January 9, 2016, Daily Notes

"I think everyone should encourage everyone," she writes. "Encouragers build doors instead of walls just by believing."

I met Victoria Erickson over Skype last summer. Lucia had just launched and I was on the lookout for writers who give voice to their hearts. She was preparing to publish a new book of poetry, Edge of Wonder.

She asked if I would read her manuscript and consider writing early praise if it inspired me. Me! Little old me. Victoria may not have known, but no one had ever yet asked me to review a book in advance, let alone write a review. I was over the moon, ecstatic, and honored.

The manuscript file arrived in the way electronic things do. Computers reduce the magic of poetry a bit, I think because we remove the rest of our senses from the experience of reading...the feel of paper, the weight of it, the smell of binding, the looking up now and then, adjusting one's eyes at a different focal length for a pause to drink in the unique scene around us before going back to the page.

Through the soft glow of my laptop, though, her words moved and inspired me. Slowly, over the course of four nights, I read the entire book. I drank it, actually, like a bottle of red wine from which you allow yourself one glass each evening until it is gone, and you notice that it keeps getting richer and more flavorful so when you come to the very last glass, you savor it.

One of Victoria's poems will appear in Issue Two of Lucia, which will be out soon. You don't have to wait for us though, Edge of Wonder is available now in selected bookstores and online.

You can find Victoria on Facebook and Instagram where, true to the heart-centered writer she is, she shares her musings, poems and thoughts almost daily. 

xo,
laura