Guest blogger Mindy Klasky is the author of six fantasy novels, including the award-winning, best-selling The Glasswrights’ Apprentice and numerous short stories. Her latest novel, Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft, is a lighthearted, fictional tale featuring a love-struck D.C. librarian who discovers she’s a witch. A portion of proceeds from the sale of Girl’s Guide will benefit First Book.
Last month, I visited New Orleans, attending the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries. That was my first trip to the Big Easy since Katrina. As a convention attendee, I received a lot of information in advance about how New Orleans needed us to attend, about how the place is dangerous and requires special care from visitors, about how the city is recovering very, very slowly.
I arrived with some trepidation. Flying over the city, I could see bright blue of tarps on hundreds of roofs, glinting like toxic swimming pools. The airport was quiet and subdued, reminding me of an after-midnight abandoned terminal, even though I was arriving at noon. The July heat and humidity hit me like a wall as I stepped outside.
Driving to the Convention Center, we passed buildings that were shattered and empty, office space that had been abandoned, streets that were desolate and bare. Roaming the French Quarter, we found dozens of “For Rent” and “For Sale” signs, begging people to move into lofts that would have been prime real estate two years before. For the first time, I truly understood the tales of ghosts and vampires and other horrors that have represented “Louisiana literature” from Anne Rice to James Lee Burke.
And yet, New Orleans was far more than ruined buildings. New Orleans was the Yugoslavian woman cabdriver who told me her history as she drove me from the airport. It was the helpful doorman who greeted me with an umbrella during a flash thunderstorm. It was the manager at FedEx/Kinko’s who shared his cell phone when I needed to make an unexpected phone call. It was the waitress at Cafe du Monde who brought me beignets, cafe au lait, and stories of living in the city for thirteen years while looking forward to at least a dozen more. It was another cabdriver, speaking Creole and laughing as I recognized half of the French-based language, as he specified a shopping list to a friend.
While I roamed the French Quarter and ducked into St. Louis Cathedral, while I ambled along the River Walk and listened to the jazz, I thought about First Book. I thought about the number of books that have been distributed to children following the disasters of Katrina and Rita. I thought about the hopefulness I heard in so many adult voices, and I realized that seeds of hope are sown widely, by many different farmers. And I came home with a few more stories to tell, a few more novels to write.
1 response so far ↓
1 Lyn Lejeune // Aug 10, 2007 at 11:22 am
“Every culture in the world is just one good shove away from the precipice of barbarism.” Dan Fesperman, author of The Prisoner of Guantanamo and The Amateur Spy. One reason why public libraries must survive.
Dear :
The year after Hurricane Betsy, I enrolled in college at USLNO. I had to take a two-hour bus trip on the New Orleans transit line from St. Bernard Parish out to Lake Pontchartrain. I hated trigonometry, and anyway, I didn’t think it would help me escape my life near the Mississippi levee or the constant smell spewing from the sugar plant. So I usually ended up at the downtown public library, then later headed to Jackson Square for a couple of Jax brews. That public library was my sanctuary. After Katrina, I decided to write THE book, start The Beatitudes Network, and donate all royalties from sale of The Beatitudes to the New Orleans Public Library Foundation to help rebuild the libraries. I give you and NOLA The Beatitudes…
Out of New Orleans before the catastrophe that was made by a hurricane and, as Dante wrote, “of false gods who lied,” comes The Beatitudes, part one in the New Orleans Trilogy. The Beatitudes portrays New Orleans as Dante’s purgatory, a place where the sins of men are exposed for all to see, where redemption is close at hand but most often lost.
This world is revealed by the lives of two social workers, Hannah Dubois (white and nicknamed Scrimp) and Earlene Washington (African-American and nicknamed Pinch), who start their own business, Social Investigations, in order to solve the murders of ten foster children in New Orleans, Louisiana. The NOPD, the Catholic Church, and politicians have sidestepped clues that point to those who hold great power. As Hannah and Earlene find more and more evidence, they also know that they are dealing with a force that crosses into the realm of the paranormal. The murderers are part of a secret organization called the White Army (la Armee Blanc), centered in New Orleans, but rooted in Medieval Europe and the Children’s Crusades. Each clue leads to a beatitude and each chapter defines the novel: The Pure of Heart, The Persecuted, The Merciful, The Sorrowful, The Peacemakers, The Meek, The Poor in Spirit, and Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Justice. The Beatitudes is thus a study of good and evil, and that act, the murder of innocent children, which encompasses all of the seven deadly sins. The Beatitudes is Book I in The New Orleans Trilogy.
Please give me the opportunity to send you a “mini book” so that you may read part of the book before its release. Then if you like it let me know by replying to this email (lynlejeune@cox.net) and I will soon send you information about ordering the book. Remember, all royalties go directly to the New Orleans Public Library Foundation.
Just send me an address, either email or snail mail, and I will get the “mini-book” out to you. Also, if you go to http://www.beatitudesinneworleans.blogspot.com you will see that many prominent authors such as Julie Smith, Alafair Burke, Ken Bruen and many others support The Beatitudes Network. The site also has news about New Orleans, writing, Cajun recipes, and excerpts from The Beatitudes.
If you wish, I will link to your blog and post it on my blog, along with a one or two sentence description you send me. My campaign starts “all in” this August, 2007 and will continue into 2008, including book fairs, speaking engagements, bookstores, web campaign and much more. So join us in this worthy cause to help save a great American city – New Orleans, The Heavenly City, The Crescent City, The City That Care Forgot, The City of Sin, The City of the Dead……
MERCI MILLE FOIS - THANKS A MILLION - and pass the word along about this worthy project and how authors can help. Lyn LeJeune.
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