Excerpt from Between the Lines


A memory wavered into his mind, shimmery as heat rising off the road in summer.

He was six years old, and he’d been in Stonehaven no more than a week. He was hollow and lonely, confused. He missed the bustle of Melbourne. He missed the other kids on his street, the whole gang of them and their scampy games. He was stuck out in the bush, all of a sudden, with nobody but Lionel for company. Lionel had spent the first day ignoring him completely, and the last few beating the stuffing out of him whenever he got the chance. So that day, he’d wandered out to the back garden, if it could even be called that- just a scrubbed, flat expanse of hot red dirt with a veil of tangled trees and shrubs behind it.

The bush.

On impulse, he’d taken a couple of steps toward it, bare feet burning on the hot ground. The air was filled with the lemony scent of eucalyptus and the fresh tang of the distant sea. He'd filled his lungs and the two steps had turned into six, then ten, then before he knew it he was running headlong toward the wall of whispering green and brown, pushing all his mother’s warnings about snakes and savages from his head. He barrelled between the first spicy-scented leaves and, to his surprise, popped out on a sort of beaten down track, hidden from view of the house. After a moment’s pause to wonder how many strokes of the belt he’d get for this, he set off down the track toward the most interesting noise he’d heard so far- the babbling giggle of flowing water, and laced in with it, the high, clear notes of a girl’s voice, singing.

He stepped off the track with his heart hammering in his chest, suddenly terrified as he caught side of the wide river bank and the rolling mass of glassy green water.

She was standing there, all right- a girl not much taller than him, skinny as a rake, skin the golden brown of tree bark lit by sun. A cascade of golden curls rolled over her shoulders to skim at her waist, tendrils flicking out here and there as she drew back her arm and lobbed a big rock into the water.

He watched it go, traced the arc with his eyes until it hit the water with a loud splash and was swallowed. She was singing, still, her voice high and clear. She was wearing a white dress that finished at her knees and puffed into short sleeves at her shoulders. He looked down at himself, his grey shorts and jumper coated in jam, dirt and everything else he’d been busy with that morning. He stared at her back with suspicion. She was pristine. The only dirty bit of her was her feet, bare as his.

If it hadn’t been for those feet, he might have thought she was an angel. Or a ghost.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Spymaster's Lady- AND THE WINNER IS...

From the pen of our illustrious judge, Ms. Joanna Bourne herself:

Dear All --

I've been following along with Where in the World is Spymaster's Lady. Claire, you are beyond great to organize this. Thank you and thank you.

I purposely didn't look at the pictures themselves till this weekend. I wanted to be fair and see them all at once.

Wow.

That's all I can say.

Oh, wow.

What great photos.

It's strange and touching and wonderful to see these entries. I laugh out loud at some of them. Some are just lovely.

I cannot find words and, to paraphrase Annique, I am a woman with a lotta words.

Europe, the MidEast, Asia, Australia, the far reaches of the US. ... in dry, red desert clay and meter-deep snow ... my little book is travelling so far. I have this beautiful picture of Spymaster's Lady flapping its way around the world like a pair of teal and blue wings.

There just has to be some kinda profound thought that goes along with this.

If I was a profound person I'd be pointing it out. Unfortunately, anything I can come up with has "It's a Small, Small World" playing in the background and we simply can't have that, now can we?

The winnah, is Manuela Bernardo's Visiting the St Jorge, in Lisboa for the exact and appropriate historical moment.




The runner up, taking the coveted Surreal and Beautiful Category, is Katherine Bramley's Floating Book at the Mejiro Garden.



The winner will receive the unique and lovely Australian Book Thong.

Both the winner and the runner up will receive signed copies of Spymaster's Lady and a piece of special Spymaster's Lady memorabilia.

I'm still laughing at some of the entries here and at Books and Writers Community. As soon as I get those pesky 'how to do it' issues worked out, I'm going to post a bunch of them on my blog.

Thank you all so very much. I have enjoyed this no end and am tremendously grateful.

Joanna Bourne

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So, once again, thank you all so much for entering- this has been a real blast. I will contact Manuela and Katherine by email in the very near future.

Claire
Posted by Claire Gregory at 5:19 PM
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1 comments:

Lynne said...

Great contest, lotsa fun.
Thanks!

March 6, 2008 10:38 AM

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