I’m delighted to share an interview with Rev. Carol Saunders of The Spiritual Forum, where we talked about my book, When Fragments Make a Whole, and my spiritual and healing journey. I want to give Rev. Carol a big thank-you for her thoughtful way of reading, listening, and responding.– it put me wonderfully at ease and helped me to articulate things in new ways. Being interviewed doesn’t seem quite so intimidating now!
Click on the image below for the video link. If you prefer audio, look for The Spiritual Forum in your favorite podcast app, or click here for the episode.
What I read this month
- Maria by Michelle Moran
- Crooked Heart and V for Victory by Lissa Evans
- Spiritual Direction 101 by Teresa Blythe
- A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones – Reread for March Magics
- Their Finest by Lissa Evans
- Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Dangereusement Douce by Antoine Laurain
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen – Reread
- Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery
A book I recommend
I’m trying to read more from my own shelves, including virtual ones, and Kalpa Imperial is an ebook I picked up in a Small Beer Press bundle sale some years ago. Ursula K. Le Guin translated it from the Spanish of Angelica Gorodischer – and reading Le Guin is one of my goals this year too, so it seemed a logical choice.
Once I’d finally jumped in, I was quickly absorbed in a collection of loosely linked tales of an “empire that never was.” Not fantasy in the sense of including magical powers or supernatural elements, the book nevertheless has a distinct fairy-tale feel. It’s told in a dreamy, hypnotic prose that has a harsh, brutal undercurrent (as many fairy tales do). The plot, such as it is, mainly concerns the rise and fall of imperial rulers and dynasties, good and bad, under whom people suffer and cope and occasionally attempt revolution.
In other words, it’s a world not unlike ours – but given the distance of a mythic consciousness, which can help us in our struggles with reality. To me that is a major purpose of fantasy fiction, and the reason it was my first love as a reader. I can see why Gorodischer is considered a fantasy master.
The writing is simply gorgeous. Here are some of the quotes I highlighted:
” ‘So, why are there so many sick people?’ ‘Because it’s easier to get sick than to look for one’s right place in the world.’ “
“Human beings are incapable of being still and letting things happen without interference.”
“They were not men; nor were they wolves, nor hyenas, nor vultures, nor eagles. They were blind organisms, mindless, nerveless, without feeling or thought, with only the power to wound, and blood to shed.”
” ‘But all has not been said,’ she said, ‘for words are the shadow and the light of things and things are only what is being born and being.’ “
If I”d read this a bit earlier, I could have linked up to Indie Publishers Month – I’m half a year ahead for Women in Translation – but if you’re interested in either of those themes, this would be a splendid choice. And if you’ve read it, I’d love to know what you think.
Currently reading
With a Classics Club event taking place to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, I decided to reread Jane Austen – again, from my own shelves, as I have illustrated editions of all six novels – I wrote about them here, here, and here. I love the beautiful books I own, but I don’t always do well at actually reading them!
I’ve finished Sense and Sensibility, and am now working on Pride and Prejudice, in a luxurious Folio Society edition. It’s one of my favorite classics, and the illustrations by Anna and Elena Balbusso – also favorites of mine – only enhance the enjoyment. Our world may be in deep trouble, but at least sometimes a book can approach perfection.
More bookish delights
March has long meant “March Magics” for me, celebrating the work of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett. I reread A Tale of Time City, and have been enjoying new host Chris’s reruns of his reviews of all the standalone novels by Diana Wynne Jones over at Calmgrove.
I was alerted by Jean of Howling Frog Books to the debut of a podcast that proposes to cover all of DWJ’s major works, divided up into four seasons of 8 books each. It’s called Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones (after the novel that was chosen to start with, Eight Days of Luke.)
I’ve listened to the first season and it’s terrific! The hosts, both authors themselves, are impressively knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and their conversation is full of insights as well as just fun to listen to. They are going roughly by decade, so next time will be the 80s, Jones’s most brilliant period. If you are a fan, you have to listen to this.
On the blog
- In a Time of War – thoughts on A Tale of Time City and other books set during World War II, for March Magics 2025.
- February Reading in Review
What’s on your shelf this month?
Thanks for the link to the DWJ podcast, which I’ve now downloaded to listen to at leisure on Spotify. Your intro to Gorodischer’s novel intrigues – he’s not an author I’d come across – but having UKLG as translator is the icing on the cake (or the cherry on top of the icing!).
I thought Angelica Godorischer was a she … in any case, definitely worth reading. If you have not yet heard the Eight Days podcast, you are in for a treat. I can’t wait for next season to begin (next month, hopefully).
That’ll teach me to try to multitask, responding to WhatsApp messages from our daughter while trying to comment on blogs and only half concentrating – sorry!
How wonderful that your interviewer put you at ease. Thank you for sharing the interview with us.
I read Howl’s Moving Castle recently for the first time, and now I see why so many people love the work of Diana Wynne Jones.
I hope you’ll read more of her! So many delights to discover.
Well done with that interview – I would also be nervous to be interviewed about my writing and my experiences, but that’s lovely you had a good experience. You’ve intrigued me with KALPA IMPERIAL! Onto the TBR it goes.
I found it somewhat intimidating but once I got into it the language really carried me along.