This Week on Friday Live: JM Landels and Mel Anastasiou

Faith

Mnemosyne — the Greek goddess of memory, mother of the Muses, inventress of words — came to me, as things often do, quite unexpectedly. I met her in a secondhand bookshop. She was sitting on a shelf, a bit dusty and ragged, but distinguished nonetheless — spine straight, colour gently faded, creases only slight. I picked her up and took her home immediately.

Like any good guest, she arrived at just the right moment: It was time to write the final blog post for the Friday Live readings, and I needed all the inspiration I could get. Because, as we come to the end of this chapter, it feels as if there is something I am meant to say, but will forget to say. And in finality’s shadow, I panicked a little. 

So, like any good host, I set out coffee and scones, then waited patiently while she made herself at home and began to speak.

Hope

Mnemosyne first appeared, millennia ago, when the oral tradition of the poets reigned and rote memorization was needed to preserve and share stories. Her power with language and remembrance allows us mortals to communicate with one another, to find meaning in words, to hold things in memory. Before the introduction of writing, and long before digital data farms, she inspired humans to reason, to predict, to remember. To learn from the past.

We tell stories because we need to. It’s what human beings do. We assemble meaning from them because we need to do that too. And if it is true that the story we need is the story that arrives, then, perhaps, the lesson we need is the lesson that arrives. So, as Mnemosyne settled in, I began to wonder: Did I choose these words or were they chosen for me?

Love

As the Pulp Literature reading series wraps up, Mnemosyne, daughter of Heaven (Uranus) and Earth (Gaia), mother of the Muses, reminds us: Stories matter. Stories have always mattered. They matter because they connect us to one another. And they matter because we — each and every one of us — build our lives the same way we read, one chapter at a time. The lessons, the path to meaning, are there. All we have to do is keep going. No matter the erasable lines that try to divide us, in this we are the same.

So it turns out I didn’t need to panic after all. Because, as Mnemosyne taught me, there is never a last word. Only the next word. With the goddess of memory beside you, with her daughters whispering in your ear, may the words continue to find you when you need them. May they uplift, inspire, and guide. And, at the close of this chapter, may they provide a way for us all to stay connected, until we can be together again. 

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Friday’s live line-up

Beginning in March, every Friday from 10:00-10:30am Pacific, we have livestreamed readings featuring three authors who read their work and answered questions from the audience. This week, for our final Friday Live episode, we bring you JM Landels and Mel Anastasiou!

JM Landels

JM Landels is torn between travelling the world to teach writing and swordfighting, and never leaving her idyllic farm in Langley, BC. Her first book, fantasy bestseller Allaigna’s Song: Overture, is available from Pulp Literature Press and Amazon, and the sequel, Aria, was released April 2020, with the third book in the series due out in late 2021. You can follow her adventures with pen and sword at jmlandels.stiffbunnies.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mel Anastasiou

Mel Anastasiou writes mysteries, including the Fairmount Manor Mysteries and the Hertfordshire Pub Mysteries. For her novel Stella Ryman and the Fairmount Manor Mysteries, Mel won a Literary Titan Gold Book Award and was longlisted for the Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. As well, she is the author of two illustrated writing guides for Pulp Literature Press. Follow her at MelAnastasiou.wordpress.com and on twitter @melanastasiou.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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