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Monday, October 30, 2006

Kissing Einstein

The paint on the wall had a smooth nubbly feel to it — very much the eggshell finish advertised on the paint can. Sometimes at night, in a fit of baffled sleeplessness, I’d find myself sitting up in bed, feeling the weight of my hair fall past my shoulders, the folds of my nightie being gently pulled to the mattress as I blindly reached out to the wall and passed my palm over the surface, fighting panic as I registered the silence and stillness of the house. The air seemed to be thicker, dense with hush, a loamy blanket woven from the entwined effluence of my parents’ sleep-controlled breathing. In the all-encompassing darkness, my room, the four walls, the house itself was now quite alien—cool, detached, an impassive monster that cared nothing for the playing, the talking, the quarreling, the little tasks and the daily rituals its occupants expended their lives on. These were the images that cluttered my dreams in exaggerated form, balloons inflated into bizarre shape by exotic gases.

6 comments:

  1. O.K., CP, when I go over to Lulu, the only Reimer that comes up is this one.

    I know you're a person of many qualities and traits, but I didn't think that cruelty was one of them.

    When's the availibility date?

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  2. Hm - looks like Charlotte might have a good thing going for her. 68 pages, $10 ... I'm taking notes.

    Whatever cruelty I'm capable of usually occurs by default, as is the case here. In an ideal world, I'd like to see the physical product before putting it up for sale to the paying public. The PDF might be available for consumption before the actual book.

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  3. WP,
    I don't want to come off as one of those readers who gives book-buying a suspicious air. If it reads as if I've been conducting an inquisition, it's only because I can't wait to read the book.

    I'm sure that you are placing more than adequate pressure on yourself to get the whole thing tied up and delivered.

    So, please excuse the "enthusiasm" from this end. SImply looking for all good things to come to fruition, which I'm sure they all will.

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  4. The house taking shape as a character, in some way? I'll wait to read it — but that is an enticing bit.

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  5. Ack! Teasing us with little novelly bits!

    Not even the BBC's 4-second Torchwood promos were this cruel!

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  6. I apologise to one and all for taking so bloody long with this. These story drippings are chiefly to indicate that this project is not my Chinese Democracy (heh)! I am now proof-reading as quickly as I can.

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