Craft, Comfort, and the Restorative Power of A Little Nap

A couple of weeks ago a friend sent me a link to a discussion of the late and much-missed Kerry Greenwood's final Miss Fisher mystery, which I could not read because paywalls.

However! It did remind me not of the divine Miss Fisher, with whom I suspect many of my readers are familiar, but of Corinna Chapman, the lead in her other, lesser known mystery series. They were all available on Libby. I promptly started a re-read.

Unlike the divine Hon. Phyrne, who doesn't need to work if she doesn't want to, Corinna is a modern woman in modern (2004-2015ish) Melbourne, who earns an honest crust by baking the best bread in the city at her bakery, Earthly Delights. Also unlike Phryne, Corinna is not a slim and athletic reed, but a woman of sumptuous flesh who describes herself, without shame or embarrassment, as fat. When I first read the books, this was a revelation, and while I wasn't surprised this time, it still felt delightful to inhabit her point of view as she dressed, bathed, walked the city, solved mysteries, worked, ate, and made love all while never once regretting her size.

There are a few things about the books I cavil at, both now and then - the way there are two Māori characters (no macron, and "Maoris" in the earlier books) who are both enormous men who stop assaults by their sheer largeness, picking assailants up or hugging them into submission. I am very dubious about Corinna's matter-of-fact acceptance of everything her beloved Daniel, an ex-IDF soldier, has to say about Israel and Palestine without wondering if he might be perhaps just a touch biased. There are some odd research biases too. There's a whole thing in the last book where everyone intelligent and righteous simply asserts that of course Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had two children, everyone knows that, when in fact Jesus' marital status has been fiercely debated for literally centuries and there is no validated historical evidence to rely on as authority and by that I also mean lack of evidence isn't evidence okay I have to stop.

I'm not saying you shouldn't read the books because of these things; I re-read and enjoyed them. But I can't wholeheartedly recommend, so there you go, a few caveats to bear in mind.

What I do very much like is the depiction of Corinna's work. I like the work in her bakery, crafting and selling bread, cake and muffins. The work in her home, Insula, a Roman-style apartment building (rather better constructed than some of those notoriously collapsible structures) where she arbitrates disputes and metes out justice for her fellow inhabitants. The work she does with the Soup Run, where she assists the admirable Sister Mary in assisting the destitute, unhoused, mentally ill and addicted of Melbourne.

I also like the mysteries, I guess, but Corinna isn't herself very interested in mystery as mystery - she wants to solve crimes or find culprits mostly in the interests of justice, or of protecting victims from further harm. Phryne loves detective work. Corinna loves bread. There are long, comforting descriptions of her craft. It's inspiring in more ways than one. I have baked two sets of muffins and tried my hand at brandy baskets this week.

Because she has to get up at 4 a.m. every morning, Corinna is a lover of the restorative nap. I too love a restorative nap, especially in summer, although 6:30 a.m. is the earliest I can make myself rise. Late afternoon is best, because then I am tired enough to want the rest, but I can get up and do things in the evening. There is something very pleasant about deliberately putting everything down for an hour and drifting away while (usually) I listen to history or nature writing.

Yesterday, I did a lot of promotion work for the Kickstarter campaign, and as promo always does, it took longer than I thought it would and was more frustrating than I imagined it would be. (Although not infinitely more frustrating - I am getting better at gauging that.) I did not have time for a restorative nap. I did make pizza and potato salad, both of which were delicious and restored some equilibrium.

Today, I won't be napping - I have a full day at the day job, and more to do afterwards.

Wednesday promises to be 29 degrees Celsius, with a strong norwester, and I am home early from the day job. It sounds like that will be an excellent day for a nap.

SPEAKING OF THE KICKSTARTER for Magician First Class we passed the second stretch goal a few days ago and are hurrying towards the third!

(Second = Alison's map is now going to be available on a postcard! Third = I write a short story titled "Exeunt, Luminous, Numinous" which is set in the Sparks and Recreation universe and concerns the liminal magic of theatre backstage and the light left on for the ghosts.)

There are TWO DAYS left in the Kickstarter, so now is your final chance to back. The e-books are pretty much ready to go, and I won't be putting them on general sale until after Kickstarter is fulfilled, so backing is by far the fastest way to get a taste of my new series.