Retailers in November. More later.
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Recommended book:
THE PRINCE OF TIDES – Pat Conroy.
Norma and I watched the Nick Nolte, Barbara Streisand movie again on September 24 (5th time for me), so that is a good reason to recommend the book in this Newsletter. My review on Goodreads is below. My admonition: If you haven’t read this you should – great book.
My Review
Author 7 books
I first found THE PRINCE OF TIDES in the late 1980s and immediately was taken with the quality of Conroy’s prose, and, as I moved into the book the depth of the complex, layered and human characters. I have since read it various times and also seen the 1991 Barbara Streisand, Nick Nolte movie four times.
This is a book constructed with care, dedication and a deep, abiding love of the language. It is a book to surrender yourself into and feel completely safe knowing you are guided by one of the finest writing craftsmen of the second half of the 20th Century.
Tom Wingo loses his job as a high school English teacher and football coach in South Carolina. The problems keep mounting when he is advised his twin sister, Savannah has tried yet again to commit suicide and he has to leave his wife and three daughters to go to New York to try to help her. In addition, he finds his wife, Sallie, has been having an affair.
Once in New York he meets Susan Lowenstein, Savannah’s psychiatrist who asks him to work with her providing background on the dysfunctional Wingo family and traumatic events from the children’s formative years in the hope she may be able to steer Savannah back to some degree of normalcy.
With this foundation Conroy provides the reader with a rich feast and some of the very best descriptions I have read of life in the South.
Pat Conroy, now sadly gone, was a consistently excellent writer of quality fiction, but this is my favourite among his novels.
Happy reading, Eric.
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May you enjoy good health, fulfilling days, and, rewarding reading.
Eric