After I read Shadows of the Past and learned that the author's hobby was pottery, I asked Patricia Bradley to share about adding personal hobbies to our stories. -- Sandy
Patricia: He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer. Exodus 35:35 ESV
Thirteen years ago I had a character for a
book, but I didn’t want her to have the same old-same old occupation. When I
closed my eyes and brought her to mind, I saw her sitting at a potter’s wheel,
outside under a spreading Oak. Occasionally, she would look up from her work
and gaze in the distance. That was in
January 2001.
I loved it! But there was a problem. I
didn’t have the first clue how to use a wheel or clay. In fact when I was in
the seventh grade my art teacher brought her wheel to class one day. After
I had my try, she shook her head and said, “You’ll never be a potter. Get up
and let someone else try.”
In May of 2001, I went to a Women’s Conference
and one of the sessions featured a potter. After an awesome presentation, I
asked where she learned to use a wheel, and she gave me the name of her
instructor. I called him and signed up.
And became this great potter.
No. The instructor did say he’d never seen
a person so determined to learn how to throw on a wheel. That’s the way potters
talk about working on the wheel. Throwing. You see, you take a ball of clay and
throw it on the wheel then try to keep it there while the wheel is spinning 90
to nothing.
*Sigh*
But I was determined. I bought a wheel,
clay, even a kiln. And sat down and practiced. And practiced. Remember the
throwing bit? I occasionally threw the clay…out the door. But I kept at it. I
think that’s the secret whether it’s writing or pottery or anything you want to
get good at. About that time, I began working in the abstinence program in
Mississippi, and I used the wheel and clay to show how to build a good
foundation for your life and how to reclaim your character when you didn’t
build that foundation.
It was seven years before I wrote the book
that had a potter in it. In that time, I became quite accomplished at making
vases, bowls, and mugs. I even began fashioning jewelry from my porcelain clay.
While I don’t have time right now to play in the mud, I am itching to get back
to it. But first, I have a third book in the Logan Point series to
write. And guess what? My subplot character is a potter…creating beautiful
things on the wheel is how she regains sight of who God created her to be.
Have you had an experience similar to Patricia's? Has your character inspired a personal hobby or have you given your hobby to a character?
~~~
Patricia
Bradley lives in North Mississippi and is
a former abstinence educator and co-author of RISE To Your Dreams, an abstinence curriculum. But her heart is
tuned to suspense. Patricia’s mini-mysteries have been published in Woman’s World, and her debut
novel, Shadows of the Past, is the
first of three set in Mississippi and will
release February 4, 2014. She presents workshops, her most recent is Writing 50,000 words in 30 days, at the
Midsouth Christian Writer’s Conference in Collierville, TN on March 8, 2014.
Her tag line on everything is: I asked God to teach me patience and He gave me
a book to write. And when she’s not writing, she likes to throw mud on a wheel
and see what happens.
Back cover copy:
Psychology professor and criminal profiler Taylor
Martin prides herself on being able to solve any
Nick Sinclair pens mystery novels for a living, but the
biggest mystery to him is how he can ever get over the death of his wife—a
tragedy he believes he could have prevented. With his estranged brother the
only family he has left, Nick sets out to find him. But when he crosses paths
with Taylor, all he seems to find is trouble.
Connect with Patricia Bradley at:
Links to buy book:
Available at CBD: http://ow.ly/qIx2k and Amazon: http://ow.ly/qIx90
and B&N:
