Welcome to Writing in Company. Each week I share some words and a writing prompt, meant to be jumping-off points for you to write about what matters. Use the prompts however you like—to journal, to draft thoughts for your own writing project, as meditation or prayer ideas, or for another creative endeavor. You can always look back through the archive for more ideas. Grab your pen and paper, and let your words loose on the page.
Here’s a list of things I’ve recently been convinced to buy from online advertisements:
A bathing suit that didn’t fit and smelled like chemicals (returned)
An unbelievably good deal on 8 items from “anthropologietops” who took my money, took down their website, and never sent me anything (my credit union bailed me out and I am appropriately ashamed)
Half-price pink Birkenstocks (score)
Tickets to a traveling pop-up Edgar Allan Poe speakeasy (yes, please!)
The Poe show ad appeared on my Facebook feed (which I would quit except for some groups I’m in…ugh) Apparently the algorithm knows me:
Live theatre—check
Reading/Writers/Poetry—check
Something my daughter would come home for and we could convince our partners to dress up for—check
Twelve years ago to the day of our recent Poe event, according to my Facebook photo memories (ugh again, but also thanks for the memories) my daughter was at a middle school theatre competition, performing in a series of Poe short stories. She’d participated in plays and musicals throughout elementary school (and later on in high school too), but this one was different. Like Poe’s work, it was a little weird and edgy, and led to this classic photo of her.
I don’t remember how her group did in the competition, but that’s the gaze of an absolute winner right there, isn’t it? (Peanut butter and hairspray is the answer to the question you are asking yourself….)
That experience started a Poe-mance that has persisted. This past weekend she brought home her copy of The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe, and made her boyfriend read aloud in the car. She arrived wearing one of two Poe-themed t-shirts she owns— one from the Poe’s Tavern on Sullivan’s Island, SC and the other from NeverMore Books in Beaufort, SC. She also reminded me of our early pandemic streaming of the Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party web series, which is basically fan fiction video content for Gen Z English majors. (The Gen X equivalent comes, of course, from The Simpsons.1 )
The event we all attended together was held at a local “castle” built in Poe-era 1823 and restored in the early 1980s. It’s got a drawbridge, a moat, and a 70-foot tower. Lit up with lanterns, torches, and a smoke-machine, it was a perfect setting for the spooky stories shared. The small audience gathered in an array of goth/Victorian/didn’t-read-the-brief attire. (Sadly, no one had hair with peanut butter in it.) Four actors—who also served the drinks—shared a little about Poe’s life and early odd death, and four classic stories with accompanying watered-down cocktails/mocktails. I’m not a big cocktail drinker, but I love a good theme. These story/drink pairings reminded me that a little effort to connect food and entertainment can go a long way.
The Tell-Tale Heart (paired with a drink called the Pale Blue Eye, with a single blueberry floating in it)
The Black Cat (with Edgar’s Twisted Brandy Milk Punch, his favorite apparently, and ours)
The Raven, (with the Nevermore, fruity with charcoal in it?!)
The Masque of Red Death (with the Cocktail of Red Death, red stuff and cloves)
According to our hosts and the internet, Poe was the first prominent American author to support himself through writing, but just barely, and for not nearly long enough. When he published “The Raven” in 1845 he earned $9—or about $367 in today’s money. Poe knew poverty, suffering, anguish, and grief, as well as love and beauty, and all of these make their way into his poems and stories. How will he inspire us in our own writing?
a writing prompt
Choose one of the following Edgar Allan Poe quotes, mined from Goodreads, as a starting place for your own writing. Keep your pen moving, and see what arises from the grave on the page. If you find yourself itching to write fiction or poetry or even a Poe-inspired spooky story, let yourself experiment and play on the page.
"I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty."
“Invisible things are the only realities.”
“We loved with a love that was more than love.”
“I remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind”
“With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.”
“There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told.”
“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?”
“To elevate the soul, poetry is necessary.”
“Even in the grave, all is not lost.”
“Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?”
“Art is to look at not to criticize.”
“The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls...”
“Tell me every terrible thing you ever did, and let me love you anyway.”
“I am a writer. Therefore, I am not sane.”
“If a poem hasn't ripped apart your soul; you haven't experienced poetry.”
“And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, Shall be lifted—Nevermore!”
March Writing Hour - Saturday, March 23 | 4-5 pm Eastern
My next live writing hour on Zoom for paid subscribers is this weekend. If you want to write in company with others, you are welcome to join us. You can upgrade your subscription for a month ($7) just to try it. A separate email to paid subscribers will go out with the link, or you can find it on my Substack tab called Writing Hours. Let’s be brave and write together.
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What fun! I love imagining the Poe event you attended, and these are some good prompts to get me started in my freshly new journal. See you Saturday!
Julie, you've derailed me. Thank you for this Must write on all these. And did you see my post -- The Tell-Tale Takotsubo? 💔 https://elainegantzwright.substack.com/p/the-telltale-takotsubo