Inspired by: Rings

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.

 At any rate, a weird thing happened when I got back to the shop and started sorting the good, the funky and the plain ass ugly jewelry. There was a vintage poison ring that looked like the one in my gothic fantasy, which is about to go on submission (except it was a woman’s ring and the one in my story is a man’s).  The ring plays a large role in the story’s inciting event. Finding it felt like a good omen.

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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Inspiring Blogger Award

I’d like to thank Cassandra Griffin  and Keely Hutton  for nominating me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award.  I could go on about how much I enjoy reading their blogs and about how they're both a bit obsessed with Dr. Who, but instead I’m going to suggest you check out their blogs yourself—and take a moment to say hi while you're there.

I’m honored that they find my blog inspiring and both nominated me for this award.  I’m looking forward to passing it on. To begin with, here are 7 things you may not know about me:   

1.   My mother’s name is Anne Rice.  If I’d kept my maiden name, I’d be Patricia Rice--who is also writer.  Actually, in real life I’ve never use the name Pat. It’s Patty all the way.  There, that’s a ream of pretty useless information J

2.    The summer before my freshman year in high school I wrote a book titled: How to Satisfy Your Satyr It was about harvesting, cooking and preserving edible wild plants. Okay, it was more like a few photocopied sheets of paper stapled together with hand colored drawings, but I did sell them in my parents store for like fifty cents each.  Sold quite a few, too.

3.      The summer before my sophomore year, I was in the YCC (youth conversation corps).  We lived in tents and did all kinds of projects in the Green Mountains around Mount Tabor, Vermont. I did the polka with a guy who has inspired romantic scenes in my manuscripts.  Yes, I said polka. 

4.     In the Fall of 2012, I returned to Mount Tabor for a writing retreat with my long time writing friends: Ginger Churchill, Laura Andersen and Becca Fitzpatrick.  That town has a special place in my heart.

5.   I went to the University of Vermont and majored in Plant and Soils Science.  However, one of my fondest memories is of the brief period when I was mentored by poet Wendell Berry . I doubt he even remembers me—I was a bit untamed at the time—but his kindness and advice has stayed with me. 

6.      I was lucky enough to attended Orson Scott Card’s Boot Camp a few years ago. My roommate was  Aliette de Bodard. If you aren’t familiar with her, check out Aliette’s website. Since boot camp, she’s become one of fantasy and science fictions most up and coming authors.   

7.      Earlier this week a Tweet reminded me of a critique I received after making it into Writers of the Future’s semifinals. The main comment was about the lack of exclamation points in my story.  Kind of proves that rules of thumb taken to an extreme can do as much damage as good.

          !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Nominations  (in no particular order):  Drum roll please…

Joan Reginaldo

Ginger Churchill

Anabel Gonzalez

Sarah Guillory

Shannon Grogan

Award Rules:

.    Display logo in your blog to show you’ve been nominated!

.    Link back to your nominator.

.    Share 7 things about yourself.

.    Nominate 15 (that seems like a lot and I’m feeling a bit rebellious) 5 other bloggers for the award.

.    Notify your nominees.

These are just a few of my favorite bloggers at the moment, and I hope you’ll find them as inspirational as I do!  I’m looking forward to reading some fun 

Thursday's Children--Revision: Inspired by First Cars

I’m back to revising my WIP, and have started this round by reading through comments I got on the first draft. At first I thought my MC’s motivation was a bit off, but then it dawned on me that maybe it wasn’t as much off as I was going into it in too much depth. Perhaps, my main character was too self-aware of her motivation.  What does this have to do with first cars?

My main character is almost seventeen and she wants her own car, very badly.  But I'm starting to think that I don’t need to have her thoughts reveal why.  Heck, I got my first car at sixteen and I didn’t think to myself—I want a car so I can be independent and I can make my own life choices about where I want to live. I just knew I wanted one.  Yeah, there was the whole I want to feel adult thing going on as well.

So my questions to you is:  Did you want a car as a teen and, if so, then why? How badly did you want it?  Did it motivate you to do things you might not have done otherwise? What kind did you long for?

By the way, my first car was a used 1969 Dodge Dart (visible at rear of photo).  My dad bought it for me with the agreement that it would also be used for his business (I worked for my dad).  Also the town I lived in didn't have school buses, so it saved my parents from having to tote me around.  I drove the old car until even Bondo, pop rivets and sheet metal wouldn’t keep it together. 

After that I had a string of $50 cars, like this red beauty. They weren’t pretty, but they were mine, all mine! This one had totally rotted floor boards.

If you'd like to join Thursday's Children blog hop, just add your name to the linky below. And be sure to check out all the other post for fun and inspiration!

Inspired Thoughts: Parents In YA

Last week, as part of my day job, I bought a couple of early 19^th century blanket boxes.

One had initials created out of brass tacks on the front of it and a note inside which indicated what town it had originally come from—which matched what we’d been verbally told. Research revealed the name of a person who matched the location and time period.  The thing is--old furniture styles didn’t change as rapidly in rural areas like Vermont as they did in more populated and style conscious locations. This box might have been made from the late 18^th century to anytime in the first half of the 19^th century, though the hardware indicates it’s more likely from the earlier time.

So here’s the story I found when I researched.  Children Left Behind  Honestly, I doubt this family owned the box. Even if they did, it would be impossible to prove. But the story did remind me of writing and specifically the issue of absent parents in young adult stories.

Right now, I’m working on two YA manuscripts. In the first story, the parents are the main plot thread. Without them, the story wouldn’t exist. My other project is different. The parents are absent physically. However this absence and the reason for it (not death) form a big slice of my main character’s motivation and personality. Again, the parents are vital to the story.  

Personally--present or absent--I have a hard time seeing how parents can’t be taken into account in YA stories. And, perhaps, I get a bit annoyed when I hear people say that absent parents are an overused devise. Perhaps it’s more matter of if the writer uses that absence as a character forming devise or simply as an excuse to give the teen characters more freedom. What do you think?

Please feel free to join this blog hop. Just add your name to the list!