YSABEL BY GUY GAVRIEL KAY (BOOK REVIEW)

 Hello dear readers and/or fellow bloggers! In this post, I'll review Ysabel, a fantasy novel written by Guy Gavriel Kay. Canada and Croatia. Today, these two countries will cross paths. I will be talking about a Canadian author and his novel, while showing you images of Croatia. The novel is actually set in Europe. France, more specifically. Like many of Kay's works, it explores past times, so it is perfect for lovers of history.  I found this lovely novel by chance, browsing books in Split hospital, Croatia. I read it in Split while I was in hospital, and the photographs I'm sharing today were taken sometime last May in Seget Donji, a small village near Trogir, Croatia. A place I temporarily call home. 

Just like the protagonist of this novel found a temporary home in France, I found mine in this charming little historical village. I don't know if you have noticed, but when I do book reviews, I try to match the photography with the review. I don't always pose with the book in hand for my blog reviews, but I like when the general feeling of the photographs matches the book review. Sometimes I'll even match my outfit with the cover of the book. I do try to make my book reviews look nice and my blogs visually appealing. Of course, it is important to me that my literary reviews sound right and  are well written, but blogging can be a visual medium as well. It doesn't hurt if you post pretty images with your blog posts, I always say. Images can help break long tests and keep your readers engaged experts say, and I often find myself repeating that. Perhaps I remember this to justify to myself the time I sometimes spend making collages and editing my art or photography. The visual aspect of my blog posts sometimes takes as much time as the writing itself. 

 I suppose I aspire my blog to be composed of a  mix of photography, art and writing. A digital place that is attractive to both visual and audio/ reading types, but also a reading journal of some kind. What have I read? How did it touch me? What did it mean to me? Questions that are worth asking, for reading reminds a fundamentally human experience. To read literature is to live - if not a thousand lives, than at least one very interesting one. 

I DO LOVE GUY GAVRIEL KAY, SO I APPROACHED THIS NOVEL WITH HIGH EXPETATIONS

This was not my first novel by this Canadian author. In fact, I've read a number of his works so far. The first novel of his that I read was Tigana. I was around 15 when I read Tigana, and it took some time for the story to grow on me. I think I was honestly a bit young for Tigana. However, I loved all the other novels of his that I have read. 

The Song for Arbonne and Sailing into Sarantium are among my top personal fantasy favourites. Guy Gavriel Kay often creates his fantasy worlds having in mind a specific historical period. This novel, being set in a world very much akin to 6th century Mediterranean world, is no exception. Many of its characters are based on real historical figures, for example emperor Justinian I (known as a man who never sleeps) becomes Valerious II in this novel and his empress Theodora (a former courtesan turned great ruler and empress) appears under name Aliana. Similarly, Song for Arbonne features a setting that is based on twelve century Provence. 

So, as I said, when I picked up this novel, I had high expectations. I was drawn by the beautiful cover. The name Ysabel also seemed to ring a bell to me. What kind of bell? Perhaps it was just intuition. Perhaps I sensed that I will fall in love with her character. 

AN URBAN FANTASY NOVEL THAT EXPLORES BOTH UNIVERSAL AND SPECIFIC THEMES

What kind of novel is Ysabel? It is an urban fantasy novel.

Written by Guy Gavriel Kay, Ysabel is one of Kay’s most successful works. First published in January 2007 by Viking Canada, it remains a popular choice for many readers. Ysabel is actually Kay's first urban fantasy. Moreover, it is also different from his other works in that is set outside his fantasied Europe. Most of Kay’s work are set in historical Europe or rather a fantasy version of historical Europe. His novels and fantasy settings they describe are usually inspired by different epochs of European history. This novel is different because it is set in the present. However, it brings back characters from the past. So, it could be said that it is still true to Kay’s style. Just in this one, the real and the fantasy world come together. A novel that is a historical mystery, but also a tale of love.

 “In a too-beautiful part of the world, where so much blood had been shed and so many bodies burned or buried, or left unburied, through violent centuries.”

 

This novel was also (at least in part) inspired by France, as Kay actually lived in the countryside near Aix-en-Provence (where the novel Ysabel is set) while he was writing it. As a reading, I really could sense that. The Aix-en- Provence Kay describes felt real. Moreover, the feeling of history and magic simply soaks the pages of the book. This is in many ways a powerful piece of writing.

What kind of themes does this novel explores?

I would say that one of the themes this novel explores is the universal themes of love. However, it doesn’t just focus on romantic love, it also explores sibling and parental love. It is a novel that explores family dynamics. Perhaps it is even a novel that asks what is family. Family as a group of people who care about one another deeply. Friendship is another theme that this novel explores. A group of friends has to work together to solve a problem in this one. Friends that become something like family. Some people say that friends are the family we choose. I would say that this novel reinforces that idea, suggesting that true friends are family.

Besides the theme of love and life, there is also the theme of death and loss. There is no life without death, and no love without loss. This novel explores some historical and cultural themes as well. It talks of the conflicts between cultures. It dives into the often-bloody history of Aix-en-Provence. This book is something quite specific in the themes it explores, as for example when it focuses on the area it is set in. It also seems to ask a lot of questions about wars, bloodshed and revenge. It seems to suggest that the past horrors always stay with us in a way.

The past is never just the past. It can haunt us even when we are not aware of it. Does this novel suggest we should or could learn from history? I think it does. More than just an entertaining story, this novel has some serious lessons to teach. It invites us to question the world we live in. Perhaps it also invites us to ask- what is it that drives human kind to war? What lessons can we learn from the past?

AN AUTHOR THAT DOESN'T HAVE AN OFFICIAL SITE BUT THERE IS AN AUTHORIZED SITE WHERE YOU CAN FIND INFORMATION ABOUT HIS WORKS

While Guy doesn't have an official site, he authorized a site in his name called Bright Weavings. There you can find descriptions of his novels, including the ones I enjoyed the most. Here is what it says about A Song for Arbonne: 

A Song for Arbonne was first published in 1992. Kirkus reviews described it as “One of the most impressive fantasies in a long time…exhilarating, complex and compelling.” In A Song for Arbonne, GGK went further still into the field he has made his own – historical fantasy. Arbonne tells a tale of art, courtly love and religious warfare inspired by medieval France and the Albigensian Crusade.  For a brief look at the ‘real’ historical background that inspired the atmosphere and events of the book, click here.

It also lists some information about Sailing to Sarantium: 

The first of a two-volume story continuing that of the world created in Tigana. The empire of Sarantium is beset to east and west but Valerius II wishes to take back the western lands which gave birth to the empire he now rules.

Crispin is a mosaicist, a layer of bright tiles. Still grieving for the family he lost to the plaque, he lives only for his arcane craft. But an imperial summons from Valerius the Trakesian to Sarantium, the most magnificent place in the world, is difficult to resist.

In a world half-wild and tangled with magic, a journey to Sarantium means a walk into destiny. Bearing with him a deadly secret and a Queen’s seductive promise, guarded only by his own wits and a talisman from an alchemist’s treasury, Crispin sets out for the fabled city. Along the way he will encounter a great beast from the mythic past,and in robbing the zubir of its prize he wins a woman’s devotion and a man’s loyalty–and loses a gift he didn’t know he had until it was gone.

And there's also some information about Ysabel: 

“Everyone comes from somewhere else.”

Provence, in the south of France, is a part of the world that has been—and continues to be—called a paradise. But one of the lessons that history teaches is that paradise is coveted and fought over. Successive waves of invaders have claimed—or tried to claim—those vineyards, rivers, olive groves, and hills.

In Guy Gavriel Kay’s new novel, Ysabel, this duality—of exquisite beauty and violent history— is explored in a work that marks a departure from Kay’s historical fantasies set in various analogues of the past.

Ysabel takes place in the world of today: in a modern springtime, in and around the celebrated city of Aix-en-Provence near Marseilles. Dangerous, mythic figures from the Celtic and Roman conflicts of the past erupt into the present, claiming and changing lives.

The protagonist is Ned Marriner, the fifteen year- old son of a well-known photographer. Ned has accompanied his father, Edward Marriner, and a team of assistants to Provence for a six week “shoot.”

Ned’s mother, a physician, is in a terrifyingly different place: she’s working with Doctors without Borders in civil war-torn Sudan. Both father and son are wrestling with fear for her, knowing that she has put herself in the path of extreme danger like this before.

The background story—the family drama as to why Dr. Meghan Marriner feels compelled to perform such risk-taking, over-achieving acts of heroism—emerges partway through the novel, after the mythic elements have begun to make their presence felt...........

The novel tracks Ned, Kate, and others as they slowly come to terms with what it is they seem to have stumbled upon, with what ancient story is playing itself out in this very modern world of iPods, emails, photo shoots, and seven-seater vans whipping along roads walked by Celtic tribes and Roman legions.

The larger-than-life figures of a twenty-five hundred- year-old romantic triangle, with violence spun from it over millennia, are in the world again. Ned, his family, and their friends are shockingly drawn into their story on the eve of April 30—a holy, haunted night in the Celtic year. The night when the borders between the living and the dead are down and fires are lit upon the hills.

Ysabel is an immensely evocative exploration of the power of the past—both the ancient past and that of a single family—to impose itself on the present. Two thousand, five hundred years—or twenty-five. The central stories don’t go away; they stay with us. Or they return.

ON BRIGHT WEAVINGS SITE, I FOUND THAT GUY G. KAY ALSO PREPARED A LETTER TO THE READER FOR EARLY EDITIONS OF YSABEL

Dear Reader,

When my family and I embarked on our own “year in Provence” in the autumn of 2004, I discovered that the well known seductions of the south of France could come with challenges that went beyond plumbing or the depredations of France Telecom.

It was our fourth stay there, much the longest sojourn, and my own task when we arrived was to sort out what my tenth novel would be.

I had two or three ideas jostling each other. I’d brought a trunk full of books for research purposes. But as we settled in to our villa and routines, I learned in cafés and over lunches more than ever before about where we were and what it had been through millennia. We stumbled one day upon a round, roofless medieval watchtower in the middle of nowhere (watching for what?) and walked alone a week later through Celtic ruins smashed flat by Roman catapults two thousand years ago. A different sort of tale started telling itself to me.

I actually resisted, briefly. Veteran novelists aren’t supposed to be so much at the mercy of time and place, of impulse, of the view from a terrace down a valley to a bell tower at sunset.

Or are we?

The books that work are rarely those we force into the light. They are the ones that want to emerge, that demand it, actually, pushing everything else out of the way.

That’s what happened with Ysabel. Where I was, the air I breathed, the paths we walked (or climbed), the historians I met, and the archaeologists and photographers-all conspired towards a novel that felt like a major departure.

But in many ways, as winter came to the south and the book began to take shape, it wasn’t such a departure after all. It was a shifting of the prism, a different way of looking at concerns I’ve explored for a long time.

Since Tigana in 1990, I’ve been engaged in using the fantastic to examine themes of history, to bring home to contemporary readers elements of the past that seem to me to be too important to forget. I’ve carried readers into many different periods-Renaissance Italy, medieval France, Islamic Spain, Byzantium, the hard northlands of the Vikings and Welsh and Anglo-Saxons-and tried to shape wonder and thought and passion.

This time, in Ysabel, I wanted to bring the past forward instead.

During that autumn in Cézanne’s countryside, I started thinking about how some parts of the world still carry the hard imprint of what has gone before. How “yesterday” in such places isn’t so remote in certain ways, though it might seem so. And it also occurred to me (not for the first time) that “the past” can mean so many different things. It can be twenty-five-hundred years or-in a family working through its relationships and scars-only twenty-five.

Out of these thoughts and images, in the brilliant light of Provence, Ysabel-the book, and the woman named in the title-came to me.

I hope you enjoy.

Guy Gavriel Kay

NED MARRINER DISCOVERS WHAT APPEARS TO BE A MAGICAL HERITAGE

So, the basic plot of story is that of 15-year-old Ned Marriner who discovers mysterious figures and events, learning about paranormal or perhaps even magical figures while staying with his photographer father in Provence. When Ned meets an American exchange student, the two become involved in an ancient "story" of love, sacrifice, and magic unfolding in the present day, which draws in Ned's family and friends.

THE NARRATIVE IS LINEAR AND EASY TO FOLLOW, ALLOWING THE READING TO EASILY CONNECT WITH THE PROTAGONIST AND THE SETTING

The narrative opens with our adolescent protagonist Ned Marriner. We get to know him, and hear his thoughts on being in France with his father, Edward, a celebrated photographer. In many ways, Ned is a typical adolescent. While accompanying his father who is working on a book about Provence, Ned perhaps most looks forward to skipping school. All Ned has to do is to write some essays for his school, and it seems that he is really looking forward to that.

The novel was published in 2007 and I believe that is when the story is set. Ned uses email, Internet and he even gets a cell phone. This is before the era of smartphones, but still the mobile phone does its job. This is a period when we didn’t spend time on our phones or Internet that much, but we still used them.  Anyway, Ned uses Internet do to research and to look for information, especially once mysterious things start to happen.

Ned is interested in the area and he even shows interest in his father’s work. Still, Ned sort of keeps to himself and it seems he likes to explore on his own. We get to know Ned as the story progresses, and it does not take long for things to take a turn into unknown.  While he is accompanying his father Edward on his project of shooting the famous Saint-Sauveur Cathedral, Ned starts to wander around and explore the place. Something draws him in to explore the cathedral. Is he trying to help his father? Is he genuinely interested in history? Or is he just living in the moment, soaking the historical atmosphere of the place? While Ned does not reveal deep interest in history at the moment, he seems to have an instinct for history and art, being able to sense that something is special or beautiful.

A BEAUTIFUL HISTORICAL CATHEDRAL BECOMES A PLACE WHERE NED MEETS NOT ONLY KATE, BUT ALSO HIS DESTINY

Whatever might be the case, in the cathedral Ned meets a young lady, Kate Wenger. They are about the same age, and they seem to hit it off immediately. Kate is an exchange student from the States. She’s also kind of a nerd, with a genuine interest for ancient history. She openly admits her geekiness and isn’t ashamed to show her in-depth historical knowledge of the area, including the cathedral they are presently exploring. The way these two communicate is well written. They are basically regular teenagers, but there is also a sense of something more in the air.

A MYSTERIOUS MAN APPEARS AND NED IS STARTLED BECAUSE HE CAN FEEL THE PRESENCE OF THIS MAN, A POWER HE WAS NOT AWARE OF

As the two explore the cathedral, they discover they are not alone. The cathedral is not as deserted as they believed. Ned’s father Edward was given the privilege of working in an empty cathedral and the whole area was cleared of people. So, when they hear noise and discover there is someone there, they wonder about the person’s intentions.  Naturally, Kate and Ned were startled to find a strange man there. A man who refuses to introduce himself, a nameless man with a mysterious aura. The man isn’t very welcoming, and he warns them to leave immediately. What should they do? Call the police? They aren’t certain, yet they keep conversing with this strange man who isn’t friendly, but isn’t completely unfriendly either.   The mysterious man warns them they "have blundered into the corner of a very old story."

Ned discovers something strange about himself in encounter with this nameless man. He realizes that he is able to sense the man's presence somehow. Ned isn’t sure what this means. He does not know how he does it, either. It is still all very unclear to Ned. Is this a power of some kind? If it is then it is a power Ned did not know he had.

The whole encounter is soaked in mystery and aura of magic. Ned is left confused, but still Ned and Kate are not willing to just let this story go. They do not run away from the cathedral. Instead, they keep exploring.

Soon Ned and Kate stumble upon an ancient statue of a woman. The information about the woman claims that she is one of the characters from the Bible (queen Sheba if I recall well), but Ned somehow knows (and he really feels it) that this statue represents another woman.

This beautiful statue is carved in a way that makes its features vague. Even when it was created by the nameless man it was created so that its features remain mysterious. The time only made them more mysterious.

OUR PROTAGONIST STUMLES ON A STATUE THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING

When Ned discovers the statue, the mystery starts to unfold. The magical beauty of the carved woman starts to haunt both of their lives. Both Ned and Kate are drawn into this story. Who was the woman that the nameless man claims to have carved? How is it possible that the nameless man is alive if he has indeed carved that ancient statue?

Ned and Kate are rational enough, yet they cannot explain what happened to them. They feel that something strange is at play, and they are frightened. The nameless man’s sudden appearance and disappearance frightens them, but also they are curious and want to find out more. They are not ready to just forget the strange events, they want to know more, even if the whole situation scares them. Their initial instincts won’t change much as the novel progresses, they shall be afraid, but at the same, their desire to know more will guide their decisions.

 

NED GOES TO EXPLORE THE PHOTO LOCATION WITH HIS DAD, AND FALLS VIOLENTLY ILL

Soon after the events of the cathedral (that are yet to be discussed and acted on by Ned and Kate), our protagonist accompanies his father and his father’s assistants on a photo-scouting mission. This we meet his father’s crew: Greg, Steve, and Melanie. It seems that Guy gives special attention to Melanie, an interesting and dynamic young woman  in her twenties. She is described as extremely efficient. Sometimes Melanie seems to get on Ned’s nerves a little, but he also admires how she thinks of everything, and is hyper-organized. Ned is aware that they would probably be lost without her at times.

“The rocky slopes were lit by the afternoon light. The mountain looked primitive and astonishing. The four of them were silent awhile, staring.” Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay

Anyway, the whole team heads towards  the location, that is Mont Sainte-Victoire. This famous mountain was often painted  by Paul Cézanne. Now, it shall be photographed by Edward, Ned’s father. However, as they travel, Ned feels bad, and then progressively worse. It is as if he can feel something terrible once happened here. Basically, Ned falls suddenly and inexplicably ill, attacked by a horrible migraine. He sees red and it seems to him that he can smell blood.

“A world defined by dark blood. The smell was still with him, like meat, a thick, rotting.” Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay

Things don’t end there. Once they climb the famous mountain, Ned sees images of a bloodshed, a historical slaughter that took place at this mountain centuries ago. Everyone is really worried about him, and even the hyper-organized Melanie shows signs of stress. The team rushes Ned home, and he recovers as soon as he puts some distance between himself and the mountain.

NED AND KATE MEET AGAIN TO DICUSS EVENTS BUT THEY REMAIN CONFUSED

 Ned and Kate meet later that day in a coffee shop to discuss their situation. Now, there is even more to discuss. Ned is not surprised only by the discovery of his ability to sense someone’s presence, but also with his falling ill at the mountain. Ned cannot explain why and how he saw what he saw- the past bloodshed.

Ned and Kate talk and flirt a bit like regular teenagers, but they are also worried and scared. Both of them are curious to find out more about the history of this place, about the bloodshed, and about the nameless man and the statue.

 

THE PROTAGONIST OF THIS NOVEL IS AN ADOLESCENT

The protagonist of this novel, Ned, is an adolescent boy with almost annoyingly accomplished parents. His father is a world-renowned photographer, and his mother is a heroine, a doctor who saves lives in warzones. Both of his parents are quite busy people, preoccupied with their calling. Indeed, for both of them it feels more like a calling, than a job. How does that make him feel, I started to wonder. It is something he acknowledges, so it is something our young protagonist is very much aware of. What is it like having successful parents as an adolescent? Does it put more pressure on you? I imagine that it might, that an adolescent with successful parents might feel like he has big shoes to fill.

I warmed up to our protagonist instantly. I love how he was written. Often, I found descriptions of adolescents in contemporary literature childish. The protagonist of the novel feels like an adolescent. An intelligent young man, at times a bit confused and lost, but aren’t we all? Both adults and adolescents often have a burden to carry. It is perhaps in adolescent that we start to take on real responsibilities. The first of which is the responsibility for ourselves.

As adolescents, we start to look for our identity. Questions start to form in our heads! We start to get the first impressions or glimpses of what it is like to be an adult.  Of course, an adolescent is not an adult, but they are cognitively developed. An adolescent has neither the skills nor the experience of an adult, but they do have a developed brain. Our brains keep developing all our life and all that, but adolescence is certainly a crucial moment in our neurological development.

THERE IS VULNABILITY TO OUR PROTAGONIST, BUT ALSO STRENGHT

I would say that the protagonist Ned was well written. He makes for a wonderful engaging hero. There is vulnerability to him, but also strength. At times, he is just a small boy that really misses his mommy, and at times he is ready to take on risks and responsibilities of a man. I found both descriptions of his strength and vulnerability believable. Sometimes there is also strength in vulnerability. There is a moment in the novel when he specifically asks his mother for help, and why this might seem childish, it actually shows a maturity to him. Sometimes it is not only alright to ask your parents to help, but it is the most mature thing to do. He goes through his moment of insecurity and fear, and he undergoes character development.

I found him to be the best written character in the novel, and yet I cannot say that he seems like the most important one. There is a whole story that flows with his story, a historical and you could say paranormal one- or maybe you could just call it fantasy writing.

History and fantasy blend in this novel. So do poetry and prose. So do life and death. So do love and loss. There is poetry in the writing, and a sense of tragic beauty. 

 

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE PROTAGONIST AND THE HISTORY

Who is Ysabel? Why is she so important to these two men? 

I have to say that I was absolutely fascinated by her character. I wanted to know more about her.

Why does she keep coming back to our world? Is she a ghost? How real is she? What does she feel? Who does she love? Is she a cruel mistress or a victim of love? Does she really loves them both (the two men) equally? Is such a love possible? 

A HISTORICAL ROMANCE THAT DEFIES TIME AND REALITY

As the story progresses, we learn more about Ysabel and the two men she loved and that loved her with a love so strong, it denied death.

It is a touching story, but also tragic and violent.

There is an aura of death in this book at times. A sense of danger that fills its pages. Memories of past wars and bloodshed are interwoven with this tale of love.

It is a complex story, beautiful, sad and strange at the same time.

 

Ysabel appears at times quite cruel, a mistress to the two men that loved her.

At other times, she is very gentle, almost a victim of a cursed fate.

What is their fate? Why do they keep coming back?

I loved how these fantasy characters were written. At times they feel like ghosts, at times they feel like real people with distinct personalities.

I think they were meant to be both really. They are ghosts in many ways, confused by the rivers of times. They are uncertain of what to do and who they are.

At the same time, there is this incredible passion that drives them. They change through the eons, and yet they remain the same.

Within them, perhaps other forces live. Strong historical forces, memories of people lost, beliefs of their tribes---and perhaps even some ancient magic.

 

AN INTERVIEW WITH GUY GAVRIEL KAY THAT REVEALS MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORICAL INSPIRATION FOR THIS NOVEL 

Q: One of your trademarks as an author is to take real historical events and settings and use them as the basis for the fantasy settings you create. In this case your new book is set in modern day, real world Provence. And yet the history of the region is very much a part of the story. What sort of research did you do for Ysabel?

A: Some of the “research” was literally wandering Provence, the well-known and the completely unknown places, with a camera and a notebook. When you’re there long enough—and we’ve lived there three times before so I already had some grounding in the region—you have a chance to get a little bit below the surface.

What lies beneath a part of the world that is called a paradise, the dream destination for so many people for so long, is in good part what Ysabel came to be about. One of the things my own reading in history has taught me is that when a place is a ‘paradise’, it’s coveted. And if a place is coveted it’s going to know warfare; it’s going to know a darker side than that glamorous surface image. A good part of what gave rise to Ysabel was reading about, and traveling to some of the places that carry that more violent and mysterious history.

Q: Was the research process different this time around than with your previous books?

A: In the past my research has tended to focus on doing a tremendous amount of reading and e-mailing to authors, historians, academics and so on. One of the fringe benefits of getting better known is that, gratifyingly often, when I read a book about an era and then track down the author they say “I know your work” or “my wife reads your books.” I’m very fortunate in that I’ve always received a serious response from historians to my queries—and then to the books themselves. Given that what I do is to take the period they’re interested in and spin it through a prism of fantasy, I might have expected tension from academia but I’ve gotten a lot of understanding.

I still did a lot of reading and e-mailing to authors in researching Ysabel but because it’s set in contemporary times, and because I’m dealing with real places, I also spent a lot of time just being there. I was put in touch with (and I acknowledged them in the book) a couple of historians at the University of Aix in Marseilles and a pair of extraordinarily generous archaeologists—who were responsible for recently uncovering the Roman theater in Aix-en-Provence. (One of them did the sketch work for what the Roman city under the medieval and modern city might look like.) These guys were extraordinarily generous with their time. They helped me anchor that part of the writing.

Another core element of the book is the idea of geography influencing history. I’ve been writing for twenty years about the way in which the past has lessons for the present and how fantasy might make people receptive to those lessons instead of them being trapped by their own assumptions and prejudices. That’s one of the reasons I work with fantasy. In Aix, I started with the notion that if you’ve got a beautiful, lush, fertile valley, you’re going to see that people will have fought over it for centuries. Then you start thinking about who those people have been…

You can find the full interview here. 

Thank you for reading and visiting. Take care!