Anaïs Nin and Colette on YouTube

A couple of friends came over and videoed me reading aloud from my novel, Nights in Paris. One video shows me reading from The Slave of Bracelets, one of my chapters about Anaïs Nin. In the other video, I read from The Silver Stopper, one of my chapters about Colette.

Not having any acting or filming experience, being filmed was bizarre and excruciatingly embarassing. However, everyone seems to be Tubing these days, and when in Rome, etc.

In the Colette video, I introduce myself in French as well as English. My French is pretty good, but I was so nervous that my pronunciation of “roman” (“novel” — a very easy word to say) wobbled and came out as “romain” instead. I had exactly the same wobble on the next take, which was otherwise okay, so we decided to let it go. So that’s why I’m describing my Roman instead of my novel!

I’m going to attempt to give you the links to my videos, but I find links tricky, so if they don’t work, please search YouTube for my name, Sarah Line Letellier, and the videos should pop up.

Extract from The Slave of Bracelets (about Anaïs)

Extract from The Silver Stopper (about Colette)

Big thanks to Nicola, my web guru, and to Elaine, filmographer extraordinaire! S x

Anaïs Nin narrated by Marlene!

A big thank you to Nicola the web goddess! She’s fixed up my blog with a sparkling new template, added great new features, and found the most wonderful, sensuous video as a wonderful treat for everyone who reads this blog! Marlene Dietrich’s husky, sultry voice is an ideal accompaniment to these 1930s style photographs inspired by Anaïs Nin’s erotic writing; if I were to guess which specific story of erotica, I would say Elena from Delta of Venus. (Yes, I am a devotee!) I love this video because it is the visual image of my writing. It is a perfect translation of the atmosphere I am creating in my Colette and Anaïs novel, Nights in Paris.

Un grand merci à Nicola, qui a trouvé ce petit film, vraiment extraordinaire, sur Anaïs Nin. Ultra sensual et vraiment très beau, ce film est exactement l’atmosphere que je suis en train de créer avec mon roman sur Colette et Anaïs, Paris dans la Nuit.

inspiring music

I have my inspiring music (see earlier post about the Henry and June soundtrack), and now I have my inspirational pictures…. I managed to get hold of a fabulous still from the film about Anaïs and June last week! It’s a close-up of their faces together. Their eyes are smudged with heavy black eyeliner, their mouths painted red, their hair is 1920s wavy, and you can catch a glimpse of Anais’s crimson velvet dress. Oh, it’s just marvellous! I’ve pinned it to my pinboard above my desk, next to my picture of Colette in drag (the cover from ‘Le pur et l’impure’), scraps of gorgeous material (a square of shiny black, beaded gauze and a few inches of green and gold beads – it would look great as a choker but is probably meant for curtains), some pearl pins that came with flowers, my favourite 1920s Steinlen postcards, Kiki de Montparnasse, the picture of the legs from my story, a picture of a bottle of Mitsouko… oh my goodness, I really AM a magpie. I collect bits and scraps of nothing, which for me are essential, sentimental treasures.

Another thing I annoy myself with – I am incapable of spending less than an hour in the library. I go in simply to return some books (right, I’m going in and coming straight out, I will be only 5 minutes) but when I step through the doors I go into some kind of trance, or time warp. I’ll just flick through this book on Isadora Duncan, that could provide some useful background info, oh look, Sarah Bernhardt, same thing, while I’m here I’ll just photocopy that page from one of Anais’s diaries that I forgot to copy last time, some idiot has taken the book out, I’ll have a quick though her other diaries in case I find something else….. what a great photo of her, I need that, can’t find my photocopy card… got no change… there’s a queue at the change machine… and on it goes, before I know it the library is closing. I have to face it – it really is time I had a watch.

On the bright side, Colette is continuing to grow nicely! I’ve written the bit about when she meets Missy, and now I’m onto her and Willy’s open marriage, and how she created an illusion of naturalness – natural beauty and effortless prose – which was not quite true. The more I write about Anais and Colette, the more similar their personal issues are – and yet they are very distinct personalities – Anais created an opposite illusion, one of sophistication and exoticism. And also, the more I write about them, the more I identify with them. I found the wonderful photo of Anais in a biography of her, but I got cross with the biographer when I flicked through it, as it’s very judgmental and moralistic. That seems so wrong to me (now it’s my turn to be judgmental) – I can’t imagine writing a book about someone I don’t greatly admire, or at least have a great sympathy for, and even, across the centuries, love. Maybe I’m becoming over-protective about my characters – but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. They both had their faults, but to me the dramas and intrigues of their personal lives only make their writing all the more remarkable and fascinating.

The Slave of Bracelets

The Slave of Bracelets, my story that won a writing prize, was published on 31 December. I stood outside the dairy (newsagent), almost ripping the newspaper open in impatience… where is it? where is it? and what illustration have they used? (I was more worried about that than anything else) but — ohmygoodness, there it is, my story, and there I am, with my plunging cleavage sadly cut out of the photo, but that’s alright, you can see my glittery scarf, okay, it’s not too bad, and WOW LEGS! The picture they have used is a close-up of a pair of stockinged legs and a hint of suspender belt, and the model is wearing the cutest 1930s black shoes with ribbons and those wonderful curving heels. It is gorgeous, it is PERFECT. I breathe again and walk home grinning, insanely happy.

The story is on the Sunday Star Times website — just search under my name or The Slave of Bracelets. I do love my title!

So, merry xmas, happy chanukah and happy New Year! I totally forgot about chanukah (again) —my mother sent me some candles but i don’t have a chanukiah to put them in! I keep meaning to try and find one (altho’ goodness knows where from), as I’ve been meaning to get one for the past 5 years or more. It’s only when actually need one that I remember that I have to get one – as soon as chanukah is over I forget… until next year! If it was possible to get thrown out of the Jewish club, I would be well and truly out the door. But it’s not totally my fault: as Daffyd might say, if he was from Brent Cross rather than Wales, it’s hard being the only Jewish person in the village!

Anaïs Nin story short-listed for competition

The Slave of Bracelets story about Anaïs Nin, from my novel Nights in Paris, has been shortlisted for The Sunday Star Times writing competition — hooray!

The local paper rang me up for a phone interview while I was at work, luckily on my mobile, so I ran to hide in the photocopier room so no one would hear me! A few hours later, a photographer came to take a picture, something that always embarasses me. I had to pose on the street for him, with people walking by, which made me feel even sillier. The sun was in my eyes, so I was squinting, and it was really windy, so you can imagine how wild my hair was, which is uncontrollable, even at the best of times ….. but despite it all the photographer was very nice so it wasn’t too traumatic. Here is the article:

Storyteller Sarah’s Historic Fascination

A love of books and a fascination with history inspired Mt Victoria writer Sarah Letellier’s short story ‘The Slave of Bracelets’. Letellier is a finalist in the prestigious Sunday Star Times open division short story competition. She says ‘The Slave of Bracelets’ is actually an adapted chapter from the novel she is writing. It is about the French writer Anaïs Nin. “She is one of my favourite writers. I love writing and reading about her life.”

Letellier has already written one novel, which is set in two different times – the present and the 1930s. She says her stories often require a lot of historical research. “My first novel is about identity and history and how history affects us today.”

This is the first year Letellier has entered the competition, but she is no stranger to accolades. A few years ago she won first prize for prose in the Waterstones National Writing Competition in England, again for a short story. Plus her short story, The Taste of Marrah, was published in a New Zealand/Australian short story anthology called ‘Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love’.

At the moment Letellier fits in writing around her day-job as an editorial advisor, but eventually she would like to write full-time. “It’s my dream job,” she says.

(I meant that writing full-time would be my dream job, not editing!) I didn’t think I had answered the journalist’s questions very well, so I was pleasantly relieved by the end result. A friend read the article and rang me up to ask me why I hadn’t mentioned my blog? Oh, er, yeah, good idea… I was so flustered that it went totally out of my head. Maybe if I don’t hide in the photocopier room next time, I’ll be able to focus!

I must admit that I love my title for the short story; it’s taken from one of Anais Nin’s diaries, when she refers to herself as “the slave of bracelets” — she loved her jewellery! She also refers to herself as admiring jewels like “a fascinated savage”. I adore that too, taken in the context of the time, but of course 75 years later the meaning has ugly implications. I have also wondered about using the word “slave”, and have taken myself to task over it, but I decided to go with it, as it does have an emotional meaning as well as its literal one. I don’t like weighty words being used lightly (the way that “holocaust” and “nazi” are used today), but I think it’s important to try not to judge previous eras by our own standards. Colette has a few anti-semitic slip-ups in her early works which I could be horrified by, but that was the attitude of the time. She regretted it later, and I don’t hold it against her — she will always be one of my beloved favourites.

I’m reading her biography now (I’m reading different ones, I think this is the 4th) as research for my current “Colette” story. I am so impatient to start writing, but at the same time I don’t feel quite ready to let go of Anaïs just yet. So I will leave her for now, but the story about the slave of bracelets may yet continue…

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