Rachel Starr Thomson

This week’s “passage” is a movie, the first short from Lamplighter Publishing. In this “new dark age,” a few will defy the darkness. This is a must-see for everyone who uses words to shine light in our culture!

“With every word, with every page, with every story, we defy the darkness.”

P.G. Wodehouse, a British comic writer whose writing career lasted seventy-three years, authored some of the funniest prose in the English language. He was a master of using narrative, description, and dialogue to capture the essence of any character — most famously Bertie Wooster, whose adventures with his manservant Jeeves have proved preeminent among Wodehouse’s work. The following is the opening of a short story entitled “Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest,” originally published in 1919.

I’m not absolutely certain of my facts, but I rather fancy it’s Shakespeare — or, if not, it’s some equally brainy lad — who says that it’s always just when a chappie is feeling particularly top-hole, and more than usually braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with a bit of lead piping. There’s no doubt the man’s right. It’s absolutely that way with me. Take, for instance, the fairly rummy matter of Lady Malvern and her son Wilmot. A moment before they turned up, I was just thinking how thoroughly all right everything was.

It was one of those topping mornings, and I had just climbed out from under the cold shower, feeling like a two-year-old. As a matter of fact, I was especially bucked just then because the day before I had asserted myself with Jeeves — absolutely asserted myself, don’t you know. You see, the way things had been going on I was rapidly becoming a dashed serf. The man had jolly well oppressed me. I didn’t so much mind when he made me give up one of my new suits, because, Jeeves’s judgment about suits is sound. But I as near as a toucher rebelled when he wouldn’t let me wear a pair of cloth-topped boots which I loved like a couple of brothers. And when he tried to tread on me like a worm in the matter of a hat, I jolly well put my foot down and showed him who was who. It’s a long story, and I haven’t time to tell you now, but the point is that he wanted me to wear the Longacre — as worn by John Drew — when I had set my heart on the Country Gentleman– as worn by another famous actor chappie — and the end of the matter was that, after a rather painful scene, I bought the Country Gentleman. So that’s how things stood on this particular morning, and I was feeling kind of manly and independent.

Well, I was in the bathroom, wondering what there was going to be for breakfast while I massaged the good old spine with a rough towel and sang slightly, when there was a tap at the door. I stopped singing and opened the door an inch.

“What ho without there!”

“Lady Malvern wishes to see you, sir,” said Jeeves.

“Eh?”

“Lady Malvern, sir. She is waiting in the sitting-room.”

To read “My Man Jeeves,” the short-story collection in which the above was published, visit this link from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8jeev10.txt

The King James Bible is the single most important book in the English language. Its impact on history, literature, and individual lives is unmatched. Its artistry is beautiful, as you can see in this psalm. I am especially moved as the determination to praise God rises above the striking depictions of evil men. “Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens,” David cries. Psalm 57 is one of several passages that depict God as winged, sheltering His people under His feathers. I used this imagery extensively in Taerith.

Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit for me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

Maggie Sheffield has just begun her adventure when she meets Nicolas Fisher and his black bear. Nicolas takes her to an inn called the House of Dreams, where they quickly come face-to-face with a living nightmare. I love to write description, and the House of Dreams has always been a particularly vivid scene to me.

Nicolas and Bear took Maggie to a dilapidated, two-story establishment with a sign that proclaimed it "The House of Dreams." Light poured into the street from the wide windows. Inside, the dining room was filled with happy chaos. Bear waited outside while Nicolas led Maggie in.

The brightness of the room hurt her eyes. The walls were painted with brightly coloured murals, showing fantastic, dream-like scenes. Shouting, singing, laughing people packed the room. Galcic men with small pots of ale and Gypsies in brilliantly stitched and coloured clothing sat at round tables, eyeing one another suspiciously while they drank and ate a rich smelling stew. Pipe smoke and noise mingled together and rose to the bright red ceiling.

Lost in observation, Maggie hardly noticed that Nicolas was talking to a gaudy woman wearing huge earrings and a green dress. The din of the room was overwhelming, and it took a moment for her to recognize Nicolas’s voice shouting over the cacophony.

"There’s a room upstairs for you!" Nicolas said. "Follow me!"

Nicolas and the woman weaved through the crowd. Maggie followed after them, feeling out of place with her drab brown coat and battered trunk, shyly moving through a world filled with colour and laughter and reeking with the pungent smell of ale and cheap wine.

excerpt from Worlds Unseen by Rachel Starr Thomson
Click here for a free e-copy of Worlds Unseen !

It’s Friday! To close out this exciting week of blogging, I want to ask you to send me your favourite passages for the Wednesday “Passages” post (read the first one here). Each Wednesday, I’ll be posting a paragraph or two of good writing. You can send a favourite passage from a book you like or something of your own. Email it to me at thomson.rachel@gmail.com, and be sure to let me know where it’s from (author and title of work) and why you like it.

Thanks!

Virginia Ramsey is one of the key characters in the Seventh World Trilogy. She makes her first appearance in the passage below. This scene is special to me because it was the very first scene written in Worlds Unseen. I jotted it down on a scratchpad when I wasn’t even sure what the story would be about, and from it spun the rest of the tale.

Virginia Ramsey’s hair was a very dark brown. Most of it was on the verge of turning black, but enough of it was near to turning red to make her overall appearance very striking. Her eyes, which could not see, were green.

She spent most of her time sitting cross-legged on top of an outcrop on the side of the mountain, where she could smell the passing of the seasons and hear the birds fly by. The birds thought her a friend, and they would light on her shoulder and whisper to her. Her right hand usually rested on the head of her shaggy old deerhound, who was as deaf as she was blind.

On the side of the mountain, Virginia Ramsey heard all that she ever wished to hear. She heard wind, grass, and the songs of creation. And sometimes, on the side of the mountain, Virginia could see.

excerpt from Worlds Unseen by Rachel Starr Thomson
Click here for a free e-copy of Worlds Unseen!