About Mnemosyne

Although Mnemosyne is best known for being mother of the Muses in greek mythology, I find her most compelling as the goddess of memory. Apart from her famous offspring, she is a collector of words and inventor of language. Talk about a dream avatar for a writing biblio/logophile like me.

After all, who can resist being mired in myth and being the topic of epic poetry, all while gracing a slew of Pre-Raphaelite paintings?

Some other random facts and figures about me:

Libra – zodiac sign

5 - number of tequila shots before willing Karaoke goddess

3rd – season stopped watching Lost for fear of having eyes permanently rolled to the back of head on account of interminable plot twists

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude- first book wished never read so can read all over again (Melquiades rocks!)

Others in this category:

• Last Samurai Helen DeWitt
• Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri
• East, West Salman Rushdie
• Life of Pi Yann Martel
• Runaway Alice Munro
• Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris

4 – number of times taken aback by Amy Winehouse’s increasingly ghoulish appearance while surfing internets

7 – number of times fallen asleep watching Dune, Star Trek, or other sci-fi show husband insists on watching over and over again perhaps in order to commit dialogue to memory

Kristin Scott Thomas – favorite French-speaking English actress

Isabelle Hupert – favorite English-speaking French actress

George W. Bush – least favorite English-speaking American

1,000 - most calories burned on elliptical machine in one go

1.5 – number of hours it took

Lucy Lotus – porn name following Childhood Pet’s Name + Childhood Street Name formula

Calvin & Hobbes – favorite comic strip of all time

Asterix The Gaul – favorite comic book series of all time

Thursday - level of NY Times crossword able to finish without completely tearing hair out or dialling Dad at ungodly hours

2 - number of poems written while under the influence of Fractal Geometry

rats – top primal fear

0 – number of times new haircut resembled mental visions of it no matter how detailed the description to the hairdresser

• Of course, in real life, my name is Gemma Ybarra and I write to you from Kalamazoo, MI (yes, there really is one).

  

  Teddy as Dracula