Lily and Melissa mostly.

I was recently asked whether Ratty and Lily are still an item, given Lily's low profile on this blog, so I'm including a photo of them taken last night at The Golden Spoon where they celebrated the second anniversary of their meeting. Lily admits she's been preoccupied the last year or two, raising their four litters of ratadilloes, and as soon as a batch is weaned, she tends to take off for las pampas of Patagonia to visit her ageing aunts and uncles in their subterranean tunnels, and to distribute dried kiwifruit morsels and milk biscuits (vanilla, banana and chocolate flavoured, milk powder in biscuit form) to her innumerable nephews and nieces.

Readers might forgiven for wondering whether Rosa Mira books itself is still an item, so quiet has it been. I'm pleased to say that we're still here, albeit slowed by recent ponderings and peregrinations. I'm currently preparing three new 10k editions for publication before year's end (again, three short stories; a short novella and an essay — more about those soon), and a memoir for early 2014.

It was wonderful to read Tim Jones's interview today with Melissa Green, author of the The Linen Way, about the books, women and men that/who have influenced her as a writer. A precocious reader, she leaped into Shakespeare while still a child: "I remember all one summer being put to bed when it was still light and reading and reading to the sound of crickets and peepers, and I felt as though I were in the enchanted world of Titania, Oberon, Peaseblossom, Moth and Puck as the stars blinked open and the moon came up. Reading and rereading those two small but infinite volumes became my secret life, and the secret language of my secret life." Read more…

 Tim, who is a generous encourager and show-caser of his fellow writers, also features Melissa's keen/ing poem 'Leda, Later' as his Tuesday Poem this week.

Go and catch some loveliness before the day's out.