A short story, steeping in my mind...

My good friend Karen and I are signed up for a short story class, beginning in October! I'm allowing a brainful of words and ideas to slowly steep, in preparation for writing a tale. With the help of my excellent, brilliant sister Serendipity Rose, and the benevolent librarian at our 'North East Library', I've accumulated the inviting pile of books sitting before me. Today has been one of those crazy fall days, which finds Bens and I each snuggled in an armchair by the crackling fire reading in the morning, and, rather suddenly, mid-afternoon, turns into a warm, sweet-smelling blue-sky day. So I'm sunbathing atop the warm hot-tub lid, with my tomes, as follows:

Buckley, T & Gottlieb, A 1988 Blood Magic - The Antropology of Menstruation, University of California Press, Berkeley

Coutinho, E & Segal, S 1999 Is Menstruation Obselete?, Oxford University Press, New York

Grahn, Judy 1987 The Queen of Swords, Beacon Press, Boston

Grahn, Judy 1993 Blood, Bread and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World, Beacon Press, Boston

Gray, Miranda 1994 Red Moon - Understanding and Using the Gifts of the Menstrual Cycle, Element, Rockport

Houppert, Karen 1999 The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York

Rich, Adrienne 1986 Of Woman Born, Norton & co., New York

Swigart, Jane 1991 The Myth of the Bad Mother: The Emotional Realities of Mothering, Doubleday, New York

In reading thus far, I'm realising assumptions within myself about menstrual blood being unclean in a deep spiritual and psychological sense. Becoming aware of the wonder, beauty and magnificence of my own body, of women's bodies, is a process being incorporated into the writing of this short story.

Comments

Anonymous said…
whoa, i didn't realize there were so many books out there that focused specifically on menstruation!
Gimena said…
Wooow!!! I love that issue!!! becouse is related to not only fuids but with our womanhood, and with the moon cicles and water....is all connected!
I love it !
Gime.

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