Mary Catherine La Mar
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lamarchinamc.bsky.social
Mary Catherine La Mar
@lamarchinamc.bsky.social
390 followers 420 following 37 posts
Writer & Editor, with a keen interest in classical music & the violin, psychology, & the future of the arts & humanities.
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lamarchinamc.bsky.social
It really is one of the best, juiciest, most voice-driven and character-capturing novel opening paragraphs.

And I'm not saying that just because I'm Mary Catherine, too. ;)
opening paragraph to Shirley Jackson's novel, "We Have Always Lived in the Castle"
April 9, 2025 at 7:56 AM
lamarchinamc.bsky.social
A wee snip from my just-published essay. You can read the whole piece here: www.doesithavepockets.com/cnf/mary-cat...
"You haven't driven twenty miles up the highway and then up the black and desolate country road to Ashcroft at two in the morning to die. You've come here because you can't live your life."
December 6, 2024 at 12:17 AM
lamarchinamc.bsky.social
This NewYorker cartoon cracked me up. It's like when you ask the especially crusty among us, "Hey, how're you doing?"--and they answer, "Oh, you know. Living the dream." And it's always a little funny to me, in a sad-funny / funny-sad kind of way 🙂
Cartoon of raccoons in a dumpster with one saying, "Sure, some days you wish you had more stability. But then the sun hits the trash can just right, and you find a mostly full container of chicken lo main, and you think, Wow. This is living."
November 26, 2024 at 6:43 PM
lamarchinamc.bsky.social
Wow, what a "ka-POW!" opening paragraph! From "Outline" by Rachel Cusk.
"Before the flight I was invited for lunch at a London club with a billionaire I'd been promised had liberal credentials. He talked in his open-necked shirt about the new software he was developing, that could help organizations identify the employees most likely to rob and betray them in the future. We were meant to be discussing a literary magazine he was thinking of starting up: unfortunately I had to leave before we arrived at that subject. He insisted on paying for a taxi to the airport, which was useful since I was late and had a heavy suitcase."
November 18, 2024 at 2:42 AM
lamarchinamc.bsky.social
Three new reads arrived in the mail today....
A photo of my three new readerly delights! "Burnout" by Emily Nagasaki; "The Art of Time in Fiction" by Joan Silver; "The Art of Perspective" by Christopher Castellani
November 15, 2024 at 2:37 AM