Back to the drawing board! I was suddenly inspired to draw by three things:
- The Siren and the Star by Colby Cedar Smith, a breathlessly passionate YA novel about a girl discovering the music of Barbara Strozzi, a 17th century Venetian composer.
- re-reading Debout les morts by Fred Vargas; known as The Three Evangelists in English, I got it from Comrade N years ago. It’s a murder mystery with three unlikely heroes, an archaeologist, a medievalist and a specialist in the First World War. With the medievalist’s uncle and godfather, an ex-cop with secrets of his own, they form an awkward found family that cannot resist a mystery – even when it’s just a young beech that has inexplicably appeared in their neighbour’s garden. (The black-clad, nervously chivalrous medievalist reminds me of a certain somebody in Goldenbird.)
- spending two weeks in plumbing-issues-related “exile” (to be fair, I was lucky to be hosted by an extremely hospitable and gracious historian and her physician husband)
Comment
