My Darlings
| Hi Everybody! If you’re wondering about the odd title of this letter today, have I got a strange little thing to share with you. Most of us who were readers as kids are aware of the book, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret. Maybe you read this book like I did, maybe not. But it is on so many lists of books young people should read and has been for the decades since its release that it is hard not to at least hear of it. For me, there was a list when I was young that was full of books that had been banned by someone somewhere and I read my way through the list. That was how I was also made aware of the book, My Darling, My Hamburger, another book from long before my time, this one about sex and peer pressure. Did I read it? Yep. Do I remember much about it? Nope. But am I glad I read it? Always. I tell this little story to say that I received another letter from a librarian this week that some of my titles are banned in their system. Maybe I am just a contrary, terrible person, because even though it makes me angry for all the people who need the stories that are being banned, it makes me weirdly proud. Not only that it has gained a place on a list that includes My Darling, My Hamburger, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Diary of Anne Frank, but also because there are some people out there just like I was, who will find these lists to be nothing more than a shopping list and a personal challenge. So, my darlings, here is your wildly unsubtle reminder, read banned books. |
My Hamburgers
| This month is preptober, so what does that mean???? NaNoWriMo is around the corner!!!! Just like every year, I will be working on a book during NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. That means I will be committing to writing fifty thousand words in the month of November. Most months I write anywhere between sixty thousand words and one hundred thousand between the various projects I have happening. For me, November is not really different, other than I am part of the NaNo community. So, I will be going over what I am doing to prepare for this next week and maybe some of you will want to join me in this wild little ride! |
Just A Bunch Of Hocus Pocus
| Did I finally see the movie???? YES! Okay, so Hocus Pocus 2 is obviously an exercise in unmitigated nostalgia and has a lot more for the people like me who remember the first fondly from Halloweens past. But, it is also just a fun little spooky movie and the young witches are great. The funniest part of the whole movie for me personally was that in this one Bette Midler and her sister witches sing three or so songs instead of just the one. I loved it. Clearly some movie maker said, “We have Bette Midler, let her sing. Give the people what they want.” Thank you random movie person. Good decision. 😉 Now on to another hot mess rough draft chapter of our little story! |
The Voice In The Forest
| Chapter 52 Everything in my body shook as we made it back to my room. “Ara,” Montgomery said, his voice a hush fall of concern and sadness that poured over me like a torrential rain, soaking me to the bone. I whirled on him, grabbing hold of him, the shudders wracking my frame only growing worse, “No.” My hair flew in front of my eyes in the low light of the room, blocking him from view for those seconds it did as I twisted my head in a furious denial of what I thought he was about to say. “There’s no way I can do this. Don’t even try and suggest that I have to.” My words may have been full of determination, but my voice betrayed me. Cracking, wavering, and sharp at the edges, it tore through my throat as I spoke. “Love,” he muttered, wrapping an arm around me to press his hand to the small of my back and his other hand to my cheek, his brow knitted together, mouth turned down at the corners. “Please,” I said, forgoing any semblance of false strength in the shadow of my last unsuccessful attempt, “Just… Please. I can’t do what they’re asking. I don’t want to.” “But, Ara,” he turned his face down toward the floor, his eyes leaving mine and a wince of pain crossing his face. “No buts, Montgomery,” I said, voice a quaking hush even as my hands tightened their hold on him, pulling him closer to me in my unyielding grip. “I need you to understand.” “I do,” he said to my feet and even though he wasn’t looking at me I shook my head again, taking my own turn to misunderstand. “As much as I can I will help you in dealign with the appointments with the doctors and finding a husband on short notice.” “Montgomery,” I yelled, yanking him the rest of the way to me, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and burying my face in his neck, unable to believe that he would ever suggest such a thing. “I am never going to agree to marry anyone other than you as long as you’re here. I’m going to need to learn to interact with the doctors and not have the fear eat me alive in the process.” His head snapped up to look at me, eyes blown wide and mouth agape before he shook his head violently and let go of me, forcing me away from him.“But, Ara…” Whatever made him the way he was, the seemingly fully formed, solid, alive man before me who should have been impossible and far more insubstantial than he was in reality, it failed him for a moment, ebbing away to leave a thinner, more phantom version of him behind. “Please,” I whispered, wrapping my arms which hung awkwardly in the space between us around my body. “What I need is help in handling the doctors and not falling apart while I fulfill this deranged requirement.” Montgomery shook, the trermor reverberating through his entire body and his breath hitching in his chest as his fingers tightened, released, and tighetned again as they desperately seemed to try to find purchase. “Arabella, I…” He shook his head and swallowed, his voice too thick and his eyes too watery for me not to want to pull him to me. He couldn’t keep arguing with me. I couldn’t handle it. Not when I needed him so much. Yanking him to me, I pressed my body against his, feeling the solid sensation of him that belied what I knew to be true about him. My mouth was hungry for his, my lips and tongue trying to get him to open his to me and allow me further access, to give into my need right now. Finally, he responded to my heat with a fire of his own, answering every move I made with the desperation of a man who knew that this was about to be forced away from him. But that’s exactly what I was fighting to hold off. With my hands, my mouth, and everything else within me, I was going to fight for this. I was going to fight for him. No matter what some will said, he was what I wanted. And I wasn’t about to let them take him from me. Not like this. |
