I first ran into my fellow flashquake editor Vanitha Sankaran in an online flash fiction workshop 10 years ago and was so impressed with the writing she posted that I predicted I'd be asking her for an autograph someday.
I liked her flash stories like "Tattoo on My Ass" and Googled her to see if there were more online. The first piece I found with Sankaran's byline had the less catchy title of, "Birefringence measurement of rapid structural changes during collagen denaturation."
It turned out that in addition to her M.F.A. in creative writing, Sankaran had a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. Talk about having both sides of the brain firing.
Well, Sankaran has fulfilled my prediction about wanting her autograph with the publication of her first novel, "Watermark" (Avon, 331 pp., $10.19 at Amazon), an eight-year historical fiction project that made full use of both sides of that brain.
Historical fiction isn't my usual fare, but I was captivated by Sankaran's story of Auda, a mute albino who comes into womanhood in 14th century France as an outcast trying to stay under the radar of the Inquisition.
Auda is the daughter of a papermaker who has taught her to read and write. Unable to speak because a superstitious midwife's assistant cut out her tongue at birth, her writing becomes her voice, a backdrop that allows Sankaran to explore the birth of literature.
Sankaran's analytical left brain did the elaborate research to assure historical credibility, including setting up a papermaking operation on her lanai to study the processes she was writing about.
Her creative right brain wove it into a compelling story that brings modern insight to timeless themes of love, prejudice, jealousy, faith, family and what it means to be a woman.
I've been doing most of my reading on a Kindle lately, but I felt it only right to read a book about papermaking on paper and I'd forgotten that reading can involve more physical senses than sight.
As befitting the subject, "Watermark" is an exceptionally well-produced book, with quality paper that is as sensuous to the touch as the typography and design are welcoming to the eye.
And I thought the obligatory author with dog picture was very cute.
