USING SYMBOLISM IN YOUR WRITING

At a recent Romance Writers meeting we were set an exercise in symbolism using soap, and all it's components, as the symbol. Below is my contribution:

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It had her taken an enormous effort of willpower to walk out of his flat and hurry home.

 
 The hot shower made the cold walk, without a coat, worth the effort. The water cascaded down her back, its heat coursing through her veins, warming her body.  She titled her chin, leaning her head back, letting the water run over her scalp.

She reached for the soap in the recess and cupped it in her hands. It’s smooth, rounded surface reminded her of his back muscles and their lovemaking. She’d stroked his back and made the noises he liked to hear: whimpers of appreciation, mews of delight. At times she wondered at his lack of commitment, his reluctance to say ‘I love you’ -  nevermind a proposal of marriage.  This seemed further away than ever after tonight. Was he using her body? She shivered; unable to bear the idea his attraction to her could be purely physical. She pushed the idea down into the dark recess from where it had surfaced. Surely he loved her?  He must, because you only hurt the one you love. This is what the song said, and seemed to be an accepted opinion among her friends.

She rubbed her thigh, building lather and the soap slipped from her fingers to hit the floor of the shower with a thud. One corner had been flattened, its symmetry ruined, yet it retained its pleasant perfume and usefulness. Could this be her? Pleasant and useful -  with nice curves in the right places.

They’d been to the movies and then eaten a quick meal at the local Indian Takeaways. The plastic forks refused to stab into the meat, bending at the points. Even the vegetables, chilli-hot and spicy, slid off the short plastic prongs. Some fell on her white dress.  He’d been annoyed at her for squealing. Well, the dress was new and the curry powder would leave a bright yellow smear. Such a small thing really, yet it seemed to set the tone for the rest of the evening.

He‘d laughed when she said she’d forgotten her coat, but tonight he didn’t put his arm around her.  She suggested a takeaway coffee for the walk to his flat. He sucked his teeth. He did this when cross.  When he muttered he’d run out of cash she offered to pay, but he wouldn’t wait and she didn’t fancy being left behind. She should have gone home then.

She rubbed the soap across her ribs and winced. There would be a bruise. Tonight, for the first time, he’d hit her. She lathered her hair and the soap ran into her eyes, stinging them. Even the nicest of soap needs lye to make it set and cure. He seemed to be the same: an attractive, smooth mover, except for caustic element that lurked inside his nature.

She rinsed the soap out of her hair. He wouldn’t have another opportunity. She’d glimpsed the evil through a crack in his beautiful surface.

 

THE WRITING PROCESS BLOG HOP

I was tagged by Daisy Banks to participate in this blog hop. You can visit Daisy's blog and read her wonderful posts here: http://daisybanks.wordpress.com/



 Q. What am I working on?

I’m between projects. I’ve just finished the fifth in my futuristic romance series about genetically altered people. Called “Romancing the Memory Collector” and have submitted it.  I’m going to pick up a more serious short story that I’m converting into a novel. This will not be a romance – but who know romance could sneak in.

Q. How does my work differ from others in its genre?

I write my romances set in the future.  This allows me to create unusual characters and gives me the pleasure of watching technology catch up to my imagination. My characters are genetically altered with animal genes, which allow me a huge scope of amazing talents I can endow them with.
Altered at conception with a cocktail of genes they are carried by surrogate mothers who believe they are helping childless couples. The children are reared by the Defence Department in the ‘Nursery’ and if they don’t show any useful talents by the time they are seven  they are adopted out. Some of the greatest talents are latent and develop after seven years of age. These are the characters in my romances – escapees from “The Nursery” who live among the public, keeping a low profile, pretending to be normal. I write of their loves and lives. They’re absolutely charming -  could be your neighbours!

Q. Why do I write what I do?

I really don’t know. I started off with one story and then took a minor character from each story to create the next.  I have a delightful character that has popped up in the latest vella but she is going to have to wait a while before I use her

Q. How does my writing process work?

I will have a germ of an idea.  I write it down so that I don’t lose it, then leave it to ferment in my brain.  I need to have a few basic plot points to hang the story around and once I start writing other events will occur and side characters always emerge.  I’m a cross between a plotter and a panster!  I can’t write without a basic idea path to follow. I often sort out the beginning of a chapter in my head before I start. I think the beginning of each chapter is very important to capture the reader’s attention; almost as important as the last line of a chapter that gives the ‘hook’ to make the reader turn the page and carry on.

I also write poetry and short fiction  - and I love creating cameo scenes with a twist.

On the 28th March you can hope over to catherine Mead's blog and read how she creates her novels and characters. Her blog address is: www.catherinemede.com

Also on the 28th March Love's Bright Star will be a free download from Amazon for the whole day.  Take advantage of this opportunity and read the first of my series.

PONDERING ON POETRY

Recently I was one of six finalists in a poetry competition with a first prize of $1,000.  This figure alone should get the average writer’s heart pounding but surprisingly the competition received only twenty seven entries.

True, this was a New Zealand competition, and concerned the 150 year commemoration of a British versus Maori battle. The significance being that this was one of the first battles that Maori won using trench warfare. (None of this standing in square, chests marked with crossed red webbing that invited the opposition to ‘aim here’ as the British forces were forced to do in the eighteen hundreds.)

For the final judging we six poets were asked to read our poems aloud, before the Judge.  A small crowd filled a room off a restaurant and between the two sets of readings the audience were entertained with a song by one of the descendents of the Maori who fought and still live in this district.

I didn’t win but was heartened to see the youngest poet claim the prize money. Hopefully this will inspire her to write more poetry and I am sure the money will be well invested in her future education. There wasn’t a brief for this contest: simply write a poem to commemorate the Battle of Gate Pa. It was a shot in the dark as to what you wrote as the history and information available was comprehensive.   http://history-nz.org/wars4.html 

I thoroughly enjoyed the creation, editing, rewriting, tweaking, and my final selection of stanza before I submitted my effort. 

On the night I met up with fellow writers and poets I hadn’t seen for some time and had the satisfaction of reading my poem to a captive audience, something that is not always possible to find.

I’m a great fan of entering competitions. Just by entering you are improving your writing skills. I now have a poem I love; on a subject I wouldn’t ordinarily have chosen to write about. Plus it will now be filed in the local Library’s kete (learning basket) and available through Te Papa’s website. Te Papa is our national museum. There is even talk of recording the pieces, read by their creators and for these recordings to be available for the public to listen to.

  

What more can a poet want?

NEVER DISCARD A CRAZY IDEA (just write a story to fit it)

I need to have a few ‘bones’ to hang my story on; a few events, like signposts on a highway.  A happening or two I can work my way toward, travel past and on to the next signpost. Sometimes while I’m writing a good idea will pop up – or the dialogue pouring out of my fingertips (I’m a touch typist of old), the smart repartee between characters will introduce another character or create an event I hadn’t thought of, until then. At other times I will get an idea and to use it I have to write a whole chapter to justify one paragraph with the idea planted there, more for my own satisfaction than the reader’s amusement.

This happened in my latest novella “A Stellar Affair”, a futuristic romance. Stella is at the airport with her grandfather.  They have ‘jumped’ to a corner in a service passage and as they exit the corridor  to the main concourse Stella has to avoid the suitcases that are following their owners, or rather following an electronic signal coming from either the wrist or belt of their owners. Oblivious to other beings they trundle faithfully upright, close behind. The cases have safety locks to prevent theft, which If forced causes them to wail like a baby.  People become emotionally attached to their suitcases, paste stickers, noses, eyelashes on them and give them names.

The idea of the suitcase ‘pets’ came to me watching the new upright suitcases, at the airport about a year ago; being pulled along by their owners, tucked beside them, held close. Suddenly I could picture them as faithful pets and the methodology of how and why was worked out in minutes. I had to write a whole chapter just to fit in an airport scene to use the suitcase idea. A fan commented the other day about this latest story. She loved the story, but wanted to talk about the suitcases. She thinks everyone should have one and in the future everyone might now that I’ve put the idea out there. She also thinks I should contact Samsonite – but I haven’t.

When this happens it’s just great to be a writer - the deliverer of ideas and secrets. Yesterday I had a fabulous title pop into my head.  I wasn’t even thinking about writing. Actually, (and I know I shouldn’t use an adverb) I was cooking peanut brownies at the time. I had to rush off and write it down.  Now I’ll have to write a story to fit the title. If I don’t hassle it I know my brain will come up with some ideas, probably in the dead of night and keep me awake.  Meanwhile I’ll hug it tight and ponder on different plot lines I could use. It has to go through the ‘hatching’ process.

My latest Young Adult: 'A TASTE OF GOLD' ((by Deryn Pittar) has acquired, unplanned, two Taniwha. They definitely weren’t there to begin with, but have snuck in and now insist they are worthy of keeping. I’m inclined to agree with them. I didn’t know Taniwha could be so persuasive. Their size could have something to do with that. I keep looking over my shoulder to check they haven’t followed me home. Now I need to think of another adventure in which I can travel New Zealand and find other Taniwha. I’ve been to the local library and although there are a few legends involving these mythical creatures it appears to be an open field for me to play in.

My Taniwha are brave, loyal, intelligent and keepers of the land's treasures (gold, silver and diamonds). Guess who causes the earthquakes in this country?

KEEPING FAIRIES IN YOUR GARDEN

Today I welcome Daisy Banks to my blog -  a writer who indulges her imagination and delights her readers with stories of fantasy and fiction, skilfully blended with facts.

 

Fairy Gardens.

All my blog posts in the Valentine Wishes tour are to do with fairies and it has been interesting to discover other people who believe in them too. This is reassuring as I did wonder if people might find me more than a little odd. Someone did ask what could they do to encourage the presence of the wee folk in their home.

I’d suggest first look to your garden or outdoor spaces. Elementals like fairies love greenery, flowers and herbs, so there is your first way to entice a fairy to linger. Fairies don’t relish neat and tidy, every weed pulled, every leaf and twig swept away as they fall, gardens. I think fairies like a bit of a wild spot, so do other creatures. Now, this will of course, depend on where in the world you and your garden are. If you know leaving logs around encourages poisonous snakes to come for a stay, you won’t want that in your garden. Likewise, one of my friends lives in a part of the USA where only cactus grows easily, but I know she has made a garden with stones and flowering types of cactus.

Depending on what your weather is like you can use all kinds of things, mossy stones, small fountains, the solar powered ones are easy to set up, bird feeders and bird baths are fun, fragrant planting is good too and I’ve always found pots useful for plants so I can move plants around from place to place if I wish. My parent’s house has several wind chimes in the garden and they can be atmospheric.

I expect a lot of you have these things already. If you want to be specific to plants for attracting fairies, Hawthorn hedging is grand. It is the Hawthorn that gives the glorious display known as May blossom. A myriad of tiny deliciously scented white flowers brings luck and many ruby red berries in winter. A delight for the when the winter weather comes. May blossom has been associated with fairies and magic for a very long time. Tradition says May blossom should not be cut and brought inside until the month of May is out.

Specific flowers to encourage fairies are roses, nasturtiums, foxgloves, pansies, winter flowering heather. All these are bright colourful and fragrant. I could go add to this list with plants like lavender, rosemary and thyme. I’ve chosen a couple of images for you as an idea. I hope you enjoy them.

The garden features strongly in my story Valentine Wishes and is based on one garden I had some years ago before I moved house. I do hope you enjoy the story which is available on 10^th of February . You can if you wish pre order it here. http://bit.ly/1l0mX2Y

Here is a little snippet from Valentine Wishes to let you see part of the garden.

Poppy flew over the drab February garden. The damp, gray morning remained cold with an icy nip in the air, but at least she could feel no imminent snow. In one corner by where the girls parked the car, beneath a leafless bough, a little stand of snowdrops peeked out. Spring would soon arrive and the garden would bloom back into life. She flew up and around to the larger back garden.

Here sat some of the dreaded decking. Lackluster, noxious stuff and when she first saw it, she had thought not to settle in such a place. But her girls, being such clever and willing mortals, covered more than half of the deck with pots, baskets, and bright coloured boxes of flowers and herbs. The scent in the summer intoxicated, and this persuaded her to stay. The party that had been in full swing when she arrived, with couples who danced on the lawn, also helped make up her mind. Why, my girls even have pretty fairy lights hanging from the bushes. She knew another party was planned to take place very soon and she could hardly wait.

Links to Daisy Banks

Buy link from the 10^th of February onward at Liquid Silver Books. http://bit.ly/1eXJOcx

Blog    http://daisybanks.wordpress.com/

Website http://daisybanksnovels.yolasite.com/

Twitter @DaisyBanks12

Facebook page http://on.fb.me/18iRC35

Pinterest http://bit.ly/16sF1XG