I am most of the way through writing a new novel, a dark romance with paranormal overtones, but am taking a break for a few weeks. I'm currently having an RA flare that has sapped me of my usual energy level. I'm bogged down by mental and physical fatigue. So, I am quietly playing around with art, another longtime passion of mine. I fell in love with pen and ink drawing in high school when I drew a royal flush of playing cards for art class that knocked the socks off my teacher. I was chronic notebook doodler throughout my school and college years, drawing more images than I took notes, but drawing and writing always kept my mind focused and busy.
I am currently working on a series of thirteen cemetery draped urn images. Why cemetery urns? I'm a taphophile. So is Kelly. We enjoy visiting and walking through cemeteries to admire the gravestone images and statuary. She discovered Rural Cemetery in Worcester when she was at WPI, an 1800's arboretum cemetery with an interesting assortment of trees including a huge beech tree that has literally consumed some nearby markers so that they jut out of the base of its trunk and roots- totally creepy! We hiked around that cemetery and shot a lot of pictures. We've been to the Old Burying Ground here in town where Kelly photographed nearly all of the gravestones and table monuments. In Center Cemetery n Southampton a ghost played a trick on me, messing with my Nikon Cool Pix camera and then taking a picture of me as I walked along the lane at the rear of the cemetery after viewing Revolutionary War era markers. The cover image of The Girl With the Ivy Tattoo is of a statue monument in Pine Hill Cemetery here in Westfield. She stands at the rear of the upper level of the cemetery where she can be viewed by anyone who visits. My family has always been the cemetery caretakers of family gravestones in Colrain and Hatfield. I spent my childhood and adolescence wandering around cemeteries while my parents trimmed and watered shrubs, filled urns with colorful flowers or arranged cemetery boxes full of flowers on graves. We've cleaned lichen off stones with brass wire brushes so they're legible again. Ironically, I cannot visit my parents' grave at Pine Hill Cemetery, even though I drive by it four days a week and it's visible from Western Avenue, and I know the evergreens on either side of the stone need trimming. I just have a problem with that, I guess, that I should resolve, but I'm not ready yet even though Mom has been gone eighteen years and Dad seven years.
I also collect cemetery books- Graven Images, Stories in Stone, Stories from the St Louis Cemeteries of New Orleans, etc. One of my favorite fiction book series is the Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens about a cemetery restorer who can see spirits. The series is set in Charleston- very eerie, dark, atmospheric and riveting. Any novel that has a haunted, dark, handsome man in it (John Devlin in this series) captures my attention. Another favorite series of mine is Darynda Jones's Charlie Davidson novels, First Grave, Second Grave....all the way to Twelfth Grave with Thirteenth Grave anticipated and expected to be added to the bookshelf. They have absolutely nothing to do with cemeteries, but Charlie (who has unique traits and the coolest BFF ever, Cookie) fell in love with the son of Satan who is smokin' hot and can cook, so that's right up my alley also.
Which is probably why I wrote the Talon series about a handsome, hot, yet socially remote &difficult MD (pathologist, internal medicine, ER & Trauma) who is also a Medical Examiner, and just happens to be a grim reaper and his chosen portal who has no clue who or what she is, she just knows she's not like other people (her family labeled her Freak when she was young and it's stuck). The series of three novels (plus a related fourth novel about their daughter who is a senior in college who has a love-hate relationship with her own difficult, darkly handsome man, who happens to be the sixth son of Satan) traces Bryce's journey from awkward outsider who desperately wants to be have a close relationship, but the only man she is truly attracted to has a knack for hurting her feelings or making her angry, which causes confusing and frightening things to happen. The first book introduces the characters and initiates Bryce's relationship with Dr. Talon. The second book tells of their struggles to become the partners they desire to be in this world while dealing with issues about their partnership in the other realms where they battle demons because Bryce is not what Talon expected her to be. Their son is born at the end of book two and Talon has gotten her to resolve the fractures in most of her relationships with her family members. In book three their wedding is approaching and high emotions cause problems for them in the other realms. Bryce is taken from Talon and the Heavens are rocked and then threatened. Bryce has to find a way to save the reaper she loves as well as friends and family members. Throughout the series the ties that bind us are examined as Bryce struggles to come to grips with her place in this world and her role alongside Talon in the Heavenly realm and all the realms beyond the veil where they battle to protect the gateways to Heaven, Bryce being one of those gateways.
The novel I'm currently working on is set at a family owned and operated funeral home (the business dating back to the early 1800's). The present day Garnet Grimshaw has been exploring the family attics and has discovered a relative named Garnett Grimshaw in the 1870's who fell in love with the daughter of a wealthy importer and emporium owner, Quella Prys. The Prys mausoleum in Story Street Cemetery is a favorite place for the present day Quella Pryce to sit when she's wandering about the Story Street Cemetery taking photographs (she's a taphophile whose grandmother owns an antiques shop called Memento Mori that sells antique and vintage mourning related items, clothing, and accessories.) Both Garnet and the present day Quella have had difficult family issues to deal with. They begin a relationship during the town anniversary celebration, held at Story Street Cemetery after a parade in which the Grimshaws march behind their restored late 1800's funeral hearse coach. Quella, dressed in Victorian era mourning like her grandmother in front of the shop, is invited to walk with Mrs. Grimshaw. The Grimshaws conducted the funeral for Quella's father a decade prior. Garnet is haunted by his namesake ancestor and draws Quella into his efforts to unravel the mystery of where the body of Quella Prys is buried. That Quella and Garnett Grimshaw had becme lovers in eighteen seventy-three. Garnett died of a sudden illness in late October of that year, Quella died in childbirth in early May of the following year, after being disowned and thrown out of the house by her irate and scandalized father and going to lie with Garnett's family at their undertaking business. The gravestone for Garnett and his infant son is in the family plot, but Quella is not in the family mausoleum, nor can a burial record be found for her. Garnet and the present day Quella are intrigued by the past and determined to reunite Quella with the ghostly, enigmatic Garnett who haunts the present day Garnet. I'm abouttwo thirds of the way finished writing this novel.
But, I'm tired and dealing with chronic pain and fatigue at the moment. Hopefully this will pass in another week or so and my energy will return. In the meantime, I'm quietly sitting at the kitchen table inking sketches of draped cemetery urns for the series of Thirteen Urns and reading Edward Gorey books when my hand cramps up.
Last night, I drew two crows...Hopper and Archer, frequent visitors to our backyard. That was a diversion and fun, but it's back to urns today. #7 is half done.
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