107 words from The Slave of Bracelets, my Anaïs chapter from my novel Nights in Paris. Just think of it as an appetiser! (Or rather, as an amuse-bouche).
“Anais, I adore everything.” June shrugged off her cape and let it fall to the floor. Her nonchalance about her clothes only drew attention to them; to the flimsiness of her dress, which was no more than a violet nightgown made decent with a pearl brooch at the bosom. The silk clung to the outline of her breasts. She swayed around the room, admiring the collection of golden Turkish slippers, the old posters of goddesses advertising absinthe. I would like to drink absinthe with her, to smoke opium with her. I want to be obliterated, I want to drown myself in the irresponsible, impossible adoration of June.
I am recovering from the trauma of a computer hard-drive which broke on me, very inconveniently without any warning at all. Now I have a new one and am cautious about using it, I can’t stop worrying and pleading “please be okay, please be okay” at it! Oh the good ol’ days of reliable pen and paper, eh — but no delete, no word count, and no cut and paste either. I would have to write out each page ten times if I had to do it by hand — so maybe all this new-fangled technological palaver isn’t too bad…
I’m still researching for the Colette and Patricia chapters, both at the same time, which I probably shouldn’t, but I am so impatient to read about both of them that I can’t bear to choose who should go first.
I’ve made an exciting discovery: I’ve never read Colette’s “Dialogue des Bêtes” before, thinking it sounded silly, as it’s an imaginary conversation between her pets. I saw it at the library yesterday and decided I should give it at least a quick whizz-through, seeing as it’s the first piece of fiction she was allowed to publish under her own name. (The famous “Claudines” were first published under her husband’s name, in later editions under both their names, and only much later by herself). It is wonderful! So quirky and observant, and very funny. How could I have expected anything else from her? I feel ashamed of myself. So now I’m reading all the “animal” dialogues, and loving them.
