Contest Prize

Last month, Natalie Whipple ran a writing contest over on her blog, and my story won a lovely prize:

Isn't she talented?  This picture is from a scene in "Star Swans and Sarki," my novel that most wants to be finished, the one I'm almost finished revising (until I get feedback, and then I'll revise some more).  Lani looks just the way I imagined her, and the Star Swan is very close.  There are differences, but I like them.  For instance, she made the Star Swan sparkle, and the sparkle reminds me of sparks from a fire.  I hadn't even thought of that; I may incorporate the sparks into the story.  And I love that Natalie dressed Lani in red.  If you haven't been over to Natalie's blog, I highly recommend it.  I've scrolled through all of her posts labeled "drawing" because I like her art, and she gives great writing advice.

In this scene, Lani discovers that the Star Swan loves pomegranates as much as she does and is feeding it seeds.  She's convinced Jaavan to sneak out at night so they can convince the Star Swan to heal his mother, but they don't know that Lani's mother also fed a Star Swan before she disappeared. 

There is a distant allusion to Hades and Persephone, so distant and inverted I didn't realize it existed when I was writing it.  I noticed it later.  Isn't it interesting how our subconscious feeds our stories tidbits of other stories? J.R.R. Tolkien referred to sources of this nature as "the bones" of "the soup" in his famous essay, "On Fairy-Stories."

I hope you enjoyed the picture as much as I did!