Cathy C. Hall Writes

It’s just a normal morning in Cathy C. Hallville–a cup of tea, answering the emails, quick check of the blog–when hold on a tic.

Something on the blog does not look right. Namely, Cathy C. Hall is missing. Over there, to the right. And so I take a deep breath and think:

Because lately, there have been some awfully strange technical things happening around me which send very dark clouds swirling into my thoughts.

I want to think positive, sunny thoughts, I do. But how to explain these glitches?

Take the Muffin, a blog I contribute to over at WOW-Women-on-writing, which fell off the face of the earth when the server crashed. But I received word that it’s back, so I zipped over to see it and…nope. It doesn’t come up. Unless I click on it from one of my old blog posts. Then it comes up.

And now the disappearance of a widget from the blog. A widget that’s there–but not there.

And so rather than spend hours dealing with the glitch, I think I will spend the day writing and applying this other lovely quote:

(I used Quozio and Proquoter to make these lovely Emily Dickinson quotes. I’m kinda in love with this image-quote-making thing. I’m rather fond of Emily, too.)

Every once in a while, I’ll come across a word or phrase–like Shangri-La–and then I’m off and running.

Which is always fun, but sometimes, as in the case of Lost Horizon, a lost afternoon. So here, a very brief look at the classic novel, Lost Horizon by James Hilton. (Don’t blame me if your interest is piqued and you’re off and running, too):

You might recognize James Hilton as the author of another highly acclaimed novel, Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

Lost Horizon (1933) is famous in the publishing world for being the first book in the Pocket Books line (1939). It was not the first paperback ever published, but it was instrumental in the paperback revolution.

The story was adapted to the screen in 1937 and directed by Frank Capra (of It’s a Wonderful Life fame). The film was both a critical and commercial failure at the time, but is now often considered a timeless classic.

In 1973, the book was adapted as a musical with music by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It wasn’t nominated for any awards, unless you count the Golden Raspberry Award where it was listed as one of the One Hundred Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made. Still, on those rare occasions when I come across Shangri-La, thanks to this incredibly bad movie, I know the reference. And it moved me to read this classic novel (which is quite different from the movie). And I’m probably one of the few people on the planet who actually liked a couple songs in the movie. And so I bring you this one, from Lost Horizons (1973). (You have been warned.)