Take a picture of a small thing

…a wondrous Monday off

A small fuzzy bumblebee landed on a flower just next to my boot. Completely unafraid or unaware of the giant next to them. A small gentle thing on a weird and wondrous day off.

I’m sitting on a bench in the shade on a very steep hill above an enormous gazebo. They call it a grandstand, I think. But I love the word gazebo.

There is a man delivering a tour loud enough that I can hear him all the way uo here. He’s delivering his script with poetic elegance and it’s evident that he’s knows the information deeply and cares greatly for this town and the history of this place.

It’s windy and all the people wearing dresses on the tour are clutching at their skirts and trying to listen politely. It’s a strange vantage point I have from here, above the town. Under this tree I have shade and the heat isn’t oppressive. There is a breeze coming up off the ocean only three blocks from where I’m sitting.

It’s an idyllic moment. I’ve already sent off letters to Seattle, London, and Almonte. I have a book I’ve been wanting to read based on the fact that it was a favourite of a longtime school teacher who came into the shop.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t open its pages until I finished writing my novelette. Now that I’ve finished writing it, I’m going to let it rest for a bit, finish recording the podcast and think on how to proceed.

It’s such a strange little book I’ve written, and I suspect that this time around I’ll set up a kickstarter to fund it…to pay the 42 artists I intend to employ to draw the portraits of the wondrous queer fictional humans whose obituaries lie within it. I’m excited to make this novelette a small talisman to carry in my purse, the way I carry Le Petit Prince. I’m hoping that other people will want to make a home for it too, under their pillows, in their backpacks and on their bedside tables.

I have folks reading it now. I have an editor who will be giving her time come the fall. I have had lovely feedback from the folks who’ve been listening to the instalments via the podcast.

I found the date that I wrote the first page.

2022-11-01

But is that November 1st, or January 11th. I don’t remember. I’ve been writing it in earnest, daily, since October 2023. But these characters have been percolating for years. They’ve lived in the bits of overheard stories, of moments I’ve lived in my life, and the spectacular magicks I’ve experienced and imagined. It is sort of kind of set in two locales I’ve deeply loved.

I’m excited about it. But today. I’m going to sit amongst the bumblebees and read.

May your Monday also be gently abuzz,

Wake