I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
Weigh in: Diamonds or pearls?
For me, it’s diamonds. That’s why Jessica’s necklace in my Christian Romantic Suspense, Deadly Intent, is diamonds.
I based Jessica’s necklace on an actual necklace from Tiffany, the Jean Schlumberger “Lynn” necklace. The photo is copyrighted so I can’t post it on my blog, but you can see the necklace online here.
Isn’t it lovely?
Tell me which you prefer, and post pics/links to your favorite jewelry!
Comments
"...I believe the truth of the miracle is far more compelling. I believe it is to be found at the very center of what a pearl is. We commonly think of a pearl as an object of consummate beauty—and that is certainly so. But if a costly pearl were split open—and I shudder to imagine that—we would see at its core, something tiny, and unsightly. A grain of sand, a piece of broken shell, perhaps a small parasite. None of these has a beauty or wonder in itself. They are ugly, malignant, destructive. In the normal course of life, these things may invade the protected home of the shellfish. The invaders work themselves in between the shells and into the soft flesh of the animal’s delicate body, producing irritation, disruption, perhaps injury.
“To protect itself from the invader, the animal then begins the miraculous work of containing, isolating the alien contaminant. It uses the same process as for producing its home, its shell. The soft tissue of the animal secretes a substance that becomes the nacre—the crystallized essence of clouds, rainbows, and moonlight. The animal wraps the dark, broken, grit and filth of living in an envelope of the highest form of beauty. Month after month, and year after year, it adds layer upon layer upon layer of nacre, ultimately developing a depth of glowing luster that could never be imagined, if not seen first in a high quality pearl.
“This is certainly a miracle of the highest order. I believe that, somehow, whoever imagined and created all that we know, has enabled this wondrous process to tell us something wonderful about themselves. It must be a picture in miniature of who they are, and what they are about."
So there you have it, Camy. My take (or at least my character's take) on what pearls really are!