Memoriam.

I'm sure just about everyone on my f-list has heard about the death of Madeleine L'Engle.

I loved her works and her book "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" was my first sci-fi/fantasy novel (yes, I read the Time series backwards). My writing journal's title startlingjoys was taken from a quote of hers about writing. She's the person that I most want to emulate in my writing, if not stylistically, then philosophically.


I feel a deep sense of loss, as if a valuable light has gone out of the world. But I live in hope that those who loved her, whether family, friends, or readers, will carry their little lights to make up for hers, and make this world a brighter place, even in her absence. Her writing helped me to open up to the wider world beyond my home and family and beliefs, to open up to the beauty and tragedy of the universe. The wonderful thing about books is that it allows the author to keep speaking to us, even beyond their life-span.

And...there isn't much more I can say, I just feel rather sad but there's an odd sort of hope too. That probably doesn't make much sense, and it doesn't make much sense to me, either. But then...I don't have to know everything. That's another thing she taught me.