Oddly enough, I have not listened to Tori Amos for over fifteen years. She reminds me of a period of my life when my dreams were plagued by Gaiman's Sandman (and when I say plagued I mean there were oozes of fucked up nightmares and black holes of confidence and creativity, only a numbing fear of death that extended well into my waking hours.) I hung out with a girl back then, which I still consider a filthy snake, the biblical type of someone who betrays one’s trust and friendship without the slightest emotional aftermath. Tori Amos was the backsound of bad dreams, rape issues and feeling very very left behind to die alone.

         It’s always curious to hear such a strong song again (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PAxJ_kJtkM) during a photo shoot and feel nothing but inspiration and power. How the lowly have changed :D Indeed.

         Before the doggie walk today, because I have started working more intently on the travel book, I also started writing stuff in the counter-balance mode. It’s the way I write – one part is difficult, focused and serious and the other is playful, silly, funky and comes naturally, in great bursts of color. In an hour I wrote a two-page short story for my next collection of stories, about my lovers. I wrote a piece of it to the General and he pulled my head back and aimed a fist at my bent neck, saying it will be over very quickly. He is not happy with my fictional view on open marriage. It’s probably the reaction of someone who only ever read non-fiction books. There should be a long conversation about the merits of fiction and fantasy before I read him something from my list again.

         There’s a line in that story, though, that I find worth translating :)

         “That I love books is a gross understatement. I worship books. I steal them, I forge them, I take them even from museums and monasteries. I am obsessed with preserving the tales often left between only two mouse-nibbled covers at all. To me they are like diamonds: each is precious, but there are rare samples which are more precious still. I like to wait and see who will be the one to take them home and then befriend those people.”