The Blue Spong and the Flight from Mediocrity

Mediocrity is now, as formerly, dangerous, commonly fatal, to the poet; but among even the successful writers of prose, those who rise sensibly above it are the very rarest exceptions.
William Gladstone

The year is 1924; the place is Chicago's Towertown, home to the city's Bohemian set. The Clam Sisters, their staff and guests at Palourde Parlor at 35 E. Chestnut Street, are about to have life as they know it turned on its head. When one of the Clam Sisters purchases a rare blue spong from an exotic songbird dealer, the aristocratic sisters find themselves exposed to a flying oddity that leads them to shed their commonplace and staid way of life, for something altogether bold and daring. Chinese tongs, vaudeville shows, fraudulent spiritualists ... St Sukie de la Croix's novel is a humorous historical fantasy that showcases the follies of leading a mediocre existence.