Colette story short-listed for competition

The Silver Stopper is a short story I adapted from my novel, Nights in Paris. I entered the story into a historical fiction competition just before I left NZ. What a lovely surprise when I got home to find that I’d been long-listed — and an even nicer surprise a while later when I graduated into the short-list! The competition is run by Fish Publishing, based in Ireland — see their great website, www.fishpublishing.com.

And now I’m back home… it’s so sad that Paris is half the world away. I think the hardest thing for many Europeans about living in NZ is that travelling is so much more of an effort — we’re used to having countless countries just a few hours away — we’re used to being spoilt!

I’ve made a wonderful new inspiration board, to go with my original board and my writing CD. I now have a 1900s-Colette board and a 1930s-Anaïs board. Ideally, of course, I wouldn’t separate them, but I have so many fabulous Parisian pictures and photographs that it’s impossible to fit them on one board. I found some beautiful postcards in a Parisian gallerie — one of Kiki de Montparnasse, nude except for some bizarre shoes, sitting in a chair and stretching up, showing off the little tufts of hair under her arms and her superb, gravity-less breasts. Another postcard shows a couple at the famous drag bar Le Monocle, both the femme and the butch so theatrically made up that it seems ludicrous that butches really were mistaken for men in those days. I’m fascinated by postcards advertising cigarettes for women; I have one from 1900 and the other from the 1920s. They make smoking look so peaceful, relaxing and natural — both cards feature colourful flowers and sexy, hazy smoke.

J’ai aussi une copie d’un article de Colette qui date de 1906 et décrit son premier rôle de théâtre, «L’Amour, Le Désire, La Chimère». L’article est décoré de photos de Colette dans son costume de faune, a moité nue avec de jolies petites cornes, comme un petit diable adorable.