Brandon Mull winked at me today (WIFYR day 1)

June 14, 2010 at 8:07 pm (Uncategorized)

Even before I started my job, I couldn’t wait for vacation. It’s not that I was anticipating getting bored at work; rather, I was thrilled to be involved in the 2010 Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference. As the conference approached, though, I started to get nervous. Was I ready? Was my story ready? Would I have submissions read in time?

Imagine, then, what I felt when I stepped out of my car, looked east, and saw this:

To me, rays of light have always been more than simply beautiful. For one thing, I used to answer to the nickname “Rae,” so I’ve always identified with light peeking through the clouds. This picture, though, reminds me of Michelangelo: two years ago, I stood in a cathedral in Rome and looked on Michelangelo’s statue of Moses. Those of you who haven’t seen it, the statue has an interesting feature. Moses appears to have two horns coming out of his head. However, these aren’t “horns” in a devilish sense. Rather, they’re cones of light–Michelangelo’s interpretation of revelation coming to Moses.

Both are appropriate images for today. I’m trying to break through with my writing, and I’ve already been inspired: I’ve figured out major revisions for two of my current projects.

Of course, the picture doesn’t apply to everything. According to Toni, I am a daughter of Freya in a pseudo-Rick-Riordan-demigoddess kind of way. (And I apparently don’t get along with Thor, which I believe, especially because I felt like someone was hammering away at my head during lunch.) She is also supposedly my half-sister. Somehow. Ask her, not me. (I wonder if it’s because I told Dave Wolverton she and I were twins?)

(Oh, and don’t worry at me, Brandon Mull’s wink was totally innocent. I signaled to him that he had ten minutes of discussion time left, but he was in the middle of answering questions and couldn’t respond verbally. Hey, it got your attention though, right?)