…When I’m tooling over to OakTara tonight to chat with some friends on their forums and I see my book cover right there on the front page! Check it out here: http://www.oaktara.com. I was totally not expecting that! They had just updated the site not too long ago and generally update it about once a month, so I was all prepared to wait a month to see my cover on there! I was in a full-blown TIZZY for several seconds, then I nailed both feet to the floor and came back to earth! lol
Just wanted to share my exciting news with my cyber-friends. 
- Love Ya Award
My cyber-friend, and co-host of AuthorCulture, Linda Yezak awarded me this Love Ya award. The terms for this award are:
These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers.
I really appreciate that. There is nothing worse than feeling like someone only wants to be your friend for the publicity’s sake. As authors we are continually bombarded with the pressure to ‘make a platform’, but we need to keep in mind that people should come first - platform second. If I ever forget that principle I should just pack up my bags and quit the writing life.
Well it is my distinct pleasure to pass this award on to three other blogs. So here they are in no particular order….
Tommie Lyn: http://www.tommielyn.com/apps/blog/ Tommie Lyn is one wonderful lady. I chat with her almost every night in the CW (www.christianwriters.com) chat room and really enjoy her friendship. I know if you take the time to get to know her, you will too. Love ya, Tommie!
Lesley: http://thehealthywriter.wordpress.com/ Lesley is my wonderful, wonderful, wonderful critique partner, and a person much more dedicated to health than me. She’s loosing weight like an iceburg in the Indian Ocean and I’m…, well…, this post is not about ME now, is it? Whew! Love ya, Lesley!
Janalyn: http://writewithjanalyn.blogspot.com/ Janalyn is someone I met one month at the Northwest Christian Writer’s group and we’ve been good friends ever since. She is truly a caring person. Love ya, Janalyn!
Take time to get to know these gals, I know, if you do, you won’t be disappointed. Blessings to you!
As promised, I’m getting back to our discussion about color.
First, I want to thank Dennis Hensley, whose class I had the privilege of sitting in on this past May at the Northwest Christian Writers Renewal Confernce. This discussion comes from his class notes.
Literary fiction of old was full of color symbolism. Now, I have to admit to a severe lack of exposure to modern literary fiction, so I haven’t seen what is taking place in the field today, but a study of what used to be, is always beneficial to what is.
Below is a list of symbolism from classic literary fiction:
- White - Life/Hero. (The good cowboy always wore white, for instance. Except for Zorro.
)
- Black - Death. (What was the name of the nine ghouls in The Lord of the Rings? “The Black Riders.”)
- Gray - Life/Death Simultaneously. (So the sea might be described as gray, because it gave life, but also often took life.)
- Red - Pain, Violence, Trauma, Bloodshed. (The red lava in Mount Doom is a good example.)
- Gold - Wealth
- Brown - of the earth, something good. (Usually a character described with earth tones in classic literature was a good-guy, a survivor.)
- Green - Birth/Rebirth
- Pink - Femininity
- Purple - Royalty
- Yellow - Swing color could mean Blindness or Enlightenment. (When a cowboy walked out of the saloon into the golden sunlight, he was often blinded literally and figuratively to his impending death. In Jack London’s story “War” the young man who ends up dead at the end of the piece was covered with yellow pollen for much of the story - he was blinded to his impending death.)
While I found this class interesting, I realized that I don’t pay too much attention to the symbolism of my colors as I write. I wonder if other authors do? What about you?
Okay, so last night I’m quickly trying to do a couple things on my blog and one of those things was to emptly out my spam filter. BUT in trying to do that I accidentally deleted many of the comments ya’ll have made recently! (There is a reason late-night is not the best time to be working on your blog. )
So if you notice that I deleted your comments - trust me there is nothing personal going on. Just me, the techno idiot, at work in the background.
This week we will get back to work on our discussion of color. Hope to see you then!
Today is the launch of a new blog that I’m starting with two of my online cyber pals, K. M. Weiland and Linda Yezak. We are over at http://www.authorculture.blogspot.com so come on by and see all the fun we have planned for you over there!
I look forward to getting to know you, either there or here. I love to meet new people.
So there it is! The cover for my upcoming summer release. I’d love to hear what you think.
Just click on the cover to find out more about the book. You’ll also be able to read the first few chapters.
