Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Winter Sunrises By Elizabeth Beechwood On the darkest days The glorious sunrise shouts And still we persist! Winter solstice marks the beginning of our journey around The Wheel together. It’s a mysterious dark time here in the Northern Hemisphere, when Nature challenges us to turn inward. Inward to our homes, inward to our bodies, inward to our minds and thoughts. In my part of the Pacific Northwest, winter is marked by long stretches of blustery rain punctuated with cold, clear breaks in the weather. Many people find comfort in starry winter skies, chunky knitted blankets, and twinkling lights. But it’s during these breaks that I find comfort in something different: the winter sunrise. The sunrise is especially glorious on these mornings; the sky is banded with robin’s egg blue, house finch blush, and warbler yellows and…
Tag: Elizabeth Beechwood
Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story
If you’re looking for a murder mystery with a clever wooly sleuth, then “Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story” by Leonie Swann is for you! I haven’t read many mysteries, but I do love a good animal story, so this book caught my attention. Who wouldn’t be interested in a story about a flock of sheep determined to solve the mystery of their shepherd’s death? How, you may ask, does a flock of sheep solve a mystery? Well, these aren’t just any sheep. George, their shepherd, read to them every day, so they’ve been exposed to philosophical literature, mysteries, and romance novels. With the intrepid Miss Maple in the lead, the gang escapes their pasture to do a little detective work in the village while trying to go unnoticed by the village butcher. They gaze up at cloud sheep – what becomes of a sheep when they die—as they…
Guest Blogger Elizabeth Beechwood – Write From An Animal’s Perspective
Elizabeth Beechwood shows how to create animal characters on her Blog, “When I write, strange things happen.” Here’s an excerpt: Anyone who knows me knows that I love animals. When I was a kid, I was always bringing home stray dogs and baby birds. After I got married, my husband had to deal with opossums in the backyard, baby goats running through the kitchen, and let’s not forget the epic night he came home to find a loon in the bathtub! It seemed natural, then, that when I began to write, I included animal characters in my stories. I quickly realized, however, that writing from an animal’s perspective had its own particular challenges, whether my characters were cats or pigeons or griffins or giant moths. I discovered that, by focusing on four main elements, I could portray all sorts of animals – from the realistic wolf surviving in the cold north…