When I attended Diablo Valley College for two years, a preschool program was set up for students who wanted to be Early Childhood Education teachers. I enrolled my son, Adrian, and took a class from Beverly Dutra, which included being able to observe the children, how they interacted and what activities they chose. Class members wrote reports on the observations and Beverly wrote comments all over our papers. She was encouraging, wise, and an outstanding instructor.
Since then (over 30 years ago), Beverly and I have kept in touch. She has moved a few hours away, but cheerful notes from her appear every season. She is an avid reader, dislikes the internet and never uses it. The last couple of years we have been sharing books. I send her the latest anthology in which one of my stories is published. She sends me books she finished that she thinks I would like.
Last month I sent her The Las Positas’ Anthology, with my story “Waiting” in it. Today I received The Red Notebook from her and a note saying my stories have a haunting quality. (Not ghost haunting.) She said The Red Notebook reminded her a bit of my writing and asked if I can discover the similar element. She has me hooked, I can’t wait to read it and see what element she means.
It’s available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Red-Notebook- The author is Antoine Laurain who was born in Paris. He is the author of five novels, including The President’s Hat.
Amazon’s description of the story follows: “Heroic bookseller Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on a Parisian street. There’s nothing in the bag to indicate who it belongs to, although there’s all sorts of other things in it. Laurent feels a strong impulse to find the owner and tries to puzzle together who she might be from the contents of the bag. Especially a red notebook with her jottings, which really makes him want to meet her. Without even a name to go on, and only a few of her possessions to help him, how is he to find one woman in a city of millions?”
It sounds very interesting to me, especially since it takes place in Paris, my favorite city.
Let me know if you read it and what you think of the writing.