SPRING FORTH

Now, with more rain, the plants are *covered* in blooms. Even this is just the beginning! I wish I could post the fragrance of that pink one. If it could be bottled, it would sell for thousands! :)

The hedge goes all the way across the front of my house from one side to the other. I can't believe I had the presence of mind to plant these like this, because I had no idea how they would fill out and become something this lovely and thick.

Ah, and now it rains again outside my window. :)

Here they are - as always click on the photos for a larger view:

THE ALIGNMENT OF FORTUITOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, FIREWORKS,THE BOSTON POPS, AND HEAVY CANNON

The thing that always astounds - always comes through for me somehow in this crazy writing game, is how things seem to just line up for me in these stories. You work - no, slave over details. There is some problem in this part of the plot, or you need to nail down the motivation for this character here or there, or the sequence of something is off, or (God forbid) you just can’t get a handle on the “hook” - and then, BOOM!

There it is.

Some crazy thing that lands at your feet and it starts the wheels turning, and an idea forms, and the “what ifs” start... and oh, sweet Lord, you have just found a way to save that freakin’ story you thought might be a goner! Except in your heart you loved it, and you just could not pronounce it DOA. Now, thanks to the Alignment of Fortuitous Circumstances, you don’t have to. IT IS ALIVE!!!!!

I have a series I’m writing which I call the “Art of Crime”. I am currently revising manuscript number one (ms #1), writing ms #2, and I have ms #3 banging around in my skull.

Ms #1 is basically in the bag. The revisions are just clean up stuff. Ms #2 is fully fleshed out and I’m already writing text on it. I have some research yet to do, but it’s all stuff I know where to go, and what I’m looking for, etc.

Ms #3 has been begging - BEGGING for more form - a more cohesive high concept. The basic concept was there, but certain pieces of it wouldn’t gel! I could not get a string of events fitting together the way I needed them to in order to make the story really work. Pardon the pun here, but I needed a skeleton upon which to overlay the story. This would give me a framework for my plot, which gives me a framework for all the details, and so on.

So I’m having a conversation with someone today. This person told me an offhand story in support of a point they were making. The story they told isn’t important for purposes of this post. What is important is that two small details in that story - its location within a certain Houston neighborhood, and the presence of certain cemeteries - those two details, which were insignificant in the story the person was telling me - those details absolutely LIT UP THE SYNAPSES IN THE DULL GREY MATTER OTHERWISE KNOWN AS MY BRAIN!

Bright lights! Bells! Whistles! Dizzying and thrilling electric currents!

So, I call my best friend who lives down in the H-Town and start telling her about these details because she is an actual, bonafide HOUSTONIAN. As soon as I mention this particular neighborhood (which she and I have been to before), and the cemeteries, she’s like “Oh yeah.” Then she goes on to tell me about ghost stories in a certain place near there, and bayou stuff, and oh, Oh, OH!!!

MORE LIGHTS GOING ON IN THE GREY MATTER!

Ding, ding, ding!!!!

After I got off the phone with her, my brain would not shut down.

I brain stormed. I printed maps. I had a detailed high concept now, and I was laying the plot over it. There will be more plotting soon. There will be trips to the H-Town, and photographs, and notes, and excitement, and more plotting, more excitement, and then detailed outlining, and even more *excitement*, and then actual, Honest to Mike writing of MS #3!!!

YYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!

I love days like this when some one little thing gets laid in my lap, and I see how a seemingly insignificant detail can start a creative fire.

I add a little extra spark to it and suddenly I have a Creative Fire Works Display - with Boston Pops playing the 1812 Overture, and heavy cannon firing right on cue! Metaphorically speaking...

*Breathing now.*

These are the kinds of days a writer lives for. The stuff that makes you deliriously happy and totally nuts at the same time - deliriously happy for what it has brought to the story, and totally nuts because it was pure fortune.

What the Hell would I have done if that one story with those two insignificant details had not been told to me?

I will not dwell on the way in which fortune deigns to visit or pass me by, as the case may be. No, I will simply revel in what is here for me tonight, because...

It. Is. Good.

I only have one problem.

You know, with all the fire works, and symphony, and cannon fire...

How the Hell am I going to get to sleep now?

Polla Filia,
J.F.

FIRST BLOOMS

The front hedge is just beginning to bloom, but not in the splendour we will have in a few more days. We must be patient for that.

Meanwhile, the first blooms are showing their pretty heads. Enjoy!

Click on the photos to get a larger view.









Polla Filia,
J.F.