I was laying in bed. My body was tired of being tired and my mind was buzzing. I began to examine the room around me, seeing perhaps for the first time the mountains of laundry and bedside table littered with half-drunk glasses of water, old receipts, and tubes of barely used ChapStick. Next to the bed was a pile of books intended to be read. My eyes inched along, spine by spine, over the titles and decidedly landed upon a book by a former regular of mine from the restaurant. I think it's fair to say that I saw Libba Bray, (with the exception of book tours, holidays, and my various relocations on my part) nearly every business day (and sometimes weekends too) for years. I had promised to read A Great and Terrible Beauty, but loads of laundry and household chores had always won out. Not today. I was in need of an escape from my fog.
Leaving my fog behind, I found myself in the fog-laden grounds of Spence (an all-girls bordering school) in the Victorian world of Gemma Doyle. Libba Bray has cleverly crafted the entertaining musings and trials of Gemma, dealing with an inheritance of much mystery and magic after tragedy strikes home. A Great and Terrible Beauty is utterly compelling and captivating, vacillating between the struggles of young womanhood in a constricting society, the harsh cliques of nobility and money, and a mysterious legacy revealing itself through strange visions, dreams, and otherworldly apparitions.
I definitely recommend this book! While you're at it, check out Libba's blog by CLICKING HERE. She's utterly hilarious and very witty.
2 comments:
Oh you're new photo is enchanting! Lovely!
I will be staying at a hotel out by the airport, I think it's a Hilton. I fly in on Thursday and have that evening free. Then Friday I have a class and a book signing and the Swarovski event, a lazy morning Saturday and I fly home. In and out as they say! I hope we can see one another! Email me!
Thank you for your kind words. You know, it's just life. I'm just contemplating it, I'm not really sad about the ebb and the flo. It is what it is and the more we can see with clarity, the less the tides erode us.
Love and light,
Madge
Hey Margot Potter!
Thanks! Cynthia took the photo of me while we were in Hawaii. I am several shades lighter now.
I do hope that we get to see each other in Tucson. We are throwing a party there, but I'm not sure what day it is yet. We're staying with the delightful Kate McKinnon and we're each in our own minds brewing up and planning a party. I would love to enlist some local talent as in previous years, maybe even talk Bronwyn into preforming, but I'm not sure if it's in the budget this year.
It would be most excellent if we got to bust a move together at the Swarovski event. I will see if I can get in or not. I really enjoy going and I hope that I can go again this year. I love the little shin-dig they throw. Though hopefully it's not out on a veranda again. TOO COLD! Though I don't think the Y is equipped with one... so... we'll see.
Well, I think it's shame when people take advantage of each other. I get slightly annoyed when people think of each other more like rungs on a ladder and less like people. I would rather someone think of me as a friend than a business opportunity.
You know, I think I'm okay with being eroded away and forgotten, swallowed up by time and lost to the currents. There were greater people and gods of many who are now forgotten, their names lost and all memory of them vanished. One day this will happen to me. I will retreat into the mist, my name a cluster of symbols that no longer have meaning.
But until that time, I would like to continue to do what I do and do it with the people that I love, admire, and respect. I want to be like the pebble, creating ripples of creativity and inspiration. Once I've sent out my ripples, I will be happy to tumble along with other forgotten pebbles, eroding away... swirling up in watery clouds to settle peacefully or be scattered by the tide.
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