Diaries and Discovery
I always say, keep a diary and someday it’ll keep you. ~ Mae West
Who hasn’t kept a diary?
Who hasn’t thought about reading someone else’s diary?
Who wonders what famous people might have kept a diary?
I have kept a journal since high school and can’t seem to let more than twenty-four hours pass without writing in it. I don’t keep them under lock and key but in a large chest. Each diary is marked by a volume number and the date. Usually each journal covers one month in my life. I have gone through periods where I have written less but journal writing is such a part of my life, that like reading, I can’t live without it. What do I write about you ask? Anything and everything. It depends on the day.
Sometimes my journal writing seeps into the pages of my books and if you have read my novels, diaries play a large part in aiding the reader’s discovery of the back story of a particular character, or in opening a window into the past.
In Blood Tears, Amanda Perretti touches a ladies diary dated 1793, which is slated for the museum exhibition she is currently working on, and is shown a diary covered in blood and a woman who she recognizes from a painting in Christian’s home in New York; a woman who died in eighteenth century Paris.
Her hands vibrated with energy as the image of a stone bridge filled her mind’s eye, turning into the Pont Neuf, illuminated by torchlight and surrounded by the murky waters of the Seine. Across the bridge she could barely make out the outline of the kings palace set against the dark sky. Then the images shifted to a beautiful bedroom complete with a roaring fire, eighteenth century furnishings and a woman and child near the fireplace. Her blue gown flowed around her like water. The woman lifted up the child and turned and Amanda could have sworn it was the woman in the portrait, the one whom Christian and Michel both loved beyond words centuries earlier: Josette Delacore.
We are offered a glimpse into the life of Christian’s mother, Eléanore Du Mauré, who died when Christian was just a boy. She writes in her diary of an experience during the winter of 1737 where she meets a man who gives her more than she could ever imagine.
His arms had slipped around me and he was walking towards the fireplace…Before I could catch my breath we were together on the thick carpet in front of the fire. Flames danced higher and higher as we kissed. I no longer cared about my husband or my reputation; I wanted him. Hearing my gown rip, I found myself naked beside him……Andreas opened his mouth as two jutting fangs burst forth and came for me, and in that moment it all made sense…Would he drink my blood and kill me? I had no time to ask and neither did I care, for when he pierced my flesh both pain and pleasure ripped through me. I closed my eyes and prayed this night would never end.
Later on, Christian reads his mother’s diary and learns more secrets surrounding her life and his true heritage.
Famous diarists include Marie Antoinette, Samuel Pepys, Marcus Aurelius and Anne Frank.
Whose diary would you like to read?
