I received a beautiful present in the mail this week from Aine’s Realm – a charm bracelet inspired by We Hear the Dead. Isn’t it lovely? I’ll be wearing it for good luck at all my book events from now on. Aine designed the bracelet herself, and the charms reflect the time period (horse and carriage, sailing ship), the séances (candles, Ouija board, coffin, cemetery gate), and the romance (entwined hearts, love letter) in my book.
The bracelet came at a good time because it was otherwise a very sad week. My school district and my community are still reeling from a devastating car accident involving several high school students last weekend. I won’t blog about that here, but suffice it to say that Aine’s present was a welcome bright spot in the week. I was looking for a reason to smile. Thank you, Aine. 🙂
For a writer, success is not always measured by one’s Amazon rank, I think.
In other news, I’m looking forward to being the guest at a book club in Phoenixville, PA next week – and SKYPING with high school creative writing classes in Florida next month. (That is, the students will be in Florida, and I’ll be in PA.) The Collingswood Book Festival in New Jersey is also coming up in a couple weeks.
If you aren’t familiar with S.F. Robertson’s blog Wastepaper Prose, you should definitely check it out while she is running her latest Author Insight series. I am excited to be keeping company with the likes of Jennifer Hubbard, Kami Garcia, Kody Keplinger, and Jon Skovron answering questions on topics like Wait on the Muse or Kidnap Her?, Battles with Characters and Outlandish Things Done in the Name of Research.
Finally, the bracelet this week reminded me of another beautiful thing inspired by my book — a two-movement quartet. Okay, only one of the two movements was inspired by my book – and really, it was Maggie Fox’s story, not mine. I blogged about this back in January, but think I had 3 followers at the time, so chances are you haven’t seen it. My husband’s cousin, Dr. Paul Salerni, a Professor of Music at Lehigh University, composed a chamber piece entitled Witches and Rappings, inspired by We Hear the Dead and the Witches of Eastwick, which was performed by the chamber ensemble group SATORI in January. If you have the time, check out this archived post.
Warm wishes to everyone for a charmed and safe weekend …
what a beautiful bracelet and a lovely gift. so sorry about the accident. we’ve had them here in my town – I think every town does – and one right on my road. It’s terrible and tragic, every parent’s worst nightmare.
How cool to receive such a beautiful gift. Sorry to hear about the car accident. Things like that are never easy. It is my worst nightmare.
HAve a great weekend!
I love that bracelet. It’s perfect. i’m so sorry your community is going through something like that right now. when I was younger, there was a very bad accident involving high school students and a friend of mine’s sister didn’t make it. It really effects everyone and is very hard to come back from.
What a beautiful bracelet and wonderful gift.
We’ve had similar accidents here. Even if you don’t know the kids. Even if they live across the country. It still hurts because you know the families and friends are suffering. You know some brilliant lives have been ended too soon.