Google adventures into the history of cleavage

I’m being interviewed tomorrow by a journalist on the history of cleavage. Having written Mistress of the Sun, a novel set in the 17th century court of the Sun King, I’m now an expert.

Right?

Yes … and no.

I have some insights, some opinions on this, but I’ve not looked into the subject in any formal way. So: time to cram.

Of course the first thing I do to prep for this interview is Google the subject. One of the links to pop up is to an academic paper titled “Parties and Cleavages in the European Political Space.” (It occurs to me that this was an unfortunate choice of words for the title of a serious work, that the use of “party” and “cleavage” together was certain to give rise to hecklers. )

I persevere…

The next link brings up an article in the Journal of Metamorphic Geology. The article includes the sentence: “We interpret this to reflect a pressure-solution mechanism for cleavage development, where precipitation from a very small fluid reservoir fractionated that fluid.”

(How would you interpret this sentence?)

And further: “...the history of cleavage formation in the area is more protracted and complex. To unravel the cleavage history...”

Onward … for I must, indeed, “unravel the cleavage history,” and quickly.

Heroine of a Golden Age: a wonderful article

I'm very pleased this morning to discover Janice Kennedy's article in the Ottawa Citizen, "Heroine of a Golden Age". I'm a long way from Ottawa—I'm in San Miguel de Allende, enjoying a sunny morning—yet through the wonders of the internet I learn of this article the morning it comes out. It describes—accurately and well—the long and difficult process of writing Mistress of the Sun.

The days before a novel comes out is a nervous time for an author: there will be reviews, articles, interviews. Who knows what to expect? So it's a pleasure to launch with an article such as this one. Thank you, Janice Kennedy!