The Hawai’i State Commission on the Status of Women introduced a ‘feminist economic recovery plan’ that is designed to help women recover from the economic hardships created by the coronavirus pandemic. The plan is the first of its’ kind in the nation. The plan, called “Building Bridges, Not Walking on Backs: A Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for COVID-19,” centers women from the most marginalized groups that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The plan not only proposes measures that will help aid in recovery from the economic fallout of the virus, but also introduces fundamental changes to the way women’s work is valued and compensated. “I have not seen any state or nation propose a feminist economic recovery, a recovery that explicitly centers women or attempts to counteract patriarchy,” said Khara Jabola-Carolus, executive director of the commission. “Even proposals from left movements in the U.S. are missing this. They are bold on race and class, but gender is taken for granted. People don’t seem to understand the fundamental role of patriarchy, and how to tie gender in with race and class. So, I turned to the people with real power — women organizing in our communities who are active inside […]

As with most issues in the United States, Black Americans and female Americans are the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. On April 6, Louisiana was the first state to release data on Covid-19 broken down by race. Its report showed that while African American’s make up 33% of the state’s population, they accounted for 70% of those dead from the virus at the time. Other cities and states soon followed suit with their own reports as the federal government remained silent on the issue. These reports showed, one after another, that areas with large populations of Black people have been ravaged with disproportionately high numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths. Wisconsin reported that while Black people make up 7% of the state’s population, they made up 33% of the state’s deaths. In Michigan, the numbers are 14% of the population versus 40% of the deaths. In New York, Black people are twice as likely to die from the virus as white people. The pandemic has further exposed the stark racial divide in health in our nation. Black American communities face extreme situations of environmental racism which leads to underlying health issues like which make these communities more vulnerable to […]

 A 57-year-old man from El Salvador who was being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California died from Covid-19 on Wednesday. This is the first confirmed death from the coronavirus at an ICE detention center. Carlos Escobar-Mejia has been detained at the center since Jan. 10 after having lived in the U.S. for 40 years. While at the detention center, he was on a list of people who are medically vulnerable to the virus and are therefore eligible for immediate release but was hospitalized before the list was fully put together. According to ICE, 705 out of 1,460 detainees tested positive for Covid-19. At the Otay Mesa center alone, there are 140 cases of Covid-19 out of the 649 detainees there, making it the facility with the largest number of positive tests among detainees. The Otay Mesa center is owned by the private prison company CoreCivic, which has not commented on the situation there. ICE maintains that it is caring for its detainees in light of the pandemic, but detainees have said that they do not have enough space to socially distance, that they do not have enough clean masks, and that guards are not adhering to CDC […]

 

Happy launch day to Marcie Colleen, whose THE BEAR'S GARDEN with Alison Oliver launches from Imprint/Macmillan today!

Marcie Colleen is the award-winning picture book author of Penguinaut! (illustrated by Emma Yarlett) and Love, Triangle (illustrated by Bob Shea), as well as the Super Happy Party Bears chapter book series. She teaches Writing Children’s Picture Books for the University of California at San Diego both online and on campus, and runs her own Study Hall conducting a month-long online critique group dedicated to the crafting picture books. Find out more about how you can study with Marcie at thisismarciecolleen.com and on Twitter at @MarcieColleen1.

*UPDATE: Marcie has also launched her SUPER HAPPY Book Club on her YouTube channel, especially for families at home during school closures!

Launching March 24, 2020, THE BEAR'S GARDEN is written by Marcie Colleen and illustrated by Alison Oliver. You can read reviews of the book on Kirkus (starred review!) and Bookroo.

Author: Marcie Colleen
Illustrator: Alison Oliver
Publisher: Imprint/Macmillan Children’s

SYNOPSIS: Inspired by the true story of a community garden in Brooklyn, New York, picture book The Bear’s Garden is a testament to how imagination and dedication can transform communities and create beauty for everyone in unexpected places.

A little girl sees an empty lot in a city and imagines what it can be:

a place to grow,
a place to play,
and a place to love.

With the help of her stuffed bear, the girl brings her community together to create a beautiful garden.

Q. What inspired you to write this book?

The Bear’s Garden was inspired by the real-life Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden in my former neighborhood in New York City. The name always puzzled me—I mean, we didn’t have bears wandering around Brooklyn last I checked!

Come to find out, the garden was named for a teddy bear that was found in the weeds when the workers began to create a garden in the abandoned lot. Of course, immediately I started thinking of that little bear. How did he get there? Did he belong to anyone? Was he placed there on purpose?

The Bear’s Garden is my imaginative story about how the teddy bear came to be in those weeds. It’s also a love letter to my former neighborhood and the power of community that I felt while living there. I am the girl who finds love and beauty in every inch of that urban paradise

Q. As an experienced author, how do you manage your time in terms of balancing your creative work time with the business side (promotion, admin, school visits etc), yet still have a life outside work?

While everything I do, such as teaching and creating Teacher’s Guides, falls under the umbrella of being a full-time children’s author, I have struggled in the past to find time for my own creative writing. It seems my days get quickly overrun.

However, about a year ago I paired up with a fellow author friend, Kirsten Larson, to prioritize our writing projects. We get up at 5:20 every morning to write for an hour. The alarm goes off, we text each other a quick “Good Morning” and share our project goals for that session, grab our coffee, and set to write until 6:30 without distraction. At 6:30 we check in again with our progress. It’s been a game-changer. I think I have written more in the last year because of it. And it’s a fantastic way to feel accomplished no matter what the rest of the day brings.

Q. What advice do you have for young writers?

I have always loved reading and writing stories.

A few years back I found a book I had written in elementary school. It’s called Rainbow Hunt. And in the back of the book I found an Author’s Note I had written. It said,

“Marcie Goldstein lives in Liverpool, NY and loves to write books. Someday she hopes to be a successful author.”

So, my advice to young writers everywhere would be, know that your dreams can come true. Even if people say it’s a long-shot. I’m living proof. So keep reading, keep writing, and never stop dreaming.

Q. Anything else you'd like to mention? What are you excited about these days?

Despite the recent global health crisis that has left us all indoors, I am excited to see how we will learn to build more community within our lives—even virtually. The creativity and innovation that has developed in the last few weeks has been extraordinarily inspiring. Like flowers between the pavement cracks, we will find ways. And a lot of beauty is going to grow from this.

 --

For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive. Also see Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators, a compilation of tips generously offered by children's book creators I've interviewed over the years.

Donalyn Miller's #BookADay Challenge is usually in the summer. After talking with people on Twitter and Facebook, Donalyn (happily) decided to hold a Coronavirus social distancing #BookADay challenge, so that readers who miss talking with other readers can gather and share.

You can see the "official" #bookaday guidelines on the Nerdy Book Club blog.

Here is Microcosm's statement and my response.

Microcosm's Statement:
It has been way too long since Cindy Crabb asked us to write a public statement regarding allegations of Joe Biel’s history of emotional abuse and manipulation. It is not because we have chosen to ignore this issue. On the contrary, we have spent many hours discussing this topic. But we are not writing today to provide excuses. We hope to provide some answers and to encourage more questions.

Cindy is right that collectives need to confront abuse in all its forms by members within their collectives, even if it is just a collectively-ran business, but especially when that business lays claim to radical politics. It is for this reason that we want to say that we do recognize Joe’s history of emotional abuse and manipulation. Not just with Alex, but within other relationships as well. We know that Joe has been involved in one failed mediation attempt with Alex. We also know that he was involved in a more recent process that fell apart (this was outlined in posts by Cindy and Alex). Unfortunately, the collective was made aware of this latter accountability process only shortly before it fell apart. We, the collective and Joe, have recently started working with a counselor who is helping us to reconcile many issues within the collective. We do not believe this is a replacement for a larger accountability process, but we do see it as an important first step for our involvement and for the betterment of Microcosm as a collectively-ran company.

We recognize and agree with the statement put out by the Athens Support Network, who mediated the last accountability process.

“Joe is in therapy, and we feel that he is making progress through therapy. He has identified a large number of behavior issues and has done work and continues to do work to change them. He believes that he honors Alex’s experience. We, however, feel that he still has extreme problems with control, manipulation, defensiveness, and portraying himself as the victim.”
We have noticed some positive improvements in Joe’s behavior, but he does have a long way to go. We do believe that he can work through this and therefore choose, at this time, to continue working with him. We welcome suggestions on how we, the collective, can better facilitate this process. In the meantime, we will continue to work through this and figure things out as we go.

Cindy also pointed out that she would like more transparency about how things are run at microcosm. For that reason, we will soon be releasing some information on our website about how we run things. We honestly want to be a more transparent organization (which is why we’ve started posting annual financial statements). Over the past year, we have begun to change and implement a lot of new policies to help spread power among all of the collective members. We are excited about these changes and equally excited to share them with you.

Alex was right in that we need to hear from you. We know that Microcosm could be better and we want it to be so. For that reason, we need to know what it is that you think we need to fix. We’ve already heard some great things and we’ve worked to improve those. We’ll share more about that later, though. We want the focus to stay where Cindy and others have asked us to focus it for now - on Joe’s accountability.

Thank you Cindy, Alex, Ciara, and everyone who has put pressure on us to make change. It is a wonderful example of collective action. And we hope it proves that while we may be relatively large in the zine world, we are still just a small group of people who still love the community we are a part of and hope to make it a better place.

With sincerity and humility,
The Microcosm Collective


In response to Microcosms statement about Joes manipulative and abusive behavior.

This statement is to let it be known that despite Microcosms recent public statement finally acknowledging Joe Biel’s abusive and manipulative behavior, I will not be distributing Doris though Microcosm any longer. They published Doris 23, the Doris Anthology, the Support zine and Learning Good Consent, so I don’t have control of those publications.

In July, 2010, I asked Microcosm to write a statement, or have each collective member contact me with a personal statement, as a precondition to my continuing to work with them. I was following my sincere belief that organizations should have a chance to admit to the abusive behaviors of members, and that as long as they show a commitment to change, they should not necessarily be shunned. Below is part of the statement I made.

I believe that collectives, even when they are just collective businesses, are responsible for confronting issues of patriarchy (and other forms of domination) within their collectives, and working on change and transparency. I believe that Joe's behavior stems from patriarchy … the communication/manipulation models he uses are … patriarchtical.
In order to feel comfortable continuing to be published by Microcosm, I would need to know either from each collective member or from the collective as a whole (with a minority dissenting opinion) that they don't think Alex was crazy or that the attempts to deal with the situation are a witch-hunt. I would need to know from each member, or the collective as a whole (with a minority dissenting opinion,) that the collective recognizes that Joe still has issues with control and manipulation… I need to feel like the collective takes this seriously and does not put the burden of instigating change on the survivor/s, or on people negatively affected by Joe's behavior.

I do believe there are good people who work at Microcosm. I don’t want those people to suffer because of Joe’s behavior. I wanted to give the workers at Microcosm a chance to show their commitment to confronting Joe’s manipulative behavior, and a chance to make a strong stance against abuse. The statement that was recently released by Microcosm is too little, too late. I can’t believe it took 6 months to write a statement that could easily be summed up as “we agree with the statement made by the Athens Support Network.” Microcosm’s statement gives the impression that Joe has made more changes than he has.

I was hopeful that Microcosm might be able to take a strong stand against abuse. I feel like they failed. If this statement had come out immediately, and they had followed up with concrete examples of change months later, that would have been great. If they had waited six months and come up with a statement that firmly placed the responsibility of change on Joe’s feet, discussed concrete changes the collective was making to deal with his abusive behavior, and took a strong stand against abuse, that would have been great. This statement is very weak, particularly considering that Joe’s abuse has been known for years.

There have also been a number of incidents and issues that have come up since I made my request for a public statement that have contributed to my decision to not work with Microcosm anymore:

- I had asked that a public statement be made or that each collective member contact me with a statement about their beliefs. I received two statements, both of which referred to problems between Joe and Alex; neither called it abuse.

- Joe wrote a statement about his behavior, which I found extremely disturbing. Among other problems, it was very minimizing of Alex’s experiences of abuse, and minimizing of the extent of his current manipulative behavioral problems.

- I had a number of business discussions with people at Microcosm, where the communication was unclear and I felt like I was being manipulated.

- I was told by someone at Microcosm that they were unclear what exactly Microcosm would need to do for me to continue working with them. This was months after I had made these conditions known. Often, in accountability situations, the perpetrator and the people who benefit from continued friendship/relationship with the perpetrator want to know exactly what needs to be done to fix it. This need for an exact recipe puts the burden back on the survivor/people who support the survivor.

All of these things have added to my feeling that the collective is not taking Joe’s abusive patterns seriously.

I would like to take this chance to clear up some misconceptions about the accountability process I was involved in with Joe:

In late 2009, Joe told me that he had been in intensive therapy, had changed, and had no way of clearing his name. I helped set up an accountability team that was designed to confirm that Joe had recognized and changed his behavior; to help him deal with rumors, and to help him make amends. It was not designed to be a full accountability process.

Early on, it became clear that Joe still had very abusive/manipulative behaviors and that he was unwilling to own up to most of it. Joe had lied about the level of changes he had made. Because of this, the accountability process was disbanded.

I am disgusted by Joe’s abuse of his former partner, disgusted by his continuing manipulative behavior. I do not think he has even begun to make the kinds of fundamental changes necessary. I take abuse very seriously and while I think there are some people in Microcosm who are committed to working for a world without abuse, I also think there is complicity within the organization. I have been disturbed by my recent interactions with people working at Microcosm. I am glad they made a public statement, and that they have a counselor helping them deal with internal issues but am skeptical about their priorities, since they have not posted their public statement on their website. I feel mistrustful of the organization. I have a hard time not thinking that most people just signed on to the statement, hoping to save their pants. I understand that they have been working to be more transparent. I hope that they are able to change. I, however, will not be working with Microcosm any longer.

I'll be in Chicago for the Chicago zine fest - reading on Fri 25, doing a writing workshop Sat at 11 am, and tabeling. Come visit!

My grandfather, Allan Linder, age 94, passed away on Tuesday. Not Covid-19 related, and that’s only one of the things that’s been very surreal about the last few weeks. Telling people, “My grandpa is sick – it’s not covid,” as a kind of verbal footnote. He went into hospice care in early February after a […]

I’ve been nattering on about Robin Hood for over a year now, and I’m happy to say that it’s all been to good purpose: The Ghosts of Sherwood has a starred review in Publishers Weekly! Pull quote:  “Vaughn’s masterful worldbuilding and lovable cast promise more good things to come in future adventures.” This is a […]

気鋭のフォトグラファー４人による撮りおろし                      
全裸・肉体美から優しい素顔まで…表現の限界に挑んだ“男・加藤和樹”渾身の一冊
加藤和樹写真集『加藤和樹という男』



アーティスト、俳優、声優と幅広い分野で活躍する加藤和樹。30代となって、大人の男性の魅力が最高潮の今、満を持して放つ最新写真集は、現在、注目の気鋭のフォトグラファー４人によって、約１年半に渡り撮り下ろされ、彼の“表現者”としてのさまざまな側面を切り取りました。
スタジオでのアーティスティックでモードなフォトから、日常的なシチュエーションで優しい素顔が丸出しの写真、砂浜を走り回る、アクティブな姿や、さらには、温泉ロケで撮影した、この写真集でしか見ることができない、まるで彫刻のような全裸・肉体美まで。表現できる限りの“男・加藤和樹”がギュッと詰まった渾身の1冊です。過去、現在、未来や恋愛観、役者、アーティストとしての思いを語ったロングインタビューも掲載。「加藤和樹という男」を全方位、全方向から掘り下げた決定版写真集です。

加藤和樹写真集『加藤和樹という男』
●発売日：2018年4月9日(月)　※一部、発売日が異なる地域がございます。
●定  価：本体3,241円＋税　（税込3,500円）
●撮  影：荒木勇人、藤本和典、網中健太、樽木優美子
●発売元：東京ニュース通信社
※対象店購入特典やイベント情報は下記サイトをご確認ください。
東京ニュース通信社サイト

https://zasshi.tv/products/detail/HBTNM180409_001-00-00-00-00-00
加藤和樹ＦＣ特典はＦＣページにてお知らせいますのでご確認ください。
http://www.katokazuki.com/voice/

いつも加藤和樹を応援いただき誠にありがとうございます。

 

いよいよ本日よりミュージカル「1789-バスティーユの恋人たち」が上演されますが、皆様にお願いがあり、下記記載させていただきます。

 

●各劇場楽屋口付近には他の店舗等もありますので、迷惑がかからないようお願いいたします。

 

●加藤本人の楽屋出入り時、通路を走ってこられたり、他のお客様を押しのけて直接手紙やプレゼントを渡そうとされる方がいらっしゃいます。

誠に申し訳ございませんが、今回から手紙やプレゼントは全て劇場のプレゼントBOXにお願いいたします。

 

●プレゼントの中には「１．２日間保存の生もの」や「要冷蔵」をご持参される方がいますが、季節柄「生もの」「要冷蔵」は申し訳ございませんが本人にお渡しできませんのでご了承ください。

 

加藤はじめキャスト・スタッフ一丸となって全力で公演に向かっておりますのでご理解いただき、皆様、千秋楽まで応援よろしくお願いいたします。

 

スタッフ

 

 

 

 

2018年も残すところあと数時間。

【VOICE会員の皆様へ】
いつも加藤和樹を応援いただき誠にありがとうございます。
Kazuki Kato ROAD TOUR2019開催にあたり、VOICE会員の皆様へご案内させていただきます。

今回、初の試みであるROAD TOUR会場限定でライブ会場にて「2ショット撮影」を実施することとなりました。

これは細かく各地方へ行くことができなったことから始まった“１人ROADTOUR”で、
いつも応援してくださるVOICE会員の方への感謝の気持ちとして「何か思い出に残るものは…」と本人が考えたことでもあります。

ただ、この企画は【ROAD TOUR参加のVOICE会員１名１会場１回のみ】とさせていただき、GIGTOURとThanksgiving of VOICEでは行いませんのでご了承ください。
※時間の都合上、撮影希望会場を１カ所選んでもらって１会員１回のみの撮影となります。

現在、ライブ会場からライブ会場への移動、グッズ販売の時間、リハーサルの時間など状況を確認しております。
どのタイミングで撮影ができるかなど詳細は後日お送りいたします「VOICE会員ライブグッズ先行案内」にて同封させていただきますので、今しばらくお待ちください。

ROADTOUR、GIGTOUR、Thanksgiving of VOICEと企画進行中ですので引き続き応援よろしくお願いいたします。

スタッフ

 

昨日まで年末感がまるでなかったのですが、4Kを終えて年内の仕事が終わった今日の朝を迎えた時に急に感じました。

いつも応援ありがとうございます。

いよいよ２月９日よりKATALK'n SHOW in Valentine -35歳になっちゃった！-が開催されます。

司会を入れての大規模なトークショーの開催は初めてになります。

幼少期の話から現在の話、皆様の質問に答えるなど考えておりますので楽しみにしていてください。

特典のおみやげは終演後退場時にお渡しいたします。

 

下記、注意事項や物販情報などをご確認ください。
 

◇KATALK'n SHOW in Valentine -35歳になっちゃった！-Ｑ＆Ａ◇

 

Q:イベント時間はどのくらいですか？
A:公演は150分を予定しております。

Q.イベントは着席ですか？
A.イベントはすべて着席になります。

 

Q:何か販売物はありますか？
A:FCイベントですので特別FCイベントセールを開催いたします。

この機会にまだ揃えていない商品を是非お買い求めください。

商品はなくなり次第終了となります。

※但し、会場にて売切れでも、倉庫に在庫がある商品は後日発送を対応いたしますのでスタッフにお声掛けください。

 

物販販売時間　１１：３０～

 

Q.販売される商品は
A.グッズは下記になります。

 

 

Q:物販は開場中、終演後でも購入できますか？
A:購入できるようにしております。

 

Q:注意事項はありますか？
A:
・録音録画も禁止です。発見次第、ご退場いただきます。

・今回よりチケットに名前が記載されております。当日は会員証を必ずご持参いただき名前照合をいたします。名前が違う場合は入場できません。(会員期限切れている場合は再更新が必要となります）
・荷物の多い方は、予め駅のコインロッカーなどにお預けください。

・昨今のコロナウイルス、インフルエンザなどウイルス性の感染症が流行しております。入場前に手洗いなど行い、咳などが出る方は必ずマスクを着用してください。また、飴や水などご持参いただき、各自ご注意ください。また、感染拡大防止のため、スタッフがマスクを着用させていただく場合がございます。予めご了承ください。

・開場時に消毒スプレーをご用意しております。必ず消毒してからご入場ください。

・会員証紛失や忘れた方は必ず身分証明書をお持ちいただきスタッフに声をかけてください。身分証明書がない場合はご入場をお断りいたします。

 

Q:当日券はありますか？
A:当日券はございません。

Q:お花などを送りたいのですが。。。
A:会場の都合上、お断りさせていただきます。

 

Q:ＣＤ即売などはありますか
A:販売ございません。

 

Q:プレゼントを渡したいのですが。。。
A:申し訳ございませんが、今回のイベントはお手紙以外のプレゼントはお預かりできません。

プレゼントなどは事務所にお送りくださいますようお願いいたします。

 

 

楽しいトークイベントになりますように加藤和樹・スタッフ一同お待ち申し上げております。

Moving house is tomorrow, so lets do this instead. Last weekend I went to EGX 2019. I’ve been once before, on a day-pass in 2011, where I was unimpressed by the queue to play time ratios, and the lack of…

In paperback:

Stephen King's The Outsider maintains its position at number 5 (trade paperback).

Though it did show signs of greatness akin to those which made the previous Terre d'Ange novels such incredible reads, I felt that Naamah's Kiss turned out to be Jacqueline Carey's weakest Kushiel-related work to date. Given the originality and the quality of its predecessors, Naamah's Kiss and the next two installments had big shoes to fill. Which is quite unfair as far as expectations go, but that's the way love goes.

Weakest installment or not, Naamah's Kiss was nonetheless better than most fantasy titles out there. And its sequel, Naamah's Curse, turned out to be a better balanced read. Indeed, it was another convoluted book full of wonder and sensuality.

Understandably, I was looking forward to discovering how the author would close the show in Naamah's Blessing. And I'm pleased to report that Carey brought this trilogy to a satisfying ending.

Here's the blurb:

Returning to Terre d'Ange, Moirin finds the royal family broken. Wracked by unrelenting grief at the loss of his wife, Queen Jehanne, King Daniel is unable to rule. Prince Thierry, leading an expedition to explore the deadly jungles of Terra Nova, is halfway across the world. And three year old Desirée is a vision of her mother: tempestuous, intelligent, and fiery, but desperately lonely, and a vulnerable pawn in a game of shifting political allegiances.

As tensions mount, King Daniel asks that Moirin become Desirée's oath-sworn protector. Navigating the intricate political landscape of the Court proves a difficult challenge, and when dire news arrives from overseas, the spirit of Queen Jehanne visits Moirin in a dream and bids her undertake an impossible quest.

Another specter from the past also haunts Moirin. Travelling with Thierry in the New World is Raphael de Mereliot, her manipulative former lover. Years ago, Raphael forced her to help him summon fallen angels in the hopes of acquiring mystical gifts and knowledge. It was a disastrous effort that nearly killed them, and Moirin must finally bear the costs of those bitter mistakes.

As is habitually her wont, Jacqueline Carey's worldbuilding is great. Eschewing the traditional European medieval environment, Carey's creation is a Renaissance era analog and it is set in an alternate version of Western Europe. Previous Terre d'Ange books took us on amazing journeys that enabled readers to discover more about her universe. Richly detailed and imagined in terms of cultures, religions, and politics, every installment of Moirin's trilogy was a textured and sophisticated novel that took us to alternate versions of Britain, France, China, Mongolia, Russia, India, and Nepal. Not surprisingly, Naamah's Blessing turned out to be another vast and captivating travelogue which introduced us to Terra Nova, an analog of the New world with alternate versions of Central America and Peru. The author's depiction of the Mayan, Aztec, and Inca cultures was well-done and certainly gave this novel its unique flavor compared to its predecessors.

There was a lot of drama involved in Moirin's return to Terre d'Ange, yet it was nice to see things come full circle in that regard. Scenes featuring young Désirée with Moirin and Bao were emotional and Moirin being named the child's sworn protector added another layer to the already complex relationship between the bear witch and the royal family. But to a certain extent, the tale truly begins when Moirin sails away to the new continent. Readers have always known that they would see Raphael de Mereliot again, that the storyline betwen Moirin and her former lover was not over. But I never expected this. I loved how the author tied up that loose end.

I'm not the only reader who missed the first person narrative of Phèdre nó Delaunay early on. Having spent her childhood in isolation in the wilderness, there was an innocence and vulnerability to Moirin, but also a definite strength that Phèdre did not possess at a young age. That resolve got sorely tested in the second volume. During her search for Bao, she often found herself alone and forced to rely on no one but herself. I feel that her harrowing experiences during the search for her beloved and subsequent captivity and flight finally made her come together as a main protagonist. So much so that I stopped comparing her to Phèdre and Imriel, as if Moirin's voice and perspective had finally taken their rightful place in the driver's seat. And it's even more evident in this final installment.

Jacqueline Carey has a knack for creating endearing and memorable secondary characters, and once more she came up with a wonderful cast for Naamah's Blessing. As mentioned, there are some poignant scenes featuring Désirée. But there is also Balthasar Shahrizai and Lianne Tremaine, as well as Moirin's father. There is Eyahue, the randy jungle guide, the ferocious warrior Temilotzin, and the brave Maidens of the Sun. And, as always, Bao, who carries half on Moirin's soul in his heart.

The author continues to write with elegance. As I've said many times, her lyrical prose is something special and I feel it could well be the very best in the genre today. Once more in Naamah's Blessing, her enthralling prose creates an imagery filled with wonder and beauty. And other than Robin Hobb, no one makes her characters suffer as much over the course of a book/series.

Like its predecessor, this novel doesn't suffer from any pacing issues. The rhythm flows well throughout and the ending is a compelling blend of happiness and heartbreak. One can only hope that Moirin and Bao will now make those fat babies. Round as dumplings! God knows they have earned some joy and peace of mind.

When all is said and done, though rewarding and satisfying, Moirin's trilogy couldn't possibly hope to equal or surpass Phèdre and Imriel's tales. Still, the series is well worth reading and is superior to most SFF works on the market today.

The final verdict: 8/10

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