Healing through story
Turn down the volume and listen to the silence. Mannequin Monday brings us a note of quiet this week. Drape the form in soft fabric. In words that rise out of the silence in our hearts. A moment of stillness.
A few words from a biblical psalm help us be still.
As always, a lighthearted story of my own.
This week our mannequin is clothed with words and draped with sound.
The verbal focus is Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall. The auditory note comes from jazz vocalist Veronica Swift.
And I again offer a bit of my own writing: “The Necklace.”
We don’t always like the first outfit we try on. The same holds true for dressing our mannequin with words. The first words don’t always suit our taste.
This Mannequin Monday I talk about books I have not finished.
And, as always, I offer you a bit of my own writing, this time the opening chapter from the draft of my next story.
Thanks for joining me this week. And enjoy your holiday.
Continue reading“Write hard and clear about what hurts.” Advice from Ernest Hemingway. Looking this week for the hurt in our story. The hurt in our characters. The hurt masked by our mannequin’s facade.
I am reading Under a Gilded Moon, historical fiction set in North Carolina in the time of the Vanderbilts.
And I offer a character sketch for Tessa Warren from book two in my Film Crew series. Welcome to another Mannequin Monday!
Continue readingIs there music in the space between the notes? Can we hear music in the silences between heartbeats? British bandleader Jools Holland talks with other musicians during the COVID lockdown. This week we drape our bare mannequin in the cloak of silence.
And I offer writing of my own, a piece of flash fiction. “Jonathan’s Last Note.”
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“An apple, cleft in two, is not more twin than these two creatures.” The story of twin siblings drapes our bare mannequin this week. A classic romantic comedy: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
And from my own writing, I offer an excerpt from my novel Apart, with references to Twelfth Night.
I re-read Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night this week. Viola’s line, “What country, friends, is this?” came to mind early in the week. Not sure if it was prompted by current politics, or if it simply popped into my mind.
You remember the play, right? A storm at sea separates a twin man and woman. Each thinks the other is lost at sea. Viola, the sister, disguises herself as a man. Twists and turns ensue, until they are reunited at the end.
The trials of twin siblings always make for a perennial favorite story line. You can read the play here.
Reading Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night reminded me of this chapter from my book Apart. I am about to re-publish the book with a new cover and a new title, A Twin Long Gone. The refresh will make it clearer to readers what the book is all about. I hope.
In the story, actor Kelsey Graf is helping the main character, Gabe Wray, in creating a video for YouTube that may help him find his long-lost twin sister. They are trying to re-create what his sister might have been involved in when she went missing.
Chapter 14 “What country, friends, is this?”
The following morning the three met at a small black box theater in North Hollywood. Turo had found that it was available for a few hours on a weekday morning. He had told Cabe, “Since Gail had a strong interest in acting, taping Kelsey in this setting may trigger a memory with one of our potential viewers. I’ll edit it into the video after we set up the idea of Gail being an actor.”
Continue reading“You can’t put life on a piece of paper. Or love.” A mother facing death in the concentration camps writes to her daughter Rose, who escaped to America. This week Mannequin Monday explores the play A Shayna Maidel, by Barbara Lebow. We dress our mannequin with the power of dialogue.
And, as always, I offer a short story of my own. This week it’s a character sketch of Kelsey Graf, one of the key players in several of my books.
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