A Personal Hiatus & Some Pre-programmed Posts (but perhaps pictures soon too….)

A June wedding means a June honeymoon, and both of them require a June hiatus on the blogging front. The last time I took a trip — to California with my dad in March — I posted a daily excerpt from some famous work by one or another of that state’s writers. In keeping with that tradition, I’ve been browsing first lines from the novels, short stories, plays and poems of some of my favorite Irish authors, and have selected a baker’s dozen which will make up my daily posts for the next week and a half. (No worries that I’ll be spending the honeymoon at the computer, I should stress! I’m doing this all in advance and scheduling it accordingly — though we’re also likely to log-on and post a few pictures from some random pub or castle or amidst some gathering of sheep, I’m sure.)

One trick this time, just for fun: I’m not going to tell where each day’s opening lines are taken from. A little game of spot the quote? Sure — let’s see who can recognize it first. And if any one of these does catch your eye and you don’t know where it’s from, I’ll leave it to you to track it down and read the full work (or as a last resort, just email me at etaylori@gmu.edu and I’ll give you a peek at the cheat sheet).

Let’s start with an easy one — well-suited to all the busyness of this last day before our wedding:

Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat than the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the bare hallway to let in another guest. It was well for her she had not to attend to the ladies also….

Tune in tomorrow and over the next two weeks for more!