Mm hm. That’s pretty much what it looks like and that’s my knee in the bottom of the frame. It’s up under the rafters like Jo’s spot in “Little Woman”, it’s filled with books and a reading chair, and although I am forbidden to keep a stash of apples there—we have had rats—I do not feel kindly to them or name them Scrabble or consider them pets (like Miss March did). Babies this is California, under every red tiled roof there probably lurks a multitude traps. We count ourselves fortunate for some very infrequent scratching in the walls, our neighbors had racoons prying off sections of their roof and creating a nest for their newborns.
Before I got distracted by rodents I intended to tell you that at night there’s a way out of a very tall window onto a spot where you can see the moon rising over the neighborhood.
And, after what seemed like a lot of kerfuffle – but it really wasn’t – I climbed out onto that very same spot with a real camera (not my trusty iPhone with the pinhole lens) and shot something at sundown that will serve as the cover of my book… I’d show it to you, but I can’t. Not yet, anyhow.
Have I mentioned I love my publishers? It may still be the honeymoon period, but they are beyond swell…
Okay, I saw this post from July of last year, and we have to talk. I ended up publishing the book myself (as you all probably know) and the cover is plastered all over the site. Do I love my publishers? In a certain way I respect them more now than I did then—because I know what a huge undertaking publishing a book is—I understand better what they were signed up to do, and I’ve been able to do it myself, with the help of outstanding editors, digital consultants, graphic artists, and wonderful friends.
So, if you’ve read the book, tell me what you think of it. If you spotted the typos on the back cover, know that I am resubmitting the art work this week to correct it. And as always, thank you for reading along on what has turned out to be a wonderful adventure. It seems I meet new and more and more lovely people every week, and it’s because of this thing we all do, reaching out to connect through the Internet.
We are lucky today! A window into Ms Vickie’s world (and her boudoir no less! How I like the word “BOO-DWAHR”!). What have we all done to deserve this?!
I really like the first image especially the light blazing at the top of the middle window. What an view into your boudoir, or shall we call it your little kingdom?! “It’s filled with books and a reading chair.” Heaven. (Apart from Rattus Californius!)
Lovely nightscape shot, you shoot the moon over the neighborhood mahvellously evocatively.
And you have fantastic publishers – Magnifique! Every writer’s dream. Everything’s coming up roses. 🙂
I don’t know why I’m sharing this fun filled fact, but rat traps follow regional tastes — here they’re baited with a peanut butter concoction… Interesting!
the moon did feel awfully Portentous this month, didn’t it?
very excited about your impending BOOK!
Full moon, five minutes later falling asleep and twenty minutes earlier waking up in the morning! I read that last week in the New York Times.
Lovely light, gorgeous curtains! Is that a chrysanthemum motif or peony? Rats are annoying, creatures of habit, predictable. Bravely ignore them as you snuggle into your chair to read, in this little piece of heaven.
It’s a bolt of fabric I found from the 1940s in a chrysanthemum and acanthus leaf pattern. Thank you! It is a little piece of heaven, my mom, when she first saw the house, dubbed it the owl’s nest.
Dearest V
Lovely curtains (or are they universally called drapes with you?)
And that view… tantalising us with the book jacket too!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
The lovely curtains are getting a little frayed — but I’m so attached to them.
Did I send you a mockup of the book jacket?
xox, V
Dearest V
No… but I would be beside myself to see!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Winging its way 😉
Your ‘spot’ reminds me of a certain spot we climbed to on top of our boarding school roof (most illegal and out of bounds) and we called the spot “Heaven”.
It is funny how many times I’ve raced up here to see the world go by… the space shuttle, fireworks, and one terrible summer watching the San Gabriel mountains burn.
Every home should have such a place 🙂 Sadly my present one doesn’t .
I’ve seen pictures of your place — it’s beautiful!
🙂
I stopped short at the curtains in your bedroom. I believe we have the very same ones. 🙂
I look forward to seeing this cover for your book… The idea that you snapped the photo from your own rooftop is wonderful. I love looking through the lens of Vickie Lester — always a treat.
xoxo
A photo shot on a surge of persnickety impatience — and it came out so strangely, noirishly, serene. 😉
Oh I would so love to live where you live.
I could tell you horror stories about some of the typos in the books of some of my friends, even the big publishers miss them from time to time.
We bought the house in a wave of naïve appreciation (translation it was a wreck with good bones) and have been gradually restoring it ever since.
I was hesitant to fix the cover because I had a color balance issue with the first proofs, but I can no longer abide the mistakes on the back… and the normal balance is restored; from preternatural nonchalance back to my regular hyper self 😉 .
I can’t like you again. WP won’t let me. What a pity.