Camille DeAngelis

Midwest, part 2 - Shine On, Dear

2010-11-25T22:35:00Z

(Continuing from part 1.)

From Madison I took a bus to Minneapolis to visit Jill for a few days. We went to see The 39 Steps at the Guthrie--really good fun!--and we went shopping at a pumpkin patch in the suburbs and carved it to look like this:

(The witch's hat tower.)

(Funny that I said 'I shall never carve a jack-o-lantern ever, ever, ever again' after seeing this--Elliot carved it; brilliant, right?--when I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was a kid.)

I also did a reading and signing at Common Good Books on the 1st of November, which was fantastic--along with Jill and Walt, Maggie's brother Max and his wife Jillian came out, and there were three complete strangers, which up 'til now hasn't ever really happened. And they were the most enthusiastic complete strangers EVER. Lots of questions and discussion and I read two passages, one at the beginning and one at the end. It was really, really fun.

And I got to sign the door behind the desk!

(I'm in Scotland at the moment, having a marvelous time. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!)

the Cotswolds, part 2 - Shine On, Dear

2010-11-19T09:00:00Z

(The Cotswolds, part 1.)

We stayed in Stanton, which just might be the poshest village of the Cotswolds; it's very small, no shops and only the one pub, the Mount Inn (but it does great food, so between the huge delicious breakfasts and pub dinners--and dessert, my god, the dessert! best sticky toffee pudding ever, and elderflower ice cream!!!--we were set).

It's true, the architecture is heart-achingly quaint. Our (utterly, utterly marvelous) B&B was formerly the village post office, and we stayed in what had been the telephone exchange. The place was spotless; there were two spider-webs in the window, but they were so perfectly formed it was if someone had arranged them there.

We arrived later than expected on Saturday, so we had to do the short version of a walk I'd been really excited for (alas, it gets dark around 4:30); but on Sunday morning we decided to stay another night (instead of walking to the larger town of Winchcombe with our bags), so it turned out we were able to do the long version of the Saturday walk on Monday (Stanton-Snowshill; downloadable map and details here). And on Sunday we walked to Winchcombe--eight miles, give or take--and had an old-fashioned high tea (cucumber sandwiches, scones as big as your head and slathered in cream and jam, cupcakes) at The White Hart before getting picked up by a kind-hearted plumber at nightfall for the return trip. (The public transportation, such as it is, is pitiful. According to the bus timetable, there would be a bus. But there was no bus, although one out-of-service bus did drive by, and that's when our plumber called out his window and asked where we were going.)

Anyway, back to Saturday evening. We walked for an hour and a half or so--you have the public right of way through the fields, so we often found ourselves in the company of sheep or horses--and on our return to Stanton we wandered around the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, the oldest parts of which date from 1200.

Graveyard at dusk. Not the most subtle of metaphors.

After visiting the church we went back to the B&B to rest before dinner, and I came upon this passage in the delightful children's fantasy novel I was reading, Alison Uttley's A Traveller in Time:

The church was sweet and clean, for Dame Cicely had it scrubbed each week, and fresh herbs were strewn in the pews. There was a smell of rosemary and balm, and the cool odor of green rushes from the brook-side, which were soft as velvet under my feet as I stood in a familiar pew. There was a heavy tapestry curtain across one end of Mistress Babington's pew, to screen her from the congregation, and cushions and footstools were placed ready for her. In the windows shone the lovely painted glass, and by the font was the ancient clock complaining with the wheezy voice of a old man.

Perfect.

And here are two of the best photos from our Monday walk to Snowshill, another tiny and utterly enchanting place:

You see why we were sorry to go back to London?

(London photos coming too...along with Minneapolis, Maryland, AND my last Peru entry!)

the Cotswolds, part 1 - Shine On, Dear

2010-11-17T14:58:09Z

More soon.

the Paranormal Podcast - Shine On, Dear

2010-11-09T11:00:00Z

The Paranormal Podcast with Jim Harold (along with the Campfire) is one of my very favorites. Jim's guests run the gamut from ghost-hunters and psychics and reincarnation researchers to UFO experts and conspiracy theorists, and the podcast is always well worth a listen even if you're a hard-line skeptic. I think I've mentioned before how much I love Bob Curran's shows in particular (he's written books on zombies, vampires, and fairies in folklore--really fascinating stuff, not to mention incredibly inspiring for me as a fiction writer.) Anyway, I recorded a show with Jim last week and it's up today, so give it a listen!

And in case you've found me through the podcast, I'll post some show notes of my own:

My blog post on Keats' poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci is here.

As for the dancing baby skeletons, you can find Mike McCormack's terrific novel Notes from a Coma on Amazon.com.

The Petty Magic Cafepress shop is here, and here are some modeled shots:

(With my friend Niki.) 'Misbehave, and I'll feed you to the mermaids.'

(My sister Kate and her boyfriend Elliot.) 'I may not be all that picky, but I draw the line at the clap' and 'Lord of the Slippy' (this is a compliment to the wearer; all is revealed in chapter 23!)

The clap, part 2.

My grandparents are wearing 'They don't call it the witching hour for nothing' (er, sorry, you can't actually see it) and 'troublemaker'.

And now I'm off to London on a working holiday! I'll be keeping track of t-shirt contest entries, and will draw a name at random at the end of November. Thanks in advance for your interest, and I hope you enjoy my chat with Jim--and my novel too of course!

Prim Improper: a Q&A with Deirdre Sullivan - Shine On, Dear

2010-11-05T13:00:00Z

'Hypothetical boys are the nicest ones of all.'

Thanks to my time in the writing program at NUI Galway I have a lot of crazy-talented writer friends, one of whom is Galway native Deirdre Sullivan. Dee has written a fantastic novel for young teens called Prim Improper, which was published by Little Island in September.

After losing her mother in a car accident, thirteen-year-old Primrose Leary has to move in with her father, Fintan, who (so it seems to Prim) cares more for his moustache and his money than he does his only child. Prim writes in her journal of grieving for her mother, learning to live with a father with whom she has nothing in common, and navigating all the typical trouble with boys, friends, and schoolwork. She's wicked smart, using witty wordplay (don't you LOVE the title?) and a vocabulary that puts most grown-ups to shame. Her voice feels entirely authentic, with all those things you'd expect a bright young girl to write in her diary--like when she calls a hot chocolate a 'gooey cup of yum' or a classmate she dislikes 'a rancid scab of a boy.'

Prim's mother's death is treated sensitively but not overly sentimentally, and about her relationship with Fintan in particular there are moments of heart-rending insight--even if our young narrator isn't fully aware of it. For instance, on wanting her father to come out and tell her if he's gotten engaged to his girlfriend:

'It would make me feel like I was an important part of his life, as opposed to just this thing he had to feed and clothe because her previous owner had passed away and if he didn't do the right thing people would think badly of him.' (page 196)

Prim Improper is one of those books you feel smarter for having read, and goodness knows a pre-teen girl can never have too many of those on her shelf. The book isn't widely available in the U.S. (though you can order it on Amazon), so I thought I'd give a few autographed copies away so that some American readers can enjoy this marvelous novel. But first, a Q&A with my dear friend the author:

Reading a book when you know the author is a peculiar pleasure for those moments of recognition. The writer puts pieces of herself into her story even when those pieces aren't overtly autobiographical--Prim's fondness for wee furry creatures, for instance, although your pets are guinea pigs and hers is a rat. And like you, she's witty and articulate, a quick and acerbic observer of human nature. Just how much does Primrose Leary resemble your thirteen-year-old self? Did you ever go back and read your old journals?

I felt the same way when I read Petty Magic--it was delightful to see the little pieces of Camille woven into the fabric of the novel!! Primrose is a lot more articulate and confident in her identity that I was when I was thirteen. At the launch, my fifteen year old cousin came up to me and said that I'd really captured the way she had thought when she was thirteen and that of course, two years on, she was a good deal more mature. I smiled and nodded and thought 'oh dear'--because a lot of Prim is the way I actually think now, not so much the content, but the structure of it and the way of expressing it, if that makes any sense. About halfway through the novel, I read back over some of my old diaries from secondary school, to see what I could find. What I found was pretty cringe inducing. At thirteen, I mainly used my diary to vent and obsess over various boy-bands. And write terrible poetry about being misunderstood and not having a boyfriend.

I met you through your boyfriend, Diarmuid, who is a scriptwriter. You two may be writing in very different genres, but I still think it's worth asking if you ever influence one another's work. Do you read each other's early drafts?

This summer was lovely, because we spent it holed up in a bungalow in Cork, writing every day. I'd read mine to him as soon as it's written and ask his advice about what works and what doesn't, but I'm not allowed to read his until he thinks they're ready, which is hardly ever! We both use humor in our writing, but he is far more of a craftsman than I am--he fine-tunes and tweaks his work almost constantly. I bang it out and only start to doctor it when I'm finished the whole thing. Or stuck on a particular bit.

Prim portrays her father, Fintan, as a 'Celtic Tiger' fat cat. Is he based on any real-life fat cat in particular?

No, but my Dad in real life does have a FABULOUS moustache, and he loves the first line of the book because he considers it an homage to his facial hair.

You're a primary school teacher, so of course your students are quite a bit younger than Prim, but I'm sure they inspire you on a regular basis...?

They do indeed. A boy in my T.P. class gave me a gift of a diary that I wrote the first draft of Prim in. I also stole the names Ella and Syzmon from children I taught. Being a teacher is a strange and lovely thing, you are confronted on a daily basis with a plethora of personalities, all with their own strengths and concerns. And you have to teach them how to spell and do sums and co-exist peacefully from 8.50-14.30. It can exhausting but is also very inspiring and rewarding.

Judging from photos of your launch and reading at the Galway City Library, it looks like you were able to connect with a fair number of younger readers. Have you had a chance yet to talk about Prim Improper with girls who've read it?

Yes, but only briefly--the launch was packed with people, so I didn't have time to chat to anyone properly!! The girls in sixth class seemed to like it, which is great because while I was writing it I had a sixth class girl in mind as the reader I was kind of going for. (In the first draft, Prim was in her final year of primary school). I'm dying to have a sit-down chat with some girls who have read it, I'd love to discuss how it tallied with their own experiences of being a teenage (or almost) girl.

Tell me about where and how you write. Do you have any particular rituals (besides, I suspect, copious amounts of tea)?

You're right about the tea. I read a lot when I'm writing--teen fiction and whatever else takes my fancy when I'm typing away and crime fiction when I'm having trouble plotting. Detective stories are normally so tightly structured and have that whole beginning, middle and end thing that I wish I found easier--beginnings and middles are fine for me but endings are tougher. I'm trying to finish another book at the moment and I'm finding it very hard to let go of the characters. Also, I like to read what I've written to Diarmuid at the end of the day--possibly while drinking tea.

You are to spend the rest of your days on an uncharted island in the South Pacific, and can bring only five books. Which ones, and why?

Can I cheat and bring a few Norton Anthologies? I read a LOT, so that would probably be the way I'd go. But in case I'm not allowed--
1. The collected Short Stories of Angela Carter--because The Bloody Chamber is my favourite book ever but it's very small so I'd like all the other ones as well please.
2. The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits by Emma Donoghue because reading it makes me want to make up stories.
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy because Dad bought it for me for my twelfth birthday and it is still languishing in my to-read pile.
4. Either Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winnifred Watson or Miss Buncle's Book by D.E Stevenson. They are both charming and escapist reads--like dipping into a big hug.
5. Another Either/or answer!! Hans Christian Andersen or Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales because they are so beautiful and sad.

I think I'd be happy out with those five.

What's next? Are you working on another novel now?

I am indeed--grappling with the ending at the moment, actually. This time it's about a fifteen year old girl named Ampersand, who is a middle child and isn't very happy about it.

###

Thanks a million, Dee! So like I said, there are three (individually autographed!) copies up for grabs. To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment recommending one of your favorite middle grade/young adult novels, and RTs get an extra entry. Entries accepted until the end of the weekend, and in the meantime you can follow Deirdre on Twitter at @propermiss and check out her blog!

###

Edit, November 7th: Closing the giveaway with five entries. I'm going to pick up two more books while I'm in Ireland next month, so everyone's a winner! Thank you so much for your interest and enthusiasm, Amanda, Cara, Christie, Kate, and Paré!

Strumbox jam! - Shine On, Dear

2010-11-04T21:47:02Z

I finally got around to uploading that other launch party video I mentioned--here Paul and Nick, my dear friends from Harmony Homestead, are treating us to some live music. Paul is playing a strumbox made by our friend Jim (from a cigar box--awesome, right?), and...er...I can't remember which instrument Nick is playing. I can't get a good look at it to jog my memory. Anyway, the jam session made the night all the more special for me, and I hope you enjoy this little snippet.

(The other party video is here--I'm reading from a random page.)

Midwest, part 1 - Shine On, Dear

2010-11-03T14:31:38Z

I never anticipated that the best part of publishing a book wouldn't be the good reviews, readings, or invitations to literary festivals. The best part isn't seeing a gorgeous book with your name on it on the new fiction shelf at Borders (although that's pretty trippy too).

No, the really trippy part is this: making new friends, and eventually counting them among my dearest, all because I wrote a book and somebody decided to publish it.

Me, Maggie, EVA!, and Sarah at The Sow's Ear.

In August 2008 Maggie left a comment telling me how much she enjoyed Mary Modern, and when I visited her blog I found the best review I've ever gotten. Maggie doesn't usually write about books on her blog, but this time she made an exception. She even took the book into the bathroom with her, and there can be no greater compliment than that.

So we emailed back and forth a bit, and then lost touch until last summer. Thanks to Twitter, I reconnected with Maggie and 'met' Sarah, the friend who'd recommended my novel in the first place. I got to meet Maggie and her family back in August when they came to New York on vacation, but this trip to Wisconsin last week was the first time I met Sarah in real life. She is so good at expressing herself online that I kept having to remind myself that we hadn't ever had a conversation in person before. (You know how it is if you've ever met an internet acquaintance in real life--they're never quite how you pictured them, not necessarily looks-wise, but the way they speak and carry themselves and whatnot. Not Sarah!)

I also wondered how or if we ever could have met in a time before the internet. I like to think that if we'd lived on the far end of the twentieth century we would have written each other letters, but obviously it wouldn't have been the same--it would have taken us months to iron out a visit by mail, if we'd ever found the opportunity to meet at all, and our (sometimes rapid-fire) email correspondence is probably equivalent, wordcount-wise, to a pen-pal friendship over the course of ten years. Every time their names pop up in my inbox I feel amazed and grateful all over again.

We knit and talked about books and writing and had a sleepover and watched classic 80s movies (I fell asleep midway through The Neverending Story--haha!--but The Goonies was every bit as awesome as I remembered it), and I loved spending time with Maggie's daughters. We fondled beautiful yarns at The Sow's Ear and had delicious fancy coffees afterwards. (The Sow's Ear is far and away the coolest yarn shop I've ever been to--huge selection of great yarns and really nice staff, like Brooklyn General, but with coffee and treats!)

Locally produced sock yarn from Sun Valley Fibers.

Fromagination. If there is a heaven it will look exactly like this.

And before I left Maggie and I went to Madison to sample the amazing local cheeses at Fromagination (she knows a lot about Wisconsin artisanal cheeses, having recently published an article on the subject) and she took me on a tour of UW Madison. I got to see Sarah and her husband Matt one more time for pizza and hot chocolate before I left; and then the next day I hopped on a bus to Minneapolis to visit Jill, and I also did a really fun reading at Common Good Books. Will blog about that next time.

Adventures in Peru: Machu Picchu - Shine On, Dear

2010-10-26T13:00:00Z

This entry's going to be mostly pictures because really, what more can I say? You expect that Machu Picchu will blow your mind, and it doesn't disappoint.

This wasn't a big drop, but it was just high enough that Kate was nervous and begged Elliot not to goof around, and of course he didn't listen.

The Inca Bridge.

When we sat down to eat lunch I noticed there were gobs of greasy black stuff all over my face, and I had no idea where it had come from. I asked Kate why she hadn't told me sooner that there was dirt on my face, and she said, 'Why would I help you when I can laugh at you?' (And she did.)

We didn't arrive early enough to climb Huayna Picchu, the mountain perched right over the city that you see in all the photographs (sounds like you have to arrive before dawn, because they only let 400 people up per day), so we did Machu Picchu (the mountain the city is named after; 'Machu Picchu' means 'old mountain') instead--it's a lot higher, and took about three and a half hours round trip. I was short of breath and lagging behind the whole way up, but MAN, was the view ever worth it. You can just tell how exhilarated we all felt:

(We were long-arming it because Jill wasn't with us.) In this second shot we were going for a view of the city in the background, but you can only see the tip of Huayna Picchu.

If you're planning a trip to Machu Picchu you should consider hiking Machu Picchu instead of Huayna Picchu, because we didn't see nearly as many people as we would have had we been able to climb the latter, and I can't imagine the view from Huayna Picchu can compare.

After a long and happy day we returned to Aguas Calientes for fruit smoothies, then took the evening train back to Ollantaytambo, followed by an overnight bus to Puno.

Next post: Lake Titicaca.

Cocktails & Calico - Shine On, Dear

2010-10-21T21:15:00Z

(Not in that order, of course.)

A pile of pretty quilting cottons, a toasted coconut martini, and a dude in the background thinking 'what the heck is she doing?'

I am making a quilt for my dear friend Kelly B. to celebrate a milestone event, so over Labor Day weekend we went shopping for fabrics and had dinner and cocktails afterward.

We looked at a bunch of designs, and the zig-zag was her favorite--which pleased me, because after making a zig-zag quilt for Ailbhe and Christian's baby I really wanted to make a larger one. This zig-zag quilt is really inspiring, and I'm going to do the colorful strips on the backing too. Kelly's also won't have those horizontal white panels between zig-zags like the baby quilt does. She picked out bright greens, fuschias, teals and purples, which is going to be a really stunning combination I think.

This is going to sound totally geeky, but I love doing simple math in creative projects--it's really satisfying somehow. Like so: each finished square is 4" (4 7/8" with seam allowance); so for a quilt measuring 88" x 104", there'll be twenty-two columns and twenty-six rows. Twenty-six rows means thirteen zig-zags, so there'll be three zig-zags of three colors and four of the fourth. I need to cut 66 fuschia, 66 green, 66 teal, 88 purple, and 286 white squares...etc., etc.

Eighty-one down, 231 to go...

I may post progress photos over the next several months, but only tiny teaser photos so she'll still be somewhat surprised when the thing is finished!

Adventures in Peru: the Sacred Valley - Shine On, Dear

2010-10-20T12:49:00Z

The Sacred Valley.

On the 23rd we started off with a nice long walk through the ruins at Pisac. A footpath leads you along the hills above the Sacred Valley, past sweeping agricultural steppes and the ruins of houses, temples, and defensive structures.

We were out all morning, but it wasn't very strenuous because the footpath through the ruins is fairly flat, and then there's a rather steep and windy decline back into the town of Pisac (which left me with slightly wobbly knees, but not winded).

We went through this cave passageway towards the beginning of the Pisac walk.

We stopped to clamber up to this watchtower, while Kate took photos from the top of a staircase opposite.

...and to give you a better sense of perspective (Jill's down below).

Towards the end of the Pisac walk.

After Pisac, we made a brief stop at the salt mines at Maras. As Kate says, this has got to be the strangest tourist attraction ever. We sampled the water (yup, salty), took some photos, bought some toasted lima beans to snack on, and went on our merry way.

Then to Ollantaytambo, another important archaeological site. Amazingly massive stonework here too--Edison pointed out the quarry, which is three or so miles away if I remember correctly. You know how some nutty people claim aliens built the pyramids? Doesn't seem so nutty when you check out the size of these stones and how intricately they were fit together. The Incan engineers were good, but how could they have been that good?

Anyway, there was this central stepped space, vaguely resembling an amphitheatre, where the elevated classes would have assembled (highest class on the highest tier, etc.) to hear the king make his speeches; we went up the staircases and walked through the ruins situated higher up.

At the end of the day we found ourselves in town (Ollantaytambo, that is) for a quick dinner before the evening train to Aguas Calientes (the closest town to Machu Picchu). We were chatting with Edison, and he was asking Kate how we were all related. This is how she explained us: pointing to Elliot-- 'mi novio' -- to me -- 'mi hermana' -- to Jill -- 'mi suegra' [mother-in-law] -- and then to Spencer: 'mi nada!' She just couldn't remember the word for brother-in-law, but it came out sounding really mean (although we got a good laugh out of it).

And here is a picture of Elliot mooning a busful of Japanese tourists.

Next post: MACHU PICCHU!

Schloss Wernigerode - Shine On, Dear

2010-10-19T13:30:00Z

Folks seem to enjoy behind-the-scenes book stuff (like my Mary Modern chicken scratchings from 2004...and chicken scratchings, part 2), so I thought I'd post this video I took in September 2008 as part of my Germany research. You will recognize this place from chapter 25...

(My original post on Wernigerode is here.)

Owls! - Shine On, Dear

2010-10-18T12:00:00Z

You know when you really like something, and then it turns out everybody else on the planet likes it too, and so its overwhelming popularity makes you like it less? That's how I felt about Kate Davies' Owls.

(My friend Emily's version, knit in Mirasol Sulka. I took this photo when she visited me in New Jersey last October.)

So I was gonna knit it, and then I wasn't. And then I was again, as soon as I saw this yarn at the Merck Forest stall at the Dorset farmers' market back in June:

It called to me, and said, 'I am to be an Owls jumper.' So I bought seven hanks and that was that. (Seven was two too many, but I didn't want to run out.) I adore this yarn--it's sturdy and smooshy and gloriously wooly, and a terrific value at $8.75 for 250 yards (even if there's a knot here and there; it's handspun). It's not the most flattering color on me, but I do like the gray Owls best.

Pattern: Owls by Kate Davies
Yarn: Merck Forest 100% wool Greenspun
Needles: #9s (#8s for the ribbing)
Raveled: here, with notes.

The pattern calls for chunky weight, but the good thing about five million people knitting it is the wealth of pattern notes you can learn from, and lots of people have knit this in worsted weight. (StinaK's notes were especially helpful.) After the short rows on the back of the neck I had to add two more sets of short rows to the shoulders. (I think those short rows on the back were eliminated in the latest version of the pattern because a lot of knitters didn't think it was necessary, but I was knitting from an earlier version and just decided to go with it.) Anyway, it was nice to pause in my knitting and think, 'isn't it marvelous that I have no qualms about winging it? And it's working! Hooray!'

(Of course, I had to take it off the needles and try it on every so often.)

You see why everyone is knitting this jumper?

1. There are owls.
2. It is the most flattering thing EVER.

Did you know a group of owls is called a parliament?

And the buttons are from my grandparents' candy tin. (I really have to get back to the whole make-do-and-mend thing.)

Little Witch - Shine On, Dear

2010-10-14T12:00:00Z

I was going to save this for the 31st, but it's Kate's birthday today. Happy Birthday, Snookie!

Halloween, 1984. Kate is two weeks old. (Who knows why the long face...maybe I was thinking I'd have to split my candy with her.)

Adventures in Peru: Cusco - Shine On, Dear

2010-10-13T22:50:00Z

There are always local ladies available for a photo op. I guess Kate took this one at a distance so she wouldn't have to pay up.

Once we all met up in Lima it was time for the touristy bit, so we flew to Cusco and met our new guide, Edison, at the airport. We were booked into the loveliest guesthouse: there was a gorgeous courtyard full of flowers (not to mention the swing) and a terrific view of the city from the balcony outside our rooms. We stayed in the old section of the city, all windy cobblestoned streets and quaint churches and whatnot--even the touristy streets weren't as annoying as we were expecting. I wish we could have stayed in Cusco longer than one night.

'It's Jesus on a swing!'

We had coca tea (alleviates symptoms of altitude sickness) at the guesthouse before going on a little walk through town to the Church of Santo Domingo, which was built on the Incan Temple of the Sun ('Coricancha'). Incan stonework juxtaposed with all the usual Catholic art and pomp.

One of my very favorite pictures from this trip.

The afternoon was a whirlwind of four Inca sites--Sacsayhuaman (a fortress with zig-zagging walls made of mind-blowingly huge stones), Q'enko (a religious site where animals were sacrificed to predict the harvest), Pukapukara (mostly a residential complex, if I remember correctly), and Tambomachay (another religious site featuring fountains from cold springs--I didn't appreciate this one as much because it was the end of the day and the site was really crowded).

A couple of shots at Sacsayhuaman (I giggled for ages at this, and then I realized that EVERYONE laughs at it, and felt stupid):

Spencer looking epic. (Not posed.)

On the hill between Sacsayhuaman and Q'enko was a park with a big ol' statue of Jesus, where lots of people were out flying kites. (It was a Sunday afternoon. How do I remember this? I was sad because I couldn't visit the yarn store Mary Jane had suggested!)

Q'enko. There's a slab in this cave where bodies would have been laid out.

Pukapukara. Glorious panoramic view from the top.

I forgot to mention a funny story from way back at Sechin. Kate had gotten one of those nifty platypus water bags that go in a backpack and have a long straw with a thingy you gently bite down on to release the water, and when she laid it on the floor outside the restroom at the museum a hairless dog came up and licked it. She could have tried to disinfect it, but decided to ask Elliot to bring her a new mouthpiece. We told Spencer what happened ('The hairless dog was sucking my nip!'), and he goes, 'I got my rabies shot, girl! I'm bulletproof!' (Which is something you should not say unless you are trying to jinx yourself.)

Next post: Pisac, the Salt Mines, and Ollantaytambo.

Page 134 - Shine On, Dear

2010-10-12T13:49:00Z

Here's one of the videos I mentioned yesterday. Towards the end of the party I thanked everyone for coming and made a toast to my grandparents, and Paul asked if I could do a short reading. I said it had to be rated G (because my grandparents and two three-year-olds were in attendance), which is a bit tricky because the book is, y'know, kind of bawdy in a lot of places, and Kelly suggested a passage from the holiday covention chapter. I was fumbling around trying to find the right part when John said 'Read a random page! Page 134!' So that's what I did, and Kate (wonderful little sis that she is) filmed me on Elliot's iPhone. I'm reading WAY too fast--really have to work on that.

This passage takes place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Eve (who is 149 but has made herself a girl again) and her much-MUCH-younger boyfriend, Justin, are being followed (and messed with) by Eve's (also elderly) sister Morven and her friend Elsie. The video starts mid-passage, so here's the beginning:

We pause for a spell in the Greek Sculpture Court, the benches around the marble monuments crowded with harried young parents and old folks watching the world go by. A man in a tweed jacket sketches a family grave stele, and passersby gaze over his shoulder with murmurs of admiration.

Justin gasps. "It's those little old ladies again!" I glance round and he says, "Over there. No, don't look. You'll encourage them."

I can't help laughing out loud. Morven's gaze snaps to me in an instant, and she grins like the Cheshire cat.

Meanwhile Elsie is gazing up at a statue of Apollo. "What's this, then?" she says loudly, jabbing a gnarled finger at a strategically placed fig leaf...