The Triumph of the Maryorama!
It’s been almost eerie how the wider events of this past week have found echoes in my own working life. On the dark side of things, it’s brought me face to face with the final scenes I had written for next year’s Lockdown.
Not that the book has anything to do with politics (thank goodness), much less with the man who will be occupying the White House during the coming 48 months. And not (sorry) in a way I can explain here, because a) this is a book you won’t see until June, and b) they’re the final scenes: do you really want a spoiler? I will say merely that the book’s key end scene, the one that materialized out of nowhere—
(Indiana Jones’ leap of faith into the abyss)
—to tie together this many-pieced, barely-controlled sprawl of a story that I’ve been niggling at since the day I agreed to write a short story for Lia Matera 16 years ago (“Paleta Man,” in Irreconcilable Differences)—that key scene, written many weeks ago, came into very sharp focus for me during the days following the election. Why the characters’ act matters. What it means, for the characters, for the author, for the reader.
Anyway, it’s been odd and filled with mystery—awesome in the proper sense. And because I’m still working on shaping the book so that ending is both unforeseen and inevitable, you won’t get to look at it for months and months. Sorry.
BUT.
More immediately, and also filled with mystery, thrills, and odd electional reverberations, there’s this:
The Maryorama is finished!
You and I have been building this thing (formerly called Russellscape) since I ran a contest for The Language of Bees, in 2009. And in this, of all years, I am happy to have built a work of community creativity, one that literally brings together a spectrum of people celebrating the characters we adore. The original winning entry in 2009 was by Sara McClelland:
This year’s eight winning panels I announced and showed here yesterday. They join Sara’s panel and 48 others (hmm…) done over the years. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present:
Maryorama
The Travels of Russell & Holmes
(If it’s not embedding here, you can pop over to my YouTube channel.)
What do you think?
Take that, cut-throat divisiveness! A pox on your houses, two-party system! We in the Russell world know what matters, and we get on and do it.
As we will during the 48 months to come.
It’s fantastic! I love the opening image of the smoke trailing that way. I imagine the smoke turning into the pictures.
The artwork, and your presentation are wonderful. I hope you understand what you have done.
You have created a Beloved Community. A virtual village, where kindly eccentric people are safe to be themselves. We shall need safe havens in the coming days.
I look forward to finding refuge in your safe haven.
We need Mary Russel more than ever, and her kindly creator.
THIS IS SO FANTASTIC! Thanks for acknowledging the original (so long ago now!) and for continuing to give us an outlet to make our own kind of creative contribution to this community. You keep writing, we’ll keep drawing.
Why is it impossible to get an accurate list of the Russell/Holmes books on Amazon? I am becoming accustomed to the poor transcriptions, but for the index /search to inform me of the existence of books and then be unable to locate them is nonsensical. I wouldn’t read them on Amazon if I were consistently capable of getting to a bookstore, or if it wasn’t impossible for my husband to keep up with my voracious reading while hospitalized or kept at home by illness.
Hi Kirsten, I agree, the ways of Amazon can be inscrutable. However, in this case there actually is a link to the book list, buried in the sidebar of the main Laurie R. King books page. It says:
For a complete list of the Mary Russell books in order, click here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B00CJLA42C/kindle/ref=sr_bookseries_null_B00CJLA42C.
Although in fact, the link doesn’t seem to be live, which means you’d have to copy it and paste it into your browser.
OR you could just go by my own site’s book page, where the books are in order by series, and clicking on a cover gives you that book’s page and buy-links to Amazon OR an Indie bookseller. That page is here:
https://laurierking.com/books/
I hope you enjoy much happy reading in 2017!
Yours,
Laurie King
Absolutely amazing! Thank you to all. I will have to go frame by frame to really look at each to remember time, place and situation.
So much fun in those pictures!
Laurie
Love it. Beautifully done.
Where’s my passport?!
Will the next one be “Marypalooza”?
Good plan!
Laurie
As usual I am behind . . . not only an ass sometimes but really not in the know. I see people responding from 2017, where was I? I loved the train ride! I take one monthly and the romance is still aboard. I take photos out of the windows and it is like catching fish. I would love to contribute to the next, if there will be another, Maryorama. Brad H said it all. Please let us know if you want contributions!
We should do another one soon, I agree. Though maybe not during the July art/word contest.
Laurie
I just want to say thank you for the Maryarma and all of the joy I have had reading all the books. I enjoy them very much..
Isn’t the video fun? It was fun to put together, too. And I’m glad I can bring anyone joy, thanks for letting me know
Laurie