Rings appear in pretty much all of my stories. They speak to me on so many levels and materialize in my writing almost without thought. The circle of life. Membership rings. Families. Secret societies. Wealth. Power. Devotion. Commitment. Jealousy. Love. Magic. They are even reflected in the circular story structure I prefer to use.
But enough esoteric stuff.
Last weekend, I went to look at an estate (read that as old
trailer in the boonies) and ended up purchasing all the vintage jewelry. When I purchase a large lot, I don’t look at
each piece in detail—that could take days. I focus on the more valuable pieces
I can quickly spot, base my offer on them and figure the ‘junker’ stuff is
going to be a large portion of the profit.
Any extra nice items I spot when I get home are a bonus.
THEN, I dug a little deeper into the jewelry pile and
discover a not so beautiful spoon ring—clearly homemade. The cool thing is, in my current project, the
main character is a teenage girl who makes jewelry out of silverware. Once again, I found a ring that connects to a
current story’s inciting event. Good
omen #2, I hope.
There also was a huge rather gaudy ring, which my husband
dubbed: the super-villain ring. It has an eye-like, yellow and red natural stone at its center, grasped by spidery legs
of gold. He wants me to sell it on Ebay
as an evil ring, of unknown powers. I’m thinking have just found the
inspiration for my next story.
Thursday's Children Blog Hop is open to all. Add your name to the link below and tell us what inspires you!
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Great visuals, Patty. I am so envious of your day job. You have so much awesome inspiration all around you! And having read your first chapter, the jewelry connection was cool.
ReplyDeleteI've been dying to buy a spoon ring or have one made out of a nice bit of silverware. I may still do that.
DeleteOh my God, Pat, that IS one wicked looking ring!
ReplyDeleteAnd awesome to have spotted some omens in your find!
Actually, I think my husband was glad it's too big for him. I really wanted to transform him into an evil overlord ;)
DeleteGreat finds! That poison ring looks very cool. All very good omens. Good luck on your submissions! :)
ReplyDeleteYes, my fingers and toes and everything else is crossed for all of us.
Delete(The poison ring fits my little finger, yay!)
Yes! You DID take that Twitter chat and turn it into TC, and possibly future ms, "gold". I love rings too. My grandmother had some amazing ones, including one made by a student of Benvenuto Cellini, so 16th century. It was stolen when our house was broken into, really tragic.
ReplyDeleteThat is worse than tragic. I hope is turns up at some point or at least that the thief was cursed by taking it.
DeleteThose are good omens indeed! Those rings have so much personality (though none of them would ever grace my stubby gardener's fingers). The super-villain ring looks especially super villain-y. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I have to save my rings for special occasions. Usually mine are mostly stained green and dirty :)
ReplyDeleteOoooh, that poison ring is amazing! Love how you're finding your way back to your stories in reverse through these! :-)
ReplyDeleteBackward is just what I thought, too.
DeleteMan have I been thinking about last years NE-SCBWI and wishing I was going to be there with you. Next year, hopefully.
How interesting and fortuitous that you found spoons to reflect several different characters! Pretty cool. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by. The hard part is selling them :(
DeleteHmm. I can see why rings inspire you. Very cool.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.miaceleste.com/?p=298
I just wish the Lord of the Rings hadn't made it hard to make ring the real focus of a story. Oh, well.
DeleteThat's so cool! What a great find!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm going through and pricing the entire lot today. There's even more stuff than I thought, which is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI'm obsessed with rings, too. They definitely find their way into my stories, even if just in a description. These are fabulous finds, Pat!
ReplyDelete~Dannie @ Left to Write
Now that I think about it, I wrote about rings of rippling water last night. They're everywhere!
ReplyDeleteSo cool! I love when things in the 'outside world' connect with my stories! And my obsession is necklaces...
ReplyDeleteNecklaces are kind of like extra large rings. Actually, some of the rings in my stories are too large for the girls so they wear them on chains as necklaces. Love them too.
DeleteFascinating! Don't you love when you find something in the real world that closely resembles an object or character in your stories? It's like finding their doppelganger.
ReplyDeleteVery much. I often have objects that inspire parts of a story. But find them after the story is written gives me a chill.
ReplyDelete