Unexpected heartache

[katiefoolery]

I channelled Jeannie just before.  For the uninitiated (ie. 97.743% of you), Jeannie is the main character of The Black Fiddle of Barnet, which I am theoretically getting back to work on, having finished the first draft over a year ago.  To return to my first statement: there I was, just sitting around, listening to a song expressing a desire to find a home the singer could call their own, when I was suddenly taken over by Jeannie.  It was the most plendiferous insight into a character I've ever experienced.  In fact, it revealed that Jeannie's heartache goes deeper than even I imagined and that one of the images she holds closest to her heart is that of her father riding away from their house, warning them not to follow him, for he had caught a disease that was ravaging the country and his presence could endanger their very lives.  This is the scene in Black Fiddle:

She remembered herself at seventeen, when her father came riding into the yard, his hair in disarray.      “It’s here,” he had cried.  “Stay away from me.  I held him as he died!”      Her mother and grandmother had paled at the news.  Careen had run out into the yard, but Martin was already riding away.      “I love you!” he had cried to the wind.  “Don’t follow me.  Please don’t follow me!”

It was the last image she had of her father, riding away as the wind tore up his words.  The image will never leave her.  It haunts her.

I guess it means this scene definitely stays in the re-write.

Comments

[sirgallivant.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's so bittersweet...

I'm excited about Black Fiddle!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Me too! I have to finish this thing, so it can be rejected by good publishing companies everywhere. Not that any of them are accepting un-solicited manuscipts these days...