Blessings of the fall season! I’m a big fan of whimsy. Since I write emotionally intense, character-driven BDSM romance which explores the darkness of human nature on the way to the happily-ever-after, I think putting whimsy in my daily life is my balance. It touches my heart, knowing that people create and indulge simple pleasures to make themselves and others feel good and smile. For instance, I was just visiting Disneyworld, and I love their fall decorations, like these pumpkin people. The existence of whimsy supports a theory I have; that maybe the best way to gain perspective in the midst of grief or despair is not to come up with some big theory to explain or cure the problem, but to figure out a small way to touch the heart and keep the candle burning in darkness. The darkness may always be there, sure, but come hell or high water, that candle’s not going out.
In my own stories, I’ve found indulging those moments in the midst of bigger problems is a way to keep the story from being too dark and offer the reader as much hope as the characters. Like this short scene in Mirror of My Soul, where Tyler is wondering if love is enough to heal Marguerite’s broken soul. He’s never even seen her laugh. They get caught out in a rain storm and…
In the way of Southern storms, the full force of the shower was on them in twenty more steps, a heavy rain that made the winding asphalt path slick and dark like a raven’s wing. Steam rose from the tarred surface, disrupted by the raindrops. Marguerite stopped, pulling her hand free to push her wet hair from her face. Tyler saw her eyes were laughing, her mouth quivering against the real thing.
“It’s like music,” she said, her voice rising over the wind. Lightning flashed over her, followed by the roar of thunder. His angel spread her arms and began to twirl, her hair spinning with her, the wet skirt fluttering with the wind, grabbing for slick purchase on her legs.
As it grew wetter, the dress’s white cotton fabric began to cling to her. When she twirled, she stepped into a puddle, splattering water on her ankles and the glistening curves of her calves. Gathering up her hair in her hands, she held it to the top of her head as she swayed with the movement of the wind, her eyes closing, her mind obviously concentrating on the presence of the storm on her body. She undulated her upper torso with that rhythm, began to perform a sensuous dance with the elements. Turning and jumping as lightly as a dancer, then stomping in the puddle with both feet with the abandon of a child.
She opened her eyes, stretched out a hand and he took it, moving with her in a spinning dance across the path and back. Taking both her hands, he swung with her in a wide circle, mesmerized by the way the water rolled down her face and the top curves of her breasts, revealed by the scooped neckline of the dress. He brought her into him, a turn that put her back against his body. He held her there, nudging her head to the side to suck beads of water off the side of her throat. When his hand came up to catch a cold wet nipple through the cloth, her back arched, rubbing her bottom against him. She broke away, headed down the path as her laughter—her laughter—called him to give pursuit.
Kicking off the comfortable slides, she ran from him in bare feet, her arms wide like wings, ropes of hair spilling down her back wildly like a glossy cape. His heart had wings of its own, as if he were a young man again with no weights on his heart, but with the wisdom of his present age to know what a tremendous gift this moment was. He caught up with her, seized her hand. They kept running, both running from shadows but running together, throwing off a light he reflected might keep those shadows cowering in the past where they belonged.
This excerpt reminds me of that beautiful lantern scene in the movie Tangled and the song that goes with it: “I See the Light”. It always makes me cry, in a good way. Hope and loss rise together hand in hand in that scene, and leaves me full of faith that the two will always at least balance, even if one can’t vanquish the other.
Hmmm…. Well, when I started this, I’d intended to write about my vampires, because we’re headed toward Halloween and the next release in my Vampire Queen series, Night’s Templar. My thought was I could talk about how sexy AND scary vampires can be, but I got a little derailed. That’s okay, though. I’ll still give you a snippet from one of my vampire books before I finish this post. If you love vampires, and want to explore the vampire-servant relationship from a Dom/sub perspective, you can read blurbs and full chapter excerpts for all dozen or so books in the series here. The upcoming one (late Oct-early Nov release) is a male/male BDSM romance, featuring a Fae Lord and a vampire. As you may have guessed from the title, the vampire was a Templar Knight!
Since many of you may not have read the series yet, I’m giving you a teaser from Beloved Vampire, Book IV, because some readers prefer to read it as the first book. That’s because it can standalone, is a great introduction to my vampire world, and has a wonderful male vampire as the Dom hero, Lord Mason. If you decide to read Mason and Jessica’s story, you also get a gentler introduction to Lady Lyssa, a Domme vampire who’s a bit scary at first, but whose story with her servant Jacob actually starts the series with Vampire Queen’s Servant. Anyhow, here’s the teaser from Beloved Vampire:
Lord Mason went to one knee next to Jessica and curled a lock of her hair around her ear, even as she tried to draw her head away from him. Vampires usually prohibited their servants from looking them in the eye, but he’d specifically asked her to look at him, a couple times now. However, she stared down at the towel wrapped around her, not wanting to see his handsome face, feel the pull in her lower abdomen at the slope of jaw, high cheekbones, the firm lips and steady eyes.
“I meant what I said, Jessica. No harm will come to you here, but you cannot cause harm to others, either. Attack one of my staff again, and I will keep you with me at all times.” She noted from beneath her lashes that his glance strayed over her throat, then down to the tenuously tucked towel. “You know enough about vampires to realize that if I’m around you too much, I will not deny myself a taste of you, in several different ways.”
“You said . . . I’d be safe.” She swallowed as his brow lifted.
“You would be quite safe, Jessica. As safe as you were in Amara’s arms. Keep that in mind before you decide to take out your anger on an innocent again. If you need to fight with someone”—his gaze sparked in a way that inspired fear and yet heat again, low in her belly—“you call on me.”
Jessica is a strong, amazing heroine who has been through a terrible ordeal with her previous vampire master, so she and Mason have a long road before she can trust him and her submissive instincts again.
And that’s all from me right now (except for my giveaway at the bottom – don’t overlook that!). For those who don’t know my work, I do contemporary and paranormal BDSM romance. So far, I have about 40 books and six series happening. I know, I know, I should have mentioned this at the first, but that seemed like a boring opener (grin). Here’s how to find out more about those books –
Website: www.storywitch.com (blurbs, excerpts, series order, etc under Books menu)
Twitter: @JoeyWHill
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JoeyWHillAuthor
Fan Forum: www.storywitch.com/community (includes free novellas revisiting characters from my books)
Newsletter subscription: http://storywitch.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/list/storywitchnews/
GIVEAWAY – You knew I wasn’t going to leave you without offering you goodies, right? For a $15 Amazon, B&N or ARe gift certificate, AND a free ebook of your choice, tell me about a piece of whimsy in your life that makes you smile. A cute figurine on your mantle, a memory of you or someone you love acting silly, a pair of pajama bottoms with snoozing sheep printed on it… you get the gist. You can also leave any comments and questions for me as well. I’ll randomly choose a winner after about 48 hours and post the person’s name here, but if you feel comfortable putting your email address with the comment, I can also email you directly if you win!
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Watching my son and granddaughter sleep. She curls so trustingly into him. She will tuck her hand up on his chest while he holds her and she knows she is safe in his arms. As she says in her 6 year old way, only daddy can make the monsters behave.
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I have my grandma’s bilo baby doll that she had when she was a kid. Every time I look at it, I always think of her and one of her silly things that she did when I was growing up.
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Marie, that is wonderful! That needs to be in a book somewhere, a scene with the hero and his daughter (grin). It just warmed me from head to toe.
Daun, I had to look up bilo dolls this morning and was enchanted by the results. My grandmother used to crochet all the time, and she’d make wide-skirted dresses for the inexpensive Barbie-like dolls to spread over the tissue rolls in the bathroom (she also did poodles that way), or on the pillows on the bed. I hadn’t thought of those in a while, so you gave me another whimsical memory to enjoy this morning!
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I have a small collection of hat pins. I display them in a hat pin holder. (It looks like a salt and pepper shaker.) It makes me smile to think of having to put a pin through you hat to keep it from blowing off. Reminds me of pioneer stories.
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I have a quilt that my grandmother painted me years ago with horses on it, I have it as a wallhanging, everytime I look at it I think of her.
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Janet, I’d be out of luck with that with my short hair! Throughout my life, I’ve gone through phases of collecting specific pieces of whimsy like the hat pins. Mary Moos, Pound Puppies, California Raisin figurines. When the phase fizzled on the first two, I passed them on so others could enjoy their whimsy (though I do still have one Pound Purrie (cat version of Pound Puppies) my husband gave me). I still have the Raisins, though! I also recently acquired a small, select group of Pop-Eyes. Jax of Sons of Anarchy, Thor from the Avengers and Jayne of Firefly. I love the stuff people come up with that make us all smile. Thanks for coming by and sharing your whimsy…
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Debbie, that sounds lovely. It’s nice to have things that not only have whimsical value, but connect us to those we love. My mom loved her “cutesies” as my neighbors would call them, and when she passed I kept quite a few pieces. They’re scattered through the house where I can both enjoy them and remember her.
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Well I have a pair of feetie pajamas with monkeys all over them and also still get stuffed animals from time to time, you’re never too old to color, have stuffed animals or for jello(especially jello shots lol)!
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Whimsy-When my oldest son was a baby, he would curl his toes into my stomach every time I feed him, which he got the nickname ‘monkey toes’. My youngest wigged his butt on my stomach every time I feed him, which he got the nickname ‘monkey butt’. And after 18yrs and 16yrs later, I still call them by these nicknames.
Whimsical memory-My great grandmother made stuffed clowns out of old towels. These clowns were only for the grand kids. When I was about 5yrs old, my grandmother and godmother took me to great grandma’s house (I don’t remember why). But I do remember there were green/white, red/white, orange/white ones (you get where I’m going with this) on the shelves. I got to pick which one I wanted. I have a aqua blue/white towel clown. I still have this clown after 40yrs. Wow, what a great giveaway Joey. I haven’t thought about this clown in forever.
Acting silly-A little history. I got my silly, weird, cocky, and foolish sense of humor from my mother(you know my sense of humor, enough said). We have a on going joke about being the chosen child to my mother. This is what all family time is with my family. So, I going with the last time my brother (brother has the same sense of humor) was in the States. We were all outside, enjoying the weather. I was standing next to my mother, refilling her wine glass, when she said that my brother was the chosen child once again because he had wired spot lights for her. I lend into her, and said, “listen up old lady, you better be good to me, because I’m picking your nursing home”. She hit my backside with a fly swatter, my brother laughed so hard that he broke the chair he was sitting in, and landed on his butt. At this point everyone was crying from laughing. Another silly moment on the same day, we do Christmas when every he is with us. So, we can have Christmas in May sometimes. So, later that night, we were opening gifts. My mother had gotten all the males in the family t-shirts that said, ‘lic-her in the front, pok-her in the back’. Which of course, we all laughed when all the males opened these t-shirts up at the same time. But this was not what was funny. What was funny is that my brother is married to a French woman, and the French don’t have a sense of humor, and they really don’t understand our silliness. So, his wife was not laughing because of not understanding what the t-shirt meant. So, my brother got up, went to her, and read, ‘lic-her in the front’, he lick his wife between her legs, and then read, ‘pok-her in the back’, he flipped her over, and poked her in the ass. That was when all hell broke loose. That was when the t-shirts were funny. Joey welcome to my family ( 🙂 😉 🙂 ).
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I remember once I was sick and my brother got me a stuff puppy but it looked like a panda bibbiesparks@yahoo.com
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I have a garden ornament in the shape of a cat which is about knee high. Whenever I go past him, I have to give him a pat. In the summer he is planted up with colourful bedding plants and he always makes me smile when I look out into the garden and see him.
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I have a collection of Amy Brown’s coffee and tea fairy figurines and postcard- size prints scattered around my house. Every time I see them I smile or laugh!
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garden gnome
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The first that comes to mind happened yesterday when my amazing ex-daughter-in-law brought the grand kids over. It was our grandsons 6th birthday. The way his face lit up when he saw us was priceless. He was more interested in us than his presents. As for our 4 year old granddaughter, she had a choke hold on me and didn’t let go. It brought tears to my eyes feeling the love radiate from them.
Second is our adopted dog Taylor Mae. We have discrimination she has a pillow fetish! She takes random pillows to sleep with. The funniest is her ” Tom” a body pillow. She drags that thing everywhere, like a security blanket! When she sleeps she has an end in her mouth the entire time. It’s adorable.
Thanks for the contest and the wonderful interview. Loved reading the other replies as well. BTW love your books! ????????????
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Reanna, I agree! I admit there are times I’ll linger in the toy section of Walmart, looking at those coloring books. My mom would get me the ones that looked like stained glass, and I had the 100 marker sets so I could do all sorts of things with them. And I have green pajama bottoms with monkeys on them (grin). I like to wear them with my “Grouchy” shirt which shows Oscar from Sesame Street on it.
Lee, I’m seeing a definite monkey theme when it comes to the whimsy (see Reanna’s comment above). Monkey butt and monkey toes – priceless! The ways our mothers torture us and also remind us of their enduring love as we get older (lol). Love the idea of the clowns. It’s true that handmade gifts are often the ones we keep the longest. I still have several of my grandmother’s afghans. As far as silly moments with family, I remember one Christmas where I took a picture of my brother, mother, husband (Scott) and right before the picture was snapped my mom said “Scott, are you grabbing my ass?” The picture shows all three of them bursting out laughing. It’s one of my favorites.
Toni, what a precious gift! Sometimes those brothers aren’t as big a pain in the butt as we expect them to be (grin).
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Not really sure if this could actually be called “whimsy” but in my mind it comes close.
I’ve always loved collecting pretty rocks. Different shapes, colors, sizes, etc. So, on the day we buried my Mom, my grandson found a perfectly square, beautifully small, white rock in the driveway at my parents’ house. He picked it up and later, as we were leaving my Dad there alone for the first time, he handed it to me as we got into the car. I looked at him and he said “this is her (meaning my Mom) telling you she’s ok. Now you gotta remember this kid was only about 11 or 12 at the time. I put that rock in the console tray of my Denali and I looked at it every single day.
Once when I had my car washed, they cleaned out the trash on the console and they took my rock and threw it away. Took me 2 hours, but I tracked them down, made them go thru their trash and get my rock back to me. See, and this is where I think the whimsy comes in, I connect that rock to my Mom. And yes, this may be weird, I hold the rock and think of 😛 her and I swear I can hear/feel her.
Probably as close to whimsy as I’m every gonna get since I’m a very logical/practical person. But that rock, it’s gonna go to my grave with me.
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I collect Jolly Mountaineer tumble ups. They are colored glass bedside carafes that are shaped like a wizened man. They make me smile
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Claire, my husband shudders whenever we go pass a nursery with lots of lawn art. I LOVE the stuff! When we moved from the coast, I gave a bunch away, so now I’m thinking I need to restock. I have a pair of concrete pigs that were part of an original family I acquired back in college over 25 years ago. I usually put bows on them for Christmas. Love the sound of your cat and how you arrange the flowers around him.
Okay, I really have to hang with you all. You’re my kind of people. Kimberly, I could happily drown in a vat of Amy Brown stuff. There’s a tin of notecards by my desk that has the picture of the male and female fairy on the front (he’s sitting below her in brown cloak/earth tones and she’s in green and blue, and they look like they have a wonderful romance to tell).
And bn100, who doesn’t love garden gnomes?! Chuckle – of course my husband plays World of Warcraft and “despises” the gnome figures, so I’m always threatening to line the front walkway with them. He actually collected the Tom Clark gnome series when he was younger, though.
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Gail, what lovely memories to cherish. And your dog sounds like a hoot. It’s so funny what they’ll latch onto. I still remember that PetSmart with the dachshund and his “wubbie”. They probably sold a million of those toys with that ad. I know our dogs had several of them and love them. But there’s a pink plush version of it on a string for cats, and our black cat would pounce on it and hold it long after she finished playing with it. Thanks for the kind compliment!
Shirley, wow! I’m very glad you were able to find that. If we define objects of “whimsy” as things that make us feel good emotions, comfort, hope, etc, I think your rock definitely qualifies. It’s a small but powerful piece of magic.
Donna, how cool! You guys have me doing some Internet searching today. It could be my bad eyes, but each one looks like a unique face. They had me smiling as well.
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I have my Nanas old frog soft toy. When I was little I tried to kiss ot for my prince lol.
Slimshrub@hotmail.co.nz
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I have several pieces of whimsy. A Mickey and Minnie postcard that my sister gave me before she passed. It always makes me feel her here. A small basket of glass beads my mom used to put on the Christmas tree. It’s broken now, but I keep the pieces and remember the fun times. I wear a necklace my partner always wore. When she passed I traded mine for herself. These items bring back such fond memories and knowledge that I was loved. Oh dang, sorry, tears. Thanks for the giveaway. Corkit@att.net
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Cherie, maybe the frog “was” the prince, because he provided you comfort and love (beaming). I have an Eeyore plush toy that my mom used to keep on the guest bed when I came to visit her. It doesn’t matter how old I got, I liked having that in the bed with me!
Oh, Pat, what lovely memories/sentiments to have at your fingertips. Blessings upon you and thanks for sharing those. And here’s a handkerchief. You made me a bit choked up, too!
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Being a visual artist my life is filled with whimsy, either pieces that I’ve made or pieces that I’ve bought. A piece of whimsy that I touch daily or several times a day is a carved wooden eyeglass stand that holds my glasses when they are not on my head. It’s very similar to the heads of Easter Island but it doesn’t have any eyes. It’s just the nose and mouth and it comes up to a point with a small niche in the back where the glasses rest and keeps them safe from being scratched. I had admired one that I saw at a friend’s house and a short time after that my husband managed to find one at a yard sale. I grinned from ear to ear when he gave it to me.
kathughett@yahoo.com
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My cat, Ashwini. She’s young and has lots of energy and she’s just too funny.
alinutza4u2004[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk
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I treasure my whimsy of baby blankets and sport uniforms of my children that have been made into lovely Quilts!
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Kathryn, that meets every standard for whimsical! And I bet your house is a lovely space. Most visual artists I know have the most interesting and wonderful decorating schemes, pictures and knickknacks. I just sit in a chair, absorb it all and think “I wish I could do that at my house!”
Hey, Aly! We adopted a couple of two year old cats a few months ago and I’m right there with you. Watching them tear around the house together is a constant entertainment AND joy. With occasional property damage (lol).
Brandi, that’s a great idea to preserve memories. Most of us get a build up of boxes of memorabilia that collect dust with no real clue how to maximize our enjoyment of it (beyond opening the box every couple years to rediscover the contents!).
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The thing I cherish most are the homemade quilts that my grandmother and I made together. She past away over two years ago. Those quilt mean a lot to me and I do use them.
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I have several beloved stuffed dragoss as well as a sculpture of Ramoth (one of the McCaffrey dragons) that always pick up my spirits. Congrats on the new Vampire Queen novel, I know it will be just as great as the rest of the series!
elewkf1 at yahoo dot com
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I still have the stuffed Piglet that my godmother made for me when I was three–complete with the new nose my grandmother added a few years later because I’d worn the first one away from snuggling.
Also, I keep several pairs of cat ears around the house to put on when the mood strikes me. It’s impossible to feel sad while wearing cat ears. (Come to think of it, I believe I have a picture of me and Joey at a long-ago conference’s costume party. I’m wearing cat ears.)
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I have a old doll, a Christmas present, She had pram, and extra clothes. I still have her, Her name is Hi Lily. After the song in a movie a young woman singing this song to a bunch of puppets. She hasn’t much hair left, She wears a sleep shirt and folded diaper. I learned how to do that for my brothers cloth ones. It reminds me that even though I’m 64, I still look at her as a child would.
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I have a beautiful sugar bowl, with lid, that sits on my desk. No sugar in it, just full of bits and pieces. The bowl was a gift from my mother & it is much too pretty to put away in a cupboard. Meant to be enjoyed.
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
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Rene, what a beautiful keepsake to have of her, and of times you shared together. I feel somewhat that way about my grandmother’s afghans. We didn’t do those together, but she taught me to crochet, and it’s one of the few crafty skills I have (grin). I still have the “Learn to Crochet” book she gave me as a reference somewhere. Think it was printed in the 1950s!
ELF, oh, McCaffrey’s dragons – still have the first trilogy on my keeper shelf. Loved that series! Thank you for those kind words about Night’s Templar! I hope you all will enjoy it. I already have a sneak peek of Chapter One on the website, and hope to have the Chapter Two exclusive peak on the fan forum site in the next several days! I also like your avatar. When we were down in Tampa recently, we visited Big Cat Rescue that rehabilitates and/or provides a forever home to exotic/big cats who can’t be released back into the wild. It’s my second visit – they do such great work there.
Tracy, that’s a great insight. I think many of the whimsical things we seek out now or keep from childhood speak to that inner child, keeping us in touch with him or her.
Mary, that’s very sound wisdom. I don’t wear many pendants or big earrings because the pendants tend to clunk into my desk as I’m working, and I have cats that will grab anything dangling loose from my neck or ears (laughter). However, I have some special, lovely ones so I hang them around lampshades and drape them here and there as interior decorating. That way I can look at and enjoy them all the time, instead of shutting them away in a jewelry box.
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Teresa, I remember your cat ears! I didn’t know that was part of their story, though, so that’s a delightful missing piece. It’s amazing how many things you all have brought up in your comments that relate to whimsy in my own life, or that have reminded me of the whys/hows of other things I do. Like several shirts I have simply because their whimsical nature comforts me or makes me smile. I have a soft gray shirt with a little smiling Buddha-like character sitting on the front. Beneath him in small script is “Have a happy life”. Makes me feel good every time I wear it. I was enchanted by your story of rubbing the nose off the Piglet as well. That is a well-loved toy!
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Speaking of knights and dragons, I have a stuffed dragon crocheted by the mother of an SCA knight. He’s black with a little felt flame coming out of his mouth.
I keep a lap quilt near my chair that was hand stitched by a Vietnam vet. It’s in a Tree of Life pattern, but he called them his “crazy quilts” as he received a Section 8 discharge from the results of a head wound. Before he left the area, he left his unfinished quilts and quilting supplies with a mutual friend. After she did the finish work, she gave me this one. The others were for wheelchair bound vets at the local VA hospital.
vlettel (at) cox.net
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Virginia, that reminds me of the Camo Quilt project begun in 2006, whereby small camouflage-colored quilts are provided to service men and women throughout the world. I found out about that when I was writing Willing Sacrifice (hero is a former Navy SEAL) and included mention of it (Max has one of the quilts in his truck) because it was a wonderful thing to do for our military. The same with the crazy quilts the Vietnam vet started and your friend finished. I guess it’s another sign of my love for whimsy and simple gestures that I find quiet, individual efforts like that on behalf of others particularly significant. Reminds me of that quote: “No act of kindness is ever wasted.”
My husband would love your dragon. He used to collect them. He doesn’t anymore, but he does have a great piggy bank of Toothless from the How To Train Your Dragon movies on his desk. His own piece of whimsy, which his wife of course got him!
Thanks for coming by!