Last night I dreamt of dogs — is it any wonder with this sweetheart in our midst?
Also, I had a recurring nightmare: the loss of my front tooth. In this one, I tug out my mouth guard and the crown comes with it, drops to the floor, and skitters across the room. This is the fourth or fifth such dream. And you wonder why I’ve given up corn on the cob?
Responses to my book continue to be causes for joy. Private messages have been uniformly positive. Thank you one and all!
Also (and this I did not expect), there has been a smattering of grief about not having been able to get an agent or a small press interested in my work. I’m assuming this will fade over the next weeks.
The debate and subsequent drilling down on what Jamelle Bouie has called a “blood libel” has been just spectacularly grim. Dangerous. And you wonder, don’t you, how the Orange Menace’s rhetoric can be at once shocking and utterly predictable.
Apparently, he thinks Haitians come from Venezuela? Just a minor point in his stream of invective.
I’m doing another 25 Postcardstovoters.
My brother’s stroke anniversary is next week. Four years. There will not be cake.
C and his girlfriend come for dinner tonight and there will be cookies. And scallops. Shockingly expensive scallops. I shrugged and rationalized: this is our Christmas dinner.
shocking expensive scallops but…the alternative? Eat and be Merry together.
A neighbor and his entire family has invited son and I out for dinner. Now, that’s “something”…..
Why is it something?
I had a dream that your book was discovered on Amazon by a publishing house (sorry I don’t recall if the name – or if there was a name, let’s call it “Random House”).
That tooth, jeez-oh-man!
That dog, those, oh my.
The welcoming of “The Weight of Cloth”, wonderful!! and couldn’t be more joyful.
The sorrow you feel – – – well, you’ve been through an F-ton getting this out to the world. Surely the biggest loss is for those who didn’t see the power of your work when you have them the opportunity. As I read it, one thing that has surfaced to me is that my own vocabulary improves with each page. My admiration deepens for your ability to describe how minds work when we are afraid. I wonder if Publishers are not dumbing-down what they are publishing… and I’ve become normalized to it as a reader, much to my horror.
On a personal note:
I went to see Suleika Jaouad’s exhibition at an ArtsSpace called ArtYard in Frenchtown NJ – Friday. I’m going to blog about it on my blog (not here) and I’ll post it pretty soon.
Today I’m going to Brooklyn to see the one woman art opening of a (deceased) friend’s daughter. The last time I saw her daughter’s work was when she about 8, and it was extraordinary then. I am super excited to see this, and to see her, and I’m going to try to get my tears out before I leave my house so I don’t just sob in front of her, in public!
xoxo
M
Nice dream to share! And thank you for your feedback. If you get stumped for a review, there’s a couple lines in this comment you could use.
You are really good about getting out and seeing art. Enjoy.
I have to admit that it has been hard not to delve into the pages but since this is a birthday gift to myself and my birthday is tomorrow, I am holding on to fully celebrate.
Dee, it would have been easy for you, after trying so hard to find an agent, a publisher, to simply tuck all of the pages into a drawer and close that drawer…you did not do so and because you did not, we are all the richer. It takes talent, commitment, knowledge and a deep caring for your subject matter and characters, to seek ways to bring them to the light of day..you found a way and to me that speaks volumes about your creativity, integrity and courage and rightly so. You have lived with these characters for many years and they deserve to be heard, all the more so, because you, as a white woman, gave them the respect that was their due. So on this weekend of gifts, thank you for not giving up and giving us a lesson in history, a lesson in caring and a lesson in the power of words when penned by a gifted woman..
I’m gonna print this comment out and put it on my fridge when I get home. Thank you so much Marti. It really helps to look at it this way.
Happy Birthday Marti 😘 and thank you again for finding all the right words to let Dee know exactly what so many of us want her to know about how happy we all are to be able to get to read her novel that we have been looking forward to reading.
Oh Hooray (((Dee))) Congratulations on publishing your book! Just ordered my copy, it will be here next week!
Thank you Mo. your encouragement over the years has mean a lot to me. I have at least one thing you wrote printed out and pinned to my bulletin board. When I get home I’ll share.
It is a little after 4:30 am today, Sunday Sept. 15th and today I turn 77. The celebration has already started with a fine cup of Tetley British tea and the first 50 pages of The Weight of Cloth.
I am a lover of words and I have found a treasure trove. Spoiler alert here, I am going to jot down some of the phrases that Dee’s uses that just grabbed me. Think of them not as spoilers but appetizers :
You turn the page and Immediately you get the sense of the research done to provide a setting that sets the stage: the ship voyage, the sea: “foaming crescents dimpled the harbor under a flat, pewter sky…”
As the characters begin to flesh out, I already sense how Eliza will awaken further into who she is but for now, it is the slave women, Melody and Saffron, in particular, that hold me: Dee pulls no punches in what pain they experienced and the descriptions used to convey the inner conversation that roils and streaks across the minds of the subjugated women is powerful and serves to rise them above the label of victim:
“anger clung to my sides like an angry twin…”
“my wrath pounded like surf and if I am to stay alive,I’d have to learn to hide it or dress it up in silk…”
Saffron with her love of words, her delight in the word “bubble”, that she calls a keeper. “Wasn’t that a sound to love? Bubble, bubble.” Another phrase that I loved, Saffron refers to her love or words: “Back home in Yoruba stirring the pot of words came natural and pure.”
Clever and amusing observations as in a description of a white guest: “Voice like honey spiked with cayenne.”
I am a fast reader but this is not a book for fast reading but rather, a book that I feel will ask much of the reader; will ask one to pause, consider and reflect, engaging us in the living history that is presented. Can there be a better purpose for a novel?
Rest assured, all you who comment here, that I will not continue telling about what I am reading, so as not to spoil your experience but I so wanted to put these first impressions here!
Happy happy birthday Marti!!
I’m so glad you’re appreciating the novel. Taking time to jot what stays with you means a lot to me.
Any special food for your birthday?
Yes: I have never been one for birthday cake so my special food was and still is, lemon meringue pie. As a child my Aunt Claudia would always make me this pie; she made chocolate cake for my sister on her birthday… Sometimes my aunt would make meringue, other times she would pile high whipped cream and sprinkle dots of food coloring that dripped down and made a rainbow mess but it was wonderful and so good! Tart and fresh. Now pies are not something I do well at all but thankfully, “Marie Callender” does so lemon meringue pie was enjoyed yesterday and also this morning for breakfast!
Nice!