One of the themes I’m using for my novel this National Novel Writing Month is superstitions. I’ve never really been that superstitious except for doing things like throwing salt over my shoulders, just in case. (Yes, both because I didn’t know which one. BTW it’s the left.) However, my interest sparked after my mom told me how my grandpa often reminisced about growing up in Alabama. One of the stories he told was how his mother (pictured on the left) died when he was just five years old; it happened right after she told him not to shoo the birds away that had landed on their front porch because it meant death.
Around the same time my mom was telling me her memories of her dad, I had begun the rough draft of one of my very first supernatural fairy tale (Little Red Riding Hood) inspired short stories. It set the entire mood, and “Silverweed Muffins” was born. Now I’m taking that short story and using it to inspire the novel.
In researching superstitions, I discovered a few interesting sites on the internet (listed below) and finally found a reference book I really like, Dictionary of Superstitions by David Pickering. Even if you don’t need the book for reference, it's interesting to see how our lives today are influenced by these superstitions from the past.
There are 72 superstitions in this really awesome print - Superstitions by artist James C Christensen - http://www.swoyersart.com/james_christensen/superstitions.htm
So how about you? Are you superstitious?
No comments:
Post a Comment