Makani's Stars

Though Makani's Serenity is not an outer space type of story, I've known for a long time that the stars were important to the characters.  And I've wished and looked for a theme or prominent object in the story that I could find jewelry of and wear - my own little symbol for my novel and beloved characters.  (I got this idea from Rebekah Roberts' novel Petals and her rose jewelry.)

But it wasn't until a recent outing with my good friends, Rebekah Roberts and Hadassah Fey, that I accepted that the stars, and in a way the night sky, were that object or idea that I had been wanting.  We were at our favorite dollar jewelry store (we really go all out when we hit the town), when we found a long golden chain with a circle pendant of a Man in the Moon profile with a star inside the bottom of the circle.

It was the first piece of jewelry with or about stars that I had really liked.  This one had character.  I knew within seconds that this was the pendant I had wished for.

Amusingly enough, the moon is not mentioned once in my novel, and there is only one star in the circle.  Nevertheless, this was the one for me.

And by that point I was so excited about stars that I kept looking at the golden necklaces on the wall, a small section that vanishes among thousands of colorful fashion jewelry throughout the store, and I found another pendant that I wanted greatly.  This one was smaller, on a short chain, and in some ways rather simple, but that made it all the more perfect for me.  It was a clear plastic gem that catches the light with a four point golden disc behind it, looking like a star twinkling in the darkness.  It didn't take me long to decide to buy it.

If you see me wearing either of these, I'm thinking of Makani's Serenity.

The Peach Tree

Let me just say I'm not a gardener.  But if I were a bat, I'd probably be a fruit bat.  And my family has a dwarf peach tree in the back yard.  Over the last couple of seasons, my family and I were so swamped with insanity that we didn't get to harvest that many.  I think last year we missed it entirely.  This year, this fruit bat would like to eat some peaches.

So, I decided to see what I could do to take care of the tree, at least a little, so we could enjoy it's sweet, zangy fruit when it ripens.

The first step was to reduce the tree's burden.

Our tree likes to produce peaches.  No, really, it likes to produce peaches.  More than it can handle.  In some places, I thought the fruit looked like grape clusters.  And I noticed after I went through a branch and thinned it out, it sprang back up and looked a lot more cheerful.  This crazy tree likes to try to do more than it can.

So, I went at it, branch after branch, making sure to get up close and personal all the way to the core of the tree, and in the process, I came across six ladybugs.  Now, there are not many bugs that I like, and even fewer that I will purposefully allow to touch me, but the ladybug is one that fits both categories.  So, every time I came across one, I was delighted.  At one point, my papa came out and helped, and he almost immediately found another ladybug.  Seven in all protecting our peaches from aphids.  That's happy.

We'll see what happens from here.  I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm hoping thinning out some peaches will make it more likely that we can actually eat some.

Before and After.

Note the ground underneath.

ThePlotPoint

ThePlotPoint was born on this day, May 22nd, over two decades ago. But during her childhood, no one knew that the squirrelly little girl who enjoyed everything from sitting on her parents' laps to pretending the lawn mower was a monster would have the dream to write stories and would grow into that role.

That little baby girl was Dorathea Maynard. Me. I am your typical writer, meaning I'm just like any other ordinary person, but I process things differently. For example, when I hear the birds' joyful chatter at the dawn of spring, I don't stop at the perfectly satisfactory "The birds are singing pretty. I like spring." I have to complicate life and I go further to wonder just how exactly to describe the tweets and trills, warbles and scratches, and overlapping melodies of the different birds. Then I wonder if I could possibly use that in a story.

I read and write fiction because it is a fun way to look at life. And just as I enjoy reading more than one genre, I write in many genres. I have several stories written and dancing in my imagination that include: children's historical adventure, children's sci-fi adventure, adult sci-fi thriller, young adult sci-fi romance, vampire parody, vampire quest, and more. I even like to dabble in poetry.

Now, here I am, closing in on finishing my novel, Makani's Serenity, a young adult coming-of-age story involving class struggles, self worth, and sacrificial love.

So, join me on my adventure as I finish Makani's Serenity, work on the plethora of other stories I have in mind, and live life.  As Peter Pan said, "To live would be an awfully big adventure."