The New year introduces some changes to the Big Red Chair on Mesmered. Rather than limiting it to just indie writers, I have decided to extend it to people I meet in real life and virtually who fascinate me, in the belief that something of their choices and their activities will interest you as well.
The shortstory has now been published by Bo Press in a robust miniature form and I am delighted with what the studio has created. It portrays the essence of Gisborne’s place in the medieval era beautifully and given that my Gisborne has a predilection for illuminated manuscripts, is even more apt. 
I ordered one immediately but really feel I should order another and send it to Richard Armitage via his agent. Has anyone got the agent’s address?
This is the magnificent design of the eldritch robe from the book The Stumpwork Robe.
Pat Sweet has been itching to design the robe ever since she read the book almost two years ago, claiming that as a former costume designer, it fired her imagination. The woman modelling the gown is Ana, who you would know well from reading the book.
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.
What makes people become collectors? Is it something that chimes in the soul? Here in Australia, we have a marvellous TV show called Collectors. It isn’t Antiques Roadshow styled, although antiques feature. Essentially it is about the collections that people make, why they collect them, even where they collect their ephemera. I collect blue and white Cornish Ware because I love the colour and the stripes and it reminds me of everything that Rosamund Pilcher has ever written about. As a child I dabbled in stamps and then model farms made by Britains (which I still have and which Dad built farm fences for. And stables and a tack room and fed shed.). I collected dolls from different countries too and when I travelled to different parts of the world, I bought a gold charm in every city. I also collect old books that appeal: childrens’ books mostly.
(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.
I am quite over the dramas of the moment. I am sick and tired of my heart flipping back and forth like a fish on the hook every time the door opens. I am seeking out Parthenope and Sarina because when we are together the three of us, we have many laughs and besides I want their advice on my gown. My dressmaker has completed it and it is divine. I was a little concerned that the white wouldn’t become me, but as my hair is chestnut coloured and my maid has streaked it with lemon juice to provide highlights, I am confident that this at least, I can pull off. As to the confidence of having de Fleury as my partner and having Blakeney stalking him like a hunter stalks deer . . . well that is a whole other thing.
‘Percy! My maid didn’t announce you!’ My heart crashed. I now knew things about Percy Blakeney and I felt shocked, uncomfortable. Even scared until I recalled the numerous kindnesses from he and Marguarite when I first moved to Veniche.
