In the third and fifth installments of Before The Blood, I have a character who is mentioned only once by name in Bryony as part of the parade of guests at the garden party.
There was the short and stocky Mayor James Fisher and his equally short and stocky wife Maybelle, and their two daughters, whose names Melissa did not catch, and who resembled a female version of Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
In Before the Blood, all these characters come alive and become more than a quick look. Maybelle's first two descriptions are these:
"Listen to you. I'm as fat as a little pig and still you tempt me with food. Why, Maybelle's ankles look like sticks compared to mine. I don't belong in a cabin. I belong in a pasture, chomping clover and mooing."
All summer Maybelle, as plump and sweet as an overripe peach now that she was expecting, stocked the Marseilles cabin with bounties from Fisher Farm.
The reader eventually meets Maybelle "in person." Maybelle has a tendency to babble (in fact, others often interrupt her just to get to the point), and she grows larger with each child (Seven are mentioned, but it's unknown if Maybelle ever had a miscarriage or stillbirth).
And while it's easy to make assumptions or dismiss her (she's a secondary character and her role is minor), one reader names her as a favorite and sent me this over the weekend:
There was the short and stocky Mayor James Fisher and his equally short and stocky wife Maybelle, and their two daughters, whose names Melissa did not catch, and who resembled a female version of Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
In Before the Blood, all these characters come alive and become more than a quick look. Maybelle's first two descriptions are these:
"Listen to you. I'm as fat as a little pig and still you tempt me with food. Why, Maybelle's ankles look like sticks compared to mine. I don't belong in a cabin. I belong in a pasture, chomping clover and mooing."
All summer Maybelle, as plump and sweet as an overripe peach now that she was expecting, stocked the Marseilles cabin with bounties from Fisher Farm.
The reader eventually meets Maybelle "in person." Maybelle has a tendency to babble (in fact, others often interrupt her just to get to the point), and she grows larger with each child (Seven are mentioned, but it's unknown if Maybelle ever had a miscarriage or stillbirth).
And while it's easy to make assumptions or dismiss her (she's a secondary character and her role is minor), one reader names her as a favorite and sent me this over the weekend:
Maybelle is Mother Earth - the true strong, feminine ideal.
Her willingness to fix the broken children at any expense to herself. You sense
she's stronger than the men. Yet, she never loses her feminine mystique.
She absolutely shines. In the tarot she'd be the empress.
I responded: I love this. Maybelle isn't fashionably thin and she talks too much. And yet you, the
reader, can appreciate her strong femininity. I think Maybelle would be
surprised, but humbled and thankful, someone sees her this way.
Do you know a "Maybelle?"
Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."
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