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Quote by Theodora Goss

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European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman

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Theodora Goss
Theodora Goss

Theodora Goss is an American speculative fiction writer, known for her unique voice and thought-provoking narratives. Her work often explores themes of identity, gender, and the human condition. Goss has published numerous short stories and novels, and has received several awards for her writing, including the World Fantasy Award and the Nebula Award. more

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“Hines loved regional foods, breaking the monotony of roadside chicken and steak with Creole gumbo, soft shell crabs, Mississippi River catfish, Montgomery lemon pie, Nebraska corn fritters, black-eyed peas. For a time there was a Hines-branded line of Kentucky country hams. You could count on finding listings for the classics-- places like Manhattan's Delmonico's or the Brooklyn steakhouse Peter Luger-- but you were just as likely to be taken off the beaten track to Ham-That-Am-Ham, a ham specialist upstate.”

“After we became a couple, she composed our time together. She planned days as if they were artistic events. One afternoon we went to Tybee Island for a picnic; we ate blueberries and drank champagne tinted with curacao and listened to Miles Davis, and when I asked the name of her perfume, she said it was L'Heure Bleue. She talked about 'perfect moments.' One such moment happened that afternoon; she'd been napping; I lay next to her, reading. She said, 'I'll always remember the sounds of the sea and of pages turning, and the smell of L'Heure Bleue. For me they signify love.”

“The thing, whatever it was - and no one was ever sure afterwards whether it was a dream or a fit or what - happened at that peculiar hour before dawn when human vitality is at its lowest ebb. The Blue Hour they sometimes call it, l'heure bleue - the ribbon of darkness between the false dawn and the true, always blacker than all the rest of the night has been before it. Criminals break down and confess at that hour; suicides nerve themselves for their attempts; mists swirl in the sky; and - according to the old books of the monks and the hermits - strange, unholy shapes brood over the sleeping rooftops. At any rate, it was at this hour that her screams shattered the stillness of that top-floor apartment overlooking the Pare Monceau. Curdling, razor-edged screams that slashed through the thick bedroom door. ("I'm Dangerous Tonight")”

“Lydia can't see it from the dark place where she is, but she can sense it. She knows that it's the perfect time of day out there in the desert. She imagines the colors making a show of themselves outside. The glittering gray pavement, the aching red land. The colors streaking flamboyantly across the sky. When she closes her eyes, she can see them, the paint in the firmament. Dazzling. Purple, yellow, orange, pink, and blue. She can see those perfect colors, hot and bright, a feathered headdress. Beneath, the landscape stretches out its arms.”

“Not infrequently in the wide skies over Yuma and other parts of the arid Southwest, residents watch sheets of rain begin to unfurl from auspicious purple storm clouds, backlit by the sun. But the rain stops halfway, hanging mid-horizon like a magician's trick. Known as rain streamers or by their scientific name VIRGA, the half-sheets evaporate into the dry air before the rain can reach the ground.”