Monday, June 20, 2011

Startle Me


Poor roses, all their petals are tattered to clichés. But I was recently startled by a scrubby little rosebush I bought for 3 dollars at Big Lots. The wretched thing was quite hacked to pieces, and I wasn't sure if it was going to live after I planted it on a berm on the side of the house, much less bloom. But it did, even though the weather has been thundering and dropping buckets of rain on and off for weeks! Just one bud. The card attached to the rosebush promised a "Mississippi Rainbow" or "Everblooming Hybrid Tea Rose" that was hot fuchsia with a swirling inner circle of gold petals. It lied. The lone bud was a hue of pink so pale it reminded me of ballet slippers and tulle. Though its inner petals held no gold, its center blushed amber as the sun. I wonder what its true name is; I feel like I have a lost fairy queen among the other ladies of the berm: Blue Princess Holly, blackberries and raspberries, and a sprawling butterfly bush.

That's how I like (to read and hopefully write) my stories. I want to go somewhere I don't expect, to fall through the sentences and land somewhere my imagination has never stretched before.

The picture attached is the rose in question. Not the best shot or lighting, but I wanted to catch it before the rain knocked any more petals off!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Clip Art Crazy



Behold my crazy, rather rudimentary clip art interpretations of Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott." I've always been fascinated by Tennyson's poem, so I decided to have a little fun!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Under the influence

Did you know that E.B. White, the author of Charlotte's Web, had a penchant for making lists? I do, too. Unfortunately, my lists are usually the kind that never get finished! But sometimes that's not such a bad thing. I've decided to compile a list of the major creative influences in my life. What are the movies that shape your imagination, the authors and musicians whose stories and lyrics help bring out the ink in your pen?

In no particular order, here are some of my literary muses:

1. The Changeling- Zilpha Keatley Snyder
2. Giftwish (and sequel Catchfire) by Graham Dunstan Martin
3. The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen
4. The River at Green Knowe
by L. M. Boston
5. Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
6. A Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
7. Treasure at the Heart of the Tanglewood by Meredith Ann Pierce
8. The Giver by Lois Lowry
9. The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander (and all other books by him!)
10. I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
11. Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke
12. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
13. Johnathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach and Russel Munson
14. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
15. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
16. The Norby Chronicles by Janet and Isaac Asimov
17.... A Wrinkle in Time, Harry Potter, The Neverending Story, ....and my list could stretch on into the 5th dimension.

I shall end with one last recommendation: Hattie and the Wild Waves. All writers should read it!