Skip to main content

Diamonds or Pearls?

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

Bill Brockmeier said…
Hi Camy—I've loved all your comments you've been making on BLB! (by the way, what an exceptional course!) But I have to say, that I LOVE pearls far more than diamonds, though diamonds are an absolutely marvelous substance. In my mind, pearls are truly a miracle. In my yet unpublished historical fiction novel, The Stone Cutter, one of the minor characters is a wise old Chinese pearl trader named Rongyu Shu, and he gives a rich soliloquy to my protagonist about the wondrous nature of what pearls are. Let me quote the last portion of his explanation—

"...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!
Anonymous said…
And of course, no discussion of pearls would be complete without at least a mention of the first queen of Italy—Margherita di Savoy, the Queen of Pearls (and yes, Margherita is actually here given name, and means "little pearl" in Italian!). She wore pearls, extravagantly, nearly every day of her life (well, maybe not when she climbed the Alps). She is a simply fascinating character of history that one day, I hope to write a novel about. She loved fast cars, climbed mountains, was the "Princess Diana" of Italy in the 19th century, and even invented the "Margherita" pizza. Hey, you interested in co-authoring a romance about her, down the road? Anyway, here she is— http://gogmsite.net/_Media/1901-published-margherita-2.jpeg
Camy Tang said…
Your writing is so beautiful! I love it!
Camy Tang said…
That’s fascinating! Alas, I do not have time for any co-authoring, but I think you should write that book! It would be wonderful!

Popular Posts

Window shopping

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at ...

New book idea a la Captain Caffeine

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.14.2009 So my husband, Captain Caffeine, had lunch with a few friends a few days ago. And they asked about my writing, and if I’d been on Oprah yet. (Yeah, right) They then discussed NYT bestselling books, and why can’t Camy write a NYT bestseller. (Sure, let me just open a vein over a blank page and it’ll come right out.) So Captain Caffeine came home with ideas for my new NYT bestselling novel. First it starts with vampires, because Twilight is so hot. But not just any vampires. This one’s an Amish vampire. And he’s not just an Amish vampire, he’s a cop in disguise, infiltrating the Amish community to protect a witness. (Hmm, that storyline sounds familiar ...) But wait! There’s more! To add more conflict and stick with my brand of Asian fiction, we introduce the Tibetan monk! Who joins the Amish community to get away from the pressures of monkhood. But in reality, he’s protecting the Chinese princess on the run, trying to escape from her father’s Hong...

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...

I GOT A CONTRACT!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.29.2006 I had a wonderfully funny blog post planned for today, but I got sidetracked by some news yesterday! Zondervan has offered me a three-book contract on my Asian chick-lit series ! I’m still stunned by everything that’s happened. The series is actually a 4-book projected Asian chick-lit series about four cousins who fall under the infamous family title "Oldest Single Female Cousin," and their ruthless, wealthy grandma applies pressure on each of them to improve their lack of love interests. I think the first book is tentatively scheduled to be released in August 2007. The blurb on the series is on my website here . Brandilyn Collins posted to the ACFW loop about my writing journey, and Tamara Cooper asked that I share it. And since you all know how much I like to talk , here it is. My writing journey: Like most writers, I have wanted to write since I was very young. (In high school, I wrote a fantasy novel that will never see the light of day ...