Category Archives: Shifting Sands: Secrets

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Equanimity of characters

April 4, 2019 emmapalova Leave a comment

Balanced

The key to a good story is balancing all its elements as well as the mental composure of its characters, while pitching them against each other.

It’s a juggling act.

I realized that while writing the sequel “Shifting Sands: Secrets” in the characters of Amora and Margot.

In the final story “Six Palms by the Tiki”, easy-going Margot, an Irish catholic from Chicago offsets Amora’s hardline self-imposed principles.

Book cover for “Secrets” aka the Face of Gossip.
Moments from “Secrets.”

Check out the excerpt from “Secrets.”

Dear Margot,

You haunt me at night. I wanted to let you know that, even though we’re friends. I am not going to apologize for leaving you at that old Irish Pub, because you were gossiping.

I hate gossip. Gossip is worse than lying. Gossip is immoral. Gossip is the sister of secrets and lies. You should have asked me first about seadog George. You know I still have Anthony.

We’re both old, and we can die any day.

But you were the only friend I had at that looney “Cottage Nest” down South. Friends are hard to come by. The older you get, the harder they are to find. You know you should be picking up your phone. I hate when you don’t answer your phone.

I also know if I lose you, I won’t find a new friend.

fiction, inspiration, Shifting Sands Short Stories, Shifting Sands: Secrets, short stories, Uncategorized

Spring Equinox

March 20, 2019 emmapalova 1 Comment

Excerpt from “Shifting Sands: Secrets”

On the first day of spring, I drove to the nearby Murray Lake for inspiration and meditation to finish the last story in the new book “Shifting Sands: Secrets” slated for spring publication.

The lake was thawing and the ducks were bathing in the fresh streams.

It was only me, a diehard ice fisherman and a curious blue heron perched on a piece of floating ice. Later, it started snowing mixed together with rain.

I had to get out of the car to get a photo of that brave man, who was literally floating on the remaining ice. The man was totally oblivious to his surroundings.

Did I find my inspiration?

I have to answer the question: I did find inspiration on the shores of a water body. This time 1,000 miles up North from where I found the first pieces of inspiration on the Gulf for the following story.

Excerpt from “Six Palms by the Tiki”

“What kind of secrets were hiding in those calcium skeletons built by slimy mollusks that have no spine?” Amora often wondered.

After all, the mollusks were long dead when washed ashore eaten by another sea creature. Most big shells had broken fringes and fragments of shells were more usual than whole intact shells. To find shells still attached to each other was out of the norm completely.

Amora paid $2 for a cup of Venetian coffee at Papa’s. The hot dark liquid still steaming vaguely reminded her of mornings Up North. Seadog George was always available for a chat. He had a tan of a sailor and considered himself to be one, since he had spent the last 15 years on the pier’s deck hovering 20 feet above water.

“Do you ever get seasick?” asked Amora naively searching George’s tanned hardened by wind and sun.

“Sometimes, I do when the wind is high and the pier sways in the waves,” he said. “But they built to withstand anything from Brazilian swamp wood that has already grown in water.”

Tall seadog George wasn’t a native of Florida, although he wished he was. Once he tried to pretend in front of tourists that he was a Floridian.

“Come on buddy, you sound like the Yankees, you can’t lose that,” laughed the New Yorker. “I am a fourth generation Yankee, I know.”

From then on, George stopped pretending. With blonde hair matching the tan and the beard, Amora guessed he must have been Norwegian or Swedish. She hasn’t found the guts yet to ask him; Amora didn’t want to be either too friendly or too nosy, or worse yet: Seadog George could think she was hitting on him.

She only engaged enough in casual talk to finish the cup of Venetian coffee without having to walk with it.

book marketing, fiction, historical fiction, history, newsletter, publishing, Shifting Sands Short Stories, Shifting Sands: Secrets, short stories, Uncategorized

Spring E- newsletters

March 3, 2019 emmapalova 1 Comment

Spring is coming

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- I am working on e-newsletters; as I look outside my writing studio window, I see snow on the ground.

However, definite signs of spring are here. The spring theme dominated at the 40th Home and Garden Show in Grand Rapids at the DeVos Hall this weekend.

The fragrance of tulips and daffodils was in the air as hundreds of people browsed through the packed hall.

I marveled at the CNC sewing and embroidery machines; how skillfully they stitched an image and a message into a piece of cloth.

“That’s the only way I could do it,” laughed a woman next to me.

Also the upcoming March 23 Lowell Expo is close to the heart as more than a hundred of local vendors and organizations showcase their work at the Lowell High School.

My fellow history lovers from the Fallasburg Historical Society will be side by side with the Lowell Area Historical Museum located inside the cafeteria.

My favorite are the bucket rides by the Lowell Light & Power crew.

Book cover for “Secrets” aka the Face of Gossip.

I am on target for April/May publishing. The new book, a sequel to my debut “Shifting Sands: Short Stories” will be available for preorder on Amazon. Both the cover and the anchor story “Silk Nora” were inspired by the Belrockton Museum in Belding. The “Gossip” photograph can be found on the third floor of Belrockton. The museum is open on the first Sunday of each month.

Check out my debut at:

Kindle

ISBN

9781521302262

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