A Mad Wicked Folly

A Mad Wicked Folly

YA fiction
"I never set out to pose nude." That is the first sentence of
Sharon Biggs Waller's A Mad Wicked Folly. Seven simple words with a
world of explosive potential.
Vicky is simply doing what the boys in her art class have done
when she poses in her birthday suit. The model has not arrived. The
students have no desire to waste a day. All of her peers have filled
in for absent models. If she doesn't she feels she won't really be
one of them.
There's only one problem. The year is 1909. Vicky has been
sneaking away from her fancy and expensive boarding school to study
art. This time a snitch from her school, a veritable goodie two
shoes, has discovered her secret and gone to the headmistress.
When Vicky is sent home in disgrace, her horrified father goes
into damage control mode. He and her mother have lost standing in
their social circles which may cost him business with the royal
family. They have hired her a lady's maid/chaperone and made plans
for her debut and marriage to a carefully chosen young man from a
respectable family, a young man who wants to get in on the family
business. In her mother's words, "A scandelous woman is not something
most men would want, but Edmund Carrick Humphrey has agreed.". If
she does not consent to the plan her folks will send her off to live
in isolation with her widowed, Bible reading aunt who considers her a
modern day Jezebel.
Not surprisingly, neither prospect is really what Vicky has in
mind for her life. Her passion is art. She has aspirations for the
very selective Royal College. Where her father has control over
nearly every aspect of her life, she has hard core determination.
But will that be enough?
Read the book and see. You'll be glad you did!
On a personal note, I recently took pictures at Universal Fellowship
where they had a blessing of the animals service. Dogs were lounging
between pews. Birds perched on their owners' shoulders, joining in
the hymns. The cats in their carriers looked dazed and slightly
distrustful. But it all went off without a hitch.
A great big shout out goes out to all who recognize non human critters
as fully sentient fellow beings rather than possessions.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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