Mare’s Salem’s Fork
Mare loves Salem’s Fork because it has quirky little carpenter Gothic and Victorian houses and narrow cobblestone streets and steep hills and a winding river and a mountain and a woods and a mill and a derelict castle built by some deranged rich guy in last century, but mostly she loves it because of the Greasy Fork, Mother’s Tattoos, the Big Rocks, and Value Video!!.
She runs through the town every morning, several times because she’s trying to make five miles, and she drinks in the clear air and waves to the people as her long legs eat up the road and her body soaks up the sun. She makes the run up the mountain to the Big Rocks and loops around them, stopping in the center for a quiet moment for a reason she doesn’t quite understand but knows enough not to dismiss, then she runs back down to town and stops by the Greasy Fork to scarf up a doughnut with a glass of orange juice, thereby undoing all her good calorie-burning work, but she’s twenty-three so she doesn’t care. While she’s at the Fork, she swaps gossip with Pauline, her favorite waitress who knows all the news nobody could print, and they deconstruct it with slanderous precision before Mare goes back out to jog down main street at a more sedate pace, careful not to churn up the doughnut and juice before they can digest. She stops by Mother’s Tattoos to say hi, if trim, no-nonsense gray-haired Mother nods to say it’s okay, or to just wave back if Mother only waves to her, but either way she needs to see that beautiful serene face and those clear gray eyes before her day starts, the way she needs to pause in the center of the standing stones and to touch base with Pauline.
Then she jogs down the side street to the little Carpenter Gothic that the Fortune sisters call home, showers and changes into whatever amazing outfit she’s wearing that day, and walks the mile to Value Video!! waving to everybody she meets because everybody knows her. Well, it’s hard to miss the Queen of the Universe, especially when she looks like a dark-haired Valkyrie running through the town every morning in ragged blue shorts (summer) or ragged black sweats (winter) or dressing like a movie the rest of the time. Mare loves Salem’s Fork because it’s like a picture in a story book, and Salem’s Fork feels the same way about Mare.
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Fabulous… just fabulous!! I can hardly wait ’til this comes out!!
I think I’m gonna love this book!
And because I missed the launch of the new site, I must say it is amazing, stunning, ethereal, beautiful, and girly in the best sense! Well done!
Nine days and counting!
I love the feel of Mare’s town. I know it is the same town in which her sisters live, but I somehow think that they may view it in a much different light than she does. She seems so much a part of everything, and it’s as if all of these things, the standing stones and the Greasy Fork and Mother and everything, they are a part of her. I just love the sense of belonging that she feels, the sense of connection.
Of course, I totally hate that the twentysomething little twit can eat a doughnut and not even worry about it! Ugh. To be twentysomething again. NOT. Not even for the fabulous metabolism. But I will adore reading about Mare. And her sisters. And her aunt. And her men.
Especially her men.
Well, she’s not thin. Or small, she towers over her sisters.
But then, you know. She’s Queen of the Universe. And she runs five miles a day.
Which I used to do, by the way. Now I consider a trip from the bedroom to the kitchen and back again a lap.
I can see Mare just loving her town. Being Queen of the Universe, she would love being the big fish in the small pond. Because she’s not interested in the universe, just her little corner of it.
Ah yes. Mare’s cobblestone streets. I see now why she loves them so. I would too. *grins*
Oh, and forgot to mention…
I want to say THANK YOU to Jenny or Mollie or whoever it is that is kind enough to put instructions for Mac on all of your sites. While I already know how to add an image as a wallpaper, it is still VERY nice to see that “For Mac OS” thing right there.
Me, now you are just being mean.
McB, it’s hard not to talk about all the fun things in this book! Even the little things are funny, e.g. I got a chuckle when Xan referred to Crash as “Crunch.”
p.s. Yes, I am done now. I’ve taken a solemn vow: no hints shall pass these lips until the book comes out. It’s mini-Lent as far as I’m concerned.
p.p.s. Except I have to say that I will never again look at cobblestone streets in quite the same way.