Friday, February 4, 2022

Story Threads Birthed From ????

I had just graduated from high school. Afghan Girl was THE cover of the year for National Geographic. Maybe of the century. Maybe forever. Those eyes. Go ahead click on the link. The image is famous enough to have its own wikipedia entry. Anyway, I remember those eyes on that cover. Intense. Entrancing. The girl is too young to convey hopelessness, but the reader/viewer knows what happened to millions of people in that time and place. Which would be Afghanistand in the late 70s +/- several years either way.

The simmering mash of my memory holds on to the strangest of things. Just as strange is the way that every day objects serve to remind me of those strange things being held in that simmering memory state.

Something came along in recent daily life. And Shazam!!! Magic happened. All of a sudden I knew how to work in a major thread that winds throughout my book series. All of a sudden, instead of the typical suspense thriller action adventure overuse of violence and action, I could attribute a key factor to something else. Something mysterious and different. Not the WAY overused kinetics of just about every action/thriller one stumbles across. Nope. That humble lost waif of an Afghan girl with those absolutely amazing eyes is my inspiration.

I love it when a plan comes together. Or at least when a memory pops up and actually serves as something useful.