The Charmed Circle . . .
The Masked Ball rapidly approaches and I thought that you may like to know a little about the friendship that is the foundation of the ball.
I am mesmered and this is the blog I set up in late November of last year, ostensibly to talk writing, my books and the dream of publication. When The Stumpwork Robe was published in Dec of 2008, I had contacted Bo Press to buy a tiny book called The Silk Road for a friend of mine who had just turned 60. I talked briefly via email to the artist because in a previous life I had created artists’ books including a couple of miniatures of my own. As we communicated initially, I told her that I had just been published in the UK, whereupon she immediately bought my book and reviewed it on Amazon. This was Pat Sweet.
Since then we have communicated constantly via facebook, email, chat-room and blog. She introduced me to another book-artist and former editor, Rebecca Bingham and RB and I hit it off straight up, having long chats on facebook and lots of laughs. We three have also shared the odd crisis and even though we have never met, there is something that binds us together. Another friend called us a charmed circle, just a throw-away line, and the name stuck.
At least two of us are wise . . .
I do believe we are a charmed circle, for to find such a friendship, such a kindred relationship, at this stage in our lives has been a blessing, the kind of thing that does have charm about it.
As my blog developed and as the marketing of my books became more necessary, I chanced upon one of the most innovative bloggers I have ever seen . . . vvb32 blogspot . . . and she unknowingly gave me an idea. The absolute crisis point in the second of the two books is a masked ball and so, as ignorant as I am about such ‘virtual’ things, I decided I would have a masked ball on the blog. I ran ‘virtually’ screaming via email to RB and PS and begged them to help me run the thing and they, bless their charmed hearts, jumped in from the get-go, boots and all. They will be co-administrators for the whole event and then if we survive, we shall retreat back to our individual blogs and the usual routine of our online relationship.
Somehow though, after such a fabulous thing; after writing a novella between the three of us, after I have written a short-story for Pat’s beautiful Masked Ball miniature book.
A minikin story.
and after Rebecca has edited everything and bought her considerable book-binding, artistic, technological knowledge and organisational skill to the event, I doubt things will ever be the same again.
What a thing to remember though . . .
Every now and then, in my previous life in the theater, I would work on a charmed production. The cast and crew formed a tight family and everyone’s creativity and effort was doubled by the magical energy building around our joint effort. I lay awake at night thinking about new costume ideas, put in too much overtime, and made the kind of instant shipboard friendships that evaporate on dry land.
One young actor told me that it was difficult for her to think of continuing in theater, because I had told her that I’d only had three or four such experiences in my career. She thought she’d never again feel such intense flow and didn’t want to look forward to a life of ordinary work.
I told her to keep on, because you never knew when the next one would come along. And they were worth the wait.
It is my dearest wish that this shall never be a shipboard partnership that evaporates on dry land. And how right you are . . . you just never know what’s going to come along!
i’m touched. i’m so thrilled to hear that my blogging has triggered sparks.
i’m looking forward to Pat’s Masked Ball miniature book – love the pics.
I agree with you that the virtual online world can provide unexpected thrilling experiences and you all have created one! I can’t wait for the ball and … this little precious books look incredibly cute! Congrats to you all.