MARY'S BIT or ADDRESSING HISTORY
Oscar Wilde was of the opinion memory is the diary we carry with us and the same can be said for address books, for in the old days I carted my little black book around in my handbag, a habit I confess I find strange in retrospect. It would have been far better to leave that indispensable record at home, but youthful notions are oft times inexplicable.The multi-amended addresses mean every entry represents a history of lives of which I am a part. Were a subscriber to look over my virtual shoulder they'd see, for example, the names of two of my oldest friends. I met the first when we were both in the first form of grammar school and though I have lived in a number of places both here and in England, she never left Tyneside. The second once resided in an ancient Oxfordshire village pub which formed the model for Noddweir's pub in The Guardian Stones. Our paths converged because she worked in an office connected to my third job. Alas, there will never be address changes for either of them as they both died far too young.
I like to hear how people first met, so I'll mention a couple of examples of my own. Some friendships have roots in my liking for science fiction and fantasy. Readers of these genres have a tendency to be keen letter-writers and in fact that very trait was how Mr Maywrite and I came to meet. I finally met another correspondent, a resident in a Yorkshire village, in person for the first time at a London convention for fans of the two categories of fiction. Another friendship originating in similar circumstances involves a chap who when we originally met in London had a slightly menacing air, since at the time he went in for the full Goth look years before it came into vogue. Needless to say he still gets his leg pulled by those who remember those days because he eventually went in for a career as an accountant.
A glance at one or two other pages demonstrate not only how mobile we have become but also how small the world is by contrast to years ago, when the notion we would live halfway across the world from each other would have been laughable. But now one chap who originally lived in Cornwall resides in Sweden. There's a Londoner whose acquaintance I initially made at The Globe pub in London's Hatton Gardens -- I assure subscribers it's not as lurid a story as it may seem at first sight -- and he moved to Hawaii just a couple of months ago. It was my now oldest friend (our paths originally crossed when we both attended the same pre-secretarial course as teens) who introduced me to a friend who lived down her street, who subsequently lived in Germany, the UAE, and Spain before recently returning to the old country.
All in all, Bob Dylan's Dream is a particularly poignant recording for me, especially his line recalling "our choices they was few so the thought never hit / That the one road we traveled would ever shatter and split."
It's a strange thought too that address books give us a ghostly second life because as long as we have an entry in those belonging to family and friends we can be said to still exist, even when we are no longer physically here.
NECESSARY EVIL or THE BSP TICKER
Hurrah!
RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES or AN OLD ADVENTURE BECOMES ALL TOO TIMELY
Lois Winston, author of the Anastasia Crafting Mystery series, kindly hosted an essay from Maywrite Towers on her blog a few days back. The topic was Five For Silver, the setting during the Justinianic pandemic, and thus timely in a most uncomfortable way. The plague's symptoms and its effects form an important part of the structure of the plot, and A Circumstance Such As Has Never Before Been Recorded describes the historical sources we consulted for needed info.https://anastasiapollack.blogspot.com/2020/06/historical-mystery-authors-mary-reed.html
RETURN OF THE REAPER or YOU REAP WHAT YOU MOW
We're happy to report The Grim Reaper's Lawnmower was accepted by editor Michael Bracken for reprinting in the November 2019 issue of Seeds, a free weekly electronic newsletter for Texas gardeners. Due to an email problem we didn't hear about it until just after the last Orphan Scrivener was sent out, but here's where to point your clicker if you'd like to read it.https://texasgardener.com/texas-gardeners-seeds-november-27-2019/
Should any subscribers interested in gardening happen to live in Texas, information about Seeds may be accessed at
https://texasgardener.com/newsletter/
