There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

From a letter from John Steinbeck, to his teenage son Thom, on love. Read the full letter here – it’s worth it.

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Mr Pearl, master corsetier has an 18-inch waist and wears a corset 24/7 except to bathe. he’s laced for shows including McQueen, Galliano and Gaultier and has corseted clients like Dita Von Teese, Kylie Minogue, Sophie Dahl and Victoria Beckham. born Mark Pullin in South Africa, he grew up helping his grandmother lacing her corsets and began wearing tightlace corsets at the age of 30. Mr Pearl currently works from a shop behind Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. he eschews all modern technology including email and mobile phones, and can only be reached by leaving a brief, direct message on his land line.

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

A beloved black Labrador cross has gone missing in Nairn in the Scottish Highlands – I’ve put up a page on the site so that people can comment without needing a Facebook account, and can share his picture and info using the row of buttons at the bottom of the post. I’m reposting the info here as well.

The Gurn from Nurn is also on the case.

Ruaridh, an 11-year-old BLACK LAB CROSS, has gone missing from the Boath Park area of Nairn.

He slipped out of his collar after being startled by a firework on Bonfire Night. He’s very friendly and will respond to his name. He will also jump into a car if called.

If you see a black lab wandering without a collar, please please contact owner Aileen on 07813022717, the dog warden on 1667 458542 or the Nairn Police on 01667 452222

Latest Reported Sightings:

12/11/2011: Dog seen in Croy garden

10/11/2011: Dog see lying under a caravan at the Nairn Caravan park yesterday.

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Just got confirmation from Random House that I can give away my brand new, super-special-shiny-awesome paperback of Lauren Kate’s “Passion” in a competition. I’ve never run a competition here before, so that’s going to be exciting! The competition should be up by next week.

On less awesome news, the Wall Street Journal posted a ridiculously biased article saying Young Adult fiction is corrupting children. Janet Reid had a strong response, and I left a comment too: “We all hope the events in stories don’t happen to us, or our kids – but sexual violence, suicide, self-harm, mental illness and other horrors are more common than most people realise. For teens, the knowledge of how to get through it can be vital.” It’s important for teens to know they’re not alone.

Kirsten Hubbard also wrote an honest and scary post about being a midlist author – midlist authors, if you haven’t heard the term before, means you’re not a ‘big name’ and your publisher won’t put as much energy into promoting and hyping your work. After reading, I immediately went and bought her debut, “Like Mandarin”. This girl’s amazing.

Oh, and one last thing – E3 news is slowly tricking my way. Can’t say I’m thrilled about the amount of Kinect games, though Minecraft could be amusing. The new Spyro game is all kinds of disappointing, I miss the classic games.

Also, I broke a washing machine today. This means I’m now obliged to figure out how to fix it. DIY MODE ON. *rolls up sleeves*

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Mad weather in Scotland today – going between rain and high winds (up to 100mph in some places), and a 30-minute power cut hit most of the north of Scotland and caused chaos – leaving shops out of action, taking down mobile phone networks, turning off the traffic lights in Inverness so that cars were stuck and emergency services became trapped.

We were mid-dinner when the power went out, so Dave manually lit the gas hob and dinner continued, leaving us to sit in front of the window wondering when the power would return, and considering eating all the ice cream before it melted.

I wasn’t short of apocalyptic entertainment, though, with paper books galore, a Kindle with a month’s battery life, a DS, sketching pencils and other forms of electrically independent entertainment. I was prepared!

…Apart from the lack of kettle electric, which meant AN APOCALYPSE WITHOUT TEA. The horror of that realisation was fast and painful to behold. Then Dave saved the day by making tea on the hob.

Oh, and I kind of ruined the illusion of a technology-free end of the world by spending an inordinate amount of time on my phone, reading Facebook updates about the power cut.

So, if the end of world comes around again, I’ll have plenty of entertainment options available. Supplies and survival skills? Not so much.

How do you react in a power cut?

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

After 25 years, the BBC has relaunched it’s Domesday project, designed to chronicle the state of different areas of the country at one point in time.

It’s also released some of the information from it’s last Domesday project, and it captures some nice features from Inverness and Nairn circa 1985.

At this point 25 years ago, a large and expensive supermarket was being built in Nairn. It’s a Co-Op now, and it’s about to fall into the shadow of a brand new Sainsburys on the east side of town.  In employment, most of the men were working in the oil and most of the women surveyed were housewives.

In Inverness, Eden Court was young and failing miserably at holding rock concerts. Friar Bridge was just being built, and a sweet old woman was enjoying watching it being built while remembering past plagues of T.B. and cramped houses.

Have a look at the Domesday Project, and drop a comment below if you find something interesting about your home.

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

It’s been widely reported online that British fantasy writer Diana Wynne Jones passed away after a long battle with cancer.

Neil Gaiman paid tribute, and John Scalzi posted a blog which brought back a lot of memories.

I remember picking up “Dogsbody” from the Inverness library many years back, and moving from there through her back catalog. “Dogsbody” is always going to be my favourite, but the Crestomanci series was a close second. I read it in a completely random order, gathering up whatever they had on the shelves that day. I still pick up her books as soon as I see her name on the cover.

She was, and still is, one of the greatest children’s fantasy writers and was a huge inspiration to everyone from JK Rowling to Hayao Miyazaki (who adapted her book “Howl’s Moving Castle” into an anime movie).

I will miss her.

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

Somebody got a tattoo of party cat.

That’s so awesome.

Happy Friday, you lot. Go have a party!

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s 2011!

It’s January!

You are all awesome and I hope this year is fantastic for every one of you. ♥

Originally posted by Emma Maree Urquhart on EmmaMaree.com