Anisette Studio

This morning, I woke up at five, my mind spinning with thoughts. I tried to remain in bed because I do not like dropping off during the day. Especially if I am researching a topic or am reading for pleasure. She continues with this: “I didn’t tell him the truth. How could I? I told him a story. No sparkle, no sequins, just a few dull and faded patches, roughly tacked together with the edges frayed. The kind of story that looks like real life. Or what real life to be, which is something rather different. It’s not easy for someone of my talent to produce a story like this. ” Diane Setterfield is an excellent writer to write such intriguing words for her character! It caught my interest for sure! And I think if I got such a letter____.

Good morning, everyone! Coffee at the ready! The sky is blue with puffy clouds, and even if it will only be 60 degrees today, I am happy and can wear a sweater! My daughters’ cats want to be outside cats and are looking to dash out and even turn door handles. Hmmmmm_____. The kids found Stormy this morning in the unfinished ceiling in a soon-to-be bedroom downstairs.

I always like what I find in books, often profound treasures. It’s a book I picked up from the library yesterday. “The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I am reminded of the old books I found as a child in the overhead chamber of my childhood home. It reads in that same way. Just a few pages in, the author is bringing in a letter written to the book’s main character. You learn that this letter is from a well-published author. The following engaged my mind: “My grip is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succor, and what consolation, is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? When lightning strikes shadows on the bedroom wall and the rain taps at the window with its long fingernails? No. When fear and cold make a statue out of you in your bed, don’t expect hard-boned and fleshless truth to come running to your aid. What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie.” What an intriguing bunch of thoughts! She gave an interview and told a fabricated story about the truth of her past to a persistent young journalist to generalize and play down her past. (I am not too far into this book.) Back to thoughts: The Truth is an interesting topic. Of course, it is far better to be truthful than to lie. But sometimes it feels like one has to bend the truth, especially if another person will get hurt, or we don’t tell all, at least when something causes hurt, or will become more than it needs to be. Most people do not wish to hurt others or add to “things”. I don’t. However, I feel strongly about truth and would rather have it than not. In the case of this character, the well-known author, Vida Winter, is her name; it’s something about her past, it seems. It’s about her story. I would rather leave my past behind and live in the present. The things that caused me hurt for so long were things I spent too much time questioning why. Who wants to live forever in the past? So much time is wasted when you do not move forward.

In addition to this I read: “How long did I sit on the stairs after reading the letter? I don’t know. For I was spell bound. There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts, inside you they work their magic. When I at last woke up to myself, I could only guess what had been going on in the darkness of my subconsciousness. What had the letter done to me?”

How gripping is this? To be teased and lulled into staying with such a book. Magic indeed! Such a painting of words! One falls in love with such writing of lines, and there you are forever hooked. There is a sadness when a book ends, and you find the next gladdens you. But when all related books come to an end. You just know you will have to own them or get them later to read again where you will think, “I read this! But I do not remember that part!” And so if it is indeed a treasurable book you read it more than twice to get all the richness there that you might recall it. Something or some things have touched you, the book is a facilitator____ I often think that is so well said! I would love to write like that! I think if you fall in love with books, it’s the power and manipulation of words you fall in love with. I love the ideas which make me think about life. I like that authors dive deep into what is sensed, felt____ eternalized, and yet they can show how things are there on the surface as well as under it. A single word, a though can make you pause and even look it up to check how it is meant. Some words are only useful in certain places or rather at certain times. It is also important to pay attention to grammar because grammar is like road signs. A period is a stop sign, a comma a pause, a semicolon is both a stop and comma where you stop, yield and determine how things are connected. Exclamation points are full speed ahead towards what comes next!

May love and laughter find you! Best wishes! Pejj