an unabashed letter

 I looked up the word "unabashed" in my Funk and Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary that I chose as my prize for receiving the English proficiency award in my grade twelve year. That was when we still had grade thirteen in Ontario. I still believe we should have grade thirteen. It is an extra year in which to mature a little more and to figure out what you want to do next, or perhaps what you need to do next.

Regardless, I was using the word, "unabashed" correctly because I was not the least bit embarrassed to be writing a fan letter of sorts to one of my favourite authors, Louise Penny. I have mentioned her already in my blog when referring to The Long Way Home.

I just finished her latest crime mystery entitled, The Nature of the Beast. Again, it was set in the fictitious Eastern Townships village of Three Pines. How badly I want to go there (yes, I know...) to eat at the bistro and stay at the bed and breakfast, and walk through the fallen leaves to go and sit on the bench and catch a glimpse of Ruth and her duck. This latest book takes the reader on a journey which combines art forms and the dark underbelly of human nature. Penny always includes art, whether it be painting, sculpture, poetry, or drama in her books, perhaps as a way to ground the reader to something wonderful and creative while a character gets killed off or reveals a very human flaw.

I do not want to give away a plot line for anyone who hasn't read this yet, but wants to. If you've read any of Louise Penny's other books, I will tell you that you will love the character  of  Ruth even more after this.

So whether Penny reads or responds to my letter to her does not matter. I just felt that I had to let her know how much I have enjoyed and anticipated her books over the years. I truly don't  know  how  she is able to put together her amazing story lines or create her multidimensional  characters. It is in one part a gift, but, no doubt, it also comes from hard work, determination, and incredible skill.

Come have a seat in the "red room" as we call it and I'll  make you a cup of tea, or pour you a glass of wine, and begin with Still Life , her first book, and discover  why I am  unabashedly  a fan.