The Postman rang twice…
Yesterday, a bleak, grim winter’s day, when the sun forgot its way and the cloud sulked low to the hills, and my husband and I brewed a winter virus, the postman rang twice.
Yesterday, a bleak, grim winter’s day, when the sun forgot its way and the cloud sulked low to the hills, and my husband and I brewed a winter virus, the postman rang twice.
On Friday, Bopress Miniature books asked if I was interested in writing a short-story about Gisborne for the studio to create and bind a special book. I needed no urging because last year the studio did a beautiful version of The Masked Ball around the time that we were actually holding a ‘virtual’ masked ball on the blog.
Cast your eyes on this picture! 
These are the prizes kindly offered by Pat Sweet from bopressminiaturebooks for the most exciting image of The Stumpwork Robe and/or The Last Stitch and it’s owner supplied to the blog. As she’s agreed to mail these delightful collectors’ pieces anywhere in the world, she’ll be the judge. I hope everyone’ll get into the spirit. The sad thing is that there is a whole potential supply of pics from those who bought the novels in standard bookstores and may not even be followers of Mesmered. Ah well…
Once upon a time, in an unfamiliar land called Eirie, a young man decided he must find out how far the land and sea stretched from his very feet. Thus began the life of Gervais the Explorer, later in the annals of Eirish history known as Gervais the Cartographer.
My friend Pat from BoPress http://bopressminiaturebooks.com/blog wrote a really interesting blog recently on her studio and then even more recently, on her tools. She’s a miniature book artist and I was in love with the space and the equipment.
I wondered how my writer’s space and my writer’s tools could ever compete. My spaces, of course, are wonderful. At the shack, the table by the window listening to the waves and in town, the family room and the big navy couch, looking out to the Derwent and over shadowed by a complete wall of all my favourite books.
Tools-wise, it’s a whole other story. I have a little white laptop, an iBook G4, a pile of A4 writing pads, a brown and white container full of pens and pencils,
Pens, especially RED ones . . .
a couple of USB’s, and a thoroughly worn out thesaurus that my husband gave me in 2003 to replace my thirty year old one and which is now falling apart.
A worn out thesaurus
I have a few different dictionaries and some special encyclopaedias. As I’m a fantasy writer, my reference books relate to myth, legend, folktale and imaginary lands.
A small selction of reference books . . .
I have a pile of journals that contain notes and inspiration, because my daughter is a bespoke journal maker and graphic designer and keeps me supplied.
My special journals . . .
I have a wireless printer, in fact wireless everything. And I have a friend called Doctor Google. I do have lots of reference files in the office, filed under the title of the book to which they relate. I was a reference librarian for a short term after I left university many years ago and that part of me says I should cross-reference everything in an effort to keep track. But at the moment I can rely on my memory to tell me where things are stashed.
My other tools are two demanding Jack Russells, a pantry filled with camomile tea, a Spode Blue Room coffee mug and the four CD’s of Cary Lewincamp, whose work I adore and which is a quiet and ambient counterpoint to whatever dramas may be going on in my brain. http://www.cary.com.au/sound-1.htm
And that’s it . . . boring, isn’t it? Compared to an artist’s space and an artist’s tools?
Now if it was embroidery, that would be a whole other story . . . and one that I just might write about one day.
Baby rug embroidered for Marcus, newborn son of English writer Simon James Atkinson Turney.
Just before you read the next chapter of the novella, we need to let you know that whilst almost all images have been re-instated, some have been lost. Including the one that related to the first question of the Scavenger Hunt. We have therefore introduced a new first question and ask that you go back to the list of questions to check that you have answered it. Our apologies, but it was beyond our control. We hope it won’t deter you from entering and completing the hunt. Goodluck!
(Parthenope seated at her workbench, Bacigalupo in an easy chair by the fireplace.)
Bacigalupo: ‘May I speak?’
Parthenope: ‘One moment. Counting.’ (pause)
Bacigalupo: ‘Is this one of the very tiny ones?’
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.
The world of Eirie
Wonderful prizes for the Masked Ball on May 1st . . . each of the competitions on the night will have a beautiful prize: