When you finish writing a book you think the work is mostly done, but in the last few years I’ve learned this is far from true – most of the work is still there for you to do it, as your editor tells you to rewrite and rewrite again. And finally, when he is satisfied and he works on the pages you have sent him, and you see the final result, you wonder at how your story can be …
Category: Impressions
A divine being once said it would be a curse for humans to be able to predict their future, and in fact we cannot. But some people make such accurate predictions that I wonder if that curse has not befallen them. It is the case of Chris Antone, the author of Vicilization: The Fall, a book first published (in French) in 2011 that amazingly predicted the gilet jaune (yellow vest) riots, that took place several years later with an …
I was doing some research for the final touch ups to my book. I needed the name of a book my heroine, Teresa, had bought in July 1980, precisely forty summers ago. I searched the internet for a familiar title, but nothing. Then I remembered my bookcase, where I keep many books from my youth. By an amazing coincidence, the first one I grabbed was The Swarm, by Arthur Herzog, a sci fi /terror book about the invasion of …
Yesterday I was zapping when I spotted a very familiar movie – the famous (at least to my generation) Saturday Night Fever, that made John Travolta famous, turning him into the idol of all teenage girls. Myself included. I decided to watch it from the beginning, and I loved every minute, recalling the long-ago day of December 78 when I went to movies to see it. I could never forget that date – not only because it was …
Now that it has been almost a month since we began the “comeback”, a few conclusions may be reached. Different reactions The first one is that people have been reacting to this slow return to “normality” (whatever this means now), in very different ways. There are those who, fed up with confinement, believe it’s time to put all of this behind our backs and start leading a normal life. They make the most of the new liberties that …
A year ago, on this very day, as pilgrims among the thousands that filled the Sanctuary of Fátima, not even in our wildest dreams – or rather nightmares – could we have imagined a day like today. The empty sanctuary Last year, like the year before, May 13 was an explosion of faith, of light. Last year it was a warm, sunny day, more like Summer than Spring. We talked, we prayed, we cried, we thanked, we begged, we …
A May Saturday. Warm, like a summer day. It’s dusk now. I stay a long time at my window, feeling the early evening fresh breeze and watching the sun set over the sea. I never tire of this view; every day the colours are different. There are days with silver-blue and orange, others with deep-blue and pink, and then there are those days when you can see silver in the sky and the sea, only in different shades. …
I go for my late afternoon walk. I stand over the beach and look at the sea, inhaling its smell. It’s not too strong, here, as in other places by the sea, but it’s unmistakeable. I just stay there, filling myself with so many sensations – the light blue of the sky, the still bright light of the sun, already low on the horizon but still warm; the sea breeze on my face and my hair. The sensation of …
It’s driving me crazy. De-contamination, I mean. All the disinfection procedures we have to put in place so that we may be slightly – only slightly – reassured we have not brought the virus into our home. It began with washing my hands every two minutes. Every time I touch anything, I wash them. After two or three days of this regime, I noticed some small cracks appearing. My hands were sore, red, dehydrated. I even had …
Another glorious Saturday. The bluest of skies in the darkest of times. Or is it? It seems we have grown used to this new routine. It’s called acceptance. In the beginning, all we talked about was “when we return to normal”; now, we have realised that what used to be normal will probably take a long time to come back, so we wait, resigned, for the crumbs of freedom that are expected to start making an appearance, come May. …
