Writers craft words like sculptors craft stone or clay or a musician a melody. They collect words, pulling first one then another from an invisible realm and put them together, knocking them into shape, forming a beautiful symphony that gives form and colour to thought. They make the invisible visible, express an idea so we can see and examine it. They conjure up an atmosphere, a picture, or an emotion.
Consider these:
· “The dawn of the Renaissance bathed the world with the light of fresh hope.”
· “She put the roses on his grave. Soft red petals on hard, grey granite. They did little to alleviate death’s cold, dark grip. Icy fingers clutched at her very soul. It seemed her love had failed; that all her tender care during his illness had failed to touch his cold, hard heart. Now it was too late.”
Words get us thinking and feeling. They enable us to communicate and communication is what writing – and, indeed, all art - is about.
I hope you enjoy my words. There are seventy-four thousand of them in Blood and Roses. Here is the opening paragraph …
Early August 1642
The visitor knocked at the door. Eventually it was opened by an old woman in a white cap and pale blue petticoat. A man hovered in the dimly lit interior behind her and then faded from view. All at once the woman recognized the visitor as a young man she had known as a boy.
“Why, Master Simon!” she exclaimed.
“Agatha!” he responded. He watched her take in the sight of his plain, black hat and cropped hair– the sign of a Puritan - and saw her hesitation as she first extended her arms in welcome, then drew them back a little. He noticed too that the smile, which had so readily spread between the kindly wrinkles, had retracted a little. Simon studied her blue-grey eyes, understanding completely the distracted look which had disturbed their usual peace, as a randomly kicked stone momentarily disturbs the surface of a pool.
If you haven’t done so already, treat yourself or a friend to a copy and enjoy all of them!
Now please excuse me, I must get busy writing the sequel…..
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